When did Thomas Jefferson build Monticello?
Architecture of the United States
Thomas Jefferson also designed the buildings for his plantation Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. Monticello is a tribute to the Neo Palladian style, modeled on the Hôtel de Salm in Paris, that Jefferson saw while the ambassador to France. Work on Monticello commenced in 1768 and modifications continued until 1809. This American variation on Palladian architecture borrowed from British and Irish models and revived the tetrastyle portico with Doric columns. This interest in Roman elements appealed in a political climate that looked to the ancient Roman Republic as a model
Gardens of Monticello
A winding walk is bordered by flower beds, and twenty oval beds are planted at the corners of the house. The twenty oval beds were each planted with a different flower species with bulbs and seeds provided mainly by Bernard McMahon, a Philadelphia nurseryman. The plans for the winding flower border were laid out in 1808 and the garden was planted and tended to by Jefferson's daughters as well as elderly slaves. The winding path, modeled after English gardens which Jefferson had admired in 1786, was located behind the house. Instead of rigid, straight lines, the garden took a more natural, curved path. To keep the garden organized, Jefferson divided the border into 10-foot sections and had each section planted with a different species of flower.
Bremo Historic District
The overall design of the mansion was initiated by John Hartwell Cocke with master builder John Neilson (c.1770 - 1827), who had worked with Thomas Jefferson on Monticello. The architecture is believed to be based on the Palladian style utilized by Jefferson. Although the original plans were destroyed in a fire in 1894, students of Jeffersonian architecture who had seen the drawings said that they had recognized them as the work of Jefferson himself. It has been called "the most magnificent conception of a house" in America.
Jefferson nickel
In early May, it was reported that the Mint required some changes to Schlag's design prior to coining. Schlag's original design showed a three-quarters view of Monticello, including a tree. Officials disliked the lettering Schlag had used, a more modernistic style than that used on the eventual coin. The tree was another source of official displeasure; officials decided it was a palm tree and incorrectly believed Jefferson could not have been growing such a thing. A formal request for changes was sent to Schlag in late May. The sculptor was busy with other projects and did not work on the nickel until mid-June. When he did, he changed the reverse to a plain view, or head-on perspective, of Monticello. Art historian Cornelius Vermeule described the change:
Official taste eliminated this interesting, even exciting, view, and substituted the mausoleum of Roman profile and blurred forms that masquerades as the building on the finished coin. On the trial reverse the name "Monticello" seemed scarcely necessary and was therefore, logically, omitted. On the coin as issued it seems essential lest one think the building portrayed is the vault at Fort Knox, a state archives building, or a public library somewhere.
The designs were submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts for their recommendation in mid-July; the version submitted included the new version of Monticello but may not have included the revised lettering. The Commission approved the designs. However, Commission chairman Charles Moore asked that the positions of the mottos on the reverse be switched, with the country name at the top; this was not done. After the Fine Arts Commission recommendation, the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, approved the design.
Monticello Association
While there have been some changes in the Monticello Association during the past 100 years, the scope and purposes of the Monticello Association have remained the same, as stated in Article II of its Constitution. Somewhat abbreviated, they are: (i) to preserve and care for the graves and grounds of the Monticello graveyard, (ii) to protect and perpetuate the reputation and fame of Thomas Jefferson, and (iii) to encourage association and friendship among Mr. Jefferson's descendants. Additional purposes of The Monticello Association include: (i) to defend the property rights of the lineal descendants of Col. T. J. Randolph as owners of the original Monticello graveyard, and (ii) to affirm the rights of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson to burial in the addition to the Monticello graveyard as provided in the covenant under which this property was deeded.
Naval Academy Jewish Chapel
The building was designed by Maryland architect Joseph Boggs. The entrance pavilion has elements related to the center bay of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Levy purchased Monticello in 1834 and restored it because of his admiration for Jefferson, who died in 1826. The chapel includes a nearly 45-foot-high wall that is a replica of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The wall is made of Jerusalem stone. The roof of the building is constructed of copper. The architecture of the exterior is consistent with nearby Bancroft Hall.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation
In 1987 Monticello, along with the University of Virginia, were jointly inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in recognition of their "outstanding universal value." This marks Monticello as the only presidential home in America on the World Heritage List.
Monticello Historic District (Monticello, Georgia)
Monticello Historic District is a historic district in Monticello, Georgia. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 8, 1997. It is generally bounded by College Street, Eatonton Street, Forsyth Street, Hillsboro Street, Washington Street, Funderburg Drive, and Madison Drive. It includes Monticello's town square area. Monticello purchased and renovated the Benton Supply Department Store (1903) for its City Hall and uses its sales room as Monticello's Visitor Center. Heritage tourism is promoted through membership in Georgia's Historic Heartland Travel Association and a historic preservation ordinance was passed in 1988 and is overseen by the Monticello Historic Preservation Commission. The central commercial area and neighboring residential areas include Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Second Empire, Colonial, Neoclassical, English Tudor, and Craftsman architecture.
Monticello
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". The gift shop at Monticello hands out two-dollar bills as change.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation
The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants was established in 1986 and is concerned with the collection, preservation, and distribution of historic plant varieties and the study of their origins and evolution. It covers not only plants that were grown at Monticello, but also plants that were cultivated elsewhere in America.
Leroy F. Aarons
In the last decade of his career, Aarons turned to opera, writing the libretto for "Monticello". Composed by Glenn Paxton, "Monticello" portrays the love affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. L. A. Theatre Works produced the original work in 2000.
John Hemings
In the Monticello Joinery, Thomas Jefferson hired white joiners to train and work side by side with enslaved joiners. John Hemmings received his first instructions at 17 years of age in 1793, when Thomas Jefferson wrote to his son-in-law Tom Randolph and asked Randolph to make sure Hemmings received training from the house joiner David Watson to fashion wheels and work with wood. The Monticello Joinery was well-stocked, as Jefferson was intensely engaged in refashioning his properties, and always had projects to complete. Hemmings therefore had the benefit of both materials and experience. Hemmings later worked as principal assistant to James Dinsmore, another Monticello joiner.
