The New Student's Reference Work/Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon, the home and burial-place of George Washington, is situated in Virginia on the Potomac, 15 miles below Washington. The estate originally included several thousand acres. The house is of wood, two stories high and 96 feet long, and was built by Lawrence Washington, an older brother of George Washington, and named in honor of Admiral Vernon, under whom he had served in the West Indies. Washington improved both the house and the grounds. The library and Washington's bedroom are kept as when in use. He left the estate to a nephew, who sold the house and 200 acres to the Ladies' Mount Vernon Association, a society organized to care for it and keep it as a national possession.