General Inquires
If your inquiry is time-sensitive, we can be reached by telephone Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Eastern time zone): 703-780-2000.
Email us at questions@mountvernon.org.
Mount Vernon Ladies' Association
Post Office Box 110,
Mount Vernon, VA 22121
George Washington's Mount Vernon
3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway,
Mount Vernon, VA 22121
Fred W. Smith National Library
3600 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway,
Mount Vernon, VA 22121
The First Post Office:
Three weeks after the battles of Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in May 1775 to plan for the defense of the colonies against British aggression and “to take into consideration the state of America. The conveyance of letters and intelligence was essential to the cause of liberty. A committee, chaired by Benjamin Franklin and including Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee, Philip Livingston, Thomas Lynch, and Thomas Willing, was named to consider the creation of a postal system....
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the USA Revolutionary War on April 17, 1775.
On this day in 1789, 69 members of Congress cast their ballots to elect George Washington the first president of the United States.
How did George Washington get elected without an address?
October 19, 2018
By Deirdre Mask
This month, (click here) the Supreme Court released a 6-to-2 decision upholding a law requiring North Dakotans who want to vote to provide a street address. It’s a good thing for the Republicans that so many Native Americans don’t have them.
People often think of their street names and house numbers as banal. But they’re an essential part of proving your identity. Want to register for school? Open a bank account? Build credit and start a business? Show proof of address.
Native Americans, the largest minority group in North Dakota, have some of the highest rates of poverty in the country. They also disproportionately lack street addresses. Many live in rural locations, where streets have never been systematically numbered and named, and where the Postal Service still does not deliver. They rely largely on P.O. boxes — and a P.O. box doesn’t count as a “residential street address” under the North Dakota law.
Even those who do have an address can be disenfranchised by this law. Many Native Americans rent their homes, which means that the address they have on an ID is more likely to be out of date than it is for those who own their homes. They can provide supplementary documents, like utility bills, to prove residency, except that as Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out in her dissent, an estimated 18,000 North Dakotans don’t have those, either....
