Monticello
Encyclopedia
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark
just outside Charlottesville
, Virginia
, United States
. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson
, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence
, third President of the United States
, and founder of the University of Virginia
; it is also, at his direction, the site of Jefferson's burial place. The estate has been owned and operated, as a museum and educational institution, by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation since 1923.
The house, which Jefferson designed, was based on the neoclassical
principles described in the books of the Italian Renaissance
architect
Andrea Palladio
. It is situated on the summit of an 850 feet (259.1 m)-high peak in the Southwest Mountains
south of the Rivanna Gap. Its name comes from the Italian
"little mountain."
An image of the west front of Monticello by Felix Schlag
has been featured on the reverse
of the nickel
minted
since 1938 (with a brief interruption in 2004 and 2005, when designs of the Westward Journey series appeared instead).
Monticello also appeared on the reverse of the two-dollar bill
from 1928 to 1966, when the bill was discontinued. The current bill
was introduced in 1976 and retains Jefferson's portrait on the obverse but replaced Monticello on the reverse with an engraved modified reproduction of John Trumbull's
painting
Declaration of Independence
instead. The gift shop at Monticello hands out two-dollar bills as change.
Monticello, along with the nearby University of Virginia
, also designed by Jefferson, was designated a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
in 1987. Since 1923 it has been owned and operated by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
joined him in 1772.
After his wife's death in 1782, Jefferson left Monticello in 1784 to serve as Minister of the United States to France. During his several years' tenure in Europe, he had an opportunity to see some of the classical buildings with which he had become acquainted from his reading, as well as to discover the "modern" trends in French architecture that were then fashionable in Paris. His decision to remodel his own home may date from this period. In 1794, following his service as the first U.S. Secretary of State (1790–93), Jefferson began rebuilding his house based on the ideas he had acquired in Europe. The remodeling continued throughout most of his presidency (1801–09).
Thomas Jefferson once added a center hallway and a parallel set of rooms to the structure, more than doubling its area. He removed the second full-height story from the original house and replaced it with a mezzanine
bedroom floor. The most dramatic element of the new design was an octagonal dome
, which he placed above the West front of the building in place of a second-story portico. The room inside the dome was described by a visitor as "a noble and beautiful apartment," but it was rarely used—perhaps because it was hot in summer and cold in winter, or because it could only be reached by climbing a steep and very narrow flight of stairs. The dome room has now been restored to its appearance during Jefferson's lifetime, with "Mars yellow
" walls and a painted green floor.
After Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, his only surviving daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph
inherited Monticello. The estate was encumbered with debt and Martha Randolph had financial problems in her own family because of her husband's mental illness
. In 1831 she sold Monticello to James T. Barclay, a local apothecary
. Barclay sold it in 1834 to Uriah P. Levy
, the first Jewish Commodore (equivalent to today's admiral) in the United States Navy
. A fifth-generation American whose family first settled in Charleston, South Carolina
, Levy greatly admired Jefferson. He used his private funds to restore and preserve the house. During the American Civil War
, the house was seized by the Confederate
government and sold, but Uriah Levy's estate
recovered the property after the war.
Lawsuit
s filed by Levy's heirs were settled in 1879, when Uriah Levy's nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy
, a prominent New York
lawyer, real estate
and stock speculator and member of Congress
, bought out the other heirs and took control of the property. Like his uncle, Jefferson Levy commissioned repairs, restoration and preservation at Monticello, which was deteriorating seriously while the lawsuits wound their way through the courts in New York and Virginia.
In 1923, a private non-profit organization
, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, purchased the house from Jefferson Levy with funds raised by Theodore Fred Kuper and others. They managed additional restoration under architects including Fiske Kimball
and Milton L. Grigg
. The Foundation operates Monticello and its grounds as a house museum
and educational institution. Visitors can view rooms in the cellar and ground floor, but the second and third floors are not open to the general public due to fire code restrictions. Visitors can tour the third floor (Dome), while on a Signature Tour.
Monticello is the only private home in the United States that has been designated a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
. From 1989 to 1992, a team of architects from the Historic American Buildings Survey
(HABS) created a collection of measured drawings of Monticello. These drawings are held by the Library of Congress
. The World Heritage Site designation also includes the original grounds of Jefferson's University of Virginia
.
