Monticello

Monticello from the back yard



Jefferson's headstone

Amy and I are on a road trip to Georgia to visit her parents.  We spent yesterday driving the Skyline Drive and today we visited Montecello, the beloved home of Thomas Jefferson, and then continued are drive south along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The numerous photos taken along the drives will need to be worked on at home to do them justice so a future post to this blog will cover the incredible overlook views that we have seen over the past two days.  The more casual photos taken while visiting Montecello will be the subject of this weeks blog (my tools on the road are limited).

The main picture for this week's blog is a shot of Jeffersons house from the side most popular and most familiar to people.  This side, however, happens to be the back of the house and the picture is taken from the vast back yard of the grounds.  The front of the house is not as dramatic nor as famous.

Jefferson's vineyard and the view to the east.

We arrived at the homestead at roughly 8:30 when they opened so that we could get through the tour and get back on the road in order to stick with our agenda.  We selected the 9:50 time slot for the house tour and chose to walk from the visitors center to the mansion as opposed to taking the complimentary shuttle ride.  The path leads through the woods and past the cemetery where Jefferson and his family are buried.  We came into the grounds of the house from the back and walked along the gardens and Mulberry row, where most of Jefferson's slaves worked.  The estate sits atop a mountain which presented challenges to Jefferson in regards to farming and as such he created a couple of terraces to grow his garden on level ground.  He also had a small vineyard and orchards on the vast acreage that Jefferson inherited from his father.

After we finished walking through the garden we walked along the eastern side of the mansion where a lot of activity occurred during Jefferson's time. The cook's quarters and the kitchen was located in this area as well as other food preparation and preservation areas existed. The smoke house, where meats where hung for curring, presented a good

Actual Front Entrance to Monticello

challenge for my new camera and its ability to take pictures in low light. There was very little light in the smoke room and I could barely make out the fact that some fake meats were hanging from the rafters. I set the ISO on my camera to its maximum and took a picture.  Once we finished walking through the areas where the food, beer and wines were stored and prepared it was time for our tour of the house.  The regular ticket, that costs $25, gets you a tour of the first floor area of the house and photography is not allowed inside the house. 
The tour was interesting and was actually the second time I had been on the tour (Katie and I visited Montecello in 2007 when she moved to NC State for a summer). 

The "stove" in the kitchen at Monticello

Some other interesting things about the house the kitchen that was pretty well equipped for the time.  It turns out that Jefferson acquired quite a taste for French cuisine during his time as minister to France from 1784-1789 and as such meals at Monticello included French cooking.  The "stove" area of the kitchen had several burners to allow multiple items to be cooking at once.

Illustration of the wine dumb waiter

Another interesting feature of the house that one would guess Jefferson also brought back from France was a wine dumb waiter.  The wine cellar was directly below the dining room and a dumb waiter was setup in the wall along the fireplace to allow the simultaneous delivery of a fresh bottle of wine and the return of an empty bottle.  This is a modern convenience that I think most of us need in our own homes.

Once the 40 minute tour was completed we made the return visit to our car and resumed our drive south along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Photos from the drive will be included in a future blog posting.

Butterfly in the garden.