Monticello AVA
The Monticello AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in the central Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is named for Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson, located near the center of the area. The Monticello AVA includes most of the counties of Albemarle, Greene, Orange, and Nelson. The area is nestled along the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains and encompasses the small ridge known as the Southwest Mountains. There are approximately 30 varieties of grapes grown in the Monticello AVA. However, the most notable grapes grown in the area include Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and Viognier. The hardiness zone is 7a except in some higher vineyards which are 6b.
Monticello
As "larger than life" as Monticello seems, the house has approximately 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 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).
John Hartwell Cocke
Cocke was a longtime associate of former president Thomas Jefferson, and he sometimes traded for items grown at Jefferson's Monticello estate. Cocke collaborated with James Madison, James Monroe, and Joseph Carrington Cabell to fulfill Jefferson's dream to establish the University of Virginia. Cocke and Jefferson were appointed to the building committee to supervise the construction of the new university. Cocke's conservative practicality occasionally clashed with Jefferson's creative aesthetics, such as his opposition to Jefferson's flat roof design, which he thought would compromise the durability of buildings for students.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
The school underwent renovation, completed in April 2017, for a cost of about $89 million, including $67.4 million for construction, plus other costs related to permits, design fees, utilities and equipment. A replica of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello dome graces the school’s entrance, colloquially known as "The Dome" by students and staff. The renovation overhauled the school's aging facilities, many of which had not been updated since it was built in 1964.
Monticello
Much of Monticello's interior decoration reflects 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 slaves. 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 the cross-country expedition commissioned by Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson had the floorcloth painted a "true grass green" upon the recommendation of artist Gilbert Stuart, so that Jefferson's "essay in architecture" could invite the spirit of the outdoors into the house.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation
Monticello had a contract purchase price of $500,000, the first $100,000 of which the Foundation paid by December 1923 to the property's prior owner, Jefferson Monroe Levy. This initial payment was a landmark for the Foundation, as the transaction allowed it to assume the title to Monticello. The Foundation also sought to raise $500,000 for an endowment fund, which would be used to maintain Monticello and create plans that would "foster the ideals of Jefferson". In moving beyond the planning stages and taking physical possession of Monticello, the Foundation surpassed prior attempts by similar organizations and groups in the preceding half-century that never got beyond preliminary negotiations. "The Washington Post" noted that the Foundation's successful payment "has set to rest any misgivings that may have existed that the foundation's plan would end without result".
Palais de la Légion d'Honneur
The Hôtel de Salm was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who singled it out as a model for the American public buildings of Washington, DC. He had observed its construction during his stay in Paris in 1784–1789, and his design for Monticello, his own estate, was based on it. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, a three-quarter scale replica of the Hôtel de Salm, was constructed in San Francisco in 1924; it houses a fine arts museum.
Monticello Store and Post Office
Monticello Store and Post Office is a historic general store and post office located at Monticello, Fairfield County, South Carolina, United States. It may have been built as early as 1820, and is a one-story, frame, weatherboarded, T-shaped building. The front façade features an undercut gallery with a pedimented gable supported by octagonal wooden columns. The building was used as a store and post office after the American Civil War until the mid-1960s.
Monticello Courthouse Square Historic District
Monticello was founded in 1837 as a commercial center for the future Piatt County, which was considered too far from Decatur to reasonably conduct trade there. The original town plat covers all but four blocks of the historic district, with the remainder coming from one of the city's first additions. When Piatt County was formed in 1841, Monticello was named the county seat, and its population and development both increased in the ensuing years. Merchant J.C. Johnson built the city's first brick building at 204-206 West Washington Street in 1856; the building is the oldest surviving structure in the district. In the same year, Monticello gained its own newspaper, the "Monticello Times", and the county built a new courthouse. Development accelerated further after the Illinois Central Railroad and Chicago and Paducah Railroad began service to Monticello in the 1870s. The city received a major civic development in 1897, when the Town Hall and Opera House and the Allerton Library both opened in a new building. The third county courthouse, which still serves as the seat of county government, was built in 1903-04; by this point, the courthouse square had become the established center of local commerce.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation
The Foundation was officially launched at the University of Virginia, which Jefferson founded. During 1924 the Foundation opened Monticello to the general public and began repair and maintenance work on the property, which had fallen into disrepair. That same year architectural historian Fiske Kimball was named as the Chairman of the Restoration Committee and would serve in a leading role in Monticello's restoration until his death. In the following year the National Education Committee was formed to "promote restoration of Monticello and to spread Jeffersonian ideals".
State visits to the United States
Many foreign heads of state over the years have also visited Monticello (the home of Thomas Jefferson) over the years, sometimes accompanied by the U.S. president and sometimes not. The first trip to Monticello by a visiting foreign head of state was made by Indonesian Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir in September 1947.
Frederick Winslow Hatch
Hatch then served in Charlottesville, Virginia from 1820–1830, and while there, the original Christ Church was erected (1824-'25), this was the first denominational building in the village. The plan for the church was furnished, though not designed, by Thomas Jefferson, but it was demolished in 1895. He also preached at Buck Mountain Episcopal Church and Walker’s during this time. The Hatch’s home was about two miles down the road from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Family members recalled waving to General Lafayette, James Madison and other revolutionary figures on their way to see the former President.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation
In 1927 Monticello's Great Clock was repaired and during the following year the Foundation restored the slave quarters under the south terrace. In the following years the Foundation restored more of the plantation as closely to its original state as possible. It has bought additional land that formerly belonged or pertained to Jefferson, including the Shadwell plantation where the President was born (purchased in 1963), one of his original farms, Tufton (purchased in 1968), and Montalto (acquired in 2004). The Foundation now owns roughly 2,500 acres of Jefferson's original 5,000-acre estate at Monticello, of which it has put 1,060 acres under permanent preservation easements.
