Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/105

 1868.] The Restoration of Mount Vernon. 85 We are far from entertaining the opinion, much too common amongst professional men, that the publication of designs, with their details, will cause those intending to build to assume the role of overseer themselves, and to adopt some published sketch, which may happen to please the fancy. The more the public taste is improved, the more demand will there be for the assistance of architects. It is a fact, which must have been observed by every one, that when a choice or tasteful building has been erected in any dis- trict, others of equal or superior preten- sions arise, shortly after, at no great dis- tance. Why? Because men of property begin to wonder, how they can improve their own residences, or stores, or churches ; and the presence and skill of the architects are, of course, required. Such, we hope and believe, will be the result of our work. As expressed in the very beginning, our aim is to make it aid in sowing and cultivating a taste for architectural design ; and in the nearer future to cause many an ele- gant structure to be erected, on sites now mis-occupied by the baldest and barest walls of brick. THE RESTORATION OF MOUNT VERNON. I N" the year 1859, the mansion of Mount Yernon, with all its perma- nent belongings, and two hundred acres of the Mount Yernon estate, sur- rounding and contiguous, by sale and purchase, passed, for and in considera- tion of two hundred thousand dollars, from the possession of John Augustine Washington, Jr.,* into that of the char- tered " Ladies' Mount Yernon Asso- ciation," Miss Anna Pamela Cunning- ham, Regent, representing the people of the whole United States. About one- fourth of the purchase-money was ob- tained by the individual efforts of the Hon. Edward Everett, of Massachu- setts, by the repetition of his oration upon "the Character of Washington," to select and patriotic audiences all over the country, and through the gift of the compensation he received from Mr. Bon- ner for essays contributed to the New York Ledger. The remainder accrued George Washington to his nephew, Judge Bushrod Washington, son of George Augustine, the General's brother. Bushrod bequeathed it to his nephew, John Augustine Washington, son of the Judge's brother Cor- b'm. After John Augustine's death, it passed to his widow Jane. On her demise in 1856, it devolved upon her son, John Augustine Washington, Jr. from organized contributions, through direct donations, the sales of photo- graphic and engraved views of the house and grounds, of canes from sticks cut upon the estate, and associated trin- kets ; and from the holding of fancy fairs. The people, being at that time well aroused upon the subject, would have im- mediately proceeded to raise the means, then estimated at two hundred thousand dollars more, for the perfect restoration of the mansion, the out-buildings, the gar- dens and the general estate ; as well as for their permanent future maintenance. But they were almost instanter called to the preservation of the more imme- diate legacy of Washington — their own inalienable inheritance from him — the integrity and liberty of the nation. Whatever the method of raising the money, it came directly from the open hands of all the people ; so, that, the entire object accomplished, the associa- tion might as well merge, by consent, in the government of the United States ; the property to be held by it, for the people. From the amount officially named as sufficient, we can gather, that the resto-
 * The descent of Mount Vernon, by devise, was from