M.A. Kleen

Gunston Hall, located in Lorton, Virginia on the Potomac River, is the historic Georgian-style plantation home of Founding Father George Mason IV. Designed by Mason himself and constructed between approximately 1755 and 1759 using slave labor, the residence’s ornate interior woodwork and elegant architectural features were crafted by English indentured artisans William Buckland and William Bernard Sears.

The mansion served as the Mason family seat on a roughly 5,500‑acre plantation and became a symbol of refined colonial taste, showcasing rococo, chinoiserie, Gothic, and Palladian influences. After George Mason’s death in 1792, the property changed hands several times until author and philanthropist Louis Hertle purchased and began restoring it in 1912, eventually gifting Gunston Hall to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1932.

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, today it operates as a museum and educational site run by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, offering insights into 18th‑century architecture, Mason’s role in crafting the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and the lives of those—indentured, enslaved, and free—who shaped its history.