Gardens of Monticello
Thomas Jefferson's interest in flowers and planting can be dated to 1766, when he began documenting his naturalistic observations in his Garden Book. Jefferson wrote detailed descriptions of the blooming patterns of various species of flowers in his family garden at his house in Shadwell, Virginia. Jefferson's interest was also sparked by the extensive literature on the subject of gardening including Philip Miller's "The Gardener's Dictionary", Bernard McMahon's the "American Gardner's Calendar" and Thomas Whately's "Observations on Modern Gardening". His approach to gardening was heavily influenced by Thomas Whaley's work and his description of the technique of naturalistic gardening.
Edmund Bacon (1785–1866)
Edmund Bacon (1785–1866), was the business manager and primary overseer for 20 years for Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, at Monticello. Among some of his other business duties, Bacon supervised the daily chores and activities of farming and ranching at Monticello along with Jefferson's nail forge. His duties included supervising and providing supplies and other needs for Jefferson's slaves. When he retired, Bacon moved to Kentucky and was discovered by the author Rev. Hamilton Pierson, who made use of his memoirs and letters to write a book about Jefferson's personal life and character. The memoirs of Bacon's life at Monticello has given much insight into the daily activities there, as well as into Jefferson's life and personality.
Gardens of Monticello
Jefferson inherited Monticello in 1757 and moved there in 1770. There is little documentation of any planting until 1807, most likely due to Jefferson's travels to France in 1784 and the preliminary landscaping that had to be completed. After the land was cleared, roads were built, and trees and shrubs were planted, Jefferson began planning the layout of his gardens. He collected many plants from the surrounding countryside, but also from abroad. André Thouin, Jefferson's friend and the Superintendent of the "Jardin des Plantes" at Paris, sent Jefferson seeds from Europe. The gardens contained many exotic species, including the empress tree from China and Japan Jefferson also had flowers from nurseries sent to him up the James and Rivanna rivers to a town near Monticello. Supplying water to the many plants at Monticello was a continuous problem for Jefferson. In 1808 Jefferson began the construction of four cisterns to collect water channeled from the roofs of buildings into gutters.
Monticello
After Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, his only official 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 Turner 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 Savannah, Georgia, Levy greatly admired Jefferson and used private funds to repair, restore and preserve the house. The Confederate government seized the house as enemy property at the outset of the American Civil War and sold it to Confederate officer Benjamin Franklin Ficklin. Levy's estate recovered the property after the war.
History of Virginia on stamps
Monticello was one of the three shrines featured in the Liberty Series (1954-1968), appearing on a 20-cent stamp designed by William K. Shrage. This was issued at Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia on April 13, 1956, Jefferson's 212th birthday. The vignette shows the west, "Garden Front" of Jefferson's home.
Monticello Arcade
Monticello Arcade is a historic shopping arcade located in Norfolk, Virginia. It was built in 1907 on land leased from the Selden Grandy Estate, and is a three-story, Beaux Arts style steel frame building faced in molded and polychromed terra cotta. Both the facades are seven bays in length and are composed of a two-story Ionic order surmounted by an elaborate cornice, with an attic story above. The interior plan consists of a longitudinal mall open to the roof, lit by skylights,
and entered through the central bay of each facade.
Monticello
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 and their descendants. (Among findings were that no slaves adopted Jefferson as a surname, but many had their own surnames as early as the 18th century.)
Randolph Jefferson
The Monticello Jefferson-Hemings Report (2000) noted that Randolph made only four recorded visits to Monticello (in September 1802, September 1805, May 1808, and sometime in 1814); none is related to Sally Hemings's conceptions. In August 1807, a probable conception time for Eston Hemings, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his brother about visiting, but there is no evidence that the younger man arrived. Similarly, no documentation of a Randolph visit appears at the probable conception time for Madison Hemings.
Monticello Seminary
Monticello Seminary (also Monticello Female Seminary), founded in 1835, was an American seminary, junior college and academy in Godfrey, Illinois. The campus was the oldest female seminary in the west, before it closed in 1971. The buildings are now part of Lewis and Clark Community College.
Monticello
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 south of Monticello, with the slave quarters facing the Jefferson mansion. These slave cabins were occupied by the slaves who worked in the mansion or in Jefferson's manufacturing ventures, and not by those who labored in the fields.
At one point, "Jefferson sketched out plans for a row of substantial, dignified neoclassical houses" for Mulberry Row, for enslaved blacks and white workers, "having in mind an integrated row of residences." Henry Wiencek argues: "It was no small thing to use architecture to make a visible equality of the races."
Monticello, Utah
Early names for the settlement were North Montezuma Creek, Piute Springs, and Hammond, after the stake president. In a formal meeting in 1888, three names were under consideration: North Montezuma, Hammond, and the biblical name, Antioch. None of the names were approved by the younger members of the community. When Hammond recommended Monticello, in honor of Thomas Jefferson’s estate, everyone approved and it was accepted.
Monticello Association
This Graveyard had its beginning in an agreement between two young men, Thomas Jefferson and Dabney Carr, who were schoolmates and friends. They agreed that they would be buried under a great oak which stood here. Carr, who married Jefferson's sister, died in 1773. His was the first grave on this site, which Jefferson laid out as a family burying ground. Jefferson was buried here in 1826. The present monument is not the original, designed by Jefferson, but a larger one erected by the United States in 1883. Its base covers the graves of Jefferson, his wife, his two daughters, and Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, his son in-law.
Jefferson County Jail (Monticello, Florida)
Jefferson County Jail is a national historic site located at 380 West Dogwood Street, Monticello, Florida in Jefferson County. The Masonry Vernacular building was constructed in 1909, with alterations in 1940 and 1960.
National Museum of African American History and Culture
In January 2012, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History partnered with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (which owns Jefferson's home, Monticello) to create a major new exhibit, "Slavery at Jefferson's Monticello: Paradox of Liberty." The exhibition opened on January 12, 2012, at the National Museum of American History, and closed on October 14, 2012. The exhibit received nationwide attention, garnering articles from sources such as the Associated Press, Huffington Post, National Public Radio, the "New York Times", United Press International, "USA Today", and the "Washington Post". The exhibit was created by Rex Ellis (an associate director of the NMAAHC) and Elizabeth Chew (a curator at Monticello). It was accompanied by a companion book, "'Those Who Labor for My Happiness': Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello", by Lucia Stanton. NMAAHC director Lonnie Bunch III said that the exhibit explored one way in which slavery might be presented at the National Museum of African American History and Culture when it opens in 2015.