Among Jefferson's other designs are Poplar Forest
, the home near Lynchburg
which he intended for his daughter Maria, and the Virginia State Capitol
in Richmond
.
Much of Monticello's interior decoration reflect the personal ideas and ideals of Jefferson.
The original main entrance is through the portico
on the east front. The ceiling of this portico incorporates a wind plate connected to a weather vane
, showing the direction of the wind. A large clock
face on the external east-facing wall has only an hour hand since Jefferson thought this was accurate enough for outdoor laborers. The clock reflects the time shown on the "Great Clock", designed by Jefferson, in the entrance hall. The entrance hall contains recreations of items collected by Lewis and Clark
on their famous expedition. The floorcloth here is painted a "true grass green" upon the recommendation of artist Gilbert Stuart
in order for Jefferson's 'essay in architecture' to invite the spirit of the outdoors into the house.
The south wing includes Jefferson's private suite of rooms. The library holds many books in Jefferson's third library
collection. His first library was burned in a plantation fire, and he 'ceded' (or sold) his second library in 1815 to the United States Congress
to replace the books lost when the British burned the Capitol in 1814. This second library formed the nucleus of the Library of Congress
.
As "larger than life" as Monticello seems, the house has approximately 11000 square feet (1,021.9 m²) of living space. Jefferson considered much furniture to be a waste of space, so the dining room
table was erected only at mealtimes, and beds were built into alcove
s cut into thick walls that contain storage space. Jefferson's bed opens to two sides: to his cabinet (study) and to his bedroom (dressing room).
The west front (illustration) gives the impression of a villa of modest proportions, with a lower floor disguised in the hillside.
The north wing includes two guest bedrooms and the dining room. It has a dumbwaiter
incorporated into the fireplace, as well as dumbwaiters (shelved tables on castors) and a pivoting serving door with shelves.
Archaeology of the site shows that the rooms of the slave houses were much larger in the 1770's than in the 1790's. There is disagreement as to whether this indicates that more slaves were crowded into a smaller space or that fewer people lived in the smaller space.
Earlier slave houses had a two-room plan, one family per room, and with a single, shared doorway to the outside. But from the 1790's on, all rooms/families had independent doorways and most of the houses are free-standing, single-room structures.
At the time of Jefferson's death, some of Jefferson's slave families had labored and lived for four generations at Monticello.
The main house was augmented by small outlying pavilions to the north and south. A row of outhouse buildings (dairy, wash houses, store houses, a small nail factory, a joinery etc.) and slave
dwellings known as Mulberry Row lay nearby to the south. A stone weaver's cottage survives, as does the tall chimney of the joinery, and the foundations of other buildings. A cabin on Mulberry Row was, for a time, the home of Sally Hemings
, the enslaved woman who is widely believed to have had a 38-year relationship with the widower Jefferson and to have borne six children by him, four of whom survived to adulthood. The genealogist Helen F.M. Leary concluded that "the chain of evidence securely fastens Sally Hemings's children to their father, Thomas Jefferson." Later Hemings lived in a room in the "south dependency" below the main house.
On the slope below Mulberry Row, slaves maintained an extensive vegetable garden for Jefferson and the main house. In addition for to having flowers for display and producing crops for eating, Jefferson used the gardens of Monticello
for experimenting with different species. The house was the center of a plantation of 5000 acres (2,023.4 ha) tended by some 150 slaves. There are also two houses included in the whole.
In recent decades, the TJF has created programs to more fully interpret the lives of slaves at Monticello. Beginning in 1993, researchers interviewed descendants of Monticello slaves for the "Getting Word Project", a collection of oral history that provided much new insight into the lives of slaves at Monticello. (Among findings were that no slaves adopted Jefferson as a surname, but many had their own.)
New research, publications and training for guides has been added since 2000, when the Foundation's Research Committee concluded it was highly likely that Jefferson had fathered Sally Hemings' children. Some of Mulberry Row has been designated as archeological sites, where excavations and analysis are revealing much about slave life at the plantation. In the winter of 2000-2001 the slave burial ground was discovered. In the fall of 2001 the Thomas Jefferson Foundation had a commemoration of the grounds in which the names of known slaves of Monticello were read aloud. Additional archeological work is providing information about African-American burial practices. In 2003 Monticello welcomed a reunion of descendants of Jefferson from both the Wayles' and Hemings' sides of the family. Additional and larger reunions have been held.
