Rediscovering Washington; Years After His Death, Mount Vernon Aims to Humanize an Icon From: The Washington Post | Date: February 13, 1999| Author: Marylou Tousignant | Copyright 1999 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post.Copyright information

Used to be that visitors to Mount Vernon, George Washington's sprawling plantation on the Potomac, knew something about the country's first president or, failing that, at least could voice one of the apocryphal stories about him. The wooden teeth. The cherry tree. That sort of thing.

Then came the day last year when a visitor to the 500-acre riverside estate 16 miles south of Washington asked where the mountain was. Mountain? What mountain? the confused guide responded.

Turns out...