Virginia: Monticello, Montpelier and Highlawn

In mid-October I traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia to attend a Road Scholar trip. The topic of this trip was "Three Friends: Jefferson, Madison and Monroe".  We explored the lives, political careers and homes of these Virginia natives who were among the Founders of the Republic and it's experiment in democracy. I've been distracted by the 2016 Presidential election, among other things, since I returned. And now that the election has been decided, this trip to Virginia seems even more poignant, thought provoking and worthwhile. I share it with you here. 

But first, on the drive to Virginia I stayed overnight in Charleston, West Virginia. While there I made a stop at the West Virginia State House whose outstanding feature is the rotunda's sparkling golden dome. 

The limestone statehouse, designed by architect Cass Gilbert, was completed in 1932. Inside the State House, the dome rises 180 feet above the main floor. From its center hangs a 2 ton rock cut crystal chandelier that is 8 feet in diameter. At 292 feet total height, it is 4 1/2 feet higher than the dome of the United States Capitol building in Washington, DC.

  

Now, on to Virginia and our first stop: 
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello and the University of Virginia Academic Village.

Thomas Jefferson was born in April of 1743 in The Colony of Virginia. He was educated at the College of William and Mary and took up the practice of law upon graduation.  Jefferson is an example of a "Renaissance Man". He was perpetually curious and a student by nature. He was self taught in architecture and possessed a lasting interest in birds and the natural world. He was a student of Enlightenment philosophy, an inventor, a farmer who kept meticulous records of experiments in the "science of farming", a vintner and a man of boundless interest in a just about any academic pursuit.

Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. At age 33, he was one of the youngest delegates to the Second Continental Congress beginning in 1775 at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, where a formal declaration of independence from Britain was overwhelmingly favored. Through his friendship with John Adams who was a leader of the Congress, he was eventually assigned the task of drafting the Declaration. On July 4, 1776, the Congress ratified the Declaration and delegates signed it on August 2. In doing so, they were committing an act of treason against the Crown. Jefferson's preamble is regarded as an enduring statement of human rights and one of the most compelling sentences in the English language.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". 

Thomas Jefferson was a "career politician".  During his lifetime he served in the Virginia State Legislature, as Governor of Virginia, Member of the Federal Congress, Minister to France, Secretary of State under President Washington, and Vice President under John Adams. From 1801-1809 he served as the 3rd President of the United States.

Monticello - West Side

When Jefferson was 14 his Father passed away and the family estate (plantation) was divided among the two sons. At age 21 Thomas Jefferson assumed full control of nearly 5,000 acres, including the land where he would build his beloved home, Monticello. 

Just a note: No interior photography allowed at any of the homes!  Despite a very interesting docent led tour of the interior, I cannot share any inside photos. The interior detail certainly reinforced the idea of Jefferson as an inquisitive man of countless interests and pursuits. 

Monticello sits atop a lofty hill in Albemarle County, Virginia. Choosing the scenic mountaintop for his plantation house, Jefferson expressed his ideas of how a house and its natural landscape could interact. From 1768 onward, Jefferson spent more than four decades designing, dismantling and re-imagining the estate he called his “essay in architecture.”  Monticello is the result of his passion and enthusiasm.

On this, the south side of Monticello, is the Greenhouse. Here Jefferson experimented with horticulture, growing flowers and fragrant plants such as orange trees. Attached to the Greenhouse (at the left and right) Jefferson added two outdoor porches with moveable slats that control the amount of light entering the space

Jefferson laid out a flower border along a gravel walk that encircles the West lawn. The flowering season was coming to an end when we visited in mid-October. Nonetheless, one could imagine a Spring or early Summer stroll around the serpentine flower walk.

Let there be no doubt, Monticello was not merely a residence, it was a working plantation. Thomas Jefferson was a proud member of the Virginia plantation aristocracy and Monticello was home to enslaved African Americans whose duties included all manner of activities necessary to the economic success of the plantation. Jefferson was a man of intellectual, philosophical and political contradictions and the ownership of slave is but one example. The paradox is part of the legacy of the man who wrote that all men are created equal yet made no secret of ambivalence toward the institution of slavery.

