62 
House & Garden 
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George Washington, Architect and Decorator 
(Continued from page 36) 
edge of surveying in order to enable 
them to look properly after their inter¬ 
ests.” Such training “gave them an in¬ 
sight into the practice of making accur¬ 
ate measurements and draughting and 
the effect of such practical and exact 
education was not without its weight 
when they addressed themselves to de¬ 
signing buildings.” 
His Early Training 
Washington’s early training and prac¬ 
tical experience as a surveyor thoroughly 
imbued him with an wholesome regard 
for accuracy of measurements and added 
to his natural bent for orderliness and 
precise detail, two of the first requisites 
of an architect’s equipment. Testifying 
to his habitual precision and care is an 
entry in the diary of John Hunter, a 
vistor for a few days at Mount Vernon 
in the fall of 1785, which tells us that 
Washington “often works with his men 
himself—strips off his coat and labors 
like a common man. The Genefal has a 
great turn for mechanics. It’s astonish¬ 
ing with what niceness he directs every¬ 
thing in the building way, condescending 
even to measure the things himself, that 
all may be perfectly uniform.” 
Washington likewise possessed suf¬ 
ficient manual skill in draughtsmanship 
to enable him to indicate very lucidly on 
hig#plans, elevations and detailed draw¬ 
ings exactly what he wished the artisans 
to do and how they were to do it. As 
to his architectural knowledge and 
sources of inspiration, in default of any 
exact specific data on this point, and in 
the light of what has just been noted 
concerning the importance attached to 
such knowledge as an essential feature 
of education, we may with reason as¬ 
sume that he learned somewhat from his 
brother Lawrence, who, as we know, was 
a “far-travelled man” and of English 
school training, and still more from his 
intimate and habitual intercourse, during 
his most impressionable years, with 
Lord Fairfax—it was Lord Fairfax’s 
advice that started him on his career as 
a surveyor—and George William Fair¬ 
fax, both of them men of’ exceptional 
culture and of the broadest education 
England had to offer. As to his archi¬ 
tectural taste, the best evidence remains 
in the buildings—and Mount Vernon 
before all others—with whose erection 
Washington was closely concerned and 
whose design was either wholly or in 
great measure attributable to his choice. 
Mount Vernon, as we know it, is the 
result of extensive alterations and addi¬ 
tions made just before and during the 
Revolutionary War, the plans being de¬ 
termined upon before Washington was 
called away to the service of his coun¬ 
trymen. If ever a house faithfully re¬ 
flected the personality of its builder and 
occupant, that house is Mount Vernon. 
During the period of his ownership and 
occupancy the house and its surround¬ 
ings were molded to the tastes and 
ideals of a master whose chief delight 
was in the ordering and enjoyment of his 
home and the skillful management of his 
estate. 
As Washington inherited it from his 
brother Lawrence, Mount Vernon was, 
in its original condition, a decent and 
dignified but not a large house, in its 
plan embracing the central hall and the 
two rooms on each side and the rooms 
and attic above them. The additions 
containing, at one end, the library and, 
at the other, the banqueting hall had not 
been made; there were no flanking 
wings to lend manorial port; and there 
were few or none of the small outbuild¬ 
ings in orderly arrangement as they 
afterwards appeared. 
Upon his marriage, in 1758, Washing¬ 
ton undertook extensive repairs and 
some additions to make his home ready 
against the coming of his bride and, 
though absent on the frontier, he di¬ 
rected the execution of his plans by the 
most explicit and detailed correspond¬ 
ence with the workmen. 
While there is no absolute document¬ 
ary proof that Washington fully de¬ 
signed these alterations and additions, 
there is every reason to believe that his 
responsibility for both the general plans 
and the details of the scheme was suf¬ 
ficient to entitle him to be considered the 
architect in the case—quite as much so, 
certainly, as many another amateur to 
whom the designs of’ some of our best 
18th Century buildings are very justly 
attributed. 
In the first place, there is no record of 
any architect being engaged and, unless 
one had sent to England, there was no 
architect to engage other than tire local 
head carpenter. In the second place, the 
artisans, though well intentioned, were 
often exasperatingly dilatory and some¬ 
times incompetent and it is scarcely 
likely that a man of Washington’s inde¬ 
pendence, self sufficiency and ability to 
draw his own designs—such draughts as 
have survived attest his capacity in this 
respect beyond all peradventure—should 
have entrusted a matter in which he was 
so deeply interested to the hand of an¬ 
other less able than himself. Finally, it 
was his invariable habit to acquaint 
himself thoroughly with the minutest de- 
(Continued on page 64) 
© Detroit Publishing Co. 
The music room was another of the renovations Washington made 
to the original farmhouse he inherited from his brother Lawrence 
