Saturday 15 July 2017

Places called Mount Vernon – there are so many of them!


The most famous Mount Vernon can be found in Virginia on the banks of the Potomac River.  It is the plantation house of the US's first president George Washington.  It was built by him in the mid 1700's.  The plantation was named in honour of Vice Admiral Edward Vernon. He was an English naval officer.  As far as I can tell he didn't have any direct connection with America.  One of Washington's relatives served under him and it was he that renamed the estate.

There are 26 towns and cities in the US named Mount Vernon. 
And another 8 townships of that name.

There are also Mount Vernon's in other countries – 1 in Australia, 3 in Canada and 2 in the UK.



In addition there is Mount Vernon, a small hill in Singapore, 5 railway stations and a hospital in North London.

So I wanted to find out whether they all were linked back to the same person.  The link appears to be back to the plantation except for:

Mount Vernon in Glasgow was named directly for Edward Vernon.

Mount Vernon in Singapore is as well.


The hospital in Hampstead in London was named for a suburb called Mount Vernon – but I couldn't find out anything about why it was called that.


Mount Vernon, New York did not get its name from George Washington.  It predated the plantation.  Anne Hutchinson who founded the city named it for the French version green mount.

1 comment:

  1. we live short distance in one way away from Mt. Vernon Illinois and go the other way you will reach Mt. Vernon Indiana Yes, we agree there are many Mt. Vernons
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