Monticello
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Jefferson residence. For other uses, see Monticello (disambiguation).
| Monticello | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Albemarle County, nearCharlottesville, Virginia, USA |
| Coordinates | 38°00′37.01″N78°27′08.28″WCoordinates: 38°00′37.01″N 78°27′08.28″W |
| Built | 1772 |
| Architect | Thomas Jefferson |
| Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical, Palladian |
| Governing body | The Thomas Jefferson Foundation |
| Official name: Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville | |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | i, iv, vi |
| Designated | 1987 (11th session) |
| Reference no. | 442 |
| Region | Europe and North America |
| Designated | October 15, 1966[1] |
| Reference no. | 66000826 |
| Designated | December 19, 1960[2] |
| Designated | September 9, 1969[3] |
| Reference no. | 002-0050 |
 
Location of Monticello in Virginia
| |
Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who, after inheriting quite a large amount of land from his father, started building Monticello when he was 26 years old. Located just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, in the Piedmont region, the plantation was originally 5,000 acres (20 km2), used for extensive cultivation of tobacco and mixed crops, with labor by slaves. Like other planters, Jefferson shifted from tobacco cultivation to a wheat plantation to respond to changing markets.
The house, which Jefferson designed, was based on the neoclassical principles described in the books of the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. He reworked it through much of his presidency to include design elements popular in late 18th-century Europe. It contains many of his own design solutions. The house is situated on the summit of an 850-foot (260 m)-high peak in the Southwest Mountains south of the Rivanna Gap. Its name comes from the Italian "little mountain". The plantation, in time, included numerous outbuildings for specialized functions, a nailery, and quarters for domestic slaves along Mulberry Row near the house; gardens for flowers, produce, and Jefferson's experiments in plant breeding; plus tobacco fields and mixed crops. Cabins for field slaves were located farther from the mansion.
At Jefferson's direction, he was buried on the grounds, an area now designated as the Monticello Cemetery, which is owned by the Monticello Association, a lineage society of his descendants through Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson.[4] After Jefferson's death, his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph sold the property. In 1834 it was bought by Uriah P. Levy, a commodore in the U.S. Navy, who admired Jefferson and spent his own money to preserve the property. His nephew Jefferson Monroe Levy took over the property in 1879; he also invested considerable money to restore and preserve it. He held it until 1923, when he sold it to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which operates it as a house museum and educational institution. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1987 Monticello and the nearby University of Virginia, also designed by Jefferson, were together designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Contents
[hide]Design and building[edit]
Jefferson's home was built to serve as a plantation house, which ultimately took on the architectural form of a villa. It has many architectural antecedents but Jefferson went beyond them to create something very much his own. He consciously sought to create a new architecture for a new nation.[5]
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