WASHINGTON — The George Mason Memorial in D.C. is getting a restoration.
The memorial, in East Potomac Park near the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, is undergoing a year of work that will put a filter in the fountain, spruce up the bronze statue of Mason, put in new fencing, fix the sidewalk and clean the masonry, the National Park Service and the Trust for the National Mall said in a statement Tuesday.
The 15-year-old memorial will remain open while the work is being done.
The work is estimated to cost about $800,000 and will be paid for by a partnership between the National Park Service and the Trust for the National Mall, a private-public partnership.
The National Park Service called Mason a “neglected” Founder. He wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was an inspiration for Thomas Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of Independence — his “All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights … among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety” is echoed in the Declaration’s “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Mason also helped draft the Constitution, but, in the end, refused to sign it.
