F.W. Thorlton Photo-Graphic
Gunston Hall, Virginia

George Mason (1725- 1792) was a statesman and political thinker who played an important behind the scenes role in the founding of our country. Unlike his friends Washington and Jefferson, he rarely left his plantation on the Potomac for the activity of Williamsburg or Philadelphia, but instead, he wielded his pen in a lifelong fight for individual rights. Mason's most important contribution to democracy was the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776). Other documents he helped draft were the Non-Importation Resolutions (1769), the Fairfax Resolves (1774), and the Virginia State Constitution (1776). The ideas in these documents came from English philosophers such as John Locke and Edward Coke, and in turn his writings influenced the Declaration of Independence, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, the constitutions of many nations, and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Mason's statement, "That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights ... namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety," sounds familiar to us because of its influence on the Declaration of Independence, but it was revolutionary if not inflammatory at that time. After the war the loose confederation of states was barely working and Mason was pursuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to help draft a stronger constitution for the new nation. He labored hard against slavery and for protection of individual rights; when these ideas were not included, he refused to sign. The adoption, in 1791, of the first ten amendments, which added a Bill of Rights to the Constitution, vindicated his position. Gunston Hall, like its owner, George Mason, exemplifies a great period in the history of Virginia and of the nation. In the important company of Mt. Vernon, Monticello, and Stratford Hall stands Mason's house, famous for both architectural beauty and historical associations. George Mason, the fourth of that name in the colonies, was ten years old when his father died. He was brought up by his mother with the help of his uncle, John Mercer, a lawyer. Mason inherited lands along the Potomac, and after his marriage in 1750 to Ann Eilbeck of Maryland (1734? 1773), he started construction of Gunston Hall in 1755. He brought over from England an indentured worker, William Buckland, a young carpenter and joiner, who designed the splendid interiors and unique porches. Gunston Hall is a one-and-one half story brick house with quoins of local Aquiastone. The basic plan, a center hall design, was Mason's; embellishments are owed to Buckland. The house has the straightforward strength and balance of the Georgian style, with sophisticated rococo ornamentation influenced by Oriental and Gothic styles. The northwest room was one of the first in America "in the Chinesetaste," a fashion imported by Buckland. The southwest room with woodwork carved in designs inspired by Palladio's drawings has been called the most beautiful room in America. Recent architectural research has uncovered evidence that there was originally far more carved wood decoration in the house than now exists. Gunston Hall shows the elegance and beauty attained by a colonial planter on what had been frontier a generation before. The furnishings in the house include both English and American pieces made before 1792. They are predominantly American and include several Mason family heirlooms. Reconstruction of outbuildings has been based on information found through archaeological and documentary research. To the east lies the kitchen yard with the original well and various domestic structures that were part of a busy plantation; the schoolhouse to the west, is where the Masons' nine children were taught. Today Gunston Hall is surrounded by 550 acres of the original 5000 acre plantation. Formal gardens, restored by the Garden Club of Virginia, contain only plants found in colonial days. The twelve?foot high English boxwood forming an all6e in the center of the garden was planted by George Mason. Summerhouses frame a view of the Potomac River beyond the Deer Park. At the end of a lane of cedar trees is the family graveyard where George and Ann Mason lie buried. Nearby is the entrance to the Nature Trail which winds to the river and back. In Mason's time most of the land was planted in tobacco and wheat which was sent to market by river from his ownwharf, the plantation's most important link with the world beyond. After Mason's death Gunston Hall descended in the family through several generations until 1866 when it was sold. Threatened with obscurity, it was bought by Louis Hertle in 1912. He and his wife began restoring it to its former beauty, and subsequently deeded the house and land to the Commonwealth of Virginia to be administered by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Since 1950 it has been open to the public. Gunston Hall is a Registered Historic Landmark.