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MOUNT VERNON, Va. - New facilities, a craft fair and fall foliage all make this a good time of year to pay a visit to George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. The craft fair, which features a recreation of an 18th-century marketplace with costumed re-enactors, will be held at Mount Vernon on Sept. 16-17. Activities include craft demonstrations, family entertainment and sightseeing cruises on the Potomac River. Two new visitor facilities, the Ford Orientation Center and the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, open Oct. 27. The Ford center offers an action-adventure movie on Washington's life, and "Mount Vernon in...

In a ceremony steeped in Masonic tradition, Mount Vernon officials and local Masons laid the cornerstone for a museum yesterday morning at George Washington's historic estate. The Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center will house theaters, exhibits and life-size models of George Washington at three pivotal periods in his life: ages 19, 45 and 57.

Produced by Greystone Films, an 18-minute feature, is being shot and produced at Mount Vernon. Waiting in the wings for the command of 'action,' crew members aim fans at the actors in order to introduce fake snow onto the set to replicate the weather when the troops crossed the Delaware River. In the role of Continental Army soldiers about to cross the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War, actors wait on the set between takes as grips and crew members adjust lighting. The film will be shown to visitors in the new Ford Orientation Center. In the role of George...

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2006 – Not far from the city that bears his name, George Washington reposes in his crypt at Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate he retired to after serving as America's first president and commander in chief of the armed forces. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and the first president of the United States, originated the Purple Heart Medal. After the American colonists had won their freedom from England, the medal was discontinued until it was revived in 1932. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Yesterday,...

  "I pledge allegience to my black people"   One of the nation's fastest-rising poetry prodigies is a 7-year-old New York girl whose poisonous demagogic advocacy of black separatism makes Al Sharpton look like Mister Rogers. Autum Ashante' of Mount Vernon, N.Y., has performed at HBO's Def Poetry Jam, The Cotton Club in L.A., The Apollo Theater in Harlem, the African Street Festival, Caroline's on Broadway, the Russell Simmons Phat Farm Fashion Show, Steve Harvey's "Big Time," a prestigious Grammy Foundation event, and at universities and other venues across the country. She recites her verses not only in English,...

News 02/17/2006 00:13:06 EST Wax Figures Show 'Real' George Washington By RICHARD PYLE Associated Press Writer NEW YORK - In a former box factory on an old Brooklyn street named for him, half a mile from where his defeated army escaped by night to fight another day, George Washington has all but come back to life. Not just one George Washington, but three - the 19-year-old wilderness surveyor, the 45-year-old Revolutionary War general and the 57-year-old president on his inauguration day in 1789. The trio of life-size wax figures, created by British-born artists Stuart Williamson and Sue Day, is destined...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

George Washington, say who? Feb. 25, 2005 Kathleen Parker George Washington, say who? http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Mount Vernon, Va. — President's Day came and went as it usually does — without much notice and little attention to the man whose birthday makes February's three-day weekend possible. For those stumped by the riddle, that man would be George Washington, also known as the father of our country and our first president. Those not stumped are probably thinking, 'This is ridiculous,' and wondering, 'Who doesn't know that?' Would that they were right. Alas, the un-stumped are vastly outnumbered by the perplexed, who arrive...

Reading Free Blacks Out of HistoryBy Anita L. WillsHistory News Network | February 28, 2005 "We reside among you and yet are strangers; natives and not citizens; surrounded by the freest people and most Republican Institutions in the world and yet enjoying none of the immunities of freedom though we are not slaves we are not yet free." -- Memorial of the Free People of Color, African Repository, December 1826, Baltimore MDAfrican American History month is a month in which Americans celebrate the history of people of African descent. It is a sharing of a culture long ignored by the...

MOUNT VERNON, Va. - George Washington's estate on the Potomac River hasn't been home to a working distillery for about two centuries, but that changed Tuesday as whiskey makers toiled on the founding father's popular recipe. "For me, it's like standing on hallowed ground," Jim Beam master distiller Jerry Dalton said as he took a break from recreating the 18th century recipe to survey the scene, three miles from the main house where Washington lived from 1754 until he died in 1799. Washington started his whiskey business in 1797, after leaving politics. It was a thriving enterprise that yielded 11,000...

There’s a controversy brewing over the Old North Church in Boston, from the window of which patriot Paul Revere received the signal that British troops were headed for Concord and spread the word through the Massachusetts countryside. It seems that the old church needs some work, and the U.S. government is chipping in with a grant for the much-needed repairs. The trouble is, the church is an active Episcopal house of worship, and an organization called Americans United for Separation of Church and State is protesting the funding decision. For its part, the federal government is ecstatic over the move,...

Gen. Washington courageously attempting to rallyfleeing militia at Kip's Bay, Manhattan MOUNT VERNON, Va. — Say goodbye to the stern and remote George Washington, the boring one who wore a powdered wig, had wooden teeth and always told the truth. Embrace instead the action hero of the 18th century, a swashbuckling warrior who survived wild adventures, led brilliant military campaigns, directed spy rings and fell in love with his best friend's wife. That is the new message from the people who run Mount Vernon, the estate where Washington spent much of his life and where more than one million people...