Mount Vernon says thanks to Ann

Preservationists - thankfully - are a persistent lot.

They have to be.

Ann Pamela Cunningham, a typical 19th century South Carolina lady, raised on a prosperous plantation, set the tone.

Who was she?

The woman who put the wheels in motion to save Mount Vernon, the one-of-a-kind once beautiful estate of George and Martha Washington, which by the 1850's was a dilapidated ruin.

We learned a lot about Ann - in addition to loads about the Washington's - a few days after one of our group said "Let's take a day trip." We soon were off to Mount Vernon.

Its an ideal day trip from Glyndon; one and a half hours drive over a route that missed D.C. traffic; tickets purchased ahead on line which gave a specific time for touring the house and, best of all, a sizable crowd but not "elbowing through" or waiting in line. Mount Vernon encompasses acres so there is ample room.

First visit for a few of our group and a repeat for most of us, Mount Vernon offers right on the spot, a significant chunk of American history.

Interestingly, a collateral descendant of George and a direct descendant of Martha Washington lives in Glyndon. Various of their family pieces have been returned to Mount Vernon.

The house, to which smaller groups, than previously, were admitted offers a less hurried look. The docent was knowledgeable, mentioning some of the fired up Revolutionaries who fumed with George around the dining room table after they had learned of the Boston Tea Party and Britain's retaliatory closing of the Boston port.

Inside and out, through the gardens and outbuildings (in the wash house we learned that it took 45 pails of water to do one load) and down the hill to the tomb, the Mount Vernon "aura" prevails.

What abut Ann?

In 1853 her mother was a passenger on a steamboat which rang its bells, as was the custom, when it passed Mount Vernon. The woman looked up and saw the one-of-a-kind mansion deteriorated to a dilapidated ruin. The famous portico was propped up with a sailing mast.

Shocked at the sight, the mother wrote to Ann: "Why is it that the women of this country do not keep it in repair?"

Unbelievably inspired, Ann Cunningham, partially bedridden with a permanent spinal injury, launched a letter writing campaign to raise $200,000. It was picked up by various newspapers, orator Edward Everett, the U.S. President James Buchanan, well known actresses and bankers. By Washington's birthday in 1860, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association took possession of the house.

Lengthy roadblocks along the way included the hard-headed last owner, John Augustine Washington, a slow moving state legislature, numerous complications concerning legality of ownership, as well as raising the required funds.

Still Cunningham persisted.

The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which she founded continues today to own and maintain Mount Vernon, without state or federal funds.

Quite an accomplishment for a 19th century woman who went against the norm and dared to disclose her sex when she signed her first letter for donations as " A Southern Matron."