The place behind the detail.

Augustine Washington began the house in about 1734. George Washington raised it to two and a half storeys in 1758 and added wings, a large room to the north and curved colonnades between 1774 and 1778, giving it 21 rooms.

The house is built of wood in a loose Palladian style, with a long piazza facing the Potomac River.

Mount Vernon’s fields, mill, workshops and household were worked by enslaved people. In 1799 there were 317, including 143 children, living on its five farms.

Washington’s will freed the people he owned after Martha Washington’s death, and they became free in 1801. The 153 people held as part of the Custis estate remained enslaved.

• Read about the enslaved community→

In 1858 the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, led by Ann Pamela Cunningham, bought the mansion and part of the estate, and opened it to the public in 1860. Mount Vernon was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.

• Read the history of Mount Vernon→
• Explore the timeline→