Improbable but true, three of America's first five presidents died on July 4: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on the very same day in 1826 and James Monroe in 1831.  After 50 years of public service Monroe had hoped to retire to Highland (now called Ash Lawn-Highland), his rural Virginia home. His long years of government work, however, had so impoverished him that he was forced to sell Highland.  The loss was undoubtedly easier to bear because earlier that year his close friend and neighbor, Jefferson had died.

Monroe built Highland at Jefferson's urging.  The Sage of Monticello wanted to create "a society to our taste." He envisioned surrounding himself with a coterie of interesting and stimulating friends. The young James Monroe, who had studied law with Jefferson after the American Revolution, was happy to oblige his mentor.

In 1793 Monroe spent $1,000 for 1,000 acres adjoining Monticello.  Before he could begin building, President Washington, another Virginian with whom Monroe had close ties, having served under him at Valley Forge, appointed Monroe Minister to France.  In the entrance hall of Ash Lawn-Highland is a copy of the Leutze painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, which portrays Monroe holding the flag behind his commander.

Not wanting the house project to languish while Monroe was out of the country, Jefferson enlisted the help of James Madison and the two of them, with Monroe's uncle, Joseph Jones, began the planning of Monroe's house.  Jefferson also sent his gardener over to begin landscaping the grounds.  Monroe dubbed his home a "cabin-castle" because, though the exterior was simple, the interior was furnished with Neoclassical French Empire pieces that the Monroes acquired aborad.  On your tour of the house you'll see a portrait of their daughter Eliza's life-long friend, Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of the Empress Josephine, who became Queen of Holland and the mother of Napoleon III.  There is also a portrait of the headmistress of the French school attended by Eliza and Hortense.  In the drawing room you'll see a marble bust of Napoleon Bonaparte, a gift to Monroe.  The study has a copy of the Louis XVI desk used by Monroe when he was president.

Monroe, like his friend George Washington, was taller than average.  The highpost bed was big enough to accommodate his six-foot frame.  Although it is the only Monroe piece in the master  bedchamber, the rest of the furnishings are from Monroe’s time.  You'll learn that the wooden working parts of the case clock were greased with fat.  This attracted mice and may have provided the inspiration for the popular nursery rhyme.

Ash Lawn is operated today by James Monroe's alma mater, the College of William and Mary.  Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler were also alumni.  The college maintains the 535-acre estate as a 19th-century working plantation.  A dozen peacocks strut in the boxwood garden and an abundance of nature can be enjoyed year-round.  Spring and summer bring flowers and herbs, as well as the Ashlawn-Highland Summer Festival, two months of opera, musical theater and family entertainment.  Vegetables are harvested in the fall and in winter Christmas trees can be cut at Ash Lawn-Highland.  Traditional farm crafts are demonstrated throughout the year.

Ash Lawn-Highland is open March through October from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.  From November through February, hours are 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.  It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.  Admission is charged.

Directions:  From I-95 in the Richmond area take I-64 west to Charlottesville, then use Exit 121.  Follow signs to the Charlottesville/Albemarle County visitor center and continue past that, then turn left on Route 53 past Monticello. Make a right turn on Route 795, the James Monroe Parkway, for Ash Lawn-Highland. 

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Historic Michie Tavern

Where Southern Hospitality Prevails

Historic Michie Tavern is one of the oldest homesteads remaining in Virginia.  It was originally located on a well-traveled stagecoach route some 17 miles northwest of the present site.  To accommodate the many travelers seeking food and shelter at his home, William Michie opened his dwelling as an "Ordinary" in 1784.

Michie (pronounced Micky) Tavern's museum hostess will tell you about young William.  His father, "Scotch John” Michie, was deported to Virginia in 1716 after taking part in the Scottish Jacobite Rising.  When John arrived in Virginia he began acquiring land; ultimately he handled more than 11,500 acres.  The land on which his son would eventually build Michie Tavern was acquired from Major John Henry, father of Patrick, another rebel against England.

William Michie also played a role in the struggle against England.  He was part of the Continental army that wintered with Washington at Valley Forge.  He signed the Albemarle Declaration of Independence in 1779.  It was after the Revolutionary War that William Michie obtained a license to operate his "Ordinary."

After the guide's introduction you will make your way through the tavern.  Each room has a recorded narration that portrays 18th-century tavern life through living history interpretation.  Visitors feel like they are listening in on colonial conversations.   The tavern has  about 50 items that once belonged to the Michie family.  The first room on the tour is the gentlemen's parlor with its adjoining tap room.  The tap bar is a very small enclosure, so built as to bar the public from its access.  The tavern-keeper became known as the bar tender---a phrase still widely used.

From the gentlemen's parlor you'll move across the hall to the ladies' parlor.  After the Revolutionary War road conditions and travel by coach improved.  Female travelers were no longer an oddity and it was in the proprietor's best interest to set aside a special room for women. The woodwork and furnishings are more elaborate here.

The upstairs ballroom served many functions including additional sleeping space, a place for church worship, dancing lessons and school.  Entertainers, traveling doctors and dentists would set up “shop” in this room.  It is the thought of so many long-ago balls, however, that strikes the most romantic chord. It was here, legend proclaims, that the first waltz was danced in the colonies.  Although no surviving account can document this story, old-timers claim the event was recorded in the margins of the tavern log book that mysteriously disappeared in the 1950s.  The story proclaims one of Jefferson's daughters had just returned from France where she had learned a "radical" new dance step. She danced it gaily in the arms of a dashing officer.  Onlookers were shocked and her chaperone quickly escorted her from the floor.  According to reports, she was harshly scolded.

