64 
House 
G a r d e n 
dooooo (-) nno ( ) noni 
oAn Alliance with T^ature 
qA pillow for the body 
here is an old Persian legend about 
a sleeping - rug of enchantment 
which gave serenity to the soul, 
wisdom to the mind, poise and power to 
the body—all of which mean health. 
There is a mattress made in America to-day 
which induces all these desirable qualities, 
and is available for every home. 
When you sleep on the Sealy Sanitary 
Tuftless Mattress, you form an alliance with 
nature who insists that to be well and 
happy you must relax, rest and recuperate 
for about eight hours in twenty Tour. 
The Sealy is briefly a covered bouyant 
batt of pure prize long fibre cotton, inter¬ 
woven by the original and exclusive Sealy 
air weave process. 
A Twenty- Year Sleep Insurance Policy 
is presented to you when you purchase a Sealy 
Mattress against its packing or growing lumpy. 
In the superbly furnished house there is a Sealy 
on every bed. The Sealy plenishes a bed with 
abiding comfort and style. 
If you write us, we will send you a booklet on 
the relation of mattresses to health, some charm¬ 
ing covering samples and the name of a dealer 
authorised to sell you a Sealy on a sixty-night 
trial basis. 
Sealy SMattress Company 
SUGAR LAND, TEXAS 
George Washington, Architect and Decorator 
(Continued from page 62) 
tail of everything about Mount Ver¬ 
non and give it his personal super¬ 
vision, and “in all improvements of 
whatever character at Mount. Vernon, 
Washington made his own plans and 
drawings.” 
The inference, therefore, is plain 
that Washington conceived and de¬ 
signed the alterations and new build¬ 
ings on his estate, even though at 
times he was obliged to superintend 
the actual work of construction by 
correspondence with his agents. 
Farmhouse Improvements 
The years between 1759 and the 
outbreak of the Revolutionary War 
comprised “the longest period of 
Washington’s uninterrupted life at 
home” and this time was also the 
period of his greatest architectural 
activity. He was, it must be remem¬ 
bered, a large landowner and there 
were various farm buildings to be 
erected or enlarged on the tracts ad¬ 
joining the home farm at Mount 
Vernon. These improvements on his 
contiguous estates occupied him more or 
less continuously even after Mount Ver¬ 
non was fully completed, and during the 
early years of tire Presidency there was 
erected on Dogue Run Farm an evidence 
of his architectural resourcefulness in 
the shape of a “circular or sixteen-sided 
barn, of his own invention” . . . “two 
storeys high and sixty feet in diameter” 
with “an inclined runway” for oxen or 
horses and wagons, giving access to the 
circular tread' )g or threshing floor in 
the upper part of the structure. 
But it was immediately around Mount 
Vernon that there was the greatest need 
for comprehensive architectural planning 
to keep pace with the growth of indus¬ 
tries on the estate. “The gradual accu¬ 
mulation of shoemakers, tailors, smiths, 
carpenters, wheelwrights, masons, char¬ 
coal burners, farmers, millers, hostlers, 
house and outside servants, and over¬ 
seers, all with their families, constituted 
an army of several hundred” and conse¬ 
quently “near the big house grew up lit¬ 
tle houses for all sorts of domestic offices 
and manufactures”, the design and plac¬ 
ing of all of which had to be determined 
by Washington. As a result of this ex¬ 
pansion of domestic industries, there 
sprang up the North and South Lanes 
of small buildings flanking the house. 
The composition of the group affords an 
admirable example in making one seemly 
and symmetrical whole of the house and 
all outbuildings, an example that we to¬ 
day may well take to heart. 
The overmantel and mantel at 
“Kenmore” designed by Wash¬ 
ington. Courtesy, of J. B. Lip- 
pincott Co. 
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.1 page of a letter to Mrs. Fanny 
Washington warning her about 
carpenters. Courtesy of the Penna. 
Historical Society 
Additions to Mount Vernon 
The crowning and final expression of 
Washington’s architectural endeavors' is 
to be seen in Mount Vernon as it stands 
to-day with its flanking wings connected 
by colonnades. These wings, the colon¬ 
nades and the banqueting hall and li¬ 
brary, which were added to the original 
structure, date from the time of the Rev¬ 
olutionary War — they were planned and 
begun as early as 1773—and Washing¬ 
ton’s weekly letters to his manager dur¬ 
ing this long period of his absence from 
Mount Vernon are full of minute direc¬ 
tions regarding the execution of the 
work, which went forward, notwith¬ 
standing the troublous times and the 
vexing tardiness of artisans. Touching 
the latter annoyance, we have an illumi¬ 
nating comment in a letter from Lund 
Washington, the manager of the estates, 
to the General in the spring of 1778. 
He says: — “Of all the worthless men 
living Lanphier is the greatest, no act or 
temptation of mine can prevail on him 
to come to work, notwithstanding his 
repeated promises to do so. I wanted so 
much to get the windows finished in the 
Pediment that I might have the garret 
passage plastered and cleared out before 
Mrs. Washington’s return. Besides this 
the scaffolding in the front of the house 
cannot be taken away before it is fin¬ 
ished. This prevents me from put¬ 
ting up the steps to the great front 
door.” This reads exactly like dozens 
of complaints that might be framed 
to-day by architects’ superintendents 
on distant jobs. 
When away from home Washing- 
tpn’s solicitude and complete grasp of 
the minutest details of all the work 
under way are again and again at¬ 
tested by passages in his letters of 
instruction to his managers. From 
camp at Cambridge, in August, 1775, 
he writes to Lund Washington: — “I 
wish you would quicken Lanphier 
and Sears about the Dining Room 
Chimney Piece (to be executed as 
mentioned in one of my last letters) 
as I would wish that end of the 
House completely finished before I 
return.” Another random excerpt, 
from a letter to a new manager, 
Pearce, containing a schedule of 
wmrk for immediate prosecution, 
reads :—“ . . . Removing the larger 
kind of Negro quarters (the smaller 
ones or cabbins, I presume the people 
with a little assistance of Carts can 
do themselves) to the ground marked 
out for them opposite to Crow’s New 
house. . . . Repairing the Barn and 
(Continued on page 66) 
