The Ladies Who Saved Mount Vernon
As I quoted recently, historian David McCullough said:
Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude. It’s a form of ingratitude.
I believe the same is true about historic preservation. We can be grateful that Ann Pamela Cunningham, a wealthy Southern woman who never married and who suffered from decades of ill health, had the good manners and persistence to save George Washington’s beloved home, Mount Vernon.
Ann Pamela Cunningham was born in 1816 at Rosemont, her family’s estate in Laurens County, South Carolina. A horse threw Ann when she was in her late teens, and she suffered from chronic pain for most of her life. Her mother Louisa Bird Cunningham took her for regular visits with a doctor in Philadelphia. In 1853, while Louisa was returning by boat to South Carolina, the boat passed Mount Vernon while traveling on the Potomac River. Ships passing the home of the first president rang a bell in Washington’s honor when they passed. When Louisa heard the bell toll, she looked to see the mansion. She saw peeling paint and weeds. The portico was dilapidated. The masts of old ships propped it up.
George Washington’s great-grandnephew John Augustine Washington III owned Mount Vernon at the time. He struggled to maintain the mansion, manage the farm, and contend with a flood of sightseers. John tried to persuade the United States and Virginia to purchase and preserve the home of his illustrious ancestor, but neither were interested.
Louisa Cunningham wrote to her daughter, “I was painfully distressed at the ruin and desolation of the home of Washington, and the thought passed through my mind: Why was it that the women of his country did not try to keep it in repair, if the men could not do it? It does seem such a blot on our country.”
Louisa’s letter inspired Ann, then 37 years old. Ann Pamela Cunningham dedicated the rest of her life to saving and preserving Mount Vernon. Writing under the pen name of “A Southern Matron,” she first appealed to the ladies of the South and then to the entire country to save Washington’s home.
Miss Cunningham founded the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association the same year that she received her mother’s letter. The Association’s first job was to purchase Mount Vernon. John Augustine Washington’s asking price was high: $200,000. Cunningham appointed a lady to head up fund raising efforts in each state, and they appointed ladies in counties and communities. However, Ann said, “Every citizen, irrespective of age or sex, by the subscription of $1.00 can become a member and one of the purchasers of Mount Vernon.”
The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association used many fund-raising methods. They published a monthly magazine The Mount Vernon Record which listed all donations and told stories about Washington’s life. The cost was $1.00 per month. They sold Washington memorabilia. A gold-framed replica of a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington sold for $1.00.
Public speaking was a favorite form of entertainment at the time. Former U.S. senator, governor of Massachusetts, and president of Harvard University Edward Everett was the most popular orator of the time. Everett read about the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association’s cause in the newspaper and offered his help to Cunningham. Everett had written a speech about Washington’s character for a celebration of Washington’s birthday at the Mercantile Library in Boston. For five years, Everett traveled the country giving this speech, which he called, “My Washington.” He delivered his memorized, two-hour speech 129 times, drawing large enthusiastic crowds. People paid at first $1.00 and later $2.00 each to hear him speak. Everett paid his own travel expenses and gave everything he raised to the Association.
Below is a letter Everett received from an American man living in Hawaii. The letter appeared in The Mount Vernon Record:
Legation of the United States
Honolulu, Hawaii, January 13, 1859
Sir – A number of American ladies of the Hawaiian Islands have contributed one hundred and forty-one dollars, which they have requested me to forward to you, to be appropriated towards the purchase and embellishment of Mount Vernon. I have nowhere met with persons who more properly appreciate the character of Washington, than among the American residents and their descendants on these islands; and I am requested by the ladies who have made this contribution, to return to you their thanks for your exertions to arouse our people to a sense of their duty towards the memory of our great countryman.
I have the honor to be, sir,
Your obedient servant,
James H. Borden
In 1859, artists ,Thomas Pritchard Rossiter and Louis Remy Mignot, completed this painting, depicting the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1784 visit to Mount Vernon.
Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, 1784
by Thomas Pritchard Rossiter and Louis Remy Mignot,
completed in 1859, courtesy of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
bequest of William Nelson, 1905
The painting depicts Washington and Lafayette in conversation while standing opposite one another on the front porch. Martha Washington sews at a nearby table. The widow of Martha’s son John Parke Custis, who passed away during the Revolution, sits with Martha (John’s widow has remarried and was then Mrs. Stuart). Martha’s granddaughter Eleanor leans on her grandmother. Her toy hoop lies on the porch. Martha’s grandson, who is the namesake of his step-grandfather, is playing with a toy cannon. An African American woman sits with him.
Many groups such as fire companies, infantry companies, and private and public schools got involved and made donations. Augusta, Georgia, hosted a festival lasting several days to raise money. The legislature of Missouri authorized a donation of $2,000 to the Association. Private donations came from far and wide—from President James Buchanan to newsboys of New York City, who pooled pennies and donated $4.18.
The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association successfully raised the money, purchased the estate, and took over operations at Mount Vernon in 1860. Right away they opened it to the public for an admission fee. These fees helped the Association continue to raise funds. At first Ann Cunningham herself supervised the restoration work. By 1862 a visitor reported in a Vermont newspaper, “a new and very good wharf has been made, the tomb repaired, the mansion and out-buildings thoroughly put in order. . . . The object has been, not to modernize and embellish Mount Vernon, but to make it look as probably it did in the hands of the thrifty and order-loving old General.”
Soon after meeting the enormous challenge of purchasing the estate, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association faced the challenge of the Civil War. The Association officially declared the grounds to be neutral territory, and both sides respected this declaration. Many soldiers from both sides visited the estate during the war, but they had to come unarmed and not in uniform.
Ann Pamela Cunningham led the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association until 1874, when she resigned due to failing health. She admonished her successors, “Ladies, the Home of Washington is in your charge; see to it that you keep it the Home of Washington. Let no irreverent hand change it; no vandal hands desecrate it with the fingers of progress!” Cunningham died in 1875 at her family’s estate in South Carolina.
The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association is the oldest historic preservation organization in the country. It still owns and maintains the property. The association does not accept Federal, state, or local government grants and have never relied on taxpayer money. Mount Vernon is open 365 days a year and annually welcomes an average of one million visitors.
In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Mount Vernon just underwent a $40 million restoration. What Louisa Cunningham inspired and Ann Pamela Cunningham began continues.
I pray that God preserves the dedicated work that you are doing every day generation after generation.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And confirm for us the work of our hands;
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17