Back downstairs you will see the keeping hall where food was kept warm before serving.  This room holds a fine selection of spinning equipment.  One special piece is a yarn winder which was invented to count thread.  A small wooden peg (known as the weasel) pops loudly after each revolution of the wheel (known as the monkey).  The "monkey" chases the "weasel" as in the nursery rhyme, Pop Goes the Weasel.  Other handy kitchen items include the hand-carved cheese press, apple peeler, cole slaw shredder and French-fried potato cutter.

The narration continues as you tour the dependencies---kitchen, necessary, springhouse, well house and smokehouse.  If you have problems with steps you may want to skip these buildings.  Your tour ends beneath the tavern in the wine cellar that now houses the Virginia Wine Museum. After your tour you may continue to the "Ordinary" and enjoy a colonial buffet.  Michie's hospitality didn't end with the 18th century.  The "Ordinary" still serves fried chicken, blackeyed peas, stewed tomatoes, cole slaw, southern beets, green bean salad, potato salad, corn bread, biscuits and apple cobbler.  Lunch is available from 11:30 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.  daily in four dining rooms and an outdoor courtyard.

The thread of preservation continues with the Sowell (pronounced Soul) House, an early 19th- century structure that was reconstructed on the Michie Tavern site. Tours of this house focus on the architectural development of the house and the way that it reflects events in the life of the Sowell family---both personal and national.  Before leaving you should also tour the Meadow Run Grist Mill  which houses the General Store.  The mill was moved 50 miles to this new location.  It is an appropriate addition because the Michie family owned and operated a mill and general store.  Their family history is further preserved through the interpretation. The tavern was relocated at this site in the 1920s and the move itself became a historic event.  The Michie Tavern is significant as an example of the early preservation movement.

Michie Tavern is open 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. with the last tour beginning at 4:20 P.M.  Admission is charged and includes both the tavern and grist mill.

Directions:  From I-95 in the Richmond area take I-64 west to the Charlottesville area.  From I-64 take Exit 121A, Route 20.  Just past the Thomas Jefferson Visitors Bureau, turn left on Route 53.  Michie Tavern is on the right just before the entrance to Monticello; both are well marked.  

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Monticello

The Sage of Monticello Grew Other Spices

Monticello is one of the most interesting homes in America because Thomas Jefferson was one of the most original thinkers of his, or any, age.  His home reveals the breath and scope of his interests.

Ex-President Taft said that in Charlottesville, "they still talked of Mr. Jefferson as though he were in the next room."  When you visit Monticello and sense the individuality of its designer, it is easy to feel that Mr. Jefferson is in the next room.

Thomas Jefferson inherited the land on which he built Monticello at his father's death in 1757.  He had played on the mountaintop as a child while growing up at neighboring Shadwell.  Jefferson occasionally took time out from his law studies with George Wythe in Williamsburg and explored his Virginia hilltop, perhaps planning the home that he eventually built.  The year after he finished reading law, 1768, he began to level the top of his 867-foot mountain so that he could begin building. He named his estate "Monticello," or little mountain.  The design, like the name, is Italian.  Jefferson used architectural books to design his house.  He borrowed heavily from the Palladian style popularized by Andrea Palladio.

Like so many of the skills Jefferson acquired, his architectural artistry was self-taught.  He was an enthusiastic innovator in all that he attempted. One of the features that would become a Jeffersonian trademark was the dome he added to his house.  His was the first private house in America to have a dome.  His dome-room is only reached by a pair of narrow staircases, so visitors cannot enjoy an up-close look at this architectural feature.  Jefferson loved domes but disliked obtrusive staircases.

Another innovation was the seven-day clock Jefferson designed for the entrance hall.  Cannonball weights indicated the day of the week.  Saturday's marker is below the hall on the basement level and can be seen in the archeological exhibit area.  Jefferson even designed a special ladder for the weekly winding of the clock.  The hall also boasts antlers brought back by Lewis and Clark from their trip to the far west, as well as mastodon bones that Clark found in Kentucky.

When you tour Monticello you quickly become aware of Jefferson's practical turn of mind.  In the study there is a marvelous device that allowed him to write with one pen while a second connected pen made a copy of the letter.  Jefferson designed his bedroom so that he could have access to his bed from either the bedroom or the sitting room; the bed itself is a room divider.  He also designed beds to fit in alcoves to conserve space.  His practicality extended to other areas of the house.  There is a lazy susan door in the dining room that allowed the kitchen staff to set the prepared dishes on the door shelves and then simply turn the door, fully stocked, for service in the dining room.

Much as Jefferson enjoyed designing, building and embellishing his mountaintop home, his real passion was for horticulture.  Indeed, this great leader, who served as President of the United States, Vice-President, Secretary of State, Minister to France and Governor of Virginia, once said, "I have often thought that if heaven had given me a choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth...and near a good market...No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth..."

The gardens of Monticello are not to be missed.  Visitors should plan their day so that they can include an hour-long escorted tour of the garden, offered daily April through October. Jefferson's creativity certainly extended to his garden.  As he proudly proclaimed, "I am become the most ardent farmer in the state."  In his later years he would say, "Though an old man, I am but a young gardener."

He was 23 years old when he began the garden diary he would keep until two years before his death.  His precise records have enabled the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation to accurately restore the landscape to its appearance following Jefferson's second term as president in 1809.  A grid, drawn by Jefferson in 1778, gives the exact location of 300 trees.  In all, his notes and planting plans indicate the position of 900 trees.  His enthusiasm for fruit trees unquestionably exceeded their usefulness.  Even on his busy estate there weren't enough people to consume the fruit from 300 trees.  Jefferson's orchard was one of the most extensive in America; he planted 122 varieties of ten different types of fruit.