Gunston Hall, the plantation home of George Mason, exemplifies a great period in the history of Virginia and the nation. Famous for architectural beauty as well as historical associations; it remains virtually unchanged from the days of Washington and Jefferson. George Mason (1725-1792) was a statesman and political thinker who played an important but behind-the-scenes role in the founding of our nation. Rarely leaving his acres on the Potomac, Mason wielded his pen in his lifelong fight for individual rights. Gunston Hall is a story-and-a-half Georgian house made from brick and local Aquia stone. The two outstanding rooms in the house are the dining room, done in the "Chinese style", and the Palladian room. Over 5,000 acres were devoted to growing wheat, tobacco, and grazing sheep. The plantation’s formal gardens have been carefully restored by the Garden Club of Virginia with documented plants of colonial days. The original English boxwood allee is now some twelve feet high. From the end of the garden, there's an unspoiled view over the deer park to the Potomac, where sailing ships once docked to load Mason's crops for shipment to Europe.
In 1776, George Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted on June 12th of that year by the Virginia Convention. It later became the model for the Federal Bill of Rights and influenced the French revolutionaries. The "fundamental principles" of George Mason, as written into our law, are the individual citizen's shield against aggressive power and are now incorporated into the constitutions of many nations. Around the world, recognition of these principles is growing steadily. This recognition is indeed a tribute to the far-sighted and documented wisdom of the Sage of Gunston Hall, George Mason.