How do we know what Monticello looked like during Jefferson’s time? Monticello has been called one of the best-documented plantations, and the same goes for the house interior; we are lucky to have a wealth of correspondence, visitor accounts, and even diagrams from Jefferson’s time. Today, we take...
Writing to fellow architect Benjamin Labtrobe seven months after retiring from the presidency, Jefferson described Monticello as his "essay in architecture." Always balancing practicality with beauty, Jefferson noted his essay "has been so much subordinated to the law of convenience, & affected...
Most exterior shutters today are eye-pleasing accents, decorative but not functional. But for Thomas Jefferson, shutters provided shade from what he described as "the constant, beaming, almost vertical sun of Virginia" while permitting airflow from summer breezes. They also protected the expensive...
The winter of 1803-1804 was particularly busy for President Thomas Jefferson. The Barbary Pirate War smoldered, the U.S. flag was raised over New Orleans for the first time, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition .
On February 5, 1769, Thomas Jefferson replied to his cousin’s request that his son study law under him. Writing from Shadwell , his boyhood home, Jefferson said he must decline: "I do not expect to be here more than two months in the whole between this and November next, at which time I propose to...
This summer, Monticello’s Restoration Department will be removing the East Portico’s mid-20th-century wooden beadboard ceiling and restoring its Jefferson-era finish, a traditional three-coat lime plaster. An 1807 letter from mason and plasterer Hugh Chisholm to Jefferson provides the best...
Begun in 1768, the South Pavilion is the first brick building built on Monticello’s mountaintop, and the first home of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha after they were married in 1772. It has one particular identifying feature that separates it from other buildings: the roof. Originally covered...
Monticello is one of the most beautiful and recognizable houses in America. It’s elegant and harmonious, and it was revolutionary for American architecture at the time. If you ever need a quick reminder of its features, just fish a nickel out of your pocket. So, when I saw a listing for a...
Monticello's former Robert H. Smith Director of Restoration, Bob Self, demonstrates the making a mortise and tenon joint, one of the classic techniques that would have been used by joiners James Dinsmore and John Hemmings at Monticello.
The Entablature on the mantel above the fireplace in Jefferson's bed Chamber matches the room's entablature except for one unusual (and non-canonical) detail: the acorn decorations between the dentils.
