Mt vernon

Restoring the Mount Vernon Servants’ Hall

Fig. 1. Restored Servants’ Hall. MVLA Restoration Department Archives.

Over an 18-month period during 1997 and 1998, staff of the Mount Vernon Restoration Department led a team of talented preservation professionals in restoring the Mount Vernon Servants’ Hall. The Hall is one of a pair of outbuildings flanking the west façade of the Mansion, andwas erected in 177576 as part of a major campaign of expansion initiated by George Washington just before he was called away to lead the Continental Army in the American Revolution. Of the 12 original buildings at Mount Vernon that survive from Washington’s period of ownership, the Servants’ Hall was one of two that had not been restored to interpret its 18th-century function (the other is theGardener’s House, which until recently was used as the security control room and is currently undergoing restoration). Extensive documentary evidence was found

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pertaining to the construction of the building in 1775, to its many different uses over the last two centuries, and to the numerous modifications to the structure that occurred as a result. Physical investigations began in January 1997,with restoration initiated in November of that year. Work was completed and the building reopened to visitors in August 1998. The structure’s east room serves as the site to provide the introduction to the Mansion tour, while the west room is interpreted as temporary living quarters for visiting servants (enslaved and free), and the rooms on the second floor are available as a study galleryrelating to 18th-century building methods. The prominent placement of the Servants’ Hall and the Kitchen as flankers to the Mansion, the use of rusticated siding on the facades facing the entrance circle, and their physical connection to the Mansion by the open-sided colonnades, marks these structures as second in importance only to George Washington’s home in the scheme of the plantation layout. TheServants’ Hall is remarkable for its unusual function as well. Once the final design was agreed upon, it was always referred to
Fig. 2. Vaughan Plan. MVLA Archives.

in George Washington’s writings and in other

plantation records as the “Servants Hall.” With the exception of a three-year period when William Pearce, one of the Mount Vernon plantation managers, took up residence there, it seemsto have been reserved for the use of the servants of

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visitors. The building is labeled as the “White Servants appartment” on a plan of the estate prepared by Samuel Vaughan in 1787, which suggests white servants as well as enslaved Africans periodically stayed in the building, although presumably not at the same time (fig. 2). In a letter written to Pearce in 1793, George Washington madeit quite clear what the building’s function was. Although he gave Pearce permission to move in to the structure, Washington attempted to leave no question that this was a temporary arrangement, and that the Hall was to be returned as quickly as possible to its use as temporary servants’ housing: “The right wing of my dwelling house as you possibly may have noticed, and hear called the Hall,(being kept altogether for the use of Strangers) has two good rooms below (with tiled floors) and as many above, all with fireplaces. This will accommodate your family (being a larger house) better than Crow’s; and by being here, you will have the use of my Kitchen, the Cook belonging thereto, Frank the House Servant, a boy also in the House” (Writings 33:110-111). In another letter to Pearce the nextyear Washington elaborated on the function, specifying that it was intended to be used “for Gentlemens servants” (Writings 34:40). That such a large and prominent structure could be reserved only for the occasional use of the servants of visitors is remarkable. First, it must be remembered that at 20x40-ft. in dimension and with two usable floors, the Servants’ Hall was larger than the great...