Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

Jefferson described Monticello as his "essay in architecture." He was involved in every detail of its design, construction, and remodeling. Jefferson’s drawings of the first version of the house show that he rejected the Georgian architecture then popular in Virginia. He studied the buildings of ancient Rome, learning about architecture chiefly from books, especially I Quattro Libri by Andrea Palladio, the sixteenth-century Italian architect. While in Paris, Jefferson admired the newest townhouses and observed the construction of one in particular, the Hotel de Salm, and its dome. He also traveled to the south of France where he saw the Roman temple called the Maison Carrée. He wrote that "Roman taste, genius, and magnificence excite ideas." After his return from France in 1789, Jefferson served for four years as Secretary of State. In 1794, he withdrew temporarily from public service and redesigned Monticello.

The site of Monticello, on land Jefferson inherited from his father at the age of fourteen, was the center of a 5,000-acre plantation that was largely self-sufficient and included four adjacent farms. Jefferson, at first a tobacco planter, began planting wheat as his main cash crop in 1794. Other crops such as corn, potatoes, and small grains were cultivated with a variety of experimental techniques, including crop rotation and contour plowing. Cattle, hogs, and sheep were also raised to support the plantation.

http://www4.wittenberg.edu/academics/music/monticello.shtml

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefflife.html

LIFE AND LABOR AT MONTICELLO

http://www.abbeville.com/booktemplate.asp?stockno=950

Jefferson's Monticello

http://www.picassomio.com/books/isbn/0896599507/en/

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Monticello.html

Monticello

http://www.gladstonemedia.com/calendars/2003/monticello/

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/virginia/charlottesville/monticello/monticello.html

Monticello--Index and Introduction

http://www.monticello.org/

Monticello: The Home of Thomas Jefferson

http://www.virginia.worldweb.com/PhotoGallery/LandmarksandHistoricSites/10-3613.html

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Virginia