Browse by Interest



The Rooms
bullet Entrance Hall (1)
bullet South Square Room (2)
bullet Library (3), or Bookroom
bullet South Piazza (4), or Greenhouse
bullet Cabinet (5)
bullet Jefferson's Bedchamber (6)
bullet Parlor (7)
bullet Dining Room (8)
bullet Tea Room (9)
bullet North Octagonal Room (10)
bullet North Square Room (11)
bullet Dome Room Panorama

Related Links
bullet House FAQ
bullet "Our Breakfast Table"
   
Related Books
bullet Dining at Monticello
bullet Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello

Home » House, Gardens, Plantation » House » Room-by-Room Tour »

Printer-friendly formatTea Room

View of Monticello's Tea Room

Dimensions: 15' 1"x 11' 2"; ceiling 17' 11" (shown on left; Dining Room is right)

Order: Doric

Source: A building in Albano, Italy, depicted in Freart, Parallel de l'Architecture Antique avec la Moderne

Color: Unpainted plaster; today the room is painted to replicate a plaster finish

Purpose of Room: Dining area; reading and writing area for Jefferson

Architectural features: double pocket doors on rollers (QuickTime Movie: Dining_Room_doors.mov, 162 K) separate the western-most, and coldest, Tea Room from the Dining Room; based on one of Jefferson's favorite architectural shapes, the octagon

Furnishings of Note: Jefferson referred to the room as his "most honorable suite" because in it he displayed many likenesses of his friends and American heroes, including busts of Franklin, John Paul Jones, Lafayette, and Washington; the room had a reading and writing arrangement perhaps similar to the one Jefferson kept in his Cabinet; at one time the room had a stove in a semi-circular niche in wall.