As a nomad, 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 – Monticello and Poplar Forest – I stopped.
As the author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson is one of the most revered writers of the United States. He’s also a genius and polymath, cultivating much knowledge and many skills. Like most founding fathers, he was also an enslaver and, like most human beings, a contradictory, complex person.
Many people are aware of Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, but fewer know about his private retreat Poplar Forest just 1.5 hours south in Bedford County, Virginia.
Jefferson was the 3rd President of the United States and a founding father of the Virginia plantation aristocracy. Most of the presidential homes in Virginia are plantations too, though in the past, much of the American enslavement history has been a side note while historians focused on these men’s accomplishments. That is changing. Today, in these historical museum homes a greater focus is given to the enslaved people who lived in and around these homes, especially at Monticello.
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 on a “little mountain” with a majestic view for miles.
“Monticello’s subtle details add layers to the experience: the wine dumbwaiter in the dining room, the privacy screen outside Jefferson’s bedroom, the proximity of the Mulberry Row outbuildings to the main house, the words on the third president’s gravestone,” the website promised, and it didn’t disappoint.
Monticello is famous for being the only house depicted on U.S. currency – on the back of the nickel, so its unique shape is recognizable upon approach.
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 just under a mile, but it’s a bit of a climb – walking back would be easier! At the house, there are dozens of people waiting to get in and I’m struck by how many people want to see it, but maybe I shouldn’t be. The house is immediately recognizable as the icon of American architecture, featured the back of the U.S. nickel. It’s further a unique architecture with a fascinating construction history.
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 became uniquely American and incorporated elements from French Neoclassical, classical Greek and Roman architecture
Inside Monticello
This is the best of all the presidential homes in Virginia or any of the many historical homes I’ve toured. Each room is filled with artifacts from Jefferson’s many interests. In the entry room are relics from the Louis and Clark expedition, busts of Alexander Hamilton (the two had a long relationship filled with dissention), Jefferson, Voltaire and others. There are many historic maps, Indian artifacts, and the massive grandfather clock which required builders to cut holes in the floor to accommodate its long chains. We saw Jefferson’s study, the bedroom where he died, his books, and an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.
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. However, the tour is detailed and provides the insight you wouldn’t easily know otherwise about the family and daily life at the plantation.
Fun Fact: This house has no grand staircase; instead, several small staircases allow moving around in stealth.
The tour continues outside, where we learn about his wife, Martha, and his relationship with her unacknowledged half-sister Sally Hemmings, his enslaved house servant, after Martha died in childbirth.
Slavery at Monticello
Thomas Jefferson enslaved over six hundred people throughout his life. Along Mulberry Row, the name of the enslaved cabins corridor, you’ll see old cabins and outbuildings where they stored wine and beer, gardens, and others. Like many 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. It was a city unto itself.
Many of the original outbuildings along the Mulberry Row industrial hub are gone, but the foundations remain, and historians tell us what was there. I’ve been to many plantations and it’s unusual to have the enslaved quarters so close to the main house.
Sally Hemmings at Monticello
The Monticello historians are now leaning into the history between Jefferson and the enslaved mother of his children, Sally Hemmings. Jefferson made Hemmings his concubine and had four children with her that survived into adulthood. He sent two away in childhood to live as white children and freed the other two, who had lived as enslaved people, upon his death.
There is signage and video about the Hemmings family in one room that sheds light on this complex and bizarre association. They sell many books in the visitors center and I read “The Hemmingses of Monticello: An American Family” by Annette Gordon-Reed. It’s an incredibly detailed and thoroughly researched history of this relationship that I highly recommend if you’re interested in learning more about them.
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. I didn’t realize the shuttle stopped there, so I hoofed it. Jefferson’s grave, right on the end in a prominent place, has an epitaph he wrote himself. His inscription instructions were to put it as he wrote it and “not a word more.” That’s an author for you.
The Inscription on Jefferson’s grave:
“Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia.”
Thomas Jefferson
Fun Fact: Another presidential home is right down the road from Monticello. James Monroe’s Ash Lawn-Highland is only three miles away.
Poplar Forest
As soon as I arrived in the Old Dominion state, I headed for Popular Forest. It’s Thomas Jefferson’s private retreat that he escaped to when avoiding the many people visiting Monticello. Poplar Forest is 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 and accomplished architectural creation. It where he went to pursue his individual 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. One can’t help but wonder what he would have thought about all the neighbors encroaching on his space. Still, it encompasses over 4,800 acres and includes several trails you can hike.
The house is strikingly similar to Monticello’s design but has no octagon dome. Instead, the entire house is octagon shaped.
Touring Poplar Forest
Visitors can take a guided or self-guided app-based tour through the house and grounds. They’ll see the main level of the house, the wing of offices, historical exhibits, the ornamental gardens and the enslaved dwellings. The outbuildings, which I was able to see, include displays about the plantation archaeology, restoration, and the history of Poplar Forest. There’s a prominent feature on the enslaved community, especially the Hemmings family. The general admission price includes the restoration workshop, archaeology laboratory, and slave quarter site.
Visiting Monticello and Poplar Forest
I’ve toured many historic homes and plantations and Jefferson’s were by far my favorite. The cost to tour Monticello is nearly double other homes, even George Washington’s ($28), but it’s worth the price. You can easily spend an entire day at either Monticello or Poplar Forest. While visiting, you’ll learn not just about Jefferson, but American slavery, architecture, Greek myths, horticulture, mathematics, colonial trades and much more.
A group tour of Poplar Forest in Bedford County, Virginia, costs $18 per person. You can see the home’s exterior without a ticket since its viewable from the parking lot and ticket office.
The guided group tour of Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, costs $43 per person. Unlike Poplar Forest, you can’t see it from the road or parking lot, so you must buy a ticket.
If you can only go to one presidential home in Virginia, I’d choose Monticello. What about you?
Read stories about other plantation homes I’ve visited, including George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
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