The piercing ring of metal striking metal mingles with the sizzling fumes of a roaring forge. On Mulberry Row, a worker pounds smelted ore into nails – a mainstay of life at Monticello, circa 1790. Nearby, two men shape softened wood into strips for baskets. Another, a cooper, bends wood into barrels.

We are fortunate to happen upon the estate on a plantation community weekend, when interpreters bring the daily work of a colonial estate to life. Thomas Jefferson housed and fed up to 100 people – free and slave – who tended the gardens, worked wood, spun flax, and otherwise kept the estate in motion during his absences.

Standing tall over the busy estate is the house, an architectural monument reflecting the mind of the man who called it home. It commands a sweeping view of the surrounding countryside, the foothills of the Blue Ridge. Jefferson called it the “Little Mountain,” his favorite boyhood playground. By 1768, he’d acquired 5,000 acres and began building his home. The untimely death of his wife Martha in 1782 spurred him to public service, and he traveled to France. Provincial architecture affected him to the extent he re-designed and remodeled his home after returning in 1789.

Jefferson’s architectural quirks reflect his inventiveness and practicality. Each room is an octagon or a half-octagon, to spread light evenly around the room, banishing dark corners. Thanks to plenty of windows, the rooms seem to meld into the outdoors. The entrance hall contains no grand staircase – Jefferson considered it a waste of space – but provides access to all major rooms. To the east, the sitting room, decorated in a soft blue, served as the central command post for family business. Behind it, Jefferson’s library looks out onto the tree-draped porch and greenhouse. Adjoining is his observatory and bedroom, with a high skylight and creamy red velvet walls. In another space-saving move, Jefferson’s bed is built in between the walls of the two rooms, so he could rise out of bed in either room!

Parquet wood floors add a distinctive touch to the formal parlor. The adjoining cozy dining room, decorated with watercolors of Niagara, Natural Bridge, and other geologic wonders, features a Jefferson-designed revolving “serving door” and wine-bottle-sized dumbwaiter that allowed servants to send the repast into the room without entering the room.

James Madison and his wife Dolly frequently visited Monticello – enough so that Jefferson set up a first floor guestroom especially for them. With its own private terrace entrance, the room features beds tucked into alcoves, to save floor space, and a goodly amount of storage space above the beds.

A long, all-weather passage runs beneath the house – a first in home design – and at each end of the passage: a privy, built into the ends of the basement. The north terrace shelters the stables and an igloo-shaped icehouse with an earthen top. Providing fuel for the icebox, the 16-foot-deep icehouse held 62 wagon loads of ice! The south terraces shades the kitchen, smokehouse, and dairy.



IF YOU GO
A comfortable seven hour drive from Pittsburgh, Charlottesville sits just east of Rockfish Gap. Follow I-70 east to US 522 south; I-81 south to I-64 east. Monticello is 2 miles SE of Charlottesville along VA 53, off the VA 20 south exit.

After boarding a bus from the parking area, visitors enjoy a brief ride up the hill to a waiting area. Knowledgeable tour guides lead small groups into the house every few minutes. The tour encompasses only the first floor of the home; photography is not permitted. Careful perusal during the tour will reveal a wealth of artifacts not duplicated in any museum. After the tour, visitors are welcome to wander the lawns and gardens at their leisure. Thanks to Thomas Jefferson’s love of botany, the estate contains many unique and unusual species of trees and flowers. For information about plantation community weekends, call the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation at 804-984-9822, or visit their website at www.monticello.org

If planning a weekend getaway, be sure to visit two other distinctive historic sites near Monticello: James Madison’s Montpelier estate, and James Monroe’s Ash Lawn. A college town, Charlottesville offers a wide range of accommodations.

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