The water supply at Monticello was a constant struggle for those living on the mountaintop. In 1769, when construction began on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson directed a crew of enslaved workmen to dig a well near the South Pavilion. The men spent 46 days digging through 65 feet of rock.[1] Dry weather conditions, however, caused the well to fail for six of the years between 1769 and 1797.[2] Whenever the well ran dry, enslaved laborers had to cart water up from springs lower down on the mountain.[3]
In 1808, Jefferson ordered construction of four eight-foot-cube cisterns.[4] The cisterns were positioned near the house to capture rainwater running off the roofs and terraces.[5] Work on the new project began in 1810, but it took many years of trial and error to create a waterproof plaster before the cisterns held rainwater — and even then, it was never a perfect system.[6]
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