This past week, me and my class visited Charlottesville, VA to see two amazing houses! While enjoying each other, we also enjoyed the pretty mountains and peaceful country side. My goal was to learn as much as I could. On the way there, I seriously thought Montpelier and Monticello were mountains and that we were going hiking! I probably should have done some research.
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MONTPELIER
Montpelier was our 4th presidents house, James Madison. As a child, James Madison was a extremely smart child and was the first graduate at Princeton. He inherited this house at a young age and made it his. During the early stages of owning the house, it was divided into two spaces like a duplex. It had two separate porches, two separate entrances and was designed in neutral colors. He had his slaves to carve all the architectural work in the moldings around the ceiling, above door ways and around fireplaces.
He soon married a widower, Dolly Payne, who was from Greensboro, NC. Presenting the house to Dolly, he said "do what you want Dolly". She decorated the house, starting with the "game room" in a beautiful red wallpaper surrounded by paintings of James and his friends. The dining room was covered in a green pattern wallpaper with peacocks and with a cream and green circular pattern carpet. We had Addie to point out the pocket windows he created in the doors to have circulation when it was hot outside.
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MONTICELLO
Monticello means "little mountain". Our 3rd president owned this owned this home, Thomas Jefferson. This house is built on a mountain in Virgina and sits on 5,000 acres Thomas Jefferson owned. Surprisingly, Jefferson was an architect and inventor and was always remodeling his home. The house contains high ceilings and no stairs. Stairs was useless and a waste of space to him. Instead, almost every room has a sky light. As an inventor, Thomas thought of different things to help him live better. He had an extended library for his collection of 11,000 books. He knew 7 languages and was always studying something so he had invented a thing that held 5 books and he was able to rotate them around and spin so he could study all 5 at a time. He also invented a device where when he wrote, the device was copy twice, writing just like him. In his bedroom, his bed in between two walls but can be accessed either side of the room while having a closet above it. To me, this would be really fun to have now!
Continuing with the house, he created a passageway for his slaves to travel to different parts of the house underground to service him while keep privacy between them when guests would be over. Sadly, he became $107,000 in debt and lost the house. Items within the house were sold separately and since 1923, they have been ring to make their way back.
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Even though it was rainy and cold, i think we all could agree that this trip was awesome and very educational. I am a history fanatic so i was so excited learning about interior design and history. It is just crazy to me to know i walked on the exact floors Thomas Jefferson walked on! I still never got the much needed sleep and got home pretty late but that's alright...Holly- thank you for this trip! I will never forget it.
I am going to share a picture of us bonding on the way to VA. ha-ha
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