George Washington's plantation home lies about 20 kilometers south of Washington, (0)__I__ the Potomac River. But tourists have no (1) finding it.

It's Spring - prime tourist season in the Washington, D.C., area. But sweltering summer weather will 2) arrive along the Potomac River, and America's most famous farmhouse is ready. Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, the nation's first president, 3) air-conditioned.

What's so special about that? The owners of historic properties wrestle with a basic question: Should we preserve our treasure as close 4) possible to its condition when famous people lived or worked here? After all, we do things like scraping through layers of paint just to find and restore authentic colors from a century or two ago. Or should we bend our preservationist principles and make the place comfortable 5) visitors and staff?

The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association - the nation's first preservationist organization that once saved Washington's estate from ruin after the U.S. Civil War - struggled mightily with this dilemma. For years 6) members opposed any climate-control measures, noting that George and Martha Washington certainly never flipped on an air-conditioning switch. They also worried that the installation 7) a/c would damage plaster and wallpaper and wood.

When the Mount Vernon Ladies decided 8) go ahead and put in the cooling system a few years 9) , two key staff members resigned in protest. One called the move unethical. But renovation forces won out. Air conditioning would 10) preserve valuable furniture and musical instruments that heat and humidity were degrading, they argued.