The 500-acre estate that is Mount Vernon was such a huge part of who George Washington was that his only wish following his 1783 farewell to the troops at Manhattan’s Fraunces Tavern was to immediately head home and be left alone.

Alas, Founding Father numero uno ended up becoming a bit like Pacino in the least good Godfather sequel: Just when G-Dubs thought he was out? Our nascent government would pull him back in. Second prez John Adams appointed him Commander in Chief of the United States Army during the Quasi-War with France. 

Government officials weren’t the only ones to knock on George’s door. A million-plus patrons annually muddy up his 291-year-old, Northern Virginia villa, which was never built for so much buckled shoe (or contemporary Crocs-clad) foot traffic. As a result, this landmark-to-end-all-American-landmarks is currently at phase four of its ongoing restoration to ensure that this year’s “semi-quincentennial” will be all things to patriots and patrons alike.

 It’s All About the Washingtons

America has been deeply politically divided since basically Day One, but Mount Vernon has always literally been common ground.

During the Civil War, both sides claimed Washington as their own, and they tentatively agreed that Mount Vernon should remain a neutral site. To maintain the mansion from mayhem, Mount Vernon Ladies Association secretary, Sarah Tracy (a Union supporter) and Upton Herbert (a Confederate) stayed within this otherwise mostly empty property. Seven years after all that brothers-against-brothers madness mercifully ended, these two opposites got married. (How is this story not a movie? Or at the very least a history-based hip-hop musical on Broadway?) 

Celebrating — and profiting from this property is as American as apple pie. (A slice of it is actually available at the estate’s eatery for only five bucks.) It’s a capitalist tradition that goes back to 1856, when Washington’s great-grandnephew John Augustine Washington III started selling trinkets and walking sticks made from timber harvested off the estate. 

It took the MVLA’s takeover of the tourist attraction, initially under Ann Pamela Cunningham in 1860, to stop this for-profit plunder and restore a revolutionary piece of real estate to what it is today. Thanks to these enterprising all-stars, Washington’s retreat remains one of this country’s most popular attractions since first opening to the public eight years before the last Revolutionary War veteran died. To this day, this enterprise does not receive federal or state tax dollars.

Recently, my old high school pal, who happens to be the MVLA Vice Regent for Tennessee, Adrian MacLean Jay, invited me to visit, offering your author the option of sleeping inside Washington’s actual acreage. It wasn’t in George’s bedroom; it was in their on-property dorm. Nevertheless, I replied with a firm but gentle, “Huzzah!”

Prepping a Presidential Property

“We’ve got Ken Burns speaking here, and it’s supposed to be a very cold downpour, which will separate the real fans from the actual fair-weather ones, attendance-wise,” laughed Anne Neal Petri, 24th Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, as she gave me an initial tour upon my arrival. (The tour included, but was not limited to, GW’s oddly laid out loo). “The $40 million dollars we’re currently spending on preserving the place not only involves renovations, but protecting it from hurricanes, storms, overall rot and even termites.”

The first move MVLA made, some 165 years ago, was to revert the place back to how it looked when GW left our mortal coil on December 14, 1799. That meant getting rid of all 19th-century additions. 

“We have full-time archeologists on staff and some of the fun in excavating Mount Vernon’s basement is finding things like 35 18^th-century glass bottles full of preserved cherries,” exclaimed their contagiously curious Director of Preservation, Tom Reinhart. “We also discovered some of Thomas Edison’s original lighting system that he’d personally designed and installed within the home!”

(It goes without saying that this private tour of Washington’s 3-thousand-square-foot, still-unavailable-to-the-public cellar was one of our highlights.)

“Everyone now wants to see this area thanks to National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” smirked Reinhart while showing us the home’s 18th-century version of a refrigerator: a 22-foot-deep dry well that George installed because, well, the dude loved his ice cream.  

For those unfamiliar, there’s a scene in the 2007 flick where Nicolas Cage’s character kidnaps the president in Mount Vernon to find a clue hidden within this cellar: a sandstone tablet made by Washington’s grandfather. It captured public interest when people found out that this plot device was an actual thing, which now resides within the mansion’s museum.

Reinhart proceeded to give us a preview of Marquis de Lafayette’s refurbished room as well as George and Martha’s marital chambers. All of which were still being renovated for the big ole semi-quincentennial reveal. We also got an awesome tour of the Presidential Library hosted by archivist Rebecca Baird, McCarroll and I indulged in a beautiful batch of George’s original-recipe whiskey at their Mount Vernon Inn. (Truly great and also truly expensive.) 

The Tourists Are Coming! The Tourists Are Coming!

The amount of money this mansion has made for Fairfax County’s economy is difficult to calculate, yet it is safe to say it is a big part of the county’s estimated annual $3.6 billion tourism haul. And as one who experienced the sellout crowds they endured in 2025, I’m here to tell you that 2026 is gonna be a big ole jackpot. In his first Annual Address to Congress, Washington said, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” Staffers of Mount Vernon would be wise to heed his advice and have a few hundred extra slices of that gift shop apple pie ready for hungry Washingtonheads.