Mount Vernon presents a classic picture of a midwestern college town. The buildings of Cornell College, especially the 1876 King Memorial Chapel, dominate the community. The small commercial downtown exists as a minor backdrop, and the built-up area around the campus is pure suburbia. The layout of the town is unusual; the original plat of 1847 is northeast-southwest by northwest-southeast, and while Main Street (or First Street) follows this grid, it meanders off almost as a farm road at both ends. Running through the southern section of the community is US 30, the famous Lincoln Highway of the teens and 1920s.