Designed Space, Domestic Servitude, and House "Gifts"

The construction of Gunston Hall was finished in 1759, and George Mason IV lived there until his death in 1792. He was widely consulted about matters of political importance on this property, which could bustle with people. How did the manor house maintain its grandeur while Mason was the father of nine active children, talked with revolutionaries about breaking free of England in the downstairs rooms, and held the mantle of "reluctant statesman” who constantly entertained guests? And there is still little contemporary acknowledgment of the fact that from his home he saw the work of many enslaved people who made Gunston Hall a beacon of American independence.