A Visit with our First President

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For this Fourth of July Tribute,  I'm taking you on a visit with our first president, George Washington.  He loved his Mt. Vernon. It is a beautiful place and one that I've always wanted to go and visit. Now I can understand why he loved this place so much and always longed to return here and eventually be at rest.

 

 

An expansive view overlooking the Potomac from the rear of the home, the views have been preserved and the areas across the river saved from development to leave the viewers this pastoral scene of how things looked during the presidents timeframe....just amazing to still see it intact.

 

 

When you try and visualize how this place actually looked and worked like during Washington's timeframe, you really get a wonderful slice of life to Washington's experience away from the capitol and how he really enjoyed living and planning everything in his estate, during his entire stay here.

 

One must sit on the porch relaxing on these rockers and just enjoy the view, a real nice touch to the tour. I'm sure the President and his family enjoyed relaxing here, drinking tea or imbibing something exotic at the end of every day.

 

 

I was very surprised how meticulous and expansive the grounds were, and how all the adjunct buildings, gardens and home show an entire village and how plantation life was for one of our founding fathers.  It did take an entire village to make this place work efficiently. A view of the separate kitchen building, kept separate from the main home in the event of unlikely fires caused by accidents.

 

 

 

A canning storage and hanging place for food and fowl that would be used for the nights consumption.

 

 

 

The separate laundry room which would be unbearable to work in during the hot summer months, and the laundry work was done all day long.

 

 

 

One of my favorite rooms, the drying room for all the preserved meats, it actually still smelled strong with aged ham hocks haning on these hooks.

 

 

 

 

One of Washington’s immaculate carriages taking him to the Capitol which was a very long ride from his country estate.

 

 

 

 

The gardens are also expansive with areas for decorative cutting gardens, a formal parterre and actual potager gardens, vegetable farms, animal pens and fruit orchards. Washington did alot of experimentation and imported plants to test in his plantation along with growing for food production on a massive scale.

 

 

 

This is a picture of the very expansive Orangerie, can you believe Washington actually grew critrus plants during this timeframe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The formal parterre is broken up into two sections that mimic each pattern, this is the view of the other section looking into the back walls and folly.

 

 

 

 

A wonderful surprise was the amazing museum which housed many dioramas and extensive genetic studies of how Washington really looked like in during many timeframes of his life, including this diorama of him at a battle scene....the craftsmanship quality and shows were really a fantastic experience and one I wish I had more time for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, this is my nephew Carlos being a ham, like he always is....oh Carlos!

 

 

 

 

Wasn't that a beautiful place and museum, well worth the effort getting out of town to explore Washington's life in a well preserved plantation, home and garden.

 

Happy Fourth of July America!

 

 

 

To see other worlds this Sunday go to http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com/