A Visit to Monticello, house of Thomas Jefferson and Ash Lawn, the Highlands, home of James Monroe.

"Monticello", home of the great Thomas Jefferson.

 The house had a huge basement where food, alcohol, etc. were stored.  Dumb waiters were used to lift things up into the house.

Foundation of a slave house where a slave was later buried. This was a row of slave houses with a huge garden  in the backgroud on the next level.  Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence which states that all men are created equally; however, he owned over 600 slaves and only freed 2, which were believed to be his children by Sally Hemsley, a slave there on his plantation.  Strange.....

He was intrigued by clocks and time.  He had this clock installed on the outside of his house.  It was for the slaves to be able to tell the time of day.  Please note it only has one hand and it is the hour hand. He thought it unimportant for the slaves to know the minutes, so he only had the one hand on it.  This clock continues on into the house but inside, it has all the hands.

All of us including Thomas Jefferson.

Wiping the rain off his nose.

He can't seem to take his eyes off Pat.

On to the home of James Monroe.  A friend of Jefferson.  When he visited Jefferson's home, he liked it so well, he asked Jefferson if he would design his home also.

It was not a very big home, in fact it was quite small.  Not what you would image a President living in.  This is the front of the home.

This was the back of the home.  Only the white portion was the home of Monroe.  It was said that when he wanted to enlarge, he would just have one of the outside building pushed up against the house and nail it to the main house.  The yellow portion of the house was added on by the person who bought the place much later and we were not allowed in it.