George Washington’s living quarters back on display after restoration

Only keen-eyed visitors will notice some of the subtle changes to George Washington’s Mount Vernon home, like a new finishing on the mantle in the former president’s study or the reworked underground framing of the house.

But curators say each minuscule change to the sprawling Virginia estate can help visitors better understand the nation’s past, and therefore their place in the world today.

Construction fences have lined the back of the mansion for the better part of two years as work continues on a $40 million project to restore the building to its 18th century integrity. Though work is ongoing, the first and second floor of the home are now open to the public for the first time since January 2024.

Heading into America’s 250th anniversary, Mount Vernon President and CEO Doug Bradburn said bolstering authenticity at the estate is more important than ever.

“You cannot understand the United States of America’s founding without the indispensable George Washington,” Bradburn said. “You can’t understand him without Mount Vernon.”

Washington lived at the estate along the Potomac River with his wife, Martha, for the last 45 years of his life. When he inherited the mansion, it stood at about 3,500 square feet. The serene view of the Potomac welcomed Washington home after he led American forces to victory in the Revolutionary War. He retired to Mount Vernon after serving as the nation’s first president.

By the time Washington died in 1799, he had expanded the dwelling to more than triple that size, with more than 20 rooms. Most of the work was performed by people enslaved on the estate, officials have said.

The estate passed down through family members after Washington’s death until the Mount Vernon Ladies Association secured it in 1860. Since then, the nonprofit has worked to restore the remaining 500 acres of property to how it appeared when Washington died. The association has never accepted any government funding, and it solely relies on earned income and donations.

Nearly 1 million people visit Washington’s home, located about 20 miles south of the nation’s capital, each year.

“We believe in the power of place,” said Anne Neal Petri, regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. “We want to engage the visitor in ways that the history books just can’t achieve.”

This bout of rehabilitation is the largest in Mount Vernon’s history. Born from necessity after centuries of termite damage detached the building from its foundation, there wasn’t a single piece of original 18th century woodwork left underground, said Thomas Reinhart, director of the estate’s preservation.

Only parts of Mount Vernon closed during the restoration. The extensive grounds, Washington’s tomb and the quarters for enslaved people remained open. The renovations focused only on Washington’s living quarters, called the mansion.

To rebuild the mansion’s wooden frame, workers harvested white oak from the property, similar to how Washington would have sourced wood for the original construction. Only now, every piece of wood that touches masonry has added termite shields.

“Termites are quite tenacious,” Reinhart said.

From preservation carpenters, engineers, archaeologists and collection curators, it’s estimated about 350 people have worked on the restoration so far. Besides the structural changes, specialists throughout the house restoration performed paint analysis on doorframes and trims to make them accurate.

The most noticeable visual differences are on the second floor, in the most intimate area of the house.

Step into Washington’s bedroom, and visitors will see walls newly enveloped by a soft blue wallpaper with a bright floral design featuring a birdbath and two bright orange lovebirds.

After referencing preserved documents, Amanda Isaac, a curator at the estate, said historians chose a replica 1790s French wallpaper based on a design that existed when Washington remodeled the home.

She said with the most recent changes — which also included tearing the walls down to the studs and replastering them with historically accurate techniques — is a room that most resembles how the home looked when the Washingtons lived at Mount Vernon. It has nine of the original furnishings of the room, including the exact bedframe Washington died on.

Perhaps the largest undertaking is still ongoing.

Underground, droves of people are still working to restore a cellar spanning the entire footprint of the house. That part of the home is being refinished to look like it did when it housed the enslaved Lee family, who served the Washingtons as valet, cook and butler. The estate is also adding an underground bunker to store an upgraded HVAC system created to better preserve and maintain the home.

Though it’s been centuries since Washington walked the property, signs of his life are still littered around the land. While excavating the cellar, archaeologists discovered 35 glass bottles of preserved berries, 20 of which are still intact and now on display at the Mount Vernon museum.

As the country looks to the future, Mount Vernon serves as a fixture of the past, forever reminding the nation how far it has come.

“You can’t go to Rome without seeing the Colosseum, and you can’t go to Washington, D.C., without seeing Mount Vernon,” Bradburn said.