Editing Mount Vernon (section)

===Mount Vernon Viewshed===
[[File:DAR group at Mt. Vernon LCCN2016892236.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Daughters of the American Revolution]] at Mount Vernon in 1923.]]
In 1955, a 485-acre farm across from Mount Vernon went up for sale. There were rumors that an oil company was to buy it. Charles Wagner, a resident of the [[Moyaone Reserve|Moyaone Association]], a community next to the proposed site, reached out to Charles Wall, the Resident Director of Mount Vernon.<ref name=McDonnell>{{ cite web | url = http://npshistory.com/publications/pisc/adhi.pdf | author = McDonnell, Janet | date = December 2020 |website=[[National Park Service]] | title = Preservation and Partners: A History of Piscataway Park }}</ref> The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and its then leader, [[Ohio]] Member of Congress [[Frances P. Bolton]], had expressed a desire to protect the view from Mount Vernon. At this point Bolton, Wagner, Wall, and Moyaone resident Robert W. Straus developed a decades-long plan to protect the Mount Vernon [[viewshed]], which came to be known as Operation Overview.<ref name="sprinkle">{{ cite journal | title = Operation Overview and the Creation of Piscataway Park | author = John H. Sprinkle Jr. | journal =  [[The Public Historian]] | date = November 2016  | volume = 38 | issue = 4 | pages = 79–100 | doi = 10.1525/tph.2016.38.4.79 }}</ref><ref name=Meringolo>{{cite journal |publisher = [[National Park Service]] | url = https://www.nps.gov/CRMJournal/winter2008/article3.html | year = 2008 | volume = 5 | issue = 1 | author =  Meringolo, Denise D. | title = The Accokeek Foundation and Piscataway Park | journal = CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship }}</ref>

The first step was taken in 1957 when Bolton founded the Accokeek Foundation, one of the nation's first [[land trust]]s.<ref name="Meringolo" /> The Foundation was used to purchase {{Convert|200|acres}} of land across from Mount Vernon to help preserve the area,<ref>{{Cite news | last=Lutz | first=Lara | date=November 1, 2005 | url=http://www.bayjournal.com/article/piscataway_park_rooted_in_farming_of_past_sows_seeds_for_future | title=Piscataway Park, Rooted in Farming of Past, Sows Seeds for Future | newspaper=Bay Journal | location=[[Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania]] | publisher=Chesapeake Media Service | access-date=April 27, 2016 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 1961 and at Bolton's instigation, a joint resolution to preserve the viewshed was introduced in the [[United States Senate]] by Senator [[Clinton Anderson]] with identical text in the [[United States House of Representatives]] by Representative [[John P. Saylor]]. The resolution was quickly passed and signed by [[President John F. Kennedy]]. Its purpose was to "preserve lands which provide the principal overview from the Mount Vernon Estate and Fort Washington" in order to designate {{Convert|133|acre}} around Mockley Point, which was to be the site of water treatment plant, as a national landmark. The resolution also authorized the National Park Service to receive donations and scenic easements from adjacent communities.<ref name="1961-bill">{{cite act | url = https://www.congress.gov/bill/87th-congress/house-joint-resolution/459 | legislature = [[United States House of Representatives]] | date = October 4, 1961 | title = Joint resolution to provide for the preservation and protection of certain lands in Prince Georges and Charles Counties, Maryland, and for other purposes}}</ref> At this point Bolton and the Accokeek Foundation transferred their land to the National Park Service to form [[Piscataway Park]].<ref name=McDonnell /> In addition, Moyaone Association residents transferred conservation easements to the Park Service to further protect the viewshed. In 2020, the Moyaone Reserve was given National Register of Historic Places status.<ref name=Moyaonehistoric>{{cite web | url = https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/weekly-list-20201009.htm | title = WEEKLY LIST OF ACTIONS TAKEN ON PROPERTIES: 10/2/2020 THROUGH 10/8/2020
 | date = October 9, 2020 | publisher = [[National Park Service]] }}</ref>