After two years of renovations, the first and second floors of George and Martha Washington’s mansion at Mount Vernon have reopened to visitors.
The $40 million preservation project at the first president’s home included designing and installing a new HVAC system, major infrastructure repairs, and improving drainage in and around the mansion’s cellar, and Washington’s newly restored bedroom.
While the work won’t be fully completed until October 2026, visitors will finally get a chance to see rooms in the mansion that have been closed off on a rotating schedule.
“We have moved steadily to restore the mansion to its glory, restored the exterior, fixed all the windows, repaired the piazza,” Doug Bradburn, president of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, said at the mansion’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.
“We restored the 18th century carpentry and masonry to its original structural integrity, designed the state-of-the-art air and moisture management system to ensure the long-term health improvements of the restoration, and brought the best research techniques in architectural history, preservation, archeology, history, curatorial techniques to restore the interior of the mansion to the most accurate depiction of the world the Washingtons knew,” Bradburn continued.
Different portions of the founding father’s mansion have been undergoing restoration and maintenance work since 2019, when exterior touch-ups began on the building’s west side.
Launched in 2023, the current preservation project focuses on the mansion’s interior and reinforcing the original structure. In addition to installing a new HVAC system, crews are restoring the cellar to its appearance at the time of Washington’s death in 1799. The cellar will remains out-of-bounds to visitors through fall 2026.
Tom Whitmore, vice president of historic preservation at the Christman Co., said that more than 400 subcontractors working with his firm worked on the project. Whitmore said that his company’s work, including the replacement of much of the timber framing below the mansion, will wrap by July 4, 2026.
“There was intensive termite damage, and like you see in old crawl spaces and basements, things have been added over time to support things that really weren’t structurally sound anymore,” Whitmore said. “All of that, like 200 years of structural intervention, was all taken out and put back so that it can not only be structurally sound, but so that the cellar can be interpreted, because nobody really goes into the cellar since it was full of ductwork.”
The white oak used for the timber framing was sourced from the grounds at Mount Vernon.
Washington’s bedchamber was restored with a new bed, wall plaster, and 1790s reproduction wallpaper from New York-based Adelphi Paper Hangings.
During the restoration, archaeologists also found 35 18th century glass bottles in five storage pits, with nine of the bottles containing perfectly preserved cherries, gooseberries and currants. The team also found an 18th-century fork hidden behind a wall in Martha Washington’s closet.
Amy McCauley, the restoration manager at the estate, said that there will be a gala in October 2026 for the grand opening of the cellar.
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