Our new checkout experience is now live! Buy your tickets here.
Open 365 days a year, Mount Vernon is located just 15 miles south of Washington DC.
From the mansion to lush gardens and grounds, intriguing museum galleries, immersive programs, and the distillery and gristmill. Spend the day with us!
Discover what made Washington "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".
The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has been maintaining the Mount Vernon Estate since they acquired it from the Washington family in 1858.
Need help with homework? Our Digital Encyclopedia has all of the answers students and teachers need.
The Washington Library is open to all researchers and scholars, by appointment only.
Mount Vernon's historic outbuildings house the many important trades that sustained the bustling plantation.
In the latter half of the eighteenth century, Mount Vernon was the home, farm, and thriving business of one of America’s most prominent citizens and hundreds of enslaved people. The essential operations of the plantation were performed by the enslaved community in numerous buildings across the estate. Washington had these structures built in his ongoing pursuit of economic independence and financial success.
In 1799, more than 50 enslaved men and women were trained in specific trades that kept parts of Mount Vernon’s operation self-sufficient.
A staff of enslaved butlers, housemaids, waiters, and cooks made the Washingtons’ lifestyle possible.
Blacksmithing was an important craft activity throughout most of the Washington family's ownership of the Mount Vernon plantation. The earliest known reference to a shop dates to 1755.
Washington spent most of his adult life searching for a fertilizer that would invigorate his lackluster soil at Mount Vernon.
Each spring, when fish began running past Mount Vernon's ten-mile shoreline, everyone dropped everything and headed to the river to haul in more than a million fish in a matter of weeks.
There are four types of standing historic structures at Mount Vernon. Some are original to Washington's life, while others are reconstructions.
In 1799, Mount Vernon consisted of 8,000 acres divided into five farms, plus a gristmill and distillery. Enslaved men, women, and children lived on each farm. The workers at Mansion House Farm were primarily domestic servants and craftsmen, while those on the outlying farms labored in the fields.
Watch a master weaver operate Mount Vernon's 18th century loom.
Watch the VideoBuildings across the estate
