(orchestral music) - [Narrator] George Washington
once wrote to a friend that there is no estate in United America more pleasantly situated than this. And Washington was not a
man prone to exaggeration. His mansion rests peacefully upon a hill overlooking the mile wide Potomac River. The centerpiece of a vast
8,000 acre plantation that was home to both
the Washington family and some 300 slaves. But even in the 18th century, one could hardly describe
Washington's estate as tranquil. In fact, in a letter to his mother, George Washington once
wrote that Mount Vernon often resembled a well-resorted
tavern with famous friends and total strangers alike
appearing on his doorstep with remarkable frequency. The most sought after aspect
of any visit to Mount Vernon was the opportunity to spend quality time with Washington himself, a
figure of heroic proportions. Today, of course, it comes as no surprise that Mount Vernon continues to be a beacon for Americans searching for the essence of George Washington. It is estimated that
some 80 million people have climbed these stairs,
grabbing hold of the same walnut banister that
Washington himself gripped so many times during his
45 years of ownership. For as long as anyone can
remember, Mount Vernon has held the title of America's
most popular historic house. As one foreign diplomat
commented, Washington's home is the heart of America. But a century and a half ago, this heart almost stopped beating. (orchestral music) The beginning of our story coincides with the end of George Washington's. Working outside on a
blustery winter's day, Washington contracted what seemed at first to be a simple sore throat. When Washington died the following day, on December 14th, 1799, the
entire nation went into mourning and the fate of his beloved
Mount Vernon changed forever. - His house had become
so closely identified with him already at that time
that even though he was gone, folks wanted to come and
see where he had lived. And of course that was really
the beginning of Mount Vernon as we know it today as a
shrine for visitors to come. And at that time period,
it was difficult for folks to try to take a little bit away with them and pieces of the house literally started going away with them. - [Narrator] It came as little
surprise when Washington's great-grand-nephew John
Augustine Washington III was approached by speculators
who hoped to develop the property commercially. Washington let it be known
that he had been offered the tremendous sum of $300,000. Yet he could not consent
to sell Mount Vernon without an absolute assurance
that it would be protected for future generations. John Washington decided
to approach Congress, suggesting that the government
purchase the mansion and the 200 surrounding
acres for $200,000. But his timing was unfortunate. Congressmen were already
drawing the battle lines for the Civil War and
Washington's estate was located precariously between the
nation's capital and Richmond. When John Washington took
his appeal to the legislature of the Commonwealth of
Virginia, his appeal wasn't really denied,
it was almost ignored. And so it was. On a moonlit evening in 1853
when a steamer traveled down the Potomac River en route from Philadelphia to the Carolinas. In tribute to Washington,
the captain sounded the horn as Mount Vernon came into sight. Among the passengers
was a South Carolinian, Louisa Dalton Bird Cunningham,
who found it hard to believe that the home was Washington
was in such dire condition. - There were old masts of
ships holding up the piazza, weeds growing everywhere and
I think she was distraught. And she wrote a letter to her daughter, Ann Pamela Cunningham. So Ann Pamela, when she got
the letter, decided to spend the rest of her life and try to save George Washington's home. - [Narrator] Miss Cunningham
decided to write a bold letter to the editor of
the Charleston Mercury. Although the language
she used was flamboyant, the argument came through loud and clear. If the men of America were
going to allow the home and burial place of George
Washington to go to ruin, it was time for the
patriotic women of America to come together to rescue Mount Vernon. As more and more newspapers
published her appeals, Miss Cunningham found herself
a most unlikely celebrity. In an age when philanthropy
was seldom organized, Miss Cunningham specified
that the Mount Vernon Ladies Association would
include a Vice Regent from every state in the Union. She declared that every
citizen, irrespective of age or sex, by the subscription
of $1, can become one of the purchasers of Mount Vernon. States began to compete with each other. Leaders from all walks of
life became subscribers. - Well, the one person,
very significant in her beginning efforts was a
man named Edward Everett. He had a very lustrous career. He was a minister at Great Britain. He was the President of Harvard. And he gave a speech about Washington. And he gave this speech 129
times all over the country to raise money and he
indeed raised I think something in the vicinity of $60,000. Which was a significant
amount toward the final amount of $200,000, which the
ladies had to finish raising. - [Narrator] After working
so long and hard to reach this goal, Miss Cunningham
hit what appeared to be an insurmountable obstacle. John Augustine Washington
absolutely refused to sell Mount Vernon to women. With the help of
Washington's wife Eleanor, Miss Cunningham's powers
of persuasion won the day and the sale was finally completed. In early 1860, she moved
into the mansion to oversee an even greater challenge,
the repair and restoration of perhaps the most important fixer-upper in American history. Fortunately, John
Washington did leave behind a handful of items which
would form the beginnings of the Mount Vernon collection. The Key to the Bastille,
presented to Washington by the Marquis de Lafayette. The terrestrial globe featuring
the travels of Captain Cook. And the original terracotta
sculpture of Washington, fashioned by the famous French
sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon. One of Miss Cunningham's first
and most important decisions was to protect much more than the mansion. Many of her closest advisors,
