Mount Vernon; Washington's Home and the Nation's Shrine
Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday, Page & Company, 1927. Reprint Edition (originally published in 1916). Hardcover. xvi, [2], 301, [3] pages. Sticker on inside back cover. Decorative front cover. Some stains and soiling to some pages noted. Signed by the author on the title page. Includes 60 black and white illustrations, as well as footnotes, an appendix and an index. Includes chapters on Mount Vernon's Beginnings; What Lawrence Found on His Tract; Lawrence Plans George's Career; Absences from Home; A Chapter wholly Away from Mount Vernon; Settling in Mount Vernon; Washington as a Planter; Social Life; Washington in Colonial Public Life; Last Years Before the Revolution; Mount Vernon During the Revolution; Washington's Delight to Be at Mount Vernon Again; Burdens of Greatness; Mount Vernon the cradle of Constitutional Agitation; Mount Vernon During the Presidency; Planter Once More; The Year 1799; Death Chamber Sealed; Career of Bushrod Washington; Mount Vernon Lands Diminish; Remaking the Home of George Washington. Also contains Appendix on the Title to Mount Vernon; Table of General Washington's Visits to Mount Vernon; Tables of those Born, Married, & Buried at Mount Vernon; Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. Paul Wilstach (1870-1952) was an author and playwright. In 1898 resigned his position as dramatic critic for the Washington Times to work as a press agent and manager for the German/American actor Richard Mansfield (1854 or 57-1907). He wrote books about Washington's Mount Vernon, Jefferson's Monticello and the Potomac and Hudson Rivers. Served as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy during World War I. Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of George Washington, the first President of the United States, and his wife, Martha. The estate is on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, near Alexandria, across from Prince George's County, Maryland. The Washington family had owned land in the area since 1674. Around 1734, they embarked on an expansion of the estate that continued under George Washington, who began leasing the estate in 1754 before becoming its sole owner in 1761. The mansion was built of wood in a loose Palladian style; the original house was built by George Washington's father Augustine, around 1734. George Washington expanded the house twice, once in the late 1750s and again in the 1770s. It remained Washington's home for the rest of his life. Following his death in 1799, under the ownership of several successive generations of the family, the estate progressively declined as revenues were insufficient to maintain it adequately. In 1858, the house's historical importance was recognized and it was saved from ruin by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association; this philanthropic organization acquired it together with part of the Washington property estate. Escaping the damage suffered by many plantation houses during the American Civil War, Mount Vernon was restored. Mount Vernon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is still owned and maintained in trust by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and is open every day of the year. Allowing the public to see the estate is not an innovation, but part of an over 200-year-old tradition started by George Washington himself. In 1794 he wrote: "I have no objection to any sober or orderly person's gratifying their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens, &ca. about Mount Vernon." Condition: Fair.
Keywords: George Washington, Historic Sites, Mount Vernon, Plantation, Estate, Martha Washington, Ladies' Association, Planter, American Revolution, Bushrod Washington
[Book #82368]
Price: $50.00