Jeffersonian architecture
Jeffersonian architecture is an American form of Neo-Classicism and/or Neo-Palladianism embodied in the architectural designs of U.S. President and polymath Thomas Jefferson, after whom it is named. These include his home (Monticello), his retreat (Poplar Forest), a college he founded (University of Virginia), and his designs for the homes of friends and political allies (notably Barboursville). Over a dozen private homes bearing his personal stamp still stand today. Jefferson's style was popular in the early American period at about the same time that the more mainstream Greek Revival architecture was also coming into vogue (1790s–1830s) with his assistance.
Thomas Jefferson and slavery
Thomas Jefferson was born into the planter class of a "slave society," as defined by the historian Ira Berlin, in which slavery was the main means of labor production and elite slaveholders were the ruling class. He was the son of Peter Jefferson, a prominent slaveholder and land speculator in Virginia, and Jane Randolph, granddaughter of English and Scots gentry. Peter Jefferson died suddenly in 1757, leaving the 14-year-old Thomas a large estate. When Jefferson turned 21, he inherited of land, 52 slaves, livestock, his father's notable library, and a gristmill. In 1768, Thomas Jefferson began to use his slaves to construct a neoclassical mansion known as Monticello, which overlooked the hamlet of his former home in Shadwell. Both were in Albemarle County in the Piedmont area.
History of early modern period domes
Although never very popular in domestic settings, domes were used in a number of 18th century homes built in the Neo-Classical style, including the 1720s Chiswick House, in West London, and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, begun in the 1770s. Monticello's dome was the first to be built on an American home.
Thomas Jefferson and slavery
At Monticello, an outdoor exhibit was installed to represent slave life. The "Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row at Monticello" makes use of archeological and other research to establish the outlines of cabins for domestic slaves and other outbuildings near the mansion. Field slaves were held elsewhere. (See each online at https://www.webcitation.org/67RzbOQyr?url=http://www.slaveryatmonticello.org/slavery-at-monticello/life-monticello-plantation/treatment)
Lawn
Thomas Jefferson has long been given credit for being the first person to attempt an English-style lawn at his estate, Monticello, in 1806, but many others had tried to emulate English landscaping before he did. Over time, an increasing number towns in New England began to emphasize grass spaces. Many scholars link this development to the romantic and transcendentalist movements of the 19th century. These green commons were also heavily associated with the success of the Revolutionary War and often became the homes of patriotic war memorials after the Civil War ended in 1865.
Gardens of Monticello
Monticello had two orchards, vineyards, berry patches, and a nursery, all known by Jefferson as his "fruitery." The North orchard included only apple and pear trees that were used by Jefferson to produce ciders. The South orchards were planted around the vineyards and berry patches and included fruits such as apple, peach, cherry, pear, plum, nectarine, almond, apricot, and quince. Underneath the vegetable terrace was a large vineyard with both native and foreign species of vines. Jefferson was also famous for his berry squares. These patches of berries were used both for fruit and Jefferson's experiments at growing tropical fruit in the Virginia climate.
Monticello Association
In his will, Jefferson conveyed the graveyard to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., his daughter Martha's husband, and then in trust to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. He named his eldest grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, as his executor. The original section of the graveyard was given to T. J. Randolph's descendants under a restrictive covenant deed and will, and a subsequent section given to all of the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson under a restrictive covenant deed. 
Thus from its inception, the Monticello graveyard has been available to all lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson and has been managed and cared for by The Monticello Association as a single unit. Burials in the Monticello graveyard continue to this day.
Monticello Historic District (Monticello, Florida)
The Monticello Historic District is a U.S. Historic District (designated as such on August 19, 1977) located in Monticello, Florida. The district includes an irregular area along Madison, Jefferson, Dogwood, and Washington Streets and contains 41 historic buildings.
John Hemings
At the Monticello Joinery, Hemmings contributed to both the improvements Jefferson made to Monticello and the construction of Poplar Forest.
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
The design for "The Papers of Thomas Jefferson" was created by Goudy Award-winning designer P. J. Conkwright of Princeton University Press, and one element of the design was a new Linotype font created for the edition. Called Monticello, the font was based on typefaces from Jefferson's era. In 2003 the English typographer Matthew Carter transformed the font into digital format.
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 flower garden, a fruit orchard, and a vegetable garden. Jefferson, a connoisseur of trees, flowers, and gardening techniques, was highly interested in experimental planting and directed the design of the gardens, which contained many exotic seeds and plants from his travels abroad.
Francis Quadrangle
The plaque on the gravestone reads "This original marker, placed at the grave of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, Virginia in 1826, constructed from his own design, was presented July 4, 1883, by the Jefferson heirs to the University of Missouri. First state university to be founded in the Louisiana Territory purchased from France during President Jefferson's administration. The obelisk, dedicated on this campus at commencement June 4, 1885, commemorates Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, whose faith in the future of western America and whose confidence in the people has shaped our national ideals; commemorates the author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia statute for religious freedom, founder of the University of Virginia, fosterer of public education in the United States."
Uriah P. Levy
The Levy family's role in preserving Monticello was downplayed by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation through much of the 20th century, which Urofsky suggests was due to anti-Semitic views among some of its board and members.
Jefferson Monroe Levy
In 1879 at the age of 27, he took control of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. His late uncle Uriah P. Levy had purchased the property in 1834, several years after Jefferson's death. Like his uncle, Levy spent a considerable part of his fortune in having Monticello and its grounds restored and preserved. In 1923, the property was purchased by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (then known as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation), a privately established group formed to purchase and operate Monticello as a memorial. It has since operated the site and mansion as a house museum. The Levy family privately protected the National Historic Landmark for nearly a century because of their regard for Thomas Jefferson and on behalf of the American people.
