If the men of America have seen fit to allow the home of its most respected hero go to ruin, why can’t the women of America band together to save it?

—Louisa Bird Cunningham to her daughter Ann Pamela Cunningham, 1853

These incendiary words, penned by Louisa Bird Cunningham on seeing the deteriorating remains of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home in the Virginia countryside, speak to the impassioned response that historic property can elicit. Quickly rising to her mother’s challenge, Ann Pamela Cunningham not only launched the first national campaign to save this iconic property, but also founded America’s first historic preservation organization, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, in 1853. Unwittingly, she had ushered in the beginning of the American historic preservation movement.

Perhaps it is assumed that symbols of our national identity such as Mount Vernon have always been protected. Last year, over a million visitors made the pilgrimage to Washington’s estate, walking its gravel paths to admire the mansion’s rusticated façade, red painted roof, and imposing piazza. The current sparkling condition of the house and its grounds belies a not-so-distant period of neglect and near-loss. Many historic properties across the United States, including Mount Vernon, were virtually abandoned in the nineteenth century due to lack of support or plans to preserve them. During that period of Civil War and eventual Reconstruction, historic properties were hardly the nation’s primary concern.

Historic properties were hardly the nation’s primary concern.

The decades immediately following