Dome Rooms, Cat Holes, and Fairy Palaces
A Monticello guide shares how the nooks and crannies of the third floor of Jefferson’s home can point to smaller, yet still memorable stories.
Jefferson’s granddaughters nicknamed the Cuddy after a small nook on a ship. These two young women, desperate for privacy in a house overcrowded with nearly 30 people, set it up as a sitting room. Writing of their space, Virginia Randolph explained: “breathing through a broken pane of glass and some wide cracks in the floor, I have taken possession with the dirt daubers, wasps & humble bees; and do not intend to give it up to any thing but the formidable rats which have not yet found out this fairy palace.”
Virtual tours of this room
How to see this room: Included in the Behind-the-Scenes Tours of Monticello.