Which site was the heritage designation of Gunston Hall from Oct 1966 to Sep 1970?
Gunston Hall Gunston Hall is an 18th-century Georgian mansion near the Potomac River in Mason Neck , Virginia , United States . Built between 1755 and 1759 as the main residence and headquarters of a 5,500-acre ( 22 km² ) plantation , the house was the home of the United States Founding Father George Mason . The home is located not far from George Washingtons home . The interior of the house and its design was mostly the work of William Buckland , a carpenter/joiner and indentured servant from England . Buckland later went on to design several notable buildings in Virginia and Maryland . Both he and William Bernard Sears , another indentured servant , are believed to have created the ornate woodwork and interior carving . Gunstons interior design combines elements of rococo , chinoiserie , and Gothic styles , an unusual contrast to the tendency for simple decoration in Virginia at this time . Although chinoiserie was popular in Britain , Gunston Hall is the only house known to have had this decoration in colonial America . In 1792 , Thomas Jefferson went to Gunston Hall to attend George Masons death bed ; after his death later that year , the house remained in use as a private residence for many years . In 1868 , it was purchased by noted abolitionist and civil war Colonel Edward Daniels . It is now a museum owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and open to the public . The home and grounds were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 for their association with Mason . History . Naming . The Masons came from Gunstone in South Staffordshire and like many others in that area supported the Crown during the 1642-1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms . After Royalist defeat at Worcester in 1651 , Philip Mason I emigrated to Virginia , along with his cousin Gerard Fowke , whose family home was Gunstone Hall and which gave its name to George Masons building . One of his distant relatives was Lieutenant General Thomas Fowke ( 1690-1765 ) , who fought at the Battle of Prestonpans during the 1745 Jacobite Rising . Construction . William Buckland signed an indenture with Thomson Mason , George Masons brother , on 4 August 1755 , four months after he finished as an apprentice from April 1748 to April 1755 . In exchange for free passage to Virginia , room and board , and a yearly salary of twenty pounds sterling , Buckland agreed to act as a carpenter and joiner for the Masons for four years . In November , when Buckland arrived , the exterior walls of Gunston Hall were probably complete . Buckland probably did design the portico overlooking the garden , in addition to much of the interior . The various carvings in the mansion were probably the combined work of William Buckland and William Bernard Sears . Buckland most likely provided designs for the carvings , but Sears most likely carved the wood . Buckland and Sears probably worked on much of the original furniture together . At the time , it was not uncommon for English architects to design furniture as well as buildings . Later history . The mansion stayed in the Mason family until 1867 . From 1868 to 1891 , it was owned by Edward Daniels , a Virginia newspaper publisher and Reconstruction Era politician , who was a former Union cavalry officer and ardent abolitionist . In 1912 , it was bought by retired Marshall Field & Company executive , Louis Hertle , whose second wife , Eleanor Daughaday , was a member of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America . They set about restoring the mansion to its original plan and hosted many prominent guests . In 1949 , Hertle in his will gave the property to the Commonwealth of Virginia as a museum to be run by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America . Architecture . First floor . The front of the house faces northwest . The first floor of the house is divided in two by a central passage , leading from a door in the northwest to a door in the southeast , with a staircase running up on the northeast side . On the northeast side of the central passage is the primary chamber ( or bedroom ) in the front , and the little parlor in the back . Between the primary chamber and the little parlor is a smaller passage , leading to a service staircase and a small , side stairway . The Gunston Hall Plantation official website says that on the southwest side of the house is a parlor in the front and a dining room in the back . However , the Historic American Buildings Survey says that on the southwest side of the house the dining room is in the front and a palladian room is in the back . The central passage is lined by six symmetrical Doric-style pilasters . A double arch , with a carved pine cone , divides the front of the passage from the back . In the front , there are four doors placed opposite one another , although one is a fake door for symmetry . The front of the hall is covered in wallpaper , while the back has raised painted paneling . The primary chamber was a private room and was less ornate than the public rooms . Toward the end of Masons life , it was painted in emerald green , which was considered a desirable color . The windows had pocket shutters , and are believed to be the only windows in the house to have curtains during Masons lifetime . The little parlor was private and decorated plainly . The walls were painted a neutral grey . Above the fireplace was a split pediment overmantel ( a rectangle , and a partial triangle above that ) . During Masons lifetime , the rectangle contained either a painting or a mirror . On either side of the fireplace are deep-shelved beaufats ( niches ) to store and display the tableware , with doors to secure valuable possessions . The western room ( called the parlor or the dining room ) was a public , ornately decorated room . The walls are painted a yellow ocher , and the woodwork is Chinese-style . The wall of the fireplace has a mantel decorated with fretwork , pagoda-like scalloped moldings , as well as canopies topped by pine cone finials . Above the doors are similar canopies , which might have displayed Chinese porcelain vases or ceramic figures . The two long windows are topped by scalloped pediments , decorated with fretwork . During Masons lifetime , three of the walls were probably wallpapered . During the 18th century , chinoese ( Chinese-style ) design was popular in Great Britain , however the Gunston Hall museum does not know of any other rooms in colonial America with this type of coordinated chinoiserie woodwork . The southern room ( called the dining room or the palladian room ) , was public , and was the most elaborately decorated in the house . The classical woodwork shows touches of the fashionable rococo design . The fireplace wall has an ornate chimney breast . On either side of the fireplace are beaufats , these ones with shallower shelves than in the little parlour , and no doors . Classical broken pediments top the chimney