 The Garden Pavilion, vegetable gardens and, in the distance, the Textile shop along Mulberry Row.

In addition to its architecture, Monticello is renowned for its extensive gardens, which Jefferson, an avid horticulturist, designed, tended and painstakingly monitored. The garden, located on the south slope of the plantation, functioned as a laboratory where he grew 330 varieties of some 99 species of vegetables and herbs using cultivation techniques that were revolutionary for the time. Every year that he resided at Monticello, he kept a log of its flora–as well as the insects and diseases that ravaged them–in a diary known as the Garden Book. 

Below the Garden Pavilion are some of the vineyards of Monticello.  A connoisseur of European wines, Jefferson also attempted to plant a number of different grape varietals at Monticello. Although not successful as a vintner, it is an example of his avid pursuit of his interests.

In 1808 Jefferson chose to not run for a third term as President of the United States. He retired to Monticello after a long political career. In 1809 he completed the second re-building of the home and continued to pursue his interests during an active retirement.  

Jefferson died at Monticello on July 4, 1826 exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and only a few hours before his old friend and rival, John Adams passed away. His tomb is in the family cemetery at Monticello.

Jefferson designed his own tombstone including his 3 greatest achievements

1. Author of the Declaration of Independence
2. Author of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom
3. Father of the University of Virginia

 In 1923 the Thomas Jefferson Foundation was founded and the Monticello property was purchased from the Levy family who had been devoted caretakers for nearly 100 years. The Foundation has meticulously restored the house, grounds, and working plantation landscape to their appearance when Jefferson lived there.

Next stop: The campus of the University of Virginia

As Jefferson stated on his tombstone, he regarded the establishment of the University of Virginia as one of his greatest achievements. The idea had been growing in his mind for a number of years and while still President in 1805 he wrote a letter to a member of the Virginia legislature  proposing and "Academical Village". 

In 1817 a Cornerstone was laid but there were many hurdles ahead in getting the project to completion. In 1819 the Virginia legislature gave approval for a "state university". Jefferson's Academical Village did not open to students until 1825.
 
Jefferson's original architectural design revolves around the Academical Village, and that name remains in use today to describe both the specific area of the Lawn, a green space surrounded by residences for both students and professors, lecture halls and other academic buildings. 

 The Lawn and the Rotunda were the model for many similar designs of "centralized green areas" at universities across the country. 

 View of the Lawn from the Rotunda.

  

The space was designed for students and professors to live in the same area.

The principal building, the Rotunda, stands at the north end of the Lawn, and is the most recognizable symbol of the university. It was modeled after the Roman Parthenon.  

Detail of Corinthian Columns and Dome.

Skylight in Dome of the Rotunda

The bustling campus would be unrecognizable to him today.

Next stop: Montpelier, home of James and Dolly Madison.

 

James Madison was born in 1751 in Port Conway, Virginia. Like his close friend Thomas Jefferson, Madison came from a prosperous family of Virginia planters, received an excellent education, and quickly found himself drawn into the life of politics and the formation of the new democracy. He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and in 1776  Madison served in the Virginia state legislature where he met and became a protégé of Thomas Jefferson.

Montpelier, a tobacco farming plantation established by Madison's Grandfather, was his home throughout his life. Madison inherited the large plantation and other holdings, including his father's 108 slaves, at age 50 when his Father died.

Madison's lifelong home may have been Montpelier but his focus was on the birth and success of the U.S. experiment in Democracy. In 1780 Madison became the youngest member of the Continental Congress. The result was the Articles of Confederation.

 View from the front porch of Montpelier

It was Madison who urged then President Washington to call the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. In preparation for that event Madison spent months in the Library at Montpelier studying different forms of government. He developed the idea of a government based on a system of checks and balances with three branches of government. The U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788 and Madison became known as the "Father of the Constitution". One of the most compelling moments of the trip was standing in the very Library at Montpelier where Madison spent time studying and developing the theories that became the basis for the U.S. Constitution. 

Madison was then elected to the House of Representatives in 1789. He drafted and introduced the Bill of Rights, guaranteeing civil liberties, which were ratified in 1791.

James Madison served as Secretary of State under President Thomas Jefferson from 1801-1809.

He became the 4th President of the US in 1809 and served two terms, leaving office in 1817. 

