Identifier: picturesquewas00moor (find matches)
Title: Picturesque Washington: pen and pencil sketches of its scenery, history, traditions, public and social life, with graphic descriptions of the Capitol and Congress, the White House, and the government departments ..
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Moore, Joseph West
Subjects: Washington (D.C.)
Publisher: Providence : J.A. & R.A. Reid
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
was prepared;the butlers house, and servants quarters. On the south is a barnwith a long slanting roof, erected by Lawrence Washington in 1733,of English brick. The mansion and out-buildings appear in a good MOUNT VERNON. 283 state of preservation, and, as great care is taken of them, are likelyto stand for many more years. A few yards from the mansion, down the sloping southern bank, isthe old family tomb in which the body of Washington was depositedfor nearly thirty-one years, or until the new tomb was constructed.It is a small sandstone vault about four feet under ground, with a highrounded top covered with sods, and has a narrow wooden door. Herethe bodies of Washington and his wife, and those of other members ofthe family, rested until April 19, 1831, when they were conveyed tothe new tomb. In 1825, when General Lafayette made his last visitto Mount Vernon, he went into this old vault, and lovingly kissed thecoffin of the hero who had been almost as a father to him in his youth.
Text Appearing After Image:
^\\<^\v^N - THE EASTERN PORTICO, MOUNT VERNON. 284 PICTURESQUE WASHINGTON. The present tomb of Washington is situated on the road from theriver-landing, a short distance south of the mansion. In his willWashington stated that the family vault at Mount Vernon requiringrepairs, and being improperl)- situated, I desire that a new one, ofbrick, and upon a larger scale, may be built at the foot of what iscalled the Vinevard Inclosure, on the ground which is marked out,in which mv remains and those of my deceased relatives (now in theold vault), and such others of my family as may choose to be en-tombed there, may be deposited. But his heirs, strangely tardy,allowed more than thirty years to pass awa) before they erected thenew tomb. The tomb consists of a large vault, extending into a bank in athickly wooded dell. It is enclosed by a brick structure with a high,arched entrance, in which is a gate fashioned of iron bars. Withinthe enclosure, and plainly to be seen through the gate, is a

Note About Images