Washington Hall’s exterior was inspired by George Washington’s Mount Vernon, with beveled-edge block walls finished with paint and sand to create the appearance of stone masonry through rustication, open-air colonnade walkways to the dependency buildings personally designed by Washington, a four-columned portico reminiscent of Mount Vernon’s rear piazza overlooking the Potomac, and a large Palladian window in the Mount Vernon Room defined by an arched window like features used on public buildings including the tower of Independence Hall. Washington inherited Mount Vernon from his half-brother Lawrence in 1761 and continued to remodel and expand the estate throughout his life, while George and Martha Washington regularly received guests there, with Washington recording in his diary that one evening they dined alone for the first time in twenty years. The hall’s interior is divided into three spaces representing the birth of the United States: the Grand Foyer, dominated by a bronze replica of Jean-Antoine Houdon’s statue of George Washington; the Assembly Room, evoking the historic chambers of Independence Hall where Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the U.S. flag was agreed upon, the Articles of Confederation were approved, and the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787 with Washington presiding from the Rising Sun Chair; and the Mount Vernon Room, inspired by what Washington called “The New Room,” representing the place where on April 14, 1789, he learned that he had been unanimously elected the first president of the United States.