breast and the beaufats . The floor was made of carefully matched blind-doweled planks , an expensive feature . Egg-and-dart carved patterns surround the black-walnut entry doors . During Masons lifetime , painted or decorated paper covered the thin pine paneling on the walls . The two windows look out onto Masons garden . Second floor . Unlike other 18th-century houses of Gunston Halls stature , the layout of the second floor is entirely dissimilar to the floor below . A narrow passage runs sideways through the upper level , leading to seven bedchambers and a storage room . At the top of the main stairway is a tri-part arch with fluted pillars , separating the passageway from a small gallery overlooking the staircase . The smaller service staircase comes up opposite the storage room . Of the bedchambers , only the four corner rooms have fireplaces . Their fireplaces and surrounds did have some architectural detail . The corner rooms had two or three windows each , while the inner chambers only had one window each . The walls of the corner bedchambers were painted with more expensive shades , such as Prussian blue or verdigris . The attic was accessible through one of the inner bedrooms . The storage closet , or lumber room , had no exterior window , but instead received light from a window to the stairwell , as there was an exterior window above the staircase landing . Basement . Gunston Hall has a basement , which has a main passage and four rooms like the floor above it . Three staircases lead down to the basement . The basement contains four brick arched chimney supports , and nine small windows . In 1975 , a cast iron stove was excavated from the basement . The style of the stove suggests it is from the 18th or early 19th century . Around 1986 , a shallow subsurface perimeter drainage system was built about four feet ( 1.2 m ) away from the foundation walls , due to an excess ground moisture . This significantly reduced standing water in the basement . Porches . The front porch of Gunston Hall is William Bucklands most individualistic design , according to Great Georgian Houses of America , as copied by the Historic American Buildings Survey . The classical lines of the porch exactly follow those of a Roman medal of the Temple of Tyche in Eumeneia , Asia Minor , only engraved once . It is possible Buckland saw the medal or heard it discussed while apprenticing with his uncle , a bookshop owner . The porch is also quite similar to the porch of Honington Hall , near Oxford . It is possible the Honington Hall porch inspired Buckland . Garden and outbuildings . The garden was located behind the house , or on the southern side . The garden was grown above a man-made level platform where there used to be a hill , and was exactly one acre ( about 4000 sq m ) in area . A gravel path runs from the back of the house to the southern edge , and was twelve feet ( 3.7 m ) wide during Masons time period , the same width as the central passage in the house and the portico . Today , the path is narrower , crowded by boxwoods that are now about 250 years old . The path ends in an overlook extending out from the steep edge of the garden . From here , the Potomac river can be seen . The Gunston Hall museum website says that the view was more impressive during Masons time , when the trees were cleared . The garden was most likely broken into four rectangles , with additional gravel paths running through and around it . To give the illusion from the house of all rectangles being the same size , the rectangles closer to the house were probably shorter than the rectangles farther away . The outbuildings at Gunston Hall are reconstructed . They include a kitchen , dairy , smokehouse , and laundry . They are believed to represent typical support buildings of an 18th-century plantation household . George Mason owned about 90 slaves , but the places they lived have not been located . Visitors center and museum shop . At the visitors center , there is an 11-minute film entitled George Mason and the Bill of Rights . The exhibit covers Masons political career , personal life , and 18th century plantation culture . Gunston Hall is open from 9:30 a.m . to 5 p.m . EST , except for the holidays Thanksgiving , Christmas , and New Years Day . A 45-minute tour is offered every half hour , with the last tour starting at 4:30 p.m . The museum shop sells souvenirs such as books , gift items , soap , food , and toys . The museum shops stated purpose is to educate todays citizens about 18th century life in Virginia . Other Mason plantations . George Masons other plantations included Hollin Hall , Woodbridge , Lexington , and Masons Island . His son , John Mason , lived in Clermont for part of his life . The Gunston Hall plantation was essentially a small village in which more than a hundred people lived . George Mason gave Hollin Hall to his third son , Thomson Mason , through deeds of gift in 1781 and 1786 . The land , as given , totaled 676 acres ( 2.7 km² ) . Hollin Hall is about three miles ( 4.8 km ) southwest of Alexandria . Late in the 18th century , it was near George Washingtons Mount Vernon . Thomson Mason was the first member of the Mason family to live here . Before , the land was rented out to tenants . Woodbridge Plantation used to be on the Occoquan River across from Colchester . There was a ferry there . George Mason willed the land to Thomas Mason , his youngest son , in 1792 . Lexington Plantation was originally part of the Gunston Hall Plantation land . Lexington was given to George Masons first son , George Mason V . The mansion of Lexington Plantation was probably not built until after George Mason V returned from a trip to Europe in 1783 . George Mason III bought Barbadoes Island from Francis Hammersly in 1717 , and the island came to be known as Masons Island . George Mason gave the island to his fourth son John Mason in 1792 . Since John Mason always referred to the island as Analostan Island it came to be known by that name . During the 1790s , John ordered a summer home built there . After financial troubles , the bank foreclosed the island and Johns Georgetown property in 1833 . John Mason then moved to Clermont , a 320-acre ( 1.3 km² ) property he had recently acquired , where he spent the rest of his life . Commemorative and namesake . Gunston Hall , home of George Mason , was commemorated on a 3-cent stamp for the 200th anniversary on June 12 , 1958 . The view shows the riverfront side of the classic mid-Georgian brick home . George Mason was author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights , which served as the basis of the first ten amendments to the Federal Constitution . Gunston Hall was the namesake of the USS Gunston Hall ( LSD-5 ) launched in 1943 , and the USS Gunston Hall ( LSD-44 ) launched in 1987 . Gunston Hall is also the namesake for Gunston Elementary School , in Lorton , Virginia , Gunston Middle School in Arlington , Virginia , as well as Gunston , a former athletic mascot for George Mason University .