Monticello
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- This is about the Jefferson residence. For other uses, see Monticello (disambiguation).
Monticello, located near Charlottesville, Virginia, is the estate of Thomas Jefferson. The house is of Jefferson's own design and is situated on the slope of a small hill (his "monticello") in the Southwest Mountains south of the Rivanna Gap. An image of the west front of Monticello is featured on the reverse of the 5 cent coin of the United States of America and on the reverse of the United States of America two dollar bill that was printed from 1928 to 1966.
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History
Work began on Monticello in 1768, and Jefferson moved into the South Pavilion (an outbuilding) in 1770. The original design was based on the classical style of Palladian architecture. When Jefferson left Monticello in 1784 for extended travels in Europe, the original design of the house was largely completed except for porticos and decorative interior woodwork. Upon his return, Jefferson expanded his vision for Monticello to incorporate features of Palladian buildings and ruins he admired overseas. Further work to the new design began in 1796. Construction of Monticello was substantially completed in 1809 with the erection of the dome.
The Jefferson family sold Monticello to James T. Barclay, a local apothecary, in 1831. Barclay sold it in 1834 to Uriah P. Levy, the first Jewish American to serve an entire career as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy. Levy greatly admired Jefferson. During the Civil War, the house was seized by the Confederate government and sold, though the Levy family eventually recovered it. A private, nonprofit organization — the Thomas Jefferson Foundation — acquired the house in 1923. Monticello is now operated as a museum and educational institution. Visitors can view rooms in the cellar and ground floor, but the top floor is not open to the general public.
Monticello is the only home in the United States of America that has been designated a World Heritage Site. From 1989 to 1992, a team of architects from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) painstakingly created a collection of measured drawings of Monticello. These drawing are now kept at the Library of Congress. The World Heritage Site designation also includes the original grounds of Jefferson's University of Virginia. Jefferson called these grounds the Academical Village. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., a University of Virginia historian, wrote a dissertation on the construction of the original buildings on campus.
Among Jefferson's other designs are his other home near Lynchburg called Poplar Forest and Virginia's capitol building in Richmond.
Decoration and furnishings
Much of Monticello's interior decoration reflect the ideas and ideals of Jefferson himself.
The original main entrance is through the portico on the east front. The ceiling of this portico incorporates a dial 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 labourers. The clock reflects the time shown on the "Great Clock" (designed by Jefferson) in the entrance hall. The entrance hall contains articles collected by Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition. The floorcloth here is painted grass green, since Jefferson wanted it to feel as if he were still in the outdoors when he walked in the door.
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 donated his second library to Congress to replace the books burned by the British. This second library formed the nucleus of the Library of Congress. As famous and "larger than life" as Monticello seems, the house itself is actually no larger than a typical large home. 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 alcoves 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 very modest proportions, with a lower floor disguised in the hillside.
The north wing includes the dining room -- which has a dumbwaiter incorporated into the fireplace as well as dumbwaiters (shelved tables on castors) and a pivoting serving door with shelves -- and two guest bedrooms.
Outbuildings and plantation
The main house was augmented by small outlying pavilions to the north and south. A row of functional buildings (dairy, wash houses, shorehouses, etc.) and slave dwellings known as Mulberry Row lay nearby to the south. Little trace of these outbuildings remains.
The house was the center of a plantation of 5,000 acres (20 km²), tended by some 150 slaves.
