Mt. Vernon

Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, sits on the Potomac River about 15 miles south of Washington, D.C. Washington inherited the property in 1761 and expanded it from a modest farmhouse into a 21-room Georgian mansion, with the plantation growing to roughly 8,000 acres at its peak.

The estate was a working agricultural operation, worked by hundreds of enslaved people. Washington freed those he owned outright in his will, though about half the people living there were "dower slaves" belonging to his wife's estate and were not freed. Today, the site includes a memorial to the slaves.

After Washington's death in 1799, the property declined until the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, founded by Ann Pamela Cunningham, purchased it in 1858. It's one of the earliest historic preservation efforts in the U.S., and the Association still operates the site as a private nonprofit.Read more