Mount Vernon

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S

Virginia Home

Peaches and cream, liver and onions, sausages and eventual open-heart surgery, these are words that cannot be said without the other. They are soup and sandwich phrases; likewise, can one say Mount Vernon without mentioning George and Martha Washington? Sure, but it would mess up my whole paragraph's tie-in to the subjoined story.

MOUNT VERNON

Mount Vernon rests upon high ground that oversees Virginia’s side of the Potomac River. It is a sprawling estate with all the 18th Century comforts a person of that time might desire; unless they were there as a resident slave.

Servant's Hall (slaves of visiting guests of the Washington's) stayed in this large, two room dwelling. From a distance it appears to be faced in stone, but it is actually a wood facade.

FARMER WASHINGTON

Our first President valued himself as an agrarian, and his elaborate, formal dining room made note of this fact. Slender farm implements (probably cast delicately in plaster and painted white) are incorporated into finely lined trappings that decorate the ceiling and walls of this spacious room. Citizen Washington wanted his guests to know that above all the positions he held in his long career, he was foremost a farmer.

POPLAR TREES

One of the many massive poplar trees that line Mount Vernon’s bowling green, and curvaceous dual driveway, is said to have been planted by Washington himself. The likelihood of his actually having dug the hole and planted the tree in 1785 may be a tad suspect. Why would he lift a spade being that he had a plentiful and captive workforce at his beckoning? My guess is that in his waning years (he died in 1799), gentlemen George the farmer, may have soiled a knee plucking a radish from out of his garden, but slaves did the rest.

One interesting feature of these trees was the cables that ran up their substantial trunks and forked at the trees’ huge scaffolding branches. At first glance I reckoned they were electrical wires for flood lights, but upon a closer examination I realized they were ground wires for lightening rods. My gaze at that point left the canopy of towering trees, and perused the thickening sky.

Note the tiny adult and child at the tree's trunk far right.

PAINTED INFLUENCE

The recognition of Washington’s financial sway could be seen in the choice of paint used to embolden a room; the more rare and costly the paint (some used lead or arsenic) the more jolting its affect. The first floor of the Mansion is the house's showcase, and the original color scheme has been restored to its fully glory. One striking room on this lower floor is the guest bedroom. It is painted a deep, brilliant blue that jerks one's head in surprise. Whereas his informal dining room, painted a disturbing hue of bile green, is far more bothersome. Upon seeing these two rooms one's senses are electrified if not nauseated.

Washington’s west parlor is painted a silky Prussian blue, and is more gentle on the senses; the house's formal dinning room was tad more prim, but not completely out of the woods, for it too has a wild element.

From the floor and two thirds of the way up, this room was painted a green bean green, while the few remaining feet that curved inward toward the white ceiling, is painted a damned-if-I-know-green.

THE FRONT PORCH

The view from George and Martha’s expansive front porch (the winding driveway leads you up to the rear entrance of the mansion) is striking. The Potomac River curves gently beneath your view, and is squeezed in by a heavy forest of mixed woods. Although I would have liked to have seen more of the estate, the impressive view on this mid-spring day was matched by the heat, and humidity. The humidity was such that it made song birds peep, and one’s interest wane.

Potomac side of the Mansion

IT'S SHOW AND TELL

The first view of Mount Vernon is from the rear of the house (and if you have been reading all that I had written above you would have known that). The original building extended from the center door, and two windows over from the left, and to its right. The rooms beyond the dormers were later additions as was the cupola, and high pitched roof.

I asked our guide if what she called a cupola was not in fact a belvedere, and she emphatically stated that it was a cupola. Methinks it is a belvedere.

Visitors to Mount Vernon enjoy having their picture taken with these two life-size sculptures of tourists. Their identity has been masked to protect their privacy.

The several black smiths I have seen at different exhibits have seemingly mastered one project--they can all hammer out an iron "J-hook." Just once I would like to see one bang out a nail or a horse shoe or Washington's teeth--anything but a damn J-hook. The sweaty young man's hand is on the pump arm for the large coal fire bellow; and yes, it was hot and humid in there.

SLEEPING QUARTERS

The difference between the horse stable (above) and the Slave's Quarter (below) was the advent of a brick floor.


Slave Quarter's kitchen. Note the generous window that was provided for inadequate ventilation.

This photograph was smuggled out of Mount Vernon at great risk to the taker. Photos of the interior of the mansion were prohibited because they want you to buy their postcards of the various rooms within.

Boy reading book is unaware that behind him stands a woman wearing a polychromatic tiara. It remains a mystery as to why she had donned this unusual crest. Furthermore, any conclusion drawn is subject to silly speculation.

Transportation varied according to one's financial base. However, the chair cart (below) was used by the wealthy and the poor alike. It was a horse drawn scooter of its day.


GHOSTLY IMAGES

In this incredible photograph spirit orbs drift from room to room--are they the tormented souls of slaves? Perhaps it is George Washington cursed to wander the estate for his disregard for the tenet that all men are created equal? Or are they just dust partials that the flash on my camera illuminated?

The botanical garden with greenhouse in background.

His greenhouse held a number of tropical plants that needed to be kept warm throughout the winter months. A fire tender kept a sub-floor fireplace stoked, and its exhaust traveled through a series of brick lined heating ducts.


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