President John Adams
His Excellency John Adams arrived at this place [Alexandria, Virginia] yesterday. He was escorted by a troop of cavalry into town. The President is on a visit to Mount Vernon, from whence he will return on Wednesday, and partake of a public dinner to which he has been invited by the citizens of Alexandria.
The Virginia Herald, June 10-11, 1800
President Thomas Jefferson
Visited Mount Vernon to pay a condolence call on Martha Washington who was grieving the recent death of her husband.
President Andrew Jackson
President James Knox Polk
President Polk visited Mount Vernon with his wife, Sarah Childress Polk, and former First Lady, Dolley Payne Madison.
President Millard Fillmore
President James Buchanan
President Buchanan was accompanied by Prince Albert, the future King Edward VII.
Before this humble tomb the Prince, the President, and all the party stood uncovered. It is easy moralizing on this visit, for there is something grandly suggestive of historical retribution in the reverential awe of the Price of Wales, the great-grandson of George III, standing bare-headed at the foot of the coffin of Washington... the Prince then proceeded to plant a chestnut by the side of the tomb. It seemed when the Royal youth closed in the earth around the little germ, that he was burying the last faint trace of discord between us and our great brethren in the West.
The Times of London, 1860
President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln supposedly almost visited Mount Vernon. The President's steamboat apparently stopped by on a trip down the Potomac River in 1862, but was advised not to disembark the vessel. According to John Dahlgren of the Washington Navy Yard, "I advised the President not to land, and remained in the boat with him."
President Rutherford B. Hayes
President Benjamin Harrison
President William McKinley
Visited Mount Vernon, accompanied by his ailing wife, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of George Washington's death.
It distressed all present to note the frail physique of Mrs. McKinley. We could not but admire her bravery and enthusiasm. She was actually carried from room to room, but withal was cheerfully intent on seeing everything of interest.
Notes from MVLA Council of 1898
President Theodore Roosevelt
It would appear that no president enjoyed his trips to Mount Vernon more than Theodore Roosevelt. The longtime superintendent who hosted most of those visits, Colonel Harrison Dodge, recalled in his memoirs that President Roosevelt "took his visits to Mount Vernon in a holiday spirit and was usually in a characteristic good humor."
...just before they arrived a heavy downpour of rain came on, practically without warning and the party arrived quite wet and very considerably bespattered with mud... I was surprised presently to hear the President calling loudly for me. Come, Colonel, he shouted. I want you to see my Postmaster General in the tub taking a bath with his boots on... When I entered the room in response to this extravagant announcement, I found Mr. Meyer standing in the tub in the process of washing the mud from his boots under the shower jet. This method of caring for the situation was canny and effective, but in view of the President's Homeric enjoyment of the scene, the cabinet officer's position in the tub was extremely ludicrous... At the luncheon-table Roosevelt...dwelt at length on it, magnifying and enlarging it with such keen enjoyment that the infection spread to all of us, and the meal proceeded with an extreme hilarity that bordered on hysterics...
Colonel Harrison Dodge, 1907
President William Howard Taft
President Woodrow Wilson
President Woodrow Wilson several times honored Mount Vernon by his presence, but quite the most spectacular event in which he took part was on the Fourth of July, 1918, when he brought as his guests, on the Mayflower, fifty or more delegates representing the thousands of foreign-born citizens of the United States, wishing, by this public commemoration of our Declaration of Independence, to testify their loyalty to America. Each delegate bore a handsome wreath distinguished by his respective national colors, the collection quite filling the Tomb...It was estimated that nearly 20,000 persons were present on that notable day.
Colonel Harrison Dodge, 1918
President Calvin Coolidge
President Coolidge escorted the Prince Imperial and Princess Imperial of Japan, incognito as "Comte Asa" and "Comtesse Asa" during his visit.
President Herbert Hoover
President Hoover visited Mount Vernon on George Washington's 198th birthday in 1930, and again, two years later, on the 200th.
Nearly every United States president has paid a visit to George Washington's home. But especially in recent years, Mount Vernon has welcomed many First Ladies, too-- including Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Trump.
First Ladies at Mount Vernon