In the fall of 1853, Louisa Bird Cunningham had situated her invalid daughter in Philadelphia and was heading to her home in South Carolina for the winter. As the boat she was on passed by Mount Vernon in the moonlight, Mrs. Cunningham stood on the deck and became upset as she saw the toll the years had taken on George Washington’s home. In a letter to her daughter she wrote, “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!”
Her words had an almost immediate effect on her 37-year-old daughter, Ann Pamela Cunningham, who was inspired to write a letter addressed to the “Ladies of the South” that was published in the Charleston Mercury. From that moment, Miss Cunningham made acquiring and preserving Mount Vernon her life’s work.
At the time, Mount Vernon had passed into the hands of John Augustine Washington III, George Washington’s great-grandnephew. He was unable to keep up with the expense required to run the estate, and the property had fallen into disrepair. Ship masts propped up the two-story piazza, and weeds overran the grounds. Washington had offered to sell Mount Vernon to the federal government and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Both refused, seeing no use for owning an old home. Then Ann Pamela Cunningham stepped in.
Miss Cunningham started an organization to raise funds for the purchase of Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association – the first national women’s organization – would spread across the entire country, with each state given one representative on the board, in order to involve every citizen in the extraordinary effort.
The Association enlisted the help of famous as well as common folk. The cause became so popular that even children took up the challenge of raising money for Mount Vernon, including young boys selling newspapers on the streets of New York, who gave $4.18 and described the amount as “a mite from their hard earnings cheerfully given.”
The unprecedented grassroots fundraising campaign was successful, and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association signed a sales agreement with Washington on April 6, 1858 to purchase the home for $200,000. Although the final interest payment would not be made until May of 1866, the Association was able to take possession of the estate in 1860, when it began the work of stabilizing and then restoring the mansion and grounds.
As the first national preservation organization, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association saved an icon of American history and set the standard for historic preservation. The Association continues to own and operate Mount Vernon, and in 2010 will celebrate 150 years of preserving the estate for generations of visitors.