Mount Vernon

A Virginia Home

Mount Vernon was George Washington's home for over 40 years. Located on the Potomac River in northern Virginia, Mount Vernon was close to the bustling town of Alexandria where Washington could visit and do business with friends as a young man. In 1759, he married Martha Custis and brought her and his two new stepchildren to Mount Vernon. His family watched as he became a famous general and the first president of the United States. Despite this busy life, Washington felt he most belonged at Mount Vernon as a farmer. Washington loved the beauty of his Virginia home and said "no estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this."

But Mount Vernon was also a place of work. By the end of Washington's life in 1799, Mount Vernon was surround by about 800 acres of land. That's over 800 football fields combined! A large portion of this land was used for farming. Under Washington's supervision, almost 300 enslaved people labored to care for the house and the crops every day. It took a lot of work to make Mount Vernon a home.