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Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
Monticello is the autobiographical masterpiece of Thomas Jefferson, designed and redesigned and built and rebuilt for more than forty years.
Gardens and Grounds (image shows pink and white dianthus)The gardens at Monticello were a botanic showpiece, a source of food, and an experimental laboratory of ornamental and useful plants from around the world.
The Plantation (image shows vegetable garden and Garden Pavilion) The Monticello plantation of 5,000 acres was a center of agriculture and industry, and was home not only to the Jefferson family, but to workers, black and white, enslaved and free
James Madison Montpelier
Montpelier is James Madison's lifelong home, a 2,750-acre estate that includes farmland, race courses, a formal garden, a National Landmark Forest and active archaeological sites.
In the splendor of the Virginia countryside, a national treasure is being recovered. Experience the rediscovery of the mind and the man who forged the framework of a nation, who created the Constitutional charter that defines our democracy, our thinking, our society.
James Monroe Ash Lawn
In 1799, James Monroe and his family moved into their Albemarle "cabin castle," adjacent to Jefferson's Monticello. Jefferson had previously urged Monroe to move to the area to create a "society to our taste".
Today, visitors can tour the fifth president's home, which was recently refurbished based on new research and inventory lists. Original and period French and American furniture, boxwood gardens, and a 535-acre working farm await visitors. Reconstructed using archaeology and a 1908 photograph, the slave quarters stands alongside two original outbuildings.
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor's actual birth place is in dispute. The State of Virginia has concluded, however, that the Montebello estate was the most likely site, and that possibly the birth took place in a secondary house on the property. Montebello is closed to the public but there is a marker.
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