John Hemings
In 1809, Hemmings assumed responsibility for the Monticello joinery. At this time, most of the exterior of Monticello was finished, but the interior was not yet complete, and most of the furniture was decades old. The joinery changed focus and began creating furniture, both for Monticello and for Jefferson's second home at Poplar Forest. The Monticello Joinery was responsible for desks, chairs, and tables, often created from Jefferson's own designs. Hemmings likely made much of the furniture and other woodwork created in the Monticello joinery after 1809, but only eight works are positively attributed to him through records: a "Campeachy" (campeche) chair, boxes made to hold books Jefferson sold to Congress, a desk for Jefferson's granddaughter Ellen Randolph Coolidge, a bedstead, a chess table, Pembroke tables, a hanging cabinet, and a dressing table. The boxes were destroyed, the desk was lost in a shipwreck, the Pembroke tables likely were destroyed in a fire at Poplar Forest, and the bedstead and dressing table remain unlocated. The hanging cabinet, made of walnut and poplar and meant to house the doll clothes of Jefferson' granddaughter Septimia Anne Randolph, was bequeathed to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation in 1957.
Villa
In many ways the late 18th century Monticello, by Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, United States is a Palladian Revival villa. Other examples of the period and style are Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland; and many pre-American Civil War or Antebellum Plantations, such as Westover Plantation and many other James River plantations as well dozens of Antebellum era plantations in the rest of the Old South functioned as the Roman Latifundium villas had. A later revival, in the Gilded Age and early 20th century, produced The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island, Filoli in Woodside, California, and Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.; by architects-landscape architects such as Richard Morris Hunt, Willis Polk, and Beatrix Farrand.
Abolitionism in the United States
In 1820, Thomas Jefferson privately supported the Missouri Compromise, believing it would help to end slavery, but his views on slavery were complicated, and possibly contradictory. His will freed only a small fraction of Monticello plantation.
John Hemings
In 2012, "Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty", an exhibition co-presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, opened in the NMAAHC Gallery at the National Museum of American History. This exhibition highlighted Jefferson's paradoxical dual positions as the drafter of the Declaration of Independence and a slaveholder. Some of the objects on display were the "Campeachy" (campeche) chair Hemmings created for Jefferson, a copy of the French chairs at Monticello attributed to the joinery, and a hanging cabinet Hemmings created.
Gardens of Monticello
Thomas Jefferson loved to garden. He fell in love with designing gardens immediately after his inheritance of Monticello in 1757. Jefferson wanted to construct the gardens of Monticello from his own naturalistic point of view, and thus gathered materials from travelers all over the United States and other countries as well. Many of his acquaintances knew of his passion for gardening and often sent him various seeds and plants. With this assortment of seeds, Jefferson cultivated and designed his Monticello gardens according to his vision. First, Jefferson proposed a 1000-foot vegetable garden which he called the "hanging garden." Once sown, the "hanging garden" was divided into twenty-four different growing parcels according to what was being harvested. For example, one section contained fruits, while others contained roots and leaves. Jefferson also ordered the creation of a "ferme ornee" or ornamental farm. Here, he chose to plant a large tree of varying shades of scarlet, set up rows of purple, white, and green broccoli surrounding the tree, and planted smaller cherry trees along a picturesque walkway. To complete his masterwork, Jefferson designed a pavilion to overlook his gardens and built four roads providing access to them.
While Jefferson's gardens did provide his family with food, their primary purpose was to serve as his laboratory where he experimented with hundreds of different types of vegetables from all over the world. He was as meticulous in his experimentation as he had been with his design. He kept a garden book, titled the Garden Kalender, in which he documented every success and failure. He logged the exact dates his seeds were initially planted. He also noted when leaves appeared and when the flowers blossomed. Thomas Jefferson enjoyed experimenting with his gardens and working to produce fruits that were difficult to grow, such as pears, plums, and apricots, even though he rarely succeeded. In his garden book, Jefferson stated that his favorite fruit was the Carnation cherry. He believed it was "superior to all the others." Jefferson also took great interest in the production of grape vines. He aspired to make Monticello-grown wine, but he often failed at his attempts to cultivate grapes. Not willing to give up, Jefferson imported several different vines from America and Europe but never achieved his goal. Still, Jefferson's hard work did not go unnoticed. Near the end of his life, he received an award from the French Society of Agriculture for his unique invention of a plow moldboard, which assisted the cutting blade and was advancement in plow creation. He loved presenting his work to guests of Monticello and was proud that his gardens were constantly evolving throughout his life.
The Hemingses of Monticello
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family is a 2008 book by American historian Annette Gordon-Reed. It recounts the history of four generations of the African-American Hemings family, from their African and Virginia origins until the 1826 death of Thomas Jefferson, their master and the father of Sally Hemings' children.
Monticello Association
The "O.S." refers to the Old Style or Julian calendar in-use when he was born. (His birthday under the New Style or Gregorian calendar is April 13). Jefferson further directed that these memorials be made from "the coarse stone of which my columns [at Monticello] are made, that no one might be tempted hereafter to destroy it for the value of the materials." The obelisk was fabricated by John M. Perry and James Dinsmore, who had earlier helped Jefferson as carpenters and builders of Monticello, and placed over his grave with a white marble slab around the base.
While the three achievements listed by Mr. Jefferson for his tombstone were certainly major accomplishments, he omitted many others.
Monticello, Utah
Monticello ( ) is a city located in San Juan County, Utah, and is the county seat. It is the second most populous city in San Juan County, with a population of 1,958 at the 2000 census. The Monticello area was settled in July 1887 by pioneers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Monticello, named in honor of Thomas Jefferson's estate, became the county seat in 1895 and was incorporated as a city in 1910.
