never for a moment forget that we are the public's servants, 
that you need never hesitate to come to us or telephone to us. 
May you have a pleasant and profitable meeting here in 
Washington. 
Gunston Hall 
A Sketch Prepared for the Visit of the Garden Clubs of America, 
October 24, 1922, by Charles Moore. 
Gunston Hall on the Potomac was built by George Mason 
between the years 1755 and 1758. About the same time George 
Washington was putting Mount Vernon in order to receive his 
bride, Martha Dandridge Custis. The two families were on 
terms of intimacy, their estates being separated by Belvoir, the 
seat of the Fairfax family, common friends of the Washingtons 
and Masons. 
George Mason (1725-1792) was the author of the Virginia 
Bill of Rights and of the Constitution of Virginia. ' ' The former, 
the most remarkable paper of its epoch, was the foundation of 
the great American assertion of right. Jefferson went to it for 
the phrases and expressions of the Declaration, and it remains 
the original chart by which free governments must steer their 
course The equality of men politically; the enjoyment of 
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the responsibility of 
magistrates; the right of the people to abolish oppressive govern- 
ment; suffrage to all men having a permanent interest in the 
community; the freedom of the press; the subjection of the 
military to the civil government ; the free exercise of religion ; 
and an adherence to justice, moderation and virtue: these were 
to be the burning and shining lights to guide the new generation 
in their march to the Canaan of the future." — (Virginia; by 
John Esten Cooke, p. 411). 
The road from "Washington to Gunston Hall leads through 
the old town of Alexandria, rich in memorials of Colonial times. 
Driving along the Richmond Pike one passes the road leading 
from the main thoroughfare into Mount Vernon; then comes 
"Woodlawn, built on that half of the Mount Vernon estate which 
Washington gave to his favorite nephew, Fielding Lewis, who 
married Mrs. Washington's granddaughter, Nellie Custis. Next 
comes the entrance to the station of the United States Corps of 
Engineers, (now known as Camp Humphreys), which occupies 
the old Fairfax estate of Belvoir. Ten miles from Alexandria, 
close to the pike, stands Pohick Church, one of the few remain- 
ing eighteenth century churches in the South. Tradition says 
that "Washington designed the structure ; it is certain that Wash- 
ington located it, that George Mason assumed responsibility for 
completing it when the undertaker (contractor) failed; that 
"Washington and Mason served on its vestry for twenty years; 
and that it was their usual place of worship. Bearing the lines 
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