FIT FOR A FOUNDING FATHER MOUNT VERNON THE GOLD STANDARD OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

MOUNT VERNON, Va. - Poor George.

He was so comfortable at his estate on the Potomac River in northern Virginia - perfectly content to walk the grounds, oversee details of crop rotation, update his ledgers, entertain overnight guests.

It's just that the press of responsibility kept dragging George Washington away from his beloved Mount Vernon. You know, the standard stuff: command a rebel army in a successful revolution, serve as chief executive in a start-from-scratch government.

After inheriting the plantation at the death of his brother's widow in 1761, Washington was able to spend only 22 of his final 38 years as a permanent resident here.

On a visit to Mount Vernon today, it's not difficult to understand why Washington was always longing to get back here, whether he was off tormenting redcoats in New Jersey or directing the fledgling government in New York. It had everything a gentleman farmer in the late 18th century might desire.

There is a stately three-story house. Twice expanded according to Washington's wishes, it sits on a hillside with a commanding view of the Potomac. Surrounding it are gardens, orchards, animal pens and expanses of crop land. And, since a plantation of that era had to be almost entirely self-sufficient, there is an entire village of outbuildings: slave quarters, kitchen, smokehouse, wash house, carriage house, ice house.

The estate, which lies 16 miles south of the national capital that bears Washington's name, is meticulously restored and maintained. In fact, Mount Vernon is a long-standing model of proper stewardship of a historic site.

Following Washington's death in 1799 and that of his widow Martha three years later, the plantation fell to a succession of heirs - and also into horrible dilapidation. In the mid-1880s, a determined group of civic-minded women formed the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and set about raising money to purchase the house and a remnant of the property from Washington's great-grandnephew.

Since then, Mount Vernon has been carefully groomed to appear as it might have in Washington's final years, after his retirement from a two-term presidency. One aspect of its operation would surely cause him to smile approvingly: The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association has been able to conduct its business on an entirely private basis, requiring not a single cent of tax money for upkeep.

Even the view has been zealously preserved. Some 50 years ago, there was a plan afoot to construct a sewage treatment plant and oil storage tanks on the opposite bank of the Potomac, in Maryland. The Mount Vernon ladies and a band of environmentalists rallied to action and got much of the land designated as park land.

The house itself is outfitted with numerous original furniture pieces and furnishings, as well as antiques of the era. In some cases, reproductions have been created from original fragments - the bed and window curtains in the master bedroom, for example.

For some visitors, the faithfulness of the restoration might be startling, since it exhibits the design sensibilities of more than 200 years ago. A small dining room on the first floor, for example, is painted in a ghastly shade of high-gloss green. It almost hurts the eyes. But in his writings, Washington described the color as ``grateful to the eye'' and pleasantly impervious to fading.

You also quickly learn that the nation's first president was far from extravagant. In the construction of the exterior facades, plain pine boards were beveled and painted in such a way as to resemble quarried stone. Inside, the same type of lumber was carefully painted to look like expensive mahogany.

Tours of the house are conducted continuously, and though they are certainly interesting, the popularity of Mount Vernon and the confining spaces of an 18th-century dwelling combine to make the experience a cramped one. Guides are positioned throughout the house, specializing in a particular room or area, and tourists herded into groups of about 30 must jam into a hallway or room to hear each successive spiel.

The guides are almost reverential in their remarks about Washington's life here, referring to him as ``the general,'' as if they were household servants. But the information is accurate and blunt, and sometimes infused with a sense of humor.

In Washington's book-lined study, which includes a pair of his size-14 boots, a guide noted that the furniture came from Washington's presidential office. ``Back then, the president had to buy the furniture for his office,'' he said. ``It was his furniture. He could take it home. (Pause for dramatic effect.) We have some presidents who got that confused, but not George Washington.''

Upstairs, another guide noted that in the days of arduous travel, before the proliferation of hotels, the Washingtons once had 677 overnight guests in a single year. In an era of no indoor plumbing. ``There were chamber pots under the beds, some chamber chairs. People took sponge baths and needed water for shaving basins. Three maids handled everything. These were thankless tasks.''

Also, just outside the bedroom that George and Martha shared, there is a primer on the primitive nature of 18th-century medicine. In 1799, at the age of 67, Washington developed soreness in his throat, which quickly grew so constricted that he had difficulty breathing. He opted for the standard remedy of the day: the drawing of blood. In fact, he was bled four times in a single day.

Draw your own conclusions as to what killed him, but Washington died that night in the bed that stands in the room today.

After the claustrophobic feeling of the upper rooms, it's a relief to get out of the house and stroll the estate's expansive grounds (50 acres of which are open to the public). There are no fussy restrictions, either. Visitors can wander across the vast lawn that slopes from the house down to the shore of the river. They can clamber over walls, walk a path through a forest and peer into buildings where fish was salted for storage, harnesses were repaired, linens were washed with harsh lye soap and wool was spun into thread.

The simple, side-by-side tombs of George and Martha Washington are requisite stops for visitors. It's probably appropriate that the Slave Memorial is just a few steps away, since Washington's will stipulated that his slaves be freed on the death of his wife.

You probably won't hear it from a Mount Vernon guide, but although Washington came to oppose slavery late in his life, biographer Robert F. Jones writes that he ``does not seem to have been an especially kindly master, permitting his slaves to live in ramshackle quarters and speaking brusquely to them. He constantly suspected them of malingering.'' Neither did he do anything to promote their education, Jones adds.

Washington's approach to his plantation operation was just as pragmatic, and his efforts are examined in detail at an area of the estate called the Pioneer Farmer Site. Daily demonstrations or talks are conducted here from April through October.

You'll learn that Washington was ardent in his attempts to maximize the yield of the poor soil through crop rotation and fertilization. He personally designed a 16-sided treading house so that mules or horses could walk in a circle on harvested wheat and knock the grains through the slatted floor and into a lower room for collection. (A replica stands on the property today.)

All of these enterprises could only be attended to when Washington was home, though, and the war tore him away for eight years, the presidency another eight.

In his stead, you can play the role of homebody for a moment. Just step out onto the mansion's piazza, a long porch with stately pillars that stretches along the back of the house. A row of Windsor chairs is particularly popular with the visitors.

One year after he relocated to New York for his presidency and nine years before he died, Washington wrote to a Virginia colleague, ``I can truly say I had rather be at home at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me than to be attended at the seat of government by the officers of State and the representatives of every power in Europe.''

Linger in one of those chairs, gaze across the Potomac to a Maryland shore thick with forest, and you'll probably appreciate the sentiment.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: Mount Vernon is 16 miles directly south of Washington, D.C., on the George Washington Parkway. If you're looking for a mode of travel a little more interesting than driving, consider a Spirit Cruises boat ride down the Potomac from Alexandria, Va. They're offered Tuesday through Sunday from mid-March to early October. Details: [phone]; www.spiritcruises.com.

HOURS, COSTS: Mount Vernon is open every day of the year. Hours vary with the season. Currently it is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $11 for adults, $10.50 for seniors age 62 and up, $5 for children age 6 to 11.

INFORMATION: [phone]; www.mountvernon.org.

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(1 -- 2 -- color) George Washington's former home at Mount Vernon, top, stands on a grassy hill above the Potomac River in Virginia. Visitors may freely roam the grounds or peer into rooms, above, that are restored to look as they did when Washington lived here.

(3) A number of Windsor chairs, on which visitors can gaze over the Potomac River, are available on the piazza at the Washington mansion

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

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IF YOU GO (see text)