Monticello
Levy's heirs argued over his estate, but their lawsuits were settled in 1879, when Uriah Levy's nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy, a prominent New York lawyer, real estate and stock speculator (and later member of Congress), bought out the other heirs for $10,050, and took control of Monticello. Like his uncle, Jefferson Levy commissioned repairs, restoration and preservation of the grounds and house, which had been deteriorating seriously while the lawsuits wound their way through the courts in New York and Virginia. Together, the Levys preserved Monticello for nearly 100 years.
Monticello, Missouri
Following the establishment of Lewis County on January 2, 1833 two commissioners, Stephen Cleaver and Joshua Fensel, were tasked with finding a suitable location for the county seat. They passed on selecting already established villages like Tully and Canton along the Mississippi River and instead selected a location near the geographic center of the new county. An early settler, Andrew P. Williams, donated sixty acres of land and the town was laid out in the fall of 1833. However it would not be surveyed until the next year.
John Neilson (architect)
Sometime in 1804 Neilson would meet Thomas Jefferson, who was then the third President of the United States. From that point until 1808 Neilson would live and work as a joiner at Monticello, Jefferson's home in Albemarle County, Virginia. It was at Monticello that Neilson began his long collaboration with fellow master joiner James Dinsmore, who was also an Irishman from Ulster.
Monticello
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. Since that time, other restoration has been performed at Monticello.
Thomas Jefferson
In 1768, Jefferson began constructing his primary residence Monticello (Italian for "Little Mountain") on a hilltop overlooking his plantation. Construction was done mostly by local masons and carpenters, assisted by Jefferson's slaves.
Uriah P. Levy
An admirer of Thomas Jefferson, Levy purchased and began the restoration of Monticello in the 1830s; he also commissioned and donated a statue of Jefferson that is now located in the Capitol Rotunda; it is the only privately commissioned artwork in the Capitol.
Thomas Jefferson Randolph
He had been close to his grandfather and was appointed executor of his estate in his will of 1826. Randolph had begun to manage Monticello for his mother and grandfather for a short period during Jefferson's last years. Because the estate was heavily encumbered by debt, Randolph ordered the sale of Monticello goods and property, including the 130 slaves. His mother withheld Sally Hemings from the auction and gave her "her time," which informally allowed her to live freely in Charlottesville, Virginia with her two younger sons. Jefferson had formally freed Madison and Eston in his will, after allowing their older sister and their older brother to "run away" in 1822.
Monticello
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 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 (1790–1793), Jefferson began rebuilding his house based on the ideas he had acquired in Europe. The remodeling continued throughout most of his presidency (1801–1809). Although generally completed by 1809, Jefferson continued work on the present structure until his death in 1826.
Monticello
At Jefferson's direction, he was buried on the grounds, in an area now designated as the Monticello Cemetery. The cemetery is owned by the Monticello Association, a society of his descendants through Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. After Jefferson's death, his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph sold the property. In 1834 it was bought by Uriah P. Levy, a commodore in the U.S. Navy, who admired Jefferson and spent his own money to preserve the property. His nephew Jefferson Monroe Levy took over the property in 1879; he also invested considerable money to restore and preserve it. In 1923, Monroe Levy sold it to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF), which operates it as a house museum and educational institution.
Monticello Association
The Monticello Association was founded in 1913 to care for, preserve, and continue the family graveyard at Monticello. It is a non-profit organization whose members include the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States, and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. Jefferson was the designer, builder, owner, and, with his family, first residents of Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Martha Jefferson Randolph
After business reverses and the death of her husband, she considered establishing a school. The state legislatures of South Carolina and Louisiana each donated $10,000 to her for her support. Increasing financial difficulties obliged her to sell Monticello. The property was finally sold to James T. Barclay in 1831. He sold it in 1834 to Uriah P. Levy, a wealthy United States naval officer (later the first Commodore of the Navy) and Jefferson admirer. Although Levy was then based in New York, his Sephardic Jewish ancestors had been resident in the South for five generations. Levy invested his own funds in renovating and preserving Monticello.
Monticello
The main house was augmented by small outlying pavilions to the north and south. A row of outbuildings (dairy, a washhouse, store houses, a small nail factory, a joinery etc.) and slave's quarters (log cabins), 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 household slave 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.
Mortise lock
An early example of the use of mortise locks in conjunction with rim locks in one house comes from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. In 1805, Jefferson wrote to his joiner listing the locks he required for his home. While closets received rim locks, Jefferson ordered twenty-six mortise locks for use in the principal rooms. Depictions of available mortise lock hardware, including not only lock mechanisms themselves but also escutcheon plates and door pulls, were widely available in the early nineteenth century in trade catalogues. However, the locks were still expensive and difficult to obtain at this time. Jefferson ordered his locks from Paris. Similarly, mortise locks were used in primary rooms in 1819 at Decatur House in Washington, D.C. while rim locks were used in closets and other secondary spaces.
Godfrey, Illinois
The village is named for Captain Benjamin Godfrey, a native New Englander, who arrived in the area in 1832. 1838 saw the establishment of the Monticello Female Seminary, later renamed Monticello College. Captain Godfrey, the father of eight daughters, was an advocate of higher education for women and made a large donation of funds and land for the college. Monticello operated as a two-year college for women until the campus was sold in 1970 to establish Lewis and Clark Community College. Monticello's final class graduated in 1971.
Monticello, Missouri
By 1878, the Monticello business district included the following: The Lindell Hotel at the corner of Perry and Lafayette streets, the Monticello Savings Bank and United States Post Office on Lafayette across from the courthouse, the Southern Hotel, the Monticello House (a boarding/hostel house), the schoolhouse, two churches, a weekly newspaper, the "Monticello Journal" and the Monticello Seminary. The latter was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1872 but closed by 1887. The population of Monticello was estimated at 350 by the late 1890s.
