The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America administers award-winning historic properties, and NSCDA-MN has a relationship with Minnesota’s Alexander Ramsey House.
Gunston Hall (left) is located in Mason Neck, Virginia. This property, built in the 1750s, was the home of George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. The beautiful brick, Georgian-style mansion is known for its exquisite interiors and fine ornamental architecture. Gunston Hall and its outbuildings, museum exhibits, gift shop, and 550 acres of meadows, woodlands, and nature trails, are open to the public. NSCDA-MN currently is represented by a Regent of Gunston Hall.
Dumbarton House (right) located in Washington, DC's historic Georgetown, is one of the finest examples of Federal-period architecture in the United States! Completed about 1800, Dumbarton House and its outstanding collections of Federal furniture and decorative arts show visitors what life was like in the earliest days of our nation's capital. Dumbarton House also serves as the NSCDA's national headquarters.
NSCDA-MN has a representative, a Lady of Dumbarton House, on its board. A wish list of items to be donated or funded for the period rooms of Dumbarton House is included here.
Sulgrave Manor (right) located in Sulgrave, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, is the home of George Washington's English ancestors. Built by Lawrence Washington in 1539, Sulgrave Manor is a wonderful example of a sixteenth-century English manor house and garden. It is open to the public. NSCDA-MN currently has an Associate Trustee serving Sulgrave Manor.
In Minnesota, the Alexander Ramsey House, (right) home of Minnesota's first territorial governor, was willed to the Minnesota Historical Society by Alexander Ramsey’s granddaughter, Anna Earl Ramsey Furness, with the specification that the NSCDA-MN participate in the Board of Governors for the house. The Minnesota Historical Society operates it today, while the Dames maintain a special interest in the house and its operation.
Many Dames state societies own and operate historic sites and museums, including the 1831 Hermann-Grima House in New Orleans, the 1729 Whitehall Museum House in Rhode Island, and the Quincy Homestead in Quincy, Massachusetts. Explore Dames properties throughout the U.S. here.