Today is designated federally as “Washington’s Birthday,” but known in various states as “Presidents’ (or President’s, or Presidents) Day,” among other names, according to Wikipedia. In Maine, the day reportedly has been declared “Washington’s Birthday/President’s Day”; in our first President’s home state, Virginia, it’s reportedly “George Washington Day.”
I’m not ready to celebrate the birth of all of our Presidents, some of whom I’d like to forget. But I do feel that our first President set a high standard for integrity and national leadership that never was achieved subsequently. His significant heritage bears the ugly scar of slave ownership, of course. He is not to be remembered as perfect, but he was magnificent at times and in many ways.
One of George Washington’s underappreciated accomplishments was his creation and management of Mount Vernon, his estate and farmland in Virginia. He inherited the land and a small house there and spent 45 years improving them. He supervised the design and construction of numerous expansions of the house into what became known as the estate’s “Mansion.”
I find the most interesting aspect of that Mansion to be its “Piazza,” the ancient name for a veranda when used to describe a structure. (You see here some of my old images of it.) It’s the full length and height of the back of the two-story Mansion.
Washington added the Piazza to capture the view and shaded breezes of the nearby Potomac River. Tea would be served to visitors who liked to sit in Windsor chairs there and talk while viewing the river roll in the vale below and the tamed animals stroll in Washington’s adjoining 18-acre deer park.
