WASHINGTON — A stack of leather-bound gardening books sat on a simple wooden desk in the middle of a small room. Two broad-brimmed hats, one for winter and one for summer, hung on pegs in the corner.
In the bedroom, a pair of shoes lay at the side of the bed, as if the gardener had just stepped out of them.
With the restoration of a two-story pine structure used by one of George Washington’s gardeners, William Spence, Mount Vernon is again complete nearly 209 years after the first president died.
The gardener’s house, built around the spring of 1776 and glimpsed Wednesday, is the last of 16 original 18th-century structures to be restored on the historic estate on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia.
Piecing together letters, plantation records and samplings of timber from the house, preservationists were able to reconstruct a building that was part of a major expansion at Mount Vernon before Washington left to command the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.
Originally an infirmary for slaves, the gardener’s house, like all historic structures at Mount Vernon, was restored to look as it did upon Washington’s death in 1799.
It will open to the public Friday, completing a decades-long renewal of the historic site that included the 2006 opening of a new visitors center, museum and education center.
Mount Vernon attracts 1 million visitors a year.Visitors will be able to peek into three rooms on the bottom floor, where the gardener probably lived, entertained guests and worked in his study. The barren second floor will be available only to researchers.
