George Mason House: Hidden History

 Just south of Washington DC in Lorton, Virginia sits the George Mason museum and house.  As the video in the beginning explains, George Mason was a central figure in his time and for our history, but because he was such a private man, he became a mystery and was never the well-known figure that some of his contemporaries were.
Who Was George Mason?
George Mason wrote Virginia's bill of rights at the beginning of the American Revolution which was widely distributed, and he was called to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence.  Interestingly, Mason refused to sign because there was no bill of rights yet, and he feared the Federal government would have too much power.  Compelled by Mason's action and argument, the Bill of Rights was written shortly thereafter, and was based on Mason's Virginia bill of rights. 

George Mason was like many of his friends and colleagues of the time -- wealthy with a plantation on the river.  Today we'd like the view of the river, but back then, plantation owners would receive most shipped items and visitors by river.  Mr. Mason's house is no more than 3/4 mile from the river, although today's trees block the river view from his house.
George Mason's House
Upon approaching Mr. Mason's house, having seen Monticello and Mount Vernon, it is easy to be fooled into thinking that Mr. Mason was less well-to-do.  This, however, is not true.  First of all, many of the outer buildings that the estate used to have simply aren't there anymore.  By the time the state owned the grounds, several generations and owners had lived there first.  There was no maintenance of what was there other than the house, and the state hasn't chosen to completely rebuild the entire plantation.  Mr. Mason also chose to spend his money and display it a little differently.

Like few of the other wealthy men of his time, George Mason build his house of brick -- and the exterior walls of the house have two layers of brick -- which was his first indication of his wealth.  It also made it difficult to add onto his house the way that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson did.  While some men of his time used maps to show off wealth on the walls in the front hallway, George Mason used hand-painted wall paper imported from England.  Like many houses of gentlemen of that time, George Mason had a very formally decorated dining room and sitting room for visitors he wanted to impress, but it contrasted deeply with very sparsely painted and decorated private quarters.  Some ways that his style distinguished itself was that he hired a decorator from England, who brought with him the concept of oriental style wall paper and oriental carpets in the formal sitting room.  The dining room wall paper was a fabric, and not painted paper, and is quite lush, even by today's standards.

The upstairs of the house has several bedrooms for his multiple children and visitors, although it is known that Thomas Jefferson sometimes stayed in the Mason's multi-purpose room on the ground level.  Mason's multi-purpose room was where the family ate meals, where Mason worked from, and where Mason might have slept when his wife received visitors after birth.  With much lighter and smaller furniture in those days, it was easy to change a room's purpose in a few minutes -- especially with slaves to help move things.
George Mason had many children, so he had a school room on his grounds.  For the days when the instructor could not get home, the upstairs of the school room has a bed.  On those nights, the instructor would eat with the family.  Mr. Mason also had a brandy-making room, using the fruit he grew there, along with all the usual buildings that plantations used to be self-sufficient, such as a large food storage structure that would be stocked all spring & summer so that it could get them through the winter.
The George Mason house and museum provide the visitor with two kinds of information: political history and social history.  A lot of people don't know or remember George Mason's role in the making of our history and national policy.  Mason's house also, like many houses of the time, reinforces to the visitor how the wealthy spent their money -- and how they didn't.
Admission is $15 for adults.  Seniors and AAA members get a small discount, children are $8.