I don't know but they have spent their money well.
Frederick Seward writes in Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman that it used to be the custom that "when a navel vessel or passenger streamer came abreast of Mount Vernon, the flag was lowered in salute, the engine stopped, and the bell tolled as the streamer drifted slowly past the home and grave of George Washington."
"While the Civil War was raging, the banks of the Potomac were the scenes of many bloody conflicts. Armed vessels patrolled the river. Fortifications were erected along its heights. Armies encamped along its shores. The sound of cannon or musketry daily echoed over its waters. Homes and fields were abandoned by their owners for none felt safe against the raids of the scouting or foraging parties of the Union or Confederate troops.
"But there one one exception. Both sides respected Mount Vernon. Neither army sought to occupy or fortify it. No foraging or plundering took place within its precincts. The old furniture stood peacefully in the old rooms. The old trees stood unharmed in the old groves. It was the one bit of neutral ground in that long and bloody war."
That is a very interesting history tidbit about Mount Vernon Linda! Never knew that.
