Description
The image was taken by the Washington Photo Company, located at 607 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. with their name credit in the matrix of the photograph. Based on extant examples of other panoramic photographs, the Washington Photo Company specialized in event and group photography including a photograph of the crew of a G.M. Leonard Co. steamship and one dated 1921 of the Anti-Saloon League.
Mount Vernon was originally constructed as a one-and-a-half-story building in 1734 by George Washington’s father, Augustine Washington. George Washington took over the estate twenty years later in 1754 and, over the course of the next 45 years, expanded Mount Vernon from a modest residence into a grand 21-room estate, complete with formal gardens, a working farm, a distillery, and a gristmill. The mansion, with its symmetrical design, red-roofed portico, and cupola-topped central structure, exemplifies the Palladian and neoclassical architectural influences that came to define early American style—marked by balance, simplicity, and inspiration drawn from classical antiquity. (The name of this style is derived from Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), a highly influential Italian Renaissance architect renowned for his synthesis of Roman classical architecture with contemporary innovations). After Washington’s death, the estate fell into decline until it was preserved and opened to the public in 1860 by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, becoming one of the nation’s first historic house museums.
Text printed in image:
1928 – F.W. Van Zile Party
Washington Photo Co., 607 Pa. Ave., N.W., D.C.
Condition: Generally very good, with the usual overall light toning, wear, handling. Recently professionally mounted on archival matboard to flatten, and to support few short marginal tears.
References:
“F. W. Van Zile.” Mount Vernon Catalog. https://catalog.mountvernon.org/digital/collection/p16829coll31/search/searchterm/F.%20W.%20Van%20Zile%20Popular%20Tours/field/creato/mode/exact/conn/and. (30 June 2025).
“The Mansion.” Mount Vernon. https://www.mountvernon.org/the-estate-gardens/the-mansion. (30 June 2025).
“Van Zile” Van Zile. https://www.vanzile.com/. (30 June 2025).
