There are nine presidential homes in Virginia, and I visited several. The homes belonged to President George Washington (Mt. Vernon), Thomas Jefferson (Monticello and Poplar Forest), James Madison (Montpelier), and James Monroe (Highland). William Henry Harrison’s Berkeley Plantation and John Tyler’s Sherwood Forest Plantation are not open to the public.
Less formally, there is also Theodore Roosevelt’s rural cabin (Pine Knot) and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum.
When I spent a month visiting the Commonwealth state, I didn’t expect to review my U.S. history teaching, but in the end, it was unavoidable. That’s a good thing because the history books left out a LOT. The history books highlighted these men’s great acts but were less good about mentioning the negative or contradictions.
After visiting these presidential homes in Virginia, I began to see a fuller picture of the men who shaped the United States. Being up close and personal with their most intimate objects – their homes – gives them a new context as people, not just famous first presidents. Contemporary historians at these presidentical homes now focus on the complete stories, not just the accomplishments, and it’s enlightening beyond measure. Even if you’ve visited before, you’re likely to hear different stories if you visit today.
I found these visits exceptional, and I’m not alone. Monticello and Mt. Vernon are two of the most visited homes sites in the United States. For many, it’s not the home we long to see but what it tells us about the people who lived there and we’re learning a lot.
Fun Fact: The White House is the most visited in the country, receiving about 6,000 visitors a day or nearly two million a year.
1. Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello & Poplar Forest
As a nomadic writer, I frequently detour on my travels to view the homes of writers and artist offering tours. It goes without saying when I was near the homes of Thomas Jefferson, I stopped. As the author of the Declaration of Independence, he is one of the most revered writers of the United States. He’s also a genius and polymath, cultivating much knowledge and skills. Like most founding fathers, he was also an enslaver and, like most human beings, a contradictory, complex person.
I’ve written a lot about plantations and the history of the enslaved people on them. Most of the presidential homes in Virginia are plantations, too, though, in recent years, much of the American enslavement history has been a side note. These historical museum homes and others are now accepting and increasing the information about slavery. A greater focus is given to the enslaved people who lived in and around these homes, especially at Monticello, since Jefferson was a founding father of the Virginia plantation aristocracy.
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
Located in Charlottesville, Virginia, Monticello is worth visiting if you are interested in American history, colonial culture, or architecture. The house is up a long, winding green path with a majestic view for miles.
Fun Fact: Monticello means “hillock” or “little mountain” in Italian.
The tour includes a trolley ride up the mountain, or you can take a lovely green trail to the house in just under a mile, but it’s a bit of a climb. At the house, dozens of people wait to get in, and I’m struck by how many still want to see this place, but maybe I shouldn’t be.
The house is immediately recognizable as the icon of American architecture featured on the back of the U.S. nickel. Jefferson spent over forty years designing and redesigning Monticello. It includes various architectural styles and features, including the signature octagon dome. He created the architectural designs from a style that was uniquely American and incorporated elements from French Neoclassical, classical Greek and Roman architecture
Inside Monticello
This is the best of all Virginia presidential homes or the many I’ve toured. Each room is a novelty filled with artifacts from Jefferson’s many interests. In the entry are relics from the Louis and Clark expedition, alongside old maps, Indian artifacts and busts of Alexander Hamilton, Jefferson, Voltaire and others.
There are 20 people on each tour and various groups line up room to room. It’s crowded and there isn’t any time to linger.
Throughout his life, Thomas Jefferson enslaved over 600 people, most of any U.S. president. Along Mulberry Row, where they lived, you’ll see enslaved people’s cabins and outbuildings where they stored wine and beer, gardens, and others. Like all homes of this period, these included a smokehouse, candle making, weaving, laundry, cooking, blacksmithing, and tinsmiths, among other craft rooms. There were also a fruitery and six-acre orchard, an ornamental farm filled with flowers and a vegetable garden.
The Jefferson Cemetery
The Jefferson cemetery is down a long sloping path, with a big climb back up. Pro tip: the shuttle stops at the cemetery, so you don’t have to walk. Jefferson’s grave, right on the end in a prominent place, has an epitaph he wrote himself.
Fun Fact: Another presidential home is right down the road from Monticello. James Monroe’s Ash Lawn-Highland is only three miles away.
The guided group tour of Monticello costs $43 per person. Read more about Monticello here.
2. Poplar Forest
Popular Forest is Thomas Jefferson’s private retreat that he escaped to when avoiding the many people visiting Monticello. It’s in Bedford County, Virginia and after driving an hour out of my way from North Carolina, I found the home closed for a private event. It was a bummer, but I could still see the property’s exterior and a few outbuildings.
This house is billed as his most personal architectural creation and the site of his individual pursuit of happiness. Here, more removed from the public eye, he applied his learnings from other architecture projects and created a showcase home. The house sits on a high bluff on a spacious property in what is now an affluent subdivision. It would have been miles of open Virginia prairie in Jefferson’s time.
