University of Virginia

Visitors Invited to Experience Thomas Jefferson's Virginia

Architect, scholar, statesman, farmer, genius. Thomas Jefferson was all these and more. No wonder the world over, people revere his name. Information about Jefferson abounds, but if you really want to get to know the man and his legacy, then visit his home state, Virginia.

For an overview of Jefferson’s life, stop at the Charlottesville/Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. A permanent exhibit called Thomas Jefferson at Monticello displays more than 400 objects and artifacts - some recently excavated and shown for the first time. Two films and education information enrich visitors’ introduction to Jefferson’s achievements.

Jefferson’s remarkable life began just east of Charlottesville on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, his birthplace and home for a time after college. The house burned to the ground in 1770, leaving the house’s style and architecture a mystery. Although the site is not open to the public, professional historians - though extensive analysis of the archeological finds at the site - are working to put the pieces in place for this historic monument.

Close by, Monticello - one of the country’s foremost masterpieces and a monument to the diverse facets of Jefferson - sits majestically on a mountain top overlooking the lush rolling hills surrounding Charlottesville.

Guided tours of Monticello give a feel for the complexity of the man. The house tour reveals Jefferson, the architect and innovator. The 35-room, neoclassical house, designed and built by Jefferson, was a 40-year work-in-progress. Some of the many Jefferson adaptations seen on the tour include a seven-day clock, dumbwaiters, single-acting double doors and a machine for copying letters, a near necessity for Jefferson, who wrote more than 19,000 letters in his lifetime.

Discover Jefferson, the farmer, during the garden tour. See the bounty of his horticultural interests during walks through the recreated ornamental and vegetable gardens, orchards, vineyards and 18-acre forest. Hear how Jefferson’s crop methods and landscape decisions were unsurpassed in his time.

To the west of Monticello and within Charlottesville city limits is another Jefferson masterpiece, the University of Virginia. The 70-year-old, retired third president designed his life’s dream here - a university that would serve as "the great future bulwark of the human mind in this country." Revolutionary for its time, the university’s design and layout became a prototype for many other campuses.

The University’s historic district - known as the "Academical Village" or "The Lawn" - is still bordered by the original pavilion built during Jefferson’s time. The Lawn’s focal point is the famous domed Rotunda, designed after the Roman Pantheon. Both the University of Virginia’s Academical Village and Monticello have been named by the World Heritage Foundation as sites to be permanently preserved as testament to the cultural heritage of mankind.

Rich with home design ideas, Jefferson didn’t end his architectural endeavors with Monticello. In 1806, he began construction on his second home, Poplar Forest, just southwest of Lynchburg. This extraordinary Palladian-style octagonal house, privately owned until 1984, is considered one of Jefferson"s most creative designs. Overwhelmed by an almost perpetual round of visitors at Monticello, Jefferson escaped several times a year to find at Poplar Forest "the solitude of a hermit." Visitors to the house, which was opened to the public just a few years ago, can view the extensive renovations underway, and walk the grounds, being meticulously investigated to uncover Jefferson’s original landscape plans. Here, on-going detective work is revealing new information about Jefferson’s retreat, as restoration craftsmen use these clues to restore the original features of a national landmark.

Head farther west towards the Blue Ridge Parkway near Bedford to see the vistas encountered by Jefferson, the surveyor. Enjoy the natural beauty of the area at the top of the Peaks of Otter, once surveyed by Jefferson. Or hike along the numerous nature trails and try hooking a trout from a clear mountain stream.

To experience Jefferson, the preservationist and environmentalist, cross the Blue Ridge Parkway and head north into the Shenandoah Valley to Natural Bridge, once sacred ground to the American Indians Jefferson encountered here. This 36,000 ton limestone formation, purchased by Jefferson in 1774 from King George III, soars 215 feet in the air and still has the initials George Washington once carved into the stone. While there, wander through the caverns,the wax museum or just enjoy what Jefferson called "the most beautiful place on Earth."

Farther west, the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests blanket the state’s Southwest Blue Ridge Highlands and Shenandoah Valley. Franklin Roosevelt, the thirty-second president, immortalized Jefferson with the park’s designation in 1936.

In Northern Virginia, explore Jefferson, the friend and statesman, at Gunston Hall Plantation in Mason Neck. The plantation was home to George Mason, whom Jefferson called "one of our really great men, and of the first order of greatness." Mason wrote that "all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights," a concept echoed in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. You can also dine at Gadsby’s Tavern, site of Jefferson’s first inaugural dinner on March 14, 1801.

Returning east through the state to Richmond, visit Tuckahoe Plantation where the toddler Jefferson lived, and see the tiny building on the grounds where he began his lifelong quest for knowledge. The Capitol of Virginia - a version of the Maison CarrŽe by Jefferson, the architect - regally stands in the heart of the downtown district. Nearby, the magnificent Jefferson Hotel, a national historic landmark built in 1895, still beckons travelers.

For a free Virginia Is For Lovers Travel Guide and state highway map, contact the Virginia Tourism Corp., 901 East Byrd St., Richmond, VA 23219; l-800-932-58277.