This year, the Restoration Department concluded their research into the design of Monticello’s original exterior “Venetian” blinds. The search ultimately led them from Monticello to the U.S. Capitol.
Monticello has always been a work in progress, overflowing with Thomas Jefferson’s brilliance and complexity, his designs and experiments. For nearly a century, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has worked step by step to restore Monticello and its signature mountaintop landscape to the period of Jefferson’s retirement.
At the southwestern end of Mulberry Row, Monticello’s principal plantation street, are the ruins of Jefferson’s ca. 1770 joiners’ shop. The shop was used by Jefferson’s free and enslaved carpenters to produce fine architectural woodwork and furniture until Jefferson’s death in 1826.
As a gentleman farmer, Thomas Jefferson was among the most forward thinking of his peers – he grew fruit trees grafted onto dwarfing rootstock, championed native species, imported European varieties, commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition for flora, and was the earliest American to reference garden plants widely found at nursery centers today. But perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of Jefferson’s plantsmanship was his use of microclimate – something that took nearly 170 years to fully appreciate.
Monticello’s iconic west front has been undergoing a major change in the past few months. The columns on the West Portico (aka Southwest Portico) are being restored to their original Jefferson-era appearance.
On May 22, 1957, Marilyn Monroe and her husband of less than a year, Arthur Miller, walked into Monticello, hoping to take a tour without anyone recognizing them. Unfortunately for them, their hopes were dashed almost immediately.
Today, I am pleased to announce Monticello has received a $10 million gift from David M. Rubenstein, philanthropist and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group.
David M. Rubenstein, philanthropist and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group announced a $10 Million gift to Monticello during Monticello's Annual Cabinet Retreat.
How do you accurately restore a wall paint that has been missing for over 170 years? This is a question that frequently confronts Monticello’s Restoration Department. Most recently it was the focus of an investigation in the second floor bedroom that Jefferson called the “North Octagon Room.”
ADDRESS:
931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway
Charlottesville, VA 22902
GENERAL INFORMATION:
(434) 984-9800