Free Term Paper on Jefferson's Monticello

Thomas Jefferson became his own master builder on this land that he inherited from his father, Peter Jefferson. When his father died he left five thousand acres and more than twenty slaves to Thomas and his younger brother Randolph. The land would include the little 867 foot wooded mountain that would one day be called \"Monticello.\" In 1767 Jefferson did the unheard thing to do in colonial America, he decided to build his dream home on the mountaintop. There were no highways or rivers on the land he built his home and people thought he was crazy and unpractical for doing this.

Architecture, as a profession, did not exist in colonial America. Only the wealthy men of the South were to have some knowledge of architectural styles. Finally gentlemen farmers and merchants were able to create plans and pictures of their dream houses by combining their skills. They were then able to become what was known as amateur architects.

Jefferson started his construction of Monticello by leveling his mountaintop and setting down on paper sketchy visions of the house. He then prepared the mechanical working drawings, which he taught himself to do. The materials needed to construct Monticello were found in the area. He used his own trees for timber and took stone blocks for the foundation out of his mountain. The bricks were even fired in Monticello\'s own mountaintop kiln. He studied  the crafts of stonecutting, brick making and carpentry to carry out the work of construction. The only things he had to get elsewhere were the intricate fittings like brass locks and doorknobs or glass.

Slowly but surely Jefferson finished a small brick building, which was the south pavilion, in 1770. Later the north pavilion was finished and served as a study for his son-in-law. These buildings were separate from the house at the time but eventually were connected to it by raised wood walkways or platforms called \"terraces.\" These terraces were to be roofed over and were to hide the service areas from the main house. These service areas were called \"dependencies\". The slave quarters, the kitchen and a smokehouse for curing and preserving meats were located in the south dependencies located beneath the south terrace. The north dependencies were where the stables, carriage houses, an icehouse, and a laundry were located. These L-shaped terrace links between the main house and the north and south pavilions were not fully completed until after 1800.

In 1774 the center section of the mansion and its south wing had been completed. What now emerged as an elegant building in Jefferson\'s design was a two-story home whose central section contained a front hall, parlor and upstairs library. Also a double-decked portico or two colonnaded porches capped by a triangular pediment. When you entered the hall from the mansion\'s east front, the master bedroom was on the left, and the dining room was on the right. Jefferson\'s bedroom was pretty unique in design. His bed was built in between his study and his bedroom so he could step from the bed to either room at any time. The whole mansion\'s design was inspired by the works of Andrea Palladio. He was a 16th century Italian architect who had studied the architectural styles of ancient Rome, and his architectural styles became known as the \"Palladian\" style. Jefferson used Palladio\'s U-shape design for Monticello.


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There were many sights that Jefferson had seen in Europe that made him question the appearance of Monticello. For one thing, country homes in America did not have multiple stories but city houses did. There was more room in the country to spread out where city houses had to be stacked and cramped. Jefferson then realized his lack of spreading out Monticello. He believed it should reach outward not upward and he wanted it larger. He also wanted to combine the ancient classical buildings in Monticello that he was able to view in Europe. Among these buildings were the Maison Carree in Nimes, the Hotel de Salm in France, and the Roman Pantheon in Rome. The Roman Pantheon was also an inspiration to Palladio. So in 1789, when Jefferson became secretary of state, he decided to completely remodel Monticello. He believed it looked \"clumsy, old-fashioned and out of step with what a modern country home should look like.\" Jefferson once said, \"Architecture is my delight, and putting up and pulling down is one of my favorite amusements.\" Jefferson decided to make Monticello much larger and to have all of the rooms on one floor and make it seem to be one-story when it was actually three floors. He would pull down Monticello\'s upper portico, which gave the entire structure a lower appearance, and he would then provide the center section of the home with a dome. It would be the first on an American home. The dome and colonnaded porch were among those architectural features that connected Jefferson with Palladio and to the classical building design. Finally in 1809, Monticello was finished and is the mansion that is known today. Jefferson made sure that he took up as little space as possible with items like stairs because he wanted to show off his inventions, collection of Indian artifacts and natural history such as antlers, a buffalo head, and mastodon tusks. He believed space should be used economically.

Jefferson had many inventions displayed around Monticello. An example of one of his inventions was an hour clock, placed over the main entry doors of the entrance hall that connected to a seven-day calendar run by weights. The weights were actually Revolutionary War cannon balls. \"The weights moved with the clock\'s ticking and controlled the gong on the roof that struck hourly.\" The days of the week were indicated by the movement of the weights, which passed by marks on the wall for Sunday through Friday. Jefferson did forget about Saturday and had to have the cannon balls pass through holes in the floor to reach Saturday marked on the wall of a recreation room below. Another invention Jefferson had in the house was a rotating pantry door that had shelves built on it to hold dishes with food. The servants would place the food on the shelves and rotate the door so that the food would be in the dining room. Jefferson also had in the dining room, dumbwaiters that were built into the sides of the fireplace. These dumbwaiters were mechanical lifts for sending wine bottles up from the cellar beneath the dining room. In the entrance hall he had a set of doors, that were separately hung and free-swinging, that opened and closed in automatic harmony. People were mystified at how Jefferson was able to invent such an unusual set of doors. And it wasn\'t until 150 years later, when the floor needed to be replaced, that a mechanism was found under the flooring and the mystery was solved.

Thomas Jefferson was known as the \"Father of American Architecture\" because of ingenious ideas for new buildings. He was a man that was very ahead of his time, and today is still truly appreciated. He had wished that he would die in Monticello and his wish was answered. He died in his bedroom at Monticello on July 4, 1826 and was also buried on the grounds. The great mansion had to be sold to pay for his debts and is now a place that is a well-known tourist attraction.