George Mason Memorial

The George Mason Memorial is a National Memorial in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C., dedicated in 2002 to honor the Virginia planter and constitutional thinker George Mason. Mason wrote the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which James Madison drew on when drafting the U.S. Bill of Rights, yet he refused to sign the finished Constitution in 1787 because it lacked an explicit rights catalogue. It took more than two centuries for this awkward founder to receive his own memorial on the National Mall. The site depicts Mason seated on a bench with crossed legs and a book in hand, framed by a pergola of roses and a small fountain. Visitors reach it on foot from the Tidal Basin in a few minutes and usually find a quiet, contemplative corner well away from the larger memorials.