Follow along as we post updates and discoveries from the landmark Mansion Revitalization Project.
Time and time again, the Mansion Revitalization Project showcases the Preservation team’s unparalleled precision and commitment to authenticity as they care for Washington’s iconic home. Few undertakings illustrate this better than the milling of wood, some from the Mount Vernon estate, to create new framing members for the Mansion.
With the New Room’s floors removed, Mount Vernon’s Preservation team, with the assistance of Christman Mid-Atlantic Constructors, began the process of replacing much of the room’s underlying framing. This involved removing the room’s joists, undergirts, and the one in-situ summer beam, components that primarily date to the 19th and 20th centurie...
This spring, Mount Vernon made national headlines during the Mansion Revitalization Project when its team of archaeologists unearthed 35 glass bottles, mostly containing preserved cherries.Learn MoreBelow, watch a time-lapse video documenting the excavation of the first two bottles. Photos were taken every 30 seconds as the team carefully remove...
As part of Mount Vernon’s ongoing Mansion Revitalization Project, masons from Dominion Traditional Builders are helping to restore the cellar’s passage walls. Their work is a vital step in preserving George Washington’s home and ensuring that future generations can experience the Mansion as closely as possible to how it appeared in Washington’s ...
The Mansion Revitalization Project continues to uncover fascinating layers of history. One area of focus has been addressing key structural elements, such as the one in-situ summer beam in George Washington's New Room. The summer beam, a critical framing component, offers insight into the evolving history of the Mansion while also presenting a u...
During the ongoing Mansion Revitalization Project, significant work has been undertaken to remove masonry outside the New Room and on the piazza—a crucial step in ensuring the long-term preservation and stability of Washington's beloved home.
A significant aspect of the Mansion Revitalization Project involves repairing sections of the Mansion’s masonry. The brick and stone foundation walls and chimney bases in the cellar provide the strong underpinning upon which the Mansion stands. As with the home’s framing, some necessary interventions in past decades, using "modern" materials, ha...
A major task of the Mansion Revitalization Project involves repairing sections of the Mansion’s framing, necessitating the temporary removal of the original 18th-century floorboards in the Mansion’s New Room.But before the first floorboard was lifted, the Preservation team undertook the critical step of documenting the floor's condition using a ...
Following the de-installation of the New Room, during which Mount Vernon’s Fine and Decorative Arts Collections team removed the room’s objects for safe storage, the next step was to prepare the space for the following phase of the Mansion Revitalization Project— removing the mopboards and floorboards in order to access and repair the home's fra...
Have you ever found crystals growing inside a rock? Sometimes, bricks hold hidden surprises, too. This brick was removed from the brick flooring next to the dry well in the Mansion cellar during recent archaeological excavations ahead of the Mansion Revitalization Project. The brick had broken apart, revealing a large fragment of tobacco pipe bo...
Mount Vernon has embarked on a landmark preservation project to ensure the Mansion's structural integrity for generations to come.
