A Trip to Monticello

My friend Stu and I decided to take a trip to Monticello. We signed up for two tours. One was a behind the scenes tour of the house. The second was the actual house tour itself.

We started out early around 6:15 in the morning. We made pretty good time down there. We arrived a little after 9. Our first tour was at 10:30. We went up to the house and took a look around.

This is a very impressive site. We spent around 5 hours there and I think we could have stayed even longer. A great day.

The House

You take a bus up to the main entrance to the house. The first picture gives you a glimpse of the house from the main walk. As you can tell the day started out rainy. It was cold too. Thankfully the worst of the rain took place while we were taking our two tours. Later in the morning it cleared and the sun came out. Turning into a perfect day.

The Grounds of the House

The map gives you an idea of how large the grounds of the house are. The pictures are the gardens off to the side of the house.

Dependency Buildings

This buildings were constructed under and to the side of the house. This way just about everything necessary to run the house was right near the house. There was even a cellar passage so people could go quickly from one side of the house to the other.

Behind the Scenes Tour

Here's the description of the tour:

Have you always wanted to go upstairs at Monticello? These exclusive, daytime tours take you behind the scenes: to bedrooms once occupied by members of the Jefferson family on the second floor; to the iconic Dome Room on the third floor; and to the new, interactive "Crossroads" exhibition under the house. You'll see unique interior architectural features, learn about ongoing historic restoration efforts, and gain insight into what one of Jefferson's granddaughters called "the bustle and hurry" of life at Monticello.

It was indeed very cool. I will say this the stairs were very narrow and very steep. The reason was the Jefferson thought stairs were a waste of space.

One thing that was nice about it was you could take pictures.

Below are some shots of the Dome Room.














































































This picture gives an idea of just how tight the stairs were.

House Tour

Our house tour was at noon. The weather started to get better then. The rain stopped and the clouds began to part.

In the house tour, you can't take any pictures. This is because some of the pieces in the first floor are from private collections.

We had a young and very enthusiastic tour guide. He was very good. He had a loud booming voice and you tell loved his job. Just like the first guy, he was more than willing to have people ask questions about any part of Jefferson's life. He was more than happy to talk about slavery or Sally Hemmings or whatever other subject that was brought up.

I asked him after the tour how he got started. He said it was strange for a guide to be so young since the vast majority were older. Many even retired. He said he was majoring in philosophy but a little bored with it and took up history. He said he got a summer internship during college at Monticello. After he graduated, it seemed the logical thing to do get a full time job.

He gave a great tour.

Jefferson Grave Site

The sun came out and it warmed up. We decided to walk back to the Visitor Center. On the way we saw the Jefferson grave site. The grave site is still owned by the Jefferson family and is an active cemetery. It looked like someone had been recently buried.

It is interesting on his tombstone Jefferson put author of the Declaration of Independence, Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and father of the University of Virginia. The fact he was president is never mentioned.

Moticello Visitor Center

After the two tours of the house, we went back down to the Visitor Center. There we watched a film about Jefferson and went through a museum. It is very impressive.

In the museum one whole exhibit is devoted to the construction of the house. The last picture shows an early design of the house.

Occupy Charlottesville

There is even an Occupy Charlottesville. They are in a park near the main downtown area actually a few blocks from Main Street. We went there to get lunch after Monticello.

Had lunch at a nice Italian restaraunt. Main Street is a pedestrian mall and we walked around after lunch. There was a wide variety of stores and places to eat. There was a movie theater, a theater that had concerts and another theater that put on plays.

Around 4:30 or so we decided to head back to DC.

It was a wonderful trip.