Monticello High School (Wisconsin)
The original school house was built in 1902, on the north end of town. In 1912 it was decided to build a new school closer to the center of the town. It was completed in 1913 and was built where the current one is. The first yearbook was printed in 1927 and the Principal at the time was Mr. Corydon L. Rich. The first graduating class to wear caps and gowns was the class of 1932. The elementary wing was added in 1958, along with the now named Rehmstedt Gym. It is named after Mr. Rehmsted who donated $32,000 to the School. In 1980 the original school building was demolished and replaced with the current high school office and rooms, the Rhemsted gym flooded that year right before the school year started and part of the gym was unusable. In 1996 a new gym which is called the Elmer Lemon Gym, computer labs, and music rooms were added.Monticello's mascot is the Pony. It is inspired by John Ponyicsanyi, a former basketball coach and high school Business Education teacher. He has since been elected into the Wisconsin Basketball Coach's Association Hall of Fame. John Ponyicsanyi son, Jack, played for his fathers basketball team. Jack says today, that there wasn't a mascot before the Ponies, but the Monticello Basketball team (with Coach Ponyicsanyi) was AMAZING! They then decided that we should be named the Ponies after Coach John Ponyicsanyi.Monticello High School's athletics program offers Varsity Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Softball, Cross Country, Track and Field, Wrestling. Monticello High School also offers Band, Choir, FFA, FCCLA, and FBLA.
Gardens of Monticello
In 1938, president of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Stuart Gibboney, contacted The Garden Club of Virginia about Monticello. He asked the club to help restore the gardens and its members agreed. When preparing to repair the gardens, members of the Garden Club of Virginia discovered that Jefferson's garden book had been left behind. Upon reading it, they found Jefferson had included his desired plans for restoration in it. The Garden Club worked to follow Jefferson's wishes, renovating the home and gardens according to his design. The renovations brought the life and beauty of the past back to the gardens.
Jefferson County Courthouse (Florida)
The Jefferson County Courthouse is an historic Classical Revival style courthouse building located in Monticello, Florida. Built in 1909, it was designed by Georgia-born American architect Edward Columbus Hosford, who is noted for the courthouses and other buildings that he designed in Florida, Georgia and Texas. The builder was Mutual Construction Company of Louisville, Kentucky whose bid for the project was $39,412.
Martin W. Littleton
During Littleton's term in Congress, his wife Maud was sought as a Washington hostess. She also spearheaded a campaign during the 1910s to get Congress to purchase Monticello, the former home of Thomas Jefferson which was deteriorating under its then-owner, and make it a public monument. Due to this campaign, she became known in the Hearst newspapers as "The Lady of Monticello". Despite obtaining the support of President Woodrow Wilson, other prominent people including Henry Watterson, William Jennings Bryan, and Henry Cabot Lodge, and the public, Maud Littleton's campaign was ultimately unsuccessful. Monticello was eventually purchased in 1923 by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, a private non-profit organization.
Jefferson County Middle / High School
Also referred to as Monticello High School, the historic former school building is located at 425 West Washington Street. On March 25, 1999, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Huss &amp; Dalton
In the summer of 2008, the tree Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip poplar tree) on Thomas Jefferson's historic Monticello estate was felled due to old age and decay. Records indicate that Jefferson planted the tree outside his bedroom window, around 1807. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation contacted Huss & Dalton to determine if any remaining wood was suitable for one or more guitars. Although most of the tree was unusable, the pair found several boards of guitar-suitable wood. The company introduced a limited series of Monticello guitars whose proceeds they shared with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Palladian architecture
The politician and architect Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) once referred to Palladio's " Quattro Libri" as his bible. Jefferson acquired an intense appreciation of Palladio's architectural concepts, and his designs for his own beloved Monticello, the James Barbour Barboursville estate, Virginia State Capitol, and the University of Virginia were based on drawings from Palladio's book. Realizing the powerful political significance pertaining to ancient Roman buildings, Jefferson designed his civic buildings in the Palladian style. Monticello (remodelled between 1796 and 1808) is quite clearly based on Palladio's Villa Capra, however, with modifications, in a style which is described in America today as Colonial Georgian. Jefferson's Pantheon, or Rotunda, at the University of Virginia is undeniably Palladian in concept and style.
John Patterson Jones
In 1804, Jones built the first house in what later became the Village of Monticello. He was Postmaster of Monticello for nearly 40 years.
Arlington Cemetery (Pennsylvania)
The Monticello Mausoleum is loosely modeled after the original Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson. There is a bronze bell under the dome that was cast in the foundry of Paul Revere. The bell was originally made for a church in Vermont, the bell was then moved to Pennsylvania.
Whole-house fan
Before the development of electrical power the principle of cooling a building by designing it to draw in cooler air from below and vent it from the top was known. In the absence of the forced air movement produced by a fan, careful design to promote cooling air flow was required. Thomas Jefferson, US president from 1801 to 1809, was personally involved in the designs of his residences at Monticello and Poplar Forest, and was aware of these techniques. Monticello had a large central hall and aligned windows designed to allow a cooling air-current to pass through the house, with an octagonal cupola at the top of the house drawing hot air up and out through natural convection.
Jeffersonian architecture
Monticello, along with the nearby University of Virginia, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
Simon Willard clocks
In subsequent years, Simon Willard visited Thomas Jefferson at his home, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. There they held many conversations. On one occasion, Thomas Jefferson invited Willard to chop a young tree down. Subsequently, Jefferson transformed it into a cane. It was given a silver mount that read: "Thomas Jefferson to Simon Willard, Monticello."
Uriah P. Levy
Following two lawsuits by family members over Levy's will, with 47 parties to the suit, in 1879 his nephew Jefferson Monroe Levy bought out the other heirs for $10,050, and took control of Monticello. He had it repaired and restored. He sold it in 1923 to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, which has renovated and restored the property as a house museum.
Jefferson Monroe Levy
Jefferson Levy's uncle Uriah P. Levy, the first Jewish commodore (highest rank at the time) of the US Navy, had bought Monticello and some related property in 1834. He had spent much money to restore and preserve the house and grounds, which he used as a summer retreat. During the American Civil War, the Confederacy took control of the property. After the war, the lawyers of Levy's estate regained it for his heirs. In 1879, after buying out the other heirs of his uncle Uriah P. Levy for $10,050, Jefferson Levy took control of Monticello (formerly the plantation of Thomas Jefferson).
