Thomas Jefferson’s designs for Monticello and other structures have had a lasting impact on American architecture. In this episode, Monticello guide Don McCracken shares the story of how Monticello came to be, both as an idea and as a physical building, and how it serves as an example of what scholars call “Jeffersonian Architecture.”
Kyle Chattleton: This is Mountaintop History, a podcast dedicated to telling the story of Monticello and all who lived and labored at this plantation. My name is Kyle Chattleton, and today we're talking about architecture.
A visitor to Monticello in 1782 later wrote, "It may be said that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather." Jefferson's visions for Monticello, the University of Virginia, the Richmond Capitol, and other structures have greatly influenced American architecture, visions that were only made possible by both free and enslaved labor.
On a windy morning in March, I spoke with Don McCracken of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation about these examples of what scholars today call Jeffersonian architecture.
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So Don, thanks for joining us today to talk about Jefferson and architecture. We know that Jefferson's travels and education taught him quite a bit about different architectural styles. Can you give us a few examples of these influences on Jefferson's life and how it led to Monticello, where we are right now, becoming his "essay in architecture" as he described it.
Don McCracken: Self-taught architect. Loves architecture. In middle age, when he was our ambassador to France, by that time he had already started to design this house. Very Palladian, right out of the book, his bible of architecture: Palladio's Four Books of Architecture. Very classical, his first version of the house.
But in Paris... he sees domes, like the Hôtel de Salm, which is now the headquarters of the Légion d'Honneur on the south bank of the Seine River. Domes, new styles of architecture, and he loves it. And brings back to America his own version of classical architecture with a little French twist.
We call it Jeffersonian architecture.
Kyle Chattleton: And we find these ideas not only here at Monticello, but we also find them elsewhere in the state, like at the University of Virginia, Jefferson's summer home, Poplar Forest in the southwest of the state, and even the Richmond Capitol, right?
Don McCracken: Absolutely. You think of Jefferson as the politician, maybe even Jefferson as the plantation owner, but Jefferson, the architect.
And of course, late in life, "the hobby of my old age," the University of Virginia. Which is down the hill below us, just out of view right now. He's watching with his telescope being built in his final years. And it and this Monticello are on the UNESCO World Heritage Site together as one, all part of his new American architecture.
Starts planning this house when he's in his mid-twenties, and the material largely from here, things like glass would be imported, the mahogany would be imported, the brick from down the hill below.
Kyle Chattleton: Yeah, and so let's get to that point. We know that Jefferson, he's designing the structure of Monticello, but who's actually doing the construction of Monticello here at the site?
Don McCracken: Right, Kyle, when you say "Jefferson built this house," how much did he actually build himself? I suspect very little. He is a hands on guy, but not to build this house.
He does have some very capable workers whom he hires: Hugh Chisholm will be doing the plaster, Richard Barry doing the painting and the graining, and later on he gets two joiners, carpenters, a guy named Neilson and James Dinsmore, here for years are doing things.
Under our other side of the house, under the Dining Room window, is still a spot where you can see the fingerprints of a young boy, probably an enslaved boy, flipping bricks, drying in the sun.
And an enslaved member of the community, the brother of Sally Hemings, John Hemmings, who does a great deal of work at Monticello and a substantial amount of Jefferson's Poplar Forest, a very skilled laborer.
So there is skilled labor, free and unfree, at Monticello.
Kyle Chattleton: And so then Jefferson's architectural vision and the realization of this vision by both free and enslaved laborers has had a major impact on American architecture, right?
Don McCracken: Absolutely. The Virginia Capitol building in Richmond, Jefferson designs it and he wants the style of Ancient Rome, the classical style to show the importance, the power, the value of American government structures.
And so many have been copied by this all around the country. Very Jeffersonian. The influence, everywhere. People like Latrobe, Robert Mills, study his architectural style, they use his influence. So Jefferson is really spreading American architecture through this new nation.
Kyle Chattleton: Well, thank you so much, Don, for this conversation about Jefferson and architecture. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Don McCracken: My pleasure.
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Olivia Brown: This has been another episode of Mountaintop History, a collaboration podcast between WTJU and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.
Kyle Chattleton: This episode of Mountaintop History was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Join us for new episodes every two weeks on Apple and Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and the Virginia Audio Collective.
Olivia Brown: To learn more about Monticello, or to plan your next trip, visit us online at Monticello.org.
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This podcast was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