Visitors can take a guided or self-guided app-based tour through the house and grounds, where they’ll see the main level of the house, the wing of offices, historical exhibits, the ornamental gardens and the enslaved dwellings. The outbuildings include displays about the archaeology, restoration and history of Poplar Forest. There’s a prominent feature on the enslaved community, especially the Hemmings family.
A tour of Poplar Forest costs $18 per person.
Read a more detailed post about Monticello and Poplar Forest here.
3. Visiting George Washington’s Mount Vernon
The home of America’s first president is one of the most popular places to visit in America. Each year one million people tour George Washington’s Mount Vernon, making it a top United States attraction. I took a tour of this most popular of all presidential homes in Virginia and was surprised by how many things it includes.
Mount Vernon is special because it was the beloved home of America’s first President and an American landmark. More than that, it’s historically essential preservation of colonial America depicting a way of life long gone. Not only is the original home preserved, but so are the grounds and the artifacts of the plantation community. It is also the site of Washington’s grave.
Several large parking lots lead to a ticketing queue and a museum. This is also where you’ll find the Mount Vernon Inn and gift shops. Inside the spacious, modern center, you’ll find a large movie theatre giving an excellent overview of Washington and his Custis family members. There’s also information about those enslaved there and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association – attributed with preserving the estate.
From a distance, the house is large, though not imposing. It is dignified, though not grand, like Monticello. From its position behind the great lawn, you can tell it is a home for a stately but humble man – a gentleman planter. You must walk to Mount Vernon from there, but it’s no hardship; the gardens are spectacular.
Inside Mount Vernon
All tickets are timed, and visitors gather in groups of about 20 to walk through the house together. A line set up near the great lawn is where you get your first glimpse of the estate.
Flanking the house on either side are two large houses for the enslaved or indentured people to perform their duties adjacent to the household. We enter through the cloakroom on the left and, from there, into a grand reception room.
Inside the first room, there are 15-foot ceilings with ornate plasterwork on the ceiling depicting farming implements and agriculture. The wallpaper was flashy and colorful, as was the gilded and decorative furniture. The guides said most of the items in the home were not Washingtons, except for a mirror in the far corner. As we passed, most of us stopped to look in the mirror like he might have.
Each room had a different host who explained key facts about the space as they ushered guests from room to room on each other’s heels. The guides quickly led us through rooms, including the bedroom where Washington died and ended in an enslaved person’s kitchen on the right-side ground floor. Behind the house is perhaps the most impressive aspect of the tour – the view of the Potomac River that Washington so loved.
The interior tour took about 20 minutes; then, we were free to roam the grounds again and watch the many engaging and informative, interactive presentations.
Fun Fact: the George Washington Memorial Parkway is a 25-mile-long parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia.
Washington’s Grave and the Enslaved People’s Cemetery
Washington died on the estate in his bedroom after a severe throat infection at age 67. You’ll pass grave if you take a short walk down a sloping hill past the pioneer farm, slave houses, and farmland heading toward the Potomac docks. The staff holds a wreath-laying ceremony every day at Washington’s grave.
Further down the hill, there is a memorial for the enslaved people. Washington enslaved hundreds of people; at his death, there were 317 still living on the plantation. In his will, he ordered that they be freed after his wife Martha died. Unfortunately, Washington only owned about half of those 317. The others belonged to the Custis estate, and Martha’s grandchildren inherited them after her death. Today, a memorial marker is dedicated to those enslaved people giving belated tributes to their stolen lives. A wreath is laid on their marker each day.
The guided group tour of Mount Vernon costs $28 per person.
Read a more detailed post about Mount Vernon here.
4. James Madison’s Montpelier
If you’re a fan of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical “Hamilton,” you know more about James Madison than many Americans. Even though Madison is known for being the fourth United States President and played a significant role in drafting the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers, he did it without much fanfare. And face it, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson were tough acts to follow.
Still, you can tour his home, Montpelier, in – wait for it – Madison, Virginia. This home offers a house tour or only a grounds pass. I stayed in Madison for a month, just minutes away from his plantation home. While I didn’t go inside Montpelier, I toured the exterior and walked the trails.
Approaching Montpelier
Like all presidential homes in Virginia, it is set off at a distance, and you’ll follow miles of green winding country roads before you finally see the large Georgian-style mansion. The house seemed to grow larger after I caught sight of it down a long, long driveway. It’s massive, multi-winged and next to it are cabins for his enslaved workers. To the right is a large visitor’s center.
The property, with 2,600+ acres, is enormous by today’s standards. As I approach, I remind myself that these men were allowed to be elected because of their wealth, status and land ownership. Visiting these houses and land is a stark reminder of just how much wealth they had.