In 1817 Madison retired to Montpelier. The plantation has declined over the years due to falling tobacco prices and poor management in his absence. He sustains his friendship with Thomas Jefferson and assumes leadership of the University of Virginia upon Jefferson's death. 

Madison, at 85 years old, dies peacefully at home, the last of the Founding Fathers. 

Montpelier was owned by the DuPont family from 1901 to 1984. Annie DuPont installed these formal gardens. In 2000 the Montpelier Foundation became the steward of Montpelier. Restoration began in 2003 and was completed in 2008.

Considerable archaeological work is being done at Montpelier to document the experience and contributions of the approximately 300 enslaved men, women and children who lived and labored at Montpelier over three generations of Madison family ownership. On the day we visited active excavation was taking place. In an effort to educate and provide a clearer picture of the political, social and economic realities of the early Republic, the living quarters of the slaves are being rebuilt at Montpelier based on evidence found. The proximity of the slave quarters to the Mansion at Montpelier provides of picture of the close association of field hands, domestic servants and skilled craftsmen to the plantation owners despite the relationship being one of hierarchy and ownership of "property". 

And on to our final stop: James Monroe and Highland.

Born on April 28, 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, James Monroe was the son of farmers who raised tobacco on their farm of approximately 500 acres. The future President studied at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, from 1774 until 1776. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, enlisting in the Continental Army’s Third Virginia Infantry Regiment.
After serving, Monroe met Governor Thomas Jefferson, with whom he began to study the law in Richmond in the spring of 1780. Monroe and Jefferson became lifelong friends.

In 1793 Monroe purchased 1,000 acres of land near to both Monticello and Montpelier. He named his plantation Highland and it would be home to his family for 25 years. Monroe, like Jefferson and Madison, was a slaveholder. However, his primary lifelong dedication was to politics and the law. And he was often not present at Highland. The history is one of a succession of white overseers and enslaved African Americans who built and ran the plantation. The outcome was unsuccessful both financially and from the standpoint of the relationship between owner and his overseers and slaves. In 1826 Monroe sold the property which included his enslaved "property". Although he stipulated that the enslaved families be kept together, there was no guarantee for their future. Another of the complicated and damaging truths of the institution of slavery.

James Monroe came to the presidency as one of the most qualified men ever to assume the office.  His fifty years of public service began in 1782. His resume included service in the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress, and the U.S. Senate. Monroe also served as governor of Virginia, served in diplomatic posts as Minister to England and Spain, and held two cabinet appointments. Under President Madison he was both Secretary of State and Secretary of War.

James Monroe was the last American President of the “Virginia Dynasty”—of the first five men who held that position, four hailed from Virginia.  In 1817 Monroe became the 5th President of the United States. He was elected to a second term in 1820 and served until 1825.  He died in New York City on July 4, 1831.

Compared to Monticello and Montpelier, Monroe's Highland appears to be very modest and "unpresidential"( to use a phrase we hear a lot of these days!) So...back to archeology and some surprising findings as recent as April of 2016.

It turns out that for generations a modest two-room structure standing on James Monroe’s property was thought to be the main residence of the fifth U.S. president from 1799 to 1823. However, recent archaeological excavations, combined with tree-ring dating of wood on the property, show that a sizable foundation uncovered in the yard was in fact the Monroe family residence, built in 1799. The more modest house standing today, long thought to have been the president’s residence, appears to have been constructed nearly two decades later, during Monroe’s first term in the White House.

The discovery, which will be followed up by more extensive excavations, promises to offer a fresh look at the history of Highland. 
 

This trip also included a series of lectures given by two educators who were both passionate and well informed on the topic. They lent a great deal to the field trips. The fact that this trip took place during a fractious presidential campaign lent even more to the study of the evolution of our system of government and the legacy of the Founders. It is by no means a 100% positive story as the shadow of slavery still darkens our nation. But there is value (and perhaps inspiration) in remembering that our government and way of life was a radical departure by those who sought freedom from oppression in a new land. And there were those who came forward to craft the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights and then worked within the political framework to guide the experiment forward. 

Thanks for sharing this trip. 

Check out the previous posting for pictures of the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park, also part of this trip.