Episode Three—A Day at Mount Vernon

Hoards of 8^th Graders had descended on Washington DC for tours. Nowhere was this so obvious as at Mount Vernon. They were just beginning to clear out as we arrived. We had 50 minutes to eat lunch and peruse the gift shop before our tour.

I like the Images of America books so I found another one.

Thumbs down on this one. Although there was some history of Mt. Vernon, it covered local historic homes in more depth.

Our tour guide today was really a George Washington fan and he talked at length about how, more than any other founding father, Washington changed his attitudes about slavery over his lifetime and upon his death, set all the slaves he legally could free. Yes, there were many laws about how and when a person could free slaves.

The dining room

George’s desk

The house and grounds were fascinating.

I was curious about how Mount Vernon was affected by the Civil War. Since both sides revered Washington and felt he would have been on “their” side, the battle never approached Washington’s home. The windows did rattle during First Manassas, however.

By the 1860s, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association had purchased the property under the guidance of Ann Pamela Cunningham. Her secretary, Sarah Tracy, and Mount Vernon’s first superintendent, Upton Herbert, tended the estate during the war years.

Soldiers from the Union and Confederacy toured during the war. These were cordial visits. Guns were left at the gate. Ranking officers wore a shawl to hide their status. Miss Tracy gave tours to Union soldiers and risked her life to cross picket lines to get supplies. Mr. Herbert gave tours to Confederates and, as an ex-soldier, was a virtual prisoner at Mount Vernon. Had he left the estate, either side would have enlisted him. The couple wed ten years later.

George and Martha are buried at Mount Vernon.

Washington was a farmer at heart and was known to climb off his horse after a journey and tend his gardens.

It was a beautiful day.

Although I was done-in from our tour, Carl was anxious to see something else so we headed for the Botanic Garden which was right down the street from our hotel.

They do a masterful job of displaying a lot of specimens in tight spaces.

We also saw the first lady’s garden which has a beautiful and historic fountain.

The cast-iron Bartholdi Fountain was purchased by congress in 1877 and placed in the original U.S. Botanic Garden where the Capitol Reflecting Pool is today. It was moved to its present site in 1932, no small feat when you consider the fountain weighs more than 15 tons.

If the name Bartholdi sounds familiar, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was the designer of the Statue of Liberty.

Everything in Washington seems to close up when the museums do, which leaves plenty of downtime for relaxing, reading, and documenting our travels.