Reynolds Foundation donates $38 million for George Washington Library

WASHINGTON -- The caretakers of George Washington's historic Mount Vernon home announced plans Friday for a research library on the grounds of his estate, which would be built with $38 million donated by the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

The library will become home to originals and copies of close to 500 of Washington's books, letters, surveys and other documents, as well as up to 90 volumes of records being assembled at the University of Virginia and 1,500 books from the founding era, curators said.

"We will have the best collection of George Washington books and manuscripts in the world, and we'll be a magnet for research, for all scholars, of the 18th century," said James C. Rees, president of Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens.

The $38 million gift is the largest ever to the estate, trustees said, and further establishes the Reynolds Foundation as a major benefactor of the first president's legacy.

The 45,000-square-foot building, to be built on a wooded campus within walking distance of the popular mansion, would be named the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington.

Smith, of Las Vegas, is the longtime chairman of the Reynolds Foundation and the force behind several major gifts that the foundation has made in the past decade related to the first president. In Las Vegas, the Reynolds Foundation provided $150 million for a new downtown performing arts center, which is being built now and is named for Smith and his wife, Mary.

The foundation has committed more than $69 million to Mount Vernon, including funds that built a museum and interactive education center on the grounds that overlook the Potomac River in Virginia, about 15 miles outside Washington.

The foundation in 2001 granted the National Portrait Gallery $20 million to purchase the historic Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington known as the Lansdowne portrait. It hangs in a dedicated space of the National Portrait Gallery that the Reynolds Foundation helped renovate with a $75 million donation.

At the announcement held at Mount Vernon, Smith said historians fear that knowledge and appreciation of George Washington is fading. Some modern American history texts, he said, devote more space to Marilyn Monroe.

"Our hope is that our financial contribution to Mount Vernon will help reverse that trend," he said.

The research complex aims "to return George Washington to his rightful place in American society," said Boyce Ansley, regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which owns and manages the historic landmark.

Rees said the estate hopes to open the library by the fall of 2012.

Besides its George Washington documents, Mount Vernon also holds 1,500 18th century books. Much of the library will contain modern-era books about Washington and the founding era.

"We are deeply committed to being the one place in the world that really is dedicated to this one great man," Rees said, noting the library will focus on Washington's role as a military leader and businessman as well as his presidency.

Mount Vernon, which does not accept money from the federal government, announced a fundraising drive to raise an additional $40 million to endow library upkeep and library programs.

Donald W. Reynolds was a media entrepreneur and founder of the Donrey Media Group, which owned the Las Vegas Review-Journal and more than 50 other daily newspapers until his death in 1993.

Reynolds established the foundation as an outlet for his charitable giving and it has continued his philanthropy after his death, bolstered by the proceeds from the sale of Donrey Media to the Stephens family of Little Rock, Ark.