The Early History of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association

George Washington once compared Mount Vernon to a well resorted tavern and indeed his home never ceased to be a mecca for visitors, drawn by curiosity or by reverence for its illustrious owner. Washington's nephew Bushrod Washington inherited the Mansion and four thousand acres after the death of Martha Washington. He was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and his duties often kept him away from Mount Vernon. He died in 1829, bequeathing the Mansion and twelve hundred acres to his nephew John Augustine Washington II who survived him by only three years. In 1840, his widow conveyed the estate to their son, John Augustine Washington III, the last Washington family member to own the estate.

John Augustine III quickly realized that the deteriorating Mount Vernon estate was a far cry from the plantation his great-great uncle George Washington once presided over. His primary means of income came from wheat and potato production, woodcutting, selling enslaved people and outsourcing enslaved labor, collecting land rents, and his herring operation on the Potomac River. However, soil degradation, poor harvests, inclement weather, and the devastation of crops by insects and pests limited his agricultural returns.

While he managed to slow Mount Vernon’s financial decline, these endeavors were not enough to stop the downward spiral. In addition to facing these hardships, John Augustine III also experienced constant interruptions by sightseers, many of whom wanted to meet the living descendant of George Washington, see the mansion, and ask questions about Washington’s life. He attempted to sell the property to both the federal government and the state of Virginia, but both bodies were deeply mired in sectional and political partisanship.

In 1853, Louisa Bird Cunningham was traveling on the Potomac River and passed by Mount Vernon. Struck by its appearance, and fearing that it would soon be lost to the nation for lack of upkeep, Cunningham wrote a letter to her daughter Ann Pamela Cunningham. In the letter, she commented that if the men of the United States would not save the home of its greatest citizen, perhaps it should be the responsibility of the women.

These words galvanized her daughter into action. Initially writing under the nom de plume, "A Southern Matron," Ann Pamela Cunningham challenged first the women of the South, and later the women of the entire country, to save the home of George Washington. After convincing John Augustine Washington III to sell the property, Cunningham and the organization she founded, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, set out to raise $200,000, or $5.7 million today, to purchase the mansion and two hundred acres. 

Birth of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association