Monroe County furniture maker, Mark Soukup, of Gap Mills, was commissioned to make 32 Windsor Chairs for display and use at Washington”s historic home on the Potomac. The chairs are authentic recreations, based on a surviving Philadelphia “sack-back” Windsor armchair from Washington’s original Mt. Vernon inventory. Finished in the original Mahogany paint color, the chairs have been placed where Washington had used his original chairs for entertainment on the east portico, or “piazza,” facing the Potomac River.
Mt. Vernon, located just south of the nation’s capital, has been operating as a museum by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association for over 150 years. Soukup has been building 18th century American furniture reproductions for over 30 years.
