George Washington's Mount Vernon mansion is the centerpiece of his estate along the Potomac River. Learn more about this remarkable and historic building.
1. A domestic structure has stood in the Mansion's footprint since 1735, when George Washington was just three years old.
George Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, built a modest one and a half story farmhouse there in 1735. Washington’s elder half-brother Lawrence lived at the property from 1741 until his death in 1752. George Washington began leasing the property in 1754 and although he did not inherit it outright until 1762 , he expanded the house in 1758, raising the roof to make the Mansion two and a half stories high. In 1774, he added the north and south wings, the cupola and piazza to create the structure we see today.
2. Mount Vernon is named for an admiral in the British navy.
When George Washington's father, Augustine, moved his family to the property in 1735, it was called Little Hunting Creek Plantation. In the early 1740s, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, Lawrence Washington, George Washington’s eldest half-brother, served as a militia officer at the Battle of Cartagena. Lawrence Washington inherited the Little Hunting Creek Plantation in 1743 and changed the name to Mount Vernon in honor of Admiral Edward Vernon, his commanding officer.
3. The Mansion is ten times the size of the average home in colonial Virginia.
At 11,028 square feet with two and a half stories and a full cellar, the Mansion dwarfed the majority of dwelling houses in late 18th-century Virginia. Most Virginians lived in one- or two-room houses ranging in size from roughly 200 to 1200 square feet; most of these houses could have fit inside the 24x31 foot New Room. The ceilings of the Mansion vary in height—the average height on the first floor is 10’ 9”, while on the third floor it is 7’3”.
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