The structure, together with the servants' quarters adjoining, was burned down in December, 1835, and when the historian Lossing visited Mount Vernon in 1858 nothing remained of these buildings except bare walls crumbling to decay.

Of the movable plants that had belonged to Washington there remained in 1858 only a lemon tree, a century plant and a sago palm, all of which have since died.

The conservatory and servants' quarters have, however, been rebuilt and the conservatory restocked with plants such as Washington kept in it.

The buildings probably look much as they did in his time.
One of the sights to-day at Mount Vernon is the formal garden, which all who have visited the place will remember.

Strangely enough it seems impossible to discover exactly when this was laid out as it now stands.
The guides follow tradition and tell visitors that Washington set out the box hedge, the principal feature, after his marriage, and that he told Martha that she should be mistress of this flower garden and he the master of the vegetable garden.