Mount Vernon: The Home of George Washington

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we see how Mount Vernon’s relevance endures.

Because of additions to the structure, which took Mount Vernon from a modest home to a mansion, the architecture is not as precisely symmetrical and Palladian-adhering as George Washington desired. However, the mansion’s most prominent feature from almost any angle is its cupola. Washington commissioned a weather vane for it while presiding over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. He wrote to Philadelphia architect Joseph Rakestraw that the cupola’s weathervane should “have a bird … with an olive branch in its Mouth … that it will traverse with the wind and therefore may receive the real shape of a bird.” The weather vane is constructed of copper with an iron frame and lead head. Courtesy of Mount Vernon

Overlooking the Potomac River, Mount Vernon very early on was known as “the Hill” where America’s first statesmen met, as well as serving as the home of our nation’s first president.

Washington was skilled at drawing and scale drawing, primarily due to this pre-military career as a surveyor. Thus, his own drawings of British Palladian-style (characterized by classical forms, symmetry, and strict proportions) architecture were used to dictate additional construction projects on the property. South and north additions to the mansion were built up against the outside of the original 1758 house.