FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 4, 2016
Media Contacts:
Monticello, Alex Tyre
The Garden Club of Virginia, Ann Heller
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The Garden Club of Virginia partnered with Monticello to realign and restore the “Kitchen Road,” the essential functional and visual link between Mulberry Row and the house. During Thomas Jefferson’s lifetime, Mulberry Row was the industrial hub of the 5,000-acre plantation; a center of work and domestic life for dozens of individuals, free and enslaved. Leslie Greene Bowman, president and CEO of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, will officially receive the restoration gift from the Garden Club of Virginia at a private event on Friday, April 8.
“The restoration of Mulberry Row represents a critical chapter in our ongoing efforts to reveal the landscape of slavery at Monticello,” Bowman said. “We are honored that our friends at the Garden Club of Virginia supported the reconstruction of the Kitchen Road, a vital aspect of Mulberry Row’s restoration.”
Since the 1920s, the Garden Club of Virginia has supported a succession of landscape initiatives at Monticello, including the celebrated restoration and replanting of the flower beds bordering the West Lawn.
The Garden Club of Virginia
The Garden Club of Virginia leads the challenge to protect and conserve Virginia's natural beauty, to restore and preserve Virginia historic gardens and landscapes, and to provide educational opportunities in support of these challenges. Founded in 1920 by eight garden clubs from around the commonwealth, the GCV today is an active association of 47 member clubs with more than 3300 civic and community leaders. Most notably, the Garden Club of Virginia is recognized for its Historic Garden Week, a statewide tour of gardens and homes. Tour proceeds fund the restoration and preservation of Virginia’s historic gardens, landscapes and state parks. For more information, please visit www.gcvirginia.org.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation was incorporated in 1923 to preserve Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Today, the foundation seeks to engage a national and global audience in a dialogue with Jefferson’s ideas. Monticello is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and a United Nations World Heritage Site. As a private, nonprofit organization, the foundation’s regular operating budget does not receive ongoing government support to fund its twofold mission of preservation and education. About 440,000 people visit Monticello each year. For information, visit Monticello.org.
The Mountaintop Project
The Mountaintop Project is made possible by a transformational contribution from David M. Rubenstein. Leading support was provided by Fritz and Claudine Kundrun, along with generous gifts and grants from the Sarah and Ross Perot, Jr. Foundation, the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. John H. Birdsall, Mr. and Mrs. B. Grady Durham, the Mars Family, the Richard S. Reynolds Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Charlotte Moss and Barry Friedberg, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation, the Cabell Foundation, the Garden Club of Virginia, and additional individuals, organizations, and foundations.
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