In 2004, the trustees acquired the only property that overlooks Monticello, the taller mountain that Jefferson called Montalto
, but known to Charlottesville residents as Mountaintop Farm, Patterson's or Brown's Mountain. To prevent development of new homes on the site, the trustees spent $15 million to purchase the property. Jefferson had owned it, and in the 20th-century, its farmhouses were divided into apartments for many University of Virginia
students. The officials at Monticello had long considered the property an eyesore, and planned to buy it when it came on the market. Monticello now charges $20 for adults and $7 for children to visit the top of the mountain and allows admission to the area only from May to October.
, a Neo-Palladian house built in 1726-9 in London
.
Monticello was featured in Bob Vila's
A&E Network
production, Guide to Historic Homes of America, in a tour which included the Dome Room, which is only open to the public during a limited number of tours each year, and Honeymoon Cottage.
at Annapolis is modeled on Monticello.
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
just outside Charlottesville
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
, third President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, and founder of the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
; it is also, at his direction, the site of Jefferson's burial place. The estate has been owned and operated, as a museum and educational institution, by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation since 1923.
The house, which Jefferson designed, was based on the neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
principles described in the books of the Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. It is situated on the summit of an 850 feet (259.1 m)-high peak in the Southwest Mountains
Southwest Mountains
The Southwest Mountains of Virginia are a mountain range centered around Charlottesville, parallel to and geologically associated with the Blue Ridge Mountains, which lie about 30 miles to the west...
south of the Rivanna Gap. Its name comes from the Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
"little mountain."
An image of the west front of Monticello by Felix Schlag
Felix Schlag
Felix Oscar Schlag was the designer of the United States five cent coin in use from 1938 to 2004.He was born to Karl and Teresa Schlag in Frankfurt, Germany, and moved to the United States in 1929...
has been featured on the reverse
Obverse and reverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags , seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse...
of the nickel
Nickel (United States coin)
The nickel is a five-cent coin, representing a unit of currency equaling five hundredths of one United States dollar. A later-produced Canadian nickel five-cent coin was also called by the same name....
minted
United States Mint
The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...
since 1938 (with a brief interruption in 2004 and 2005, when designs of the Westward Journey series appeared instead).
Monticello also appeared on the reverse of the two-dollar bill
United States two-dollar bill
The United States two-dollar bill is a current denomination of US currency. President Thomas Jefferson is featured on the obverse of the note...
from 1928 to 1966, when the bill was discontinued. The current bill
Federal Reserve Note
A Federal Reserve Note is a type of banknote used in the United States of America. Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing on paper made by Crane & Co. of Dalton, Massachusetts. They are the only type of U.S...
was introduced in 1976 and retains Jefferson's portrait on the obverse but replaced Monticello on the reverse with an engraved modified reproduction of John Trumbull's
John Trumbull
John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings...
painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Declaration of Independence
Trumbull's Declaration of Independence
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence is a 12-by-18-foot oil-on-canvas painting in the United States Capitol Rotunda that depicts the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress...
instead. The gift shop at Monticello hands out two-dollar bills as change.
Monticello, along with the nearby University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, also designed by Jefferson, was designated a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
in 1987. Since 1923 it has been owned and operated by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
History
Work began on what historians would subsequently refer to as "the first Monticello" in 1768, on a plantation of 5,000 acres. Jefferson moved into the South Pavilion (an outbuilding) in 1770, where his new wife Martha Wayles SkeltonMartha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, born Martha Wayles was the wife of Thomas Jefferson, who was the third President of the United States. It was her second marriage, as her first husband had died young...
joined him in 1772.
After his wife's death in 1782, Jefferson left Monticello in 1784 to serve as Minister of the United States to France. During his several years' tenure in Europe, he had an opportunity to see some of the classical buildings with which he had become acquainted from his reading, as well as to discover the "modern" trends in French architecture that were then fashionable in Paris. His decision to remodel his own home may date from this period. In 1794, following his service as the first U.S. Secretary of State (1790–93), Jefferson began rebuilding his house based on the ideas he had acquired in Europe. The remodeling continued throughout most of his presidency (1801–09).
