06/17/2026
It was common practice for expositions in the United States to have dedicated State buildings, where states could come show off important pieces of their history. During the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair, Virginia chose to create a full scale replica of George Washington's Mount Vernon. It cost a total of $18,000 to build (a whopping $653,570 in 2026), and was advertised as follows:
"The building of Virginia completes this circuit of State clubhouses. It is the exact representation of Mt. Vernon, the building in which George Washington lived and died. It was a present from his brother, Lawrence Washington, and was built in the early part of the last century by his father. The main building is 94 by 32 feet, with two stories and an attic, and a two-story portico with large columns extending along the whole front. Altogether there are twenty-five rooms in the structure. They include the banquet hall, the library, Washington’s chamber in which he died, and Mrs. Washington’s chamber in the attic. She removed to this room after the death of her illustrious husband, because it was the only one in the house which "looked out over his grave. Nothing modern is seen in the building except the people, and the library of books, by Virginia authors. The furniture is all antique. There are many heirlooms of old Virginia families, a rare collection of relics of colonial times and the Revolutionary war, and other antiquities, among- which is the original will of George Washington. No visitor fails to thoroughly investigate this structure and all that it contains."
This building would be the first of six Mount Vernons re-created for various world’s fairs between 1893 and 1934; after Chicago, later iterations were sited in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Paris, Brooklyn, and finally again in Chicago. Each was eventually demolished, with one exception: The Paris replica was relocated to Vaucresson, France, where it remains as a private residence.
