Monticello

Monticello was the fifth president's home that we have visited. This place is amazing in its design and use of space. We toured the gardens. They maintain a 1000 foot garden space for vegetables. Instead of feeding the family and slaves, now the produce goes to the visitor's center restaurant and to the employees. The views from this mountaintop are beautiful. When Jefferson lived there, no big trees blocked the views as they do now. He used to take his spy glass out on the porch and watch them building the University of Virginia down in the valley. You can see the dome of UVA in the distance.
It is hard to tell from the photo, but coming off each end of the house are large open porches. They come out probably about 100 feet then turn and run straigt back for hundreds of feet. Under this "porch" was hidden the daily business of the house. The two sides are connected by this same underground passage under the house. There is a wash room, an ice house, the kitchen, stables for guest horses, and the all important beer cellar and wine cellar. The wine cellar had a dumb waiter to the dining room for wine delivery during a meal. We noticed that the kitchen was much more modern than Washington's was--a few years newer, but much of Jefferson's ideas came from his time in France.
He is buried on the grounds and his descendents continue to use the cemetery. Jefferson was deeply in debt when he died so the furnishings of the house and the slaves were sold to pay off his debts. Over time the house furnishings have come back. He did free the four Hemming children that are believed to be his. Many of his slaves were taught skills by the white workers that he had in the building process. When he left the presidency he spent the last 17 years of his life at Monticello, never leaving the state and rarely leaving the mountaintop.