CHAPTER 271

An Act to authorize the Commonwealth of Virginia by the Governor and
the Secretary of the Commonwealth to convey by special warranty
deed certain real estate to The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of
the Unton.

(S 128]

Approved March 31, 1964

Whereas, The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union was
originally incorporated by an Act of the General Assembly of Virginia,
passed March 17, 1856, and amended and reenacted March 19, 1858; and

Whereas, the object of the Association as stated in its Constitution
was to perpetuate the sacred memory of “The Father of His Country” and,
with loving hands, to guard and protect the hallowed spot where rest his
mortal remains; and to forever hold, manage and preserve the estate,
properties and relics of Mount Vernon, belonging to the Association, and,
under proper regulations, to open the same to the inspection of all who
love the cause of liberty and revere the name of Washington; and
ereas, prior to the date of passage of the original act of incorpo-

ration, ladies of the United States, acting under the name and style of
The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, had undertaken to
raise by individual subscription a fund to purchase and improve 200 acres
of Mount Vernon; and

Whereas, since the dates of passage of the acts of incorporation afore-
said, The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union has purchased,
received by gift, held and improved, at its own expense and through the
members and friends of the Association, tracts of land, with improvements
and appurtenances, now comprising the estate known as Mount Vernon
and constituting approximately 500 acres and having a value of more than
$500,000.00; and

Whereas, the act of incorporation of 1858, under which the Associa-
tion did business for more than one hundred years, did impose limitations
upon the real property held by the Association and upon the total amount
of real and personal property held by the Association, which limitations
were restricted and unrealistic in view of inflationary values of the present
day ; and, whereas, the said act of incorporation did further limit the powers
of alienation of the Association, even for highway, utility and other neces-
sary purposes; and, whereas, the said act of incorporation did fail to specify
that the Association was and is a nonstock, nonprofit corporation, and,
whereas, the said act was in other respects inadequate to the current needs
of Mount Vernon; and

Whereas, a new Certificate of Incorporation of The Mount Vernon
Ladies’ Association of the Union was issued and admitted to record in the
office of the State Corporation Commission of Virginia on the 8th day of
March, 1963; and

Whereas, it is desirable to confirm and perfect the title of the Associa-
tion to all of the real estate purchased, received, held, maintained and
improved by the Association; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. §1. That the Governor and the Secretary of the Commonwealth are
hereby authorized on behalf of and in the name of the Commonwealth of
Virginia, to grant and convey by special warranty deed, in a form to be
approved by the Attorney General, to The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Associa-
tion of the Union, a Virginia corporation, seven certain tracts of land,
together with the improvements thereon and the appurtenances thereunto
belonging, lying, situate and being in the Mount Vernon Magisterial Dis-
trict, Fairfax County, Virginia, which said seven tracts are more partic-
ularly bounded and described in instruments whose dates and places of
recordation among the Fairfax County, Virginia, land records are, re-
spectively, as follows, to wit:

Tract 1, comprising two hundred and two (202) acres, described in
Deed of Bargain and Sale from William Arthur Taylor, Louisa F. Wash-
ington and Jane C. Washington, dated November 12, 1868, and recorded
in Liber J-4 at page 474.

Tract 2, comprising 33.5 acres, described in Deed of Bargain and Sale
from Jay Gould and Helen D. Gould, his wife, dated July 23, 1887, and
recorded in Liber G-5 at page 550.

Tract 3, comprising 2 acres, described in Deed of Bargain and Sale
from Christian Heurich and Mathilde Heurich, his wife, dated November
18, 1893, and recorded in Liber P-5 at page 508.

Tract 4, comprising 21.476 acres, described in Deed of Bargain and
Sale from Jessie S. Landon and Hugh McK. Landon, her husband, dated
November 10, 1925, and recorded in Liber P-9 at page 549.

Tract 5, comprising 3 acres, described in Deed of Bargain and Sale
from Lewis Jacobs, Trustee, dated April 25, 1955, and recorded in Deed
Book 1301 at page 3285.

Tract 6, comprising 3 acres, described in Deed of Bargain and Sale
from Stanley Potter Stewart and Esther Lippincott Stewart, his wife,
dated February 3, 1956, and recorded in Deed Book 1407 at page 472.

Tract 7, comprising 205.941 acres, devised under the Will of Jessie
Spalding Landon, recorded January 14, 1931, in Will Book 13 at page
456, the said Tract 7 being described in two Deeds of Bargain and Sale,
one deed from Eliza L. Washington, spinster, and George Washington and
Emily 8S. Washington, his wife, dated December 14, 1887, and recorded
in Liber G No. 5 at page 625, and the second deed from the Board of Super-
visors of Fairfax County, Virginia, dated June 24, 1918, and recorded
in Liber J No. 8 at page 416.

Less and except, however, from the above captioned tracts numbered
1 through 7 certain lands conveyed out from The Mount Vernon Ladies’
Association of the Union and their predecessors in title by instruments
recorded among the Fairfax County, Virginia, land records as shown upon
said records.

It is the intent of the General Assembly of Virginia in authorizing
the conveyance of the real estate herein referred to, by the Governor and the
Secretary of the Commonwealth to The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association
of the Union, a Virginia corporation, to include in this act and to have
included in the said deed all of the real estate and all of the rights, titles
and interests therein, together with appurtenances thereunto belonging
of which the said Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union is seised
or possessed according to the land records of Fairfax County, Virginia.

§ 2. The deed conveying the captioned property from the Common-
wealth of Virginia to The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union
shall contain a proviso that if from any cause The Mount Vernon Ladies’
Association of the Union, a Virginia corporation, shall cease to exist, the
property herein authorized to be conveyed shall revert to the Common-
wealth of Virginia, sacred to the purposes for which it was originally
purchased.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.