The Madison’s called the first house on the property Mount Pleasant. Later, they built the brick house further up the hill, and Madison called it Montpelier, meaning “mount of the pilgrim” in French. It’s remarkable to American history because it’s likely where he wrote the first draft of the U.S. Constitution.
James Madison’s Landmark Forest and Trails
There are eight miles of trails through James Madison’s Landmark Forest surrounding the property while signage gives historical information about the land. These woods are much the same as they were in the 1790s and when they saw Civil War history being made. One trail of note takes you past the nearby Freedman’s Farm that leads to the Gilmore Cabin and farm. Here, you’ll see a restored emancipated slave cabin built in the 1870s, giving another perspective on America’s enslavement history.
There’s a large gift shop and visitor’s center where a statue of Madison and his wife, Dolley Todd Madison, greet visitors from their station on a bench. Dolley was one of the best-known first ladies and was considered one of the most important women in America for her grace and influence.
Cemeteries on the Madison Land
The family cemetery is down a long sloping lawn in the middle of a field. There I found Madison and Dolly’s and the graves of many family members. The most prominent memorial was a tall pillar that said only, “Madison.”
Further down in a wooded area was what they identified as the “slave cemetery.” I found it unusual that they didn’t update the signage and refer to it as the “enslaved” person cemetery as other plantations have started doing. This gives these people the acknowledgment that they weren’t “slaves” but instead enslaved by others, putting the onus where it belongs – on the enslaver.
According to White House historians, Madison owned about 100 enslaved people he never freed. His one concession for them in his will was that none of the enslaved people should be sold without their own consent to keep the enslaved families together. At his death, however, their ownership transferred to Dolley, who could have freed them, but in debt, sold them. It’s unclear if she sold them as family groups or separated them.
Like others I’ve seen, the enslaved people’s burial ground was a solemn place. It’s terrible to see unmarked graves anywhere, especially when their entire lives were stolen. This land is prettier than the family cemetery because shady trees surround it, and vines covered with periwinkle flowers conceal everything. It is a secluded and serene place.
Montpelier is worth visiting if you’re interested in American history and enslavement or enjoy wooded hiking trails. You can buy a pass to tour the property and trails for $12, as I did, or take the full guided tour, including the interior and enslaved cabins, for $35.
5. James Monroe’s Highland
You’ll find James Monroe’s Highland just a few miles from Monticello. The fifth U.S. president built the original farmhouse in 1823 but continued to add to his “castle cabin” for the next 20 years. Still, this home is much more modest than his neighbor’s – Monticello. It is, in fact, the least elaborate and large of the presidential homes in Virginia.
Fun Fact: Monroe was a protégé of Thomas Jefferson, who chose the house’s location to be within view of Monticello. Now the trees between them are so large the view is obscured.
When Monroe bought the white wooden farmhouse, the existing 550-acre estate was called Highland. He later changed the name to Ash Lawn. It boasts beautiful views, boxwood gardens and several restored outbuildings that help tell the story of daily life when Monroe lived there.
Monroe is known chiefly for his role as the driving force who signed the Louisiana Purchase agreement and doubled the size of the United States. During his presidency, slavery began to be a contentious issue, with the north banning slavery and the south accepting it. Monroe enslaved at least 178 people at his Highland plantation. He never took steps to free those he enslaved except his manservant Peter Marks, who he freed upon his death. The rest were willed to his two daughters.
Admission to Highland costs $16 per person or $15 online. It includes the exhibits in the 1818 Guesthouse/visitor’s center.
American Royalty
In their time, some 300 years ago, these men were treated as royalty and these presidential homes in Virginia display it. They were untouchable and revered, loved, and by some, hated. They were brilliant, bigoted, wealthy and financially struggling, bold and cowardly, each in their own way. In the end, they were only people – fabulous and flawed – and their homes reveal much about their interior lives and aspects of American history that still impact us today.
As a student, when I first learned about these men, I was taught they were “great” and everything that implies. Theirs were lives worth emulating. Now though, from a more wise perspective, I’m able to revisit their histories and deeds and see them as people who did some good acts to benefit select groups of people but were significantly flawed, self-centered individuals who hampered the lives of generations of other people for their own gain.
I think the thing that drove these men was (mostly) money and status, which, as Shania Twain said, “don’t impress me much.” That they were collectively able to lack empathy for so many other living beings is disheartening.
Better understanding these men and seeing the overwhelming wealth and status they lived in was an eye-opener. It’s helping me to understand how America got to where it is today – both good and bad. But these places and people give us the insight we need to strive for better. That’s why these homes and stories are so important now.
More Presidential Homes in Virginia
If these aren’t enough presidential home viewing for you, there is also Theodore Roosevelt’s rural cabin (Pine Knot) in the Shenandoah Valley in Albemarle County, Virginia and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum in Staunton, Virginia.
All these presidential homes in Virginia offer various tours, events and membership at additional costs.
Read more stories about Virginia here.
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