"He was a nominal member, at best, and never an active one. "
LOL.
He was a "Worshipful (Honorable) Master" (i.e., president) of a lodge, donated his home to the Masons (who take care of it), took his oath of office on a masonic bible, laid the cornerstone of the capital wearing his apron, and had a masonic funeral.
There is a house on the New York/New Jersey border called the DeWindt House where Washington stayed just before the evacuation of New York in 1783 and several other times during the war. It is maintained by the Masons. (John Andre was hanged just around the corner for plotting with Arnold).
Washington's reputation as a mason, like the reports of Mark Twain's death, been a bit exaggerated. . .
(from the NET)--
"George Washington was a Mason, but was such an indifferent one that he can be called a Mason only technically. On September 25, 1798, just a little over a year before Washington died, he wrote to a preacher by the name of Snyder to correct an error Snyder had run concerning Washington's presiding over the English lodges in this country. In this letter Washington said in part: "The fact is, I presided over none, nor have I been in one more than once or twice within the last thirty' year.”
"Washington never really held any office in a Masonic lodge. He was called Master of the lodge at Alexandria, Va., for the space of a year, but it is admitted by Masonic authority that he did not preside a single time during that period.
"The records of King David's Lodge, Newport, R. I., show that as early as 1771 it was not agreeable to Washington to be called a Mason even in private. In response to a communication from the Legislature of Pennsylvania, Governor Ritner, among other facts, established that all the alleged letters from Washington to lodges were spurious. In speaking of Masonry, Washington said it was "for the most part child's play," and that it "might be used for the worst purposes."
if Washington had truly left Mt. Vernon to the Masons, they should be ashamed. It was left to rot until purchased by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, a private, non-profit organization founded in 1853 by Ann Pamela Cunningham. MVLA continues to run Mt. Vernon to this day.