Joinery
The
foundations and chimney are all that survive of the Monticello
joinery. Here, some of the finest architectural woodwork in Virginia
was shaped and joined, in the forty-year course of the construction
and reconstruction of the Monticello house. Also made in the joinery
were a number of pieces of furniture and the wooden parts of Jefferson's
carriages. Many pieces of joinery-made furniture, including the
drop-leaf work table used by Martha Jefferson for sewing (shown
at left), are presently on display in the house.
Jefferson
hired highly skilled white joiners to come to Monticello to
make all the visible woodwork in the house -- the decorative
wall moldings, floors, and some window sash. Men like James
Dinsmore and John Neilson, who later worked at President James
Madison's Montpelier and the University of Virginia, passed
their skills on to Jefferson's slaves. After 1809, when the
white workmen left, black artisans like John Hemmings carried
on the exceptional work of the Monticello joinery.