Highland

Note: Much of this article about the house built by James Monroe is out of date. Please see Washington Post article, At Virginia home of President Monroe, a sizable revision of history, dated April 28, 2016.

Highland (formerly known as Ash Lawn-Highland) was the plantation home of President James Monroe. Located in Albemarle County, Virginia, Monroe and his wife Elizabeth owned the property, originally named Highland, from 1793 until 1826 and lived there from 1799 until 1823. In 1799, Monroe completed the original farmhouse, now the western portion of the present house. The location of the house was chosen by Thomas Jefferson, who wanted his friend's home within view of his own nearby Monticello.^[1] Over the course of the next two decades, Monroe continued to add on to the original house, which he called his "castle cabin."^[2] In 1823, the Monroe family left Highland, and in 1826 the property was sold.^[3] Subsequent owners made numerous changes and additions to the house, as well as changing the name of the property to Ash Lawn (today it is again referred to as Highland). In 1931 the house was opened to the public by Jay Winston Johns, who bequeathed the property to the College of William and Mary, Monroe's alma mater, in 1974. Since then, the College of William and Mary has undertaken restoration efforts on both the house and the property, including the slave cabins.

Further Sources

• Highland website.
• Cunningham, Noble E. Jefferson and Monroe: Constant Friendship and Respect. Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2003.
• Fennell, Christopher. "The Ash Lawn-Highland Plantation and James Monroe's Landholdings." Report commissioned by Ash Lawn-Highland and the Institute for Public History at the University of Virginia, 1998.
• Owens, Christopher. "Mapping Highland: A Geo-Temporal Jigsaw Puzzle." Magazine of Albemarle County History 68 (2010): 53-77.
• Preston, Daniel, ed. The Papers of James Monroe. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003- . 6 volumes to date, covering 1776-1814 and Monroe's presidential tours in 1817, 1818, and 1819. See the project website at the University of Mary Washington for more details.
• Virginia Department of Historic Resources Nomination Form for Ash Lawn-Highland (PDF).