Piazza

The Piazza, originally built in 1777, remains the most prominent feature of the Eastern façade. It is paved with white, English flagstones, has eight, wooden Tuscan style piers and a low-pitched roof that is covered with lead coated copper. In 1860 the Mount Vernon Ladies Association demolished the original Piazza and built a new one because the old structure had become so deteriorated that it would no longer support itself. The MVLA was again forced to work on the Piazza in 1894, when all the 1860 piers were replaced with the current ones made of cypress. The most recent restoration took place in 1997 when several of the worn and broken pavers on the Piazza were replaced with new pavers imported from Whitehaven, England (the same quarry that supplied the original stones).