realizing that slavery was a topic that divided the
nation, urged her to tear down the simple structures
surrounding the mansion where many of the slaves lived and worked. Instead, she decided that
everything that was part of Washington's estate
deserved to be preserved, from the crumbling mortar of the cistern to the decaying timbers
of the spinning house. Over time, this inclusive
approach to historic places would evolve into the guiding principle of our national preservation movement. Just as Miss Cunningham
was beginning to organize the long list of preservation projects, the dark days of the Civil
War engulfed the nation and she was forced to return to her South Carolina plantation. For the next six years, her
secretary, Sarah Tracy, and Mount Vernon's superintendent,
Upton Herbert, stood sentry. - During the war, we know
that both Confederate and Union troops came to Mount Vernon. Sarah Tracy had gotten a pledge
from General Winfield Scott for the Union from the
governor of Virginia that no armed troops would
come to Mount Vernon. But that didn't mean that the
troops didn't come here anyway just to visit and we know
that troops from both sides came here quite often. There are even some
carvings in some trees here at Mount Vernon, star, and
a cross, and the lore here is that those date from
the Civil War period and were mementos that were carved into the trees by soldiers. - [Narrator] As the nation
entered a period of rebirth and recovery, Ann Pamela
Cunningham returned to Mount Vernon with renewed enthusiasm. Fortunately, like George
Washington, Miss Cunningham had a knack for picking talented and dynamic people to assist her. The Vice Regents she selected
were women who'd broke the mold of the strict
confines of Victorian society. And her very first
choice was no exception. Anna Ogden Richie of Richmond, Virginia. - She had rather astute vision at the time of gathering the women. The first person she asked
was a woman from Virginia who was an actress. And in those days, of
course, that was rather an unusual thing for an
aristocratic lady to be doing. - [Narrator] To serve
as the first Vice Regent for New York, Miss Cunningham selected the granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton. The first Florida Vice Regent, Catherine Daingerfield Willis
Gray became a full fledged princess by virtue of her marriage to the son of Napoleon's
Cavalry Commander. This group of fascinating women
possessed important contacts in virtually every state. Members of the Washington
and Custis families donated a number of original
pieces to the mansion, including the Nelly Custis harpischord and the oversized bed
Mrs. Washington ordered to accommodate her husband's
frame of almost six foot three. Several rooms in the
mansion were established as museum spaces with exhibit cases full of artifacts and memorabilia. Many of the rooms in
the mansion were adopted by individual Vice Regents
who returned to their home states to gather an
assortments of antiques and other furnishings, which
would serve as placeholders until the original Washington
items could be located and hopefully accessioned
through gifts, loans, or outright purchase. For instance, visitors to
Mount Vernon in the early 20th century would see an
Empire sofa in the parlor, which although stylish,
wasn't crafted until 30 years after Washington's death. Help in restoring the estate
to its original appearance also came from the descendants
of firsthand witnesses. A number of African
Americans who were freed by Washington in his will and
others who had gained freedom during the Civil War remained on or near the Mount Vernon estate, often working as gardeners and guards. Vital information about
Washington's out buildings, gardens, and grounds, was passed down from one generation to the next. - It's always been known
that enslaved people were the master builders
of these plantation homes and Mount Vernon is no exception. There was a lot of pride
taken in the skills that you might have
seen demonstrated here. You build something, it
belongs in part to you. You sew a dress, it in
part is your dress as well even though you are not wearing it. So I think that those
might have been the reasons that they came back to take care of it. - [Narrator] As the
Regent and Vice Regents began to recognize the toll
that thousands of visitors can take a structure, the
best and brightest experts came to their aid. - At Mount Vernon, we've had such a court from wonderful business
leaders, philanthropists, Henry Ford being one. He gave the first firetruck
to be here on the estate. Thomas Edison actually wired the mansion and the next generations
of all of these people have been very supportive
to our current times. - [Narrator] The controversial
railroad executive Jay Gould provided the
funds to expand the property by some 33 acres. The first Vice Regent for California, Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst,
donated funds to construct a stone seawall to
prevent the rapid erosion of Washington's hillside. She also financed the
construction of a wharf, which 90 years later, was
refurbished by the Regent of the association, Mabel
Bishop, who raised gifts from throughout her state of Oregon. In a similar fashion, Texans
built and then restored the entry gate and Washington
lovers in Massachusetts rescued a disintegrating
cupola just in time. In addressing each preservation challenge, the association depended upon
incredibly detailed research into the papers and books
on George Washington, which began to shed
light on how he furnished each room in the mansion. Original Washington objects were returned to their rightful
places, and exhibit cases were transferred to a small museum. Piece by piece, room by
room, the association's quest for authenticity was becoming a reality. And then, with a single
controversial decision, the Regent and Vice Regents
once again demonstrated bold leadership in the
preservation movement. - When we undertook paint
analysis in the 1970s and 1980s through the help of Matt
Moska, it really transformed what we knew about George
Washington, Martha Washington, and the interior spaces of Mount Vernon. A lot of people were in
disbelief that Washington, the father of the country