Thomas Jefferson Foundation
The Foundation has published multiple works that focus on the history of Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, and slavery at the plantation. Its first publication, a series of six small books called the "Monticello Papers", appeared between 1923 and 1936. Other published works include "A Passion for Nature: Thomas Jefferson and Natural History, Jefferson and Science, Jefferson and Monroe: Constant Friendship and Respect," and "Letters from the Head and Heart: Writings of Thomas Jefferson."
Monticello, Georgia
Monticello is the largest city and the county seat of Jasper County, Georgia, United States. The city includes historic buildings such as the Jasper County Courthouse, Monticello High School and the Monticello Historic District. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is southeast of Atlanta.
Hammond–Harwood House
The initial design of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello was taken from the Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese, Italy, in Book II, Chapter XV of "I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura", but this façade was later covered up by Jefferson's own expansions to his house. Thomas Jefferson made two drawings of the Hammond–Harwood House when he served the government in Annapolis in 1783–4. One could assume that Jefferson recognized the house as derived from Palladio because his knowledge of "The Four Books of Architecture" was extensive. He referred to the book as his architectural "bible" and the plate of the Villa Cornaro follows the Villa Pisani plate; and directly opposite the Villa Cornaro in some 18th-century English transcriptions of the work.
The Hammond–Harwood House is a five-part brick house with a five-bay two-story central block, two-story end wings and one-story connecting hyphens on either side. The central block has a shallow hipped roof. The wings project toward the street with three-sided hipped-roof bays. The hyphens are rendered as a blind arcade, with the central bay a door opening with a pediment above. There is little decoration, with plain rubbed brick flat arches over the windows. Ornament is confined to the central bay, whose door is framed by engaged Ionic columns and topped by a fanlight. Above the door the second floor window is framed with a surround and entablature.
African-American heritage of presidents of the United States
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello, the major public history site on Jefferson, characterizes Jefferson's parents this way: "His father Peter Jefferson was a successful planter and surveyor and his mother Jane Randolph a member of one of Virginia's most distinguished families." They describe the quote in "The Johnny Cake Papers" as one frequently repeated, but it is attributed in written sources to the 1800 rather than the 1796 election campaign and clearly is one made by political opponents. "The Johnny Cake Papers" were a collection of folk tales published in 1879, not 1867, and only one tale commented on Jefferson. The Foundation states:
Longview, Washington
The Longview area was first settled by European-Americans, led by pioneers Harry and Rebecca Jane Huntington, in 1849. The area was named Monticello in honor of Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia. In 1852 a group assembled in what would be called the "Monticello Convention" to petition Congress for statehood to be called "Columbia". Congress agreed to statehood but as Washington, after President Washington, to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia. A monument to the convention is located near the Longview Civic Center.
Monticello Association
On Saturday afternoon, after public visiting hours, The Monticello Association holds a private reception and open house at Monticello. Guided tours of the House and grounds are provided by the staff of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. This practice began in 1970. On Saturday evening the family has a social occasion, which began shortly after World War II. In recent years this activity has become more organized, and the family recently has been gathering at Michie Tavern, an historic and famous tavern of the 1700s located on Monticello mountain, just below Monticello. The tavern staff provides guided tours of the museum, which contains an extensive collection of pre-revolutionary furniture and artifacts. A buffet supper is also served featuring typical dishes of the colonial era, with period music provided by a strolling minstrel. These social occasions provide opportunities for members of the family from all over the country to get together on an informal basis. From these gatherings have grown close friendships between distant cousins who otherwise would not know one another.
Monticello
In 2017 a room identified as Sally Hemings' quarters at Monticello, adjacent to Jefferson's bedroom, was discovered in an archeological excavation. It will be restored and refurbished. This is part of the Mountaintop Project, which includes restorations in order to give a fuller account of the lives of both slave and free families at Monticello.
Monticello AVA
The earliest recorded attempts at winemaking in the area occurred in the 1770s, when Thomas Jefferson provided financial support to Italian winemaker, Phillip Mazzei, who made a small quantity of wine from the native grapes, but without much success. Jefferson gave Mazzei significant acreage less than south of Monticello for the purpose of growing grapes. The area was planted in 1774. In 1776, with the advent of the Revolutionary war, Jefferson and George Washington dispatched Mazzei back to Italy to solicit war funding from the Duke of Tuscany. As was the practice at that time, Mazzei rented his home, in this instance to the Hessian cavalry officer Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, a prisoner of war who had been captured at Saratoga and was imprisoned in the Charlottesville barracks. Riedesel moved his entire staff up to Mazzei's home and turned their horses out to pasture in the infant vineyards. The vineyards were destroyed.
Uriah P. Levy
In 1985, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation restored the gravesite of Rachel Levy and honored descendants of the family in a ceremony at Monticello. The Foundation also celebrates the roles of Uriah P. Levy and Jefferson Monroe Levy in helping preserve and restore Monticello, including on-site information about their roles.
Early life and career of Thomas Jefferson
In early June 1781, Cornwallis dispatched a 250-man cavalry force commanded by Banastre Tarleton on a secret expedition to capture Governor Jefferson and members of the Assembly at Monticello. Tarleton hoped to surprise Jefferson, but Jack Jouett, a captain in the Virginia militia, thwarted the British plan by warning the governor and members of the Assembly. Jefferson and his family escaped and fled to Poplar Forest, his plantation to the west. Tarleton did not allow looting or destruction at Monticello by his troops.
Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation
The Foundation gave the address of a Sioux Falls, South Dakota law office as the location of its campus, something over which a lawyer at that office expressed "outrage". According to Bear, this lawyer had filed the incorporation documents for Thomas Jefferson Education Foundation, as well as for other schools later determined to be diploma mills, including Monticello University (aka "Thomas Jefferson University"), a school begun by Les Snell. Monticello University was "an unauthorized foreign non-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of South Dakota" that, along with several other of Snell's schools, was shut down by the government in 1999.