Thomas Jefferson once added a center hallway and a parallel set of rooms to the structure, more than doubling its area. He removed the second full-height story from the original house and replaced it with a mezzanine
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
bedroom floor. The most dramatic element of the new design was an octagonal dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
, which he placed above the West front of the building in place of a second-story portico. The room inside the dome was described by a visitor as "a noble and beautiful apartment," but it was rarely used—perhaps because it was hot in summer and cold in winter, or because it could only be reached by climbing a steep and very narrow flight of stairs. The dome room has now been restored to its appearance during Jefferson's lifetime, with "Mars yellow
Yellow
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
" walls and a painted green floor.
After Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, his only surviving daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph
Martha Jefferson Randolph
Martha Washington Jefferson Randolph was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. She was born in Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia and was named in honor of her mother and of Martha Washington, wife of...
inherited Monticello. The estate was encumbered with debt and Martha Randolph had financial problems in her own family because of her husband's mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
. In 1831 she sold Monticello to James T. Barclay, a local apothecary
Apothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
. Barclay sold it in 1834 to Uriah P. Levy
Uriah P. Levy
Uriah Phillips Levy was the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy, a veteran of the War of 1812 and a major philanthropist. At the time, Commodore was the highest rank obtainable in the U.S. Navy and would be roughly equivalent to the modern-day rank of Admiral...
, the first Jewish Commodore (equivalent to today's admiral) in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. A fifth-generation American whose family first settled in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, Levy greatly admired Jefferson. He used his private funds to restore and preserve the house. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the house was seized by the Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
government and sold, but Uriah Levy's estate
Estate (law)
An estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time. It is the sum of a person's assets - legal rights, interests and entitlements to property of any kind - less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person...
recovered the property after the war.
Lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
s filed by Levy's heirs were settled in 1879, when Uriah Levy's nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy
Jefferson Monroe Levy
Jefferson Monroe Levy was a three-term U.S. Congressman from New York, a leader of the New York Democratic Party, and a renowned real estate and stock speculator....
, a prominent New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
lawyer, real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
and stock speculator and member of Congress
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, bought out the other heirs and took control of the property. Like his uncle, Jefferson Levy commissioned repairs, restoration and preservation at Monticello, which was deteriorating seriously while the lawsuits wound their way through the courts in New York and Virginia.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, purchased the house from Jefferson Levy with funds raised by Theodore Fred Kuper and others. They managed additional restoration under architects including Fiske Kimball
Fiske Kimball
Fiske Kimball was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director.-Biography:Kimball was born in Newton, Massachusetts on December 8, 1888....
and Milton L. Grigg
Milton L. Grigg
Milton Grigg was a Virginia architect best known for his restoration work at Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello. In his career as an independent architect in Charlottesville, Virginia, he worked as a modernist within the Jeffersonian tradition....
. The Foundation operates Monticello and its grounds as a house museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
and educational institution. Visitors can view rooms in the cellar and ground floor, but the second and third floors are not open to the general public due to fire code restrictions. Visitors can tour the third floor (Dome), while on a Signature Tour.
Monticello is the only private home in the United States that has been designated a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. From 1989 to 1992, a team of architects from the Historic American Buildings Survey
Historic American Buildings Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
(HABS) created a collection of measured drawings of Monticello. These drawings are held by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. The World Heritage Site designation also includes the original grounds of Jefferson's University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
.
Among Jefferson's other designs are Poplar Forest
Poplar Forest
Poplar Forest was Thomas Jefferson's plantation and plantation house in what is now Forest, Virginia, near Lynchburg. He designed it and treated it as a private retreat, working on it from 1806 until his death 20 years later. "It is the most valuable of my possessions," Jefferson once wrote a...
, the home near Lynchburg
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...
which he intended for his daughter Maria, and the Virginia State Capitol
Virginia State Capitol
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government in the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital of Virginia. It houses the oldest legislative body in the United States, the Virginia General Assembly...
in Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
.
Decoration and furnishings
The original main entrance is through the portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
on the east front. The ceiling of this portico incorporates a wind plate connected to a weather vane
Weather vane
A weather vane is an instrument for showing the direction of the wind. They are typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building....
