George Washington's Gristmill was part of the original Mount Vernon plantation, constructed during the lifetime of the United States' first president.

The Commonwealth of Virginia and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association have reconstructed the gristmill and the adjacent distillery.

The new mill was located three miles (5 km) west of Mount Vernon on Dogue Run Creek.

To ensure a steady power supply, water was diverted from Piney Branch into Dogue Run Creek above the mill's headrace.

[5] Once the gristmill was well established, Washington's farm manager, James Anderson, suggested building a whiskey distillery adjacent to the mill.

[7] The whiskey was marketed in Alexandria, Virginia, or shipped directly from Mount Vernon's dock on the Potomac River.

The distillery process produced a significant waste stream, which was fed to 150 cattle and 30 hogs that were kept at the site.

[4] The distillery building burned in 1814; this is documented by a small insurance payment made to Lewis that year.

The state initiated an archaeological field survey of the site with the goal of reconstructing the gristmill, distillery and other Washington-era buildings.

Sometime around 1940 a local chapter of the Future Farmers of America began caring for the grounds, but public use of the park was sparse.

[4] Because the property embodies the distinctive characteristics of late eighteenth-century production methods, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

[7] George Washington's Gristmill is located on 6.65 acres (2.69 ha) approximately three miles west of the Mount Vernon estate.

[4] The gristmill is a Colonial Revival-style stone building that was constructed in 1933 based on archaeological and documentary evidence.

It is a masonry structure built with sandstone arranged in a random pattern with stone lintels and sills.

[4] The internal millworkings and structural members installed during the 1933 reconstruction were taken from an 1818 gristmill located near Front Royal, Virginia.

They discovered the location of five stills and boilers, and found many objects used in the distilling process along with fragments of domestic items such as teacups, drinking glasses and buttons.

For example, the original structure's 30 by 75 foot (9 m by 23 m) footprint was extended by 15 feet (4.6 m) in order to house an elevator and modern staircase for public use.

[7] The distillery has two floors with five large[12] copper stills, mash tubs and a boiler that demonstrate the eighteenth-century distilling process.

The building includes a storage cellar for whiskey barrels, an office, and two bedrooms where the site manager and his assistant would have lived.

The concept of building a distillery and entering into whisky production was suggested directly by Anderson and Washington's skepticism was notable in many letters.

They are located approximately three miles west of Mount Vernon's main gate on Virginia Route 235.