Join with other Culture Club members for a special holiday tour of Gunston Hall, the 18th
century Georgian-style mansion built by George Mason. Gunston Hall will be decorated for
the holiday season in the style typical of the colonial era. This event will serve as an
excellent prelude to celebrating America at 250 years!

Located near George Washington’s Mount Vernon home and completed in 1759, the hall
was the main residence for Mason’s 5500-acre plantation. Named for the village of
Gunstone, Staffordshire, England, the property is dedicated to the study of George Mason,
his home and garden, and life in 18th-century Virginia.

George Mason was a very wealthy planter and politician. He died in 1792, but his
contributions to the founding of the country were not widely recognized until the twentieth
century. On our tour, we will learn more about this stubbornly independent and enigmatic
founding father:

• He authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was the basis for adding the
Bill of Rights to the Constitution and he advocated for an immediate end to the slave
trade, yet personally owned nearly one hundred enslaved persons.
• He was a powerful member of the Virginia House of Delegates and General
Assembly, but irritated George Washington by refusing to serve in the Second Continental Congress.
• He was a Virginia Delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,
providing significant influential input, yet refused to sign the final version of the
document because it did NOT include a Bill of Rights, which he believed essential.
• Mason was the first to propose that the national seat of government not be in a state
capital lest the local legislature be too influential.
• Mason also opposed including presidential pardon power in the constitution, which
he predicted the president would use corruptly. 

Cost: $8/person
Sign up here to participate:

https://forms.gle/zYpeMjS3eQaxfqS98

If possible, please sign up to participate by November 21, as we need a minimum committed headcount to confirm our tour reservation.

Following the tour, there will be an optional group dinner and chance to socialize at a nearby location TBD. Please note the unusual time for the tour.