, showing the direction of the wind. A large clock
Clock
A clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...
face on the external east-facing wall has only an hour hand since Jefferson thought this was accurate enough for outdoor laborers. The clock reflects the time shown on the "Great Clock", designed by Jefferson, in the entrance hall. The entrance hall contains recreations of items collected by Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...
on their famous expedition. The floorcloth here is painted a "true grass green" upon the recommendation of artist Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Stuart
Gilbert Charles Stuart was an American painter from Rhode Island.Gilbert Stuart is widely considered to be one of America's foremost portraitists...
in order for Jefferson's 'essay in architecture' to invite the spirit of the outdoors into the house.
The south wing includes Jefferson's private suite of rooms. The library holds many books in Jefferson's third library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
collection. His first library was burned in a plantation fire, and he 'ceded' (or sold) his second library in 1815 to the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
to replace the books lost when the British burned the Capitol in 1814. This second library formed the nucleus of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
As "larger than life" as Monticello seems, the house has approximately 11000 square feet (1,021.9 m²) of living space. Jefferson considered much furniture to be a waste of space, so the dining room
Dining room
A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level...
table was erected only at mealtimes, and beds were built into alcove
Alcove
Alcove , a vault) is an architectural term for a recess in a room, usually screened off by pillars, balustrades or drapery.In geography and geology, the term Alcove is used for a wind-eroded depression in the side of a cliff of a homogenous rock type, famous from sandstones of the Colorado Plateau...
s cut into thick walls that contain storage space. Jefferson's bed opens to two sides: to his cabinet (study) and to his bedroom (dressing room).
The west front (illustration) gives the impression of a villa of modest proportions, with a lower floor disguised in the hillside.
The north wing includes two guest bedrooms and the dining room. It has a dumbwaiter
Dumbwaiter (elevator)
Dumbwaiters are small freight elevators intended to carry objects rather than people. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial and private buildings, are often connected between two floors...
incorporated into the fireplace, as well as dumbwaiters (shelved tables on castors) and a pivoting serving door with shelves.
The Slave Quarters on Mulberry Row
Jefferson located one set of his slaves' quarters on Mulberry Row, a one-thousand foot road of slave, service, and industrial structures. Mulberry Row was situated three-hundred feet south of Monticello, with the slave quarters facing the Jefferson mansion. These particular slave houses were inhabited by the slaves that worked in the mansion or in Jefferson's manufacturing ventures, and not by those that labored in the fields.Archaeology of the site shows that the rooms of the slave houses were much larger in the 1770's than in the 1790's. There is disagreement as to whether this indicates that more slaves were crowded into a smaller space or that fewer people lived in the smaller space.
Earlier slave houses had a two-room plan, one family per room, and with a single, shared doorway to the outside. But from the 1790's on, all rooms/families had independent doorways and most of the houses are free-standing, single-room structures.
At the time of Jefferson's death, some of Jefferson's slave families had labored and lived for four generations at Monticello.
Outbuildings and plantation
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
dwellings known as Mulberry Row lay nearby to the south. A stone weaver's cottage survives, as does the tall chimney of the joinery, and the foundations of other buildings. A cabin on Mulberry Row was, for a time, the home of Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
, the enslaved woman who is widely believed to have had a 38-year relationship with the widower Jefferson and to have borne six children by him, four of whom survived to adulthood. The genealogist Helen F.M. Leary concluded that "the chain of evidence securely fastens Sally Hemings's children to their father, Thomas Jefferson." Later Hemings lived in a room in the "south dependency" below the main house.
On the slope below Mulberry Row, slaves maintained an extensive vegetable garden for Jefferson and the main house. In addition for to having flowers for display and producing crops for eating, Jefferson used the gardens of Monticello
Gardens of Monticello
The Gardens of Monticello were gardens first designed by Thomas Jefferson for his plantation Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson’s detailed historical accounts of his 5,000 acres provide much information about the ever-changing contents of the gardens. The areas included a...
for experimenting with different species. The house was the center of a plantation of 5000 acres (2,023.4 ha) tended by some 150 slaves. There are also two houses included in the whole.
- Programming-
In recent decades, the TJF has created programs to more fully interpret the lives of slaves at Monticello. Beginning in 1993, researchers interviewed descendants of Monticello slaves for the "Getting Word Project", a collection of oral history that provided much new insight into the lives of slaves at Monticello. (Among findings were that no slaves adopted Jefferson as a surname, but many had their own.)