and presumably a man of exquisite taste was living
with what they consider to be rather garish colors. - [Narrator] The paint
research at Mount Vernon detailed and uncompromising,
inspired the stewards of other historic homes
to take similar steps towards greater authenticity. As preservation technology
has become more and more sophisticated, the association
has been able to restore aspects of the estate
that Ann Pamela Cunningham and the original Vice
Regents hardly knew existed. Using evidence garnered
from detailed archeological excavations, experts have
been able to recreate Washington's exquisite
gardens and to reconstruct the dung repository, thought
to be the first structure in America devoted
exclusively to composting. Washington's most remarkable
invention, a 16 sided treading barn, which revolutionized
the processing of wheat, has been recreated through the generosity of the WK Kellog Foundation. With costumed workers, a
large animal population and ever changing crops,
the pioneer farm has quickly become one of the most popular
stops on a Mount Vernon tour. And two miles away, on its
original site, a replica of Washington's gristmill,
one of the most advanced machines of its day,
transforms threshed wheat into the finest flour. Just a few feet away,
archeologists are uncovering the remains of Washington's distillery, one of the largest in
18th century America. - You know, as beautiful
as the mansion is, and as authentic as the grounds are, if there's one ah-ha
moment at Mount Vernon, it's when people come
out of the dining room, onto the piazza, and
see the sensational view across the Potomac River. And I think it's amazing
that just a few decades ago, we were about to lose all of that. There was a threat of not
only an oil tank refinery but also a sewage treatment plant. Can you imagine two more damaging things to that pristine view? And fortunately, we had an insider that really helped us to save that view. We had someone on our board
who was also a very important Congresswoman, that would
be Frances Payne Bolton. - [Narrator] Using her own
funds, Ohio Congresswoman Bolton quickly purchased
enough acreage to slow down the developments and
then led a full fledged lobbying effort to persuade Congress to take defensive action. In 1974, President Gerald
Ford signed into law the bill which provided
the funding to create Piscataway National Park,
protecting the immediate shoreline and in the years since,
Mount Vernon has worked with the National Park Service,
the Accokeek Foundation, the Trust for Public Land,
and Maryland Neighbors, to protect additional acreage. Vigilance is still called for however, because the far ridge of forests, as seen from Mount Vernon's East
Lawn, remains unprotected. Although the Mount
Vernon's Ladies Association works hand in glove with
several government agencies on a variety of issues,
the Regent and Vice Regents maintain a strong sense of independence. - One of the things we've been able to do as the Mount Vernon Ladies
Association is always keep it in private hands, all the
money for the past 150 years. All of it that has gone
into the restoration and maintenance of the
grounds of the estate has come from private
people, private enterprise, and individuals, Americans. I think that's a really important fact. - [Narrator] And in recent
years, the association's mission has been expanded to embrace
a new and urgent challenge. American history in general
and George Washington in particular are being
short shrifted in classrooms throughout the nation. Future plans call for
the construction of a new education center and
museum and the creation of the association's
first orientation film. - When I was growing
up, there was a portrait of George Washington in
every post office in America and practically every classroom. And that's all disappeared. And so as the Mount
Vernon Ladies Association, we want to establish here at Mount Vernon a library that will go
on to educate forever all of the visitors, not just the children and our grandchildren, but all
the visitors in Mount Vernon of perhaps the greatest
Founding Father of all. Because without him, we
simply wouldn't be America. - [Narrator] Today, more
than a million people a year arrive on Washington's
doorstep, eager to see where the great man lived and worked. Most of the men who have tried to follow in Washington's formidable
footsteps as President have made their own
pilgrimage to Mount Vernon, as have many world leaders. - Lots of famous people have come. Queen Elizabeth came when
she was just a princess. And apparently when she saw the mansion, she called it a cozy little cottage, which was really interesting we thought. - [Narrator] Other foreign
dignitaries may have been more diplomatic, but
their first impressions were quite the same. Mount Vernon is decidedly
simple when compared to the palaces of European leaders. And yet there is a common
acceptance and an unmistakable sense of pride that this as it should be. Mount Vernon is a reflection
of both a new type of leader and a new kind of nation. - Well, George Washington is truly America's indispensable man. He's the essential man in a fair understanding of American history. And not only an essential
man in the sense of winning the war for independence, but
I believe George Washington's an essential man in the
writing and ratifying of a Constitution, he's the
essential man in keeping the United States at peace and unified during its early critical years. Without his skill, without his charisma, without his ability as a unifier, I really do not think it
is an exaggeration to say we would not be a single
United States of America. - [Narrator] Perhaps
that's why Mount Vernon's most important audience
is not royal visitors from far away climbs or our own leaders from just 16 miles away on Capitol Hill. As it celebrates its 150th anniversary, the Mount Vernon Ladies
Association is determined more than ever to introduce
each new generation of children to the most
respected and admired leader in American history,
because among those children are our leaders of tomorrow,
who will be called upon to safeguard the freedom and the liberty George Washington worked
so hard to obtain. (orchestral music)
