Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon overlooks the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, the plantation home of George Washington from 1754 until his death in 1799, expanded by Washington himself over several decades from a smaller farmhouse into the wood-frame mansion that stands today. Its most distinctive architectural feature is a two-story piazza running the length of the river-facing facade, an early and influential example of the porch form in American domestic architecture, together with a cupola-topped roof and wooden siding scored and sanded to resemble cut stone. The estate was worked by enslaved laborers whose lives and labor are a central part of how the site is interpreted today, and after Washington's death the property passed through his heirs before being rescued from disrepair by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which has preserved it as a historic house museum since 1860. It remains one of the most visited historic homes in the United States.