National Park Service Blocks Parking Lots at George Washington's Mt. Vernon Estate – Removes Barricades After Estate Officials Point Out 'Mistake\

The National Park Service blocked parking lots at George Washington's Mt. Vernon Estate and Gardens "due to a misunderstanding over the ownership of the spaces," according to Melissa Wood, Mt. Vernon's media director.

Mount Vernon officials approached the NPS, which removed the barricades "as soon as they realized their mistake," Wood says, adding that the Park Service maintains the parking lots, but Mount Vernon owns the property.

The issue was noted by Stephen Gutowski of The College Politico, and he posted photos on Twitter Wednesday:

(Credit: Twitter/Stephen Gutowski)

(Credit: Twitter/Stephen Gutowski)

While Gutowski has tweeted as recently as Thursday afternoon that "one of the parking lots is still barricaded," Wood told TheBlaze that the barricades were up for three hours Tuesday and then taken down.

The Mt. Vernon official website does its best to dispel doubts that the NPS has shut down the entire operation:

(Credit: Mount Vernon official site)

Mount Vernon is the former plantation of George Washington and is owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, which doesn’t receive any government funding.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich tweeted his displeasure:

(Credit: Twitter)

TheBlaze has been covering the outrage over the National Park Service initially preventing veterans from visiting the Washington, D.C. World War II memorial in the midst of the contentious shutdown of the the federal government.

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