New research, publications and training for guides has been added since 2000, when the Foundation's Research Committee concluded it was highly likely that Jefferson had fathered Sally Hemings' children. Some of Mulberry Row has been designated as archeological sites, where excavations and analysis are revealing much about slave life at the plantation. In the winter of 2000-2001 the slave burial ground was discovered. In the fall of 2001 the Thomas Jefferson Foundation had a commemoration of the grounds in which the names of known slaves of Monticello were read aloud. Additional archeological work is providing information about African-American burial practices. In 2003 Monticello welcomed a reunion of descendants of Jefferson from both the Wayles' and Hemings' sides of the family. Additional and larger reunions have been held.
- Land purchase-
In 2004, the trustees acquired the only property that overlooks Monticello, the taller mountain that Jefferson called Montalto
Montalto
-Town names:* Montalto delle Marche - Municipality in the province of Ascoli Piceno, Marche, Italy* Montalto Uffugo - Municipality in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy* Montalto Dora - Municipality in the province of Turin, Piedmont, Italy...
, but known to Charlottesville residents as Mountaintop Farm, Patterson's or Brown's Mountain. To prevent development of new homes on the site, the trustees spent $15 million to purchase the property. Jefferson had owned it, and in the 20th-century, its farmhouses were divided into apartments for many University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
students. The officials at Monticello had long considered the property an eyesore, and planned to buy it when it came on the market. Monticello now charges $20 for adults and $7 for children to visit the top of the mountain and allows admission to the area only from May to October.
Architecture
The house is similar in appearance to Chiswick HouseChiswick House
Chiswick House is a Palladian villa in Burlington Lane, Chiswick, in the London Borough of Hounslow in England. Set in , the house was completed in 1729 during the reign of George II and designed by Lord Burlington. William Kent , who took a leading role in designing the gardens, created one of the...
, a Neo-Palladian house built in 1726-9 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Bob Vila
Robert Joseph "Bob" Vila is an American home improvement television show host known for This Old House , Bob Vila's Home Again , and Bob Vila .-Early life:...
A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
production, Guide to Historic Homes of America, in a tour which included the Dome Room, which is only open to the public during a limited number of tours each year, and Honeymoon Cottage.
Replicas
The entrance pavilion of the Naval Academy Jewish ChapelNaval Academy Jewish Chapel
The Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel is the Jewish chapel at the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. The center is named in honor of Commodore Uriah P. Levy , the first Jewish commodore in the United States Navy, who is famous for refusing to flog his sailors...
at Annapolis is modeled on Monticello.
Panoramas
See also
- Jeffersonian architectureJeffersonian architectureJeffersonian Architecture is an American form of Neo-Classicism or Neo-Palladianism embodied in American president and polymath Thomas Jefferson's designs for his home , his retreat , his school , and his designs for the homes of friends and political allies...
- Monticello AssociationMonticello AssociationFounded in 1913, the Monticello Association is a non-profit organization of the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States. Jefferson was the designer, builder, owner and principal resident of Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. Historically the Association has...
- Poplar ForestPoplar ForestPoplar Forest was Thomas Jefferson's plantation and plantation house in what is now Forest, Virginia, near Lynchburg. He designed it and treated it as a private retreat, working on it from 1806 until his death 20 years later. "It is the most valuable of my possessions," Jefferson once wrote a...
, Jefferson's private retreat. - Gardens of MonticelloGardens of MonticelloThe Gardens of Monticello were gardens first designed by Thomas Jefferson for his plantation Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson’s detailed historical accounts of his 5,000 acres provide much information about the ever-changing contents of the gardens. The areas included a...
External links
- Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, official site
- Myron Magnet, "Monticello's Shadows", City Journal, Autumn 2007
- World Heritage Nomination
- The Monticello Explorer, an interactive multimedia look at the house
- Thomas Jefferson Wiki
- HABS drawing
- Monticello Association, private lineage society of Jefferson descendants
- "Moving a mountain: How Monticello got Montalto back", The Hook, 5 February 2004
- Monticello restoration and Milton Grigg
- Tour Experience of Monticello
- Jefferson's Dome at Monticello
- A photographic collection of Thomas Jefferson's architecture