Preview

Monticello

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1366 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Monticello
Monticello

"I am as happy nowhere else and in no other society, and all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello," wrote Thomas Jefferson the great architect of his home, Monticello. His home of 54 years was named Monticello which means "little mountain" in Italian. Many still question the reasoning for the name "Monticello." The only reasoning that was come up with was that Jefferson wanted to build his home on his mountain located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia near Charlottesville. He wanted a place that was private and away from civilization and the commotion of politics.

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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Thomas Jefferson's presidency started with the Revolution of 1800, the first time political parties sent candidates and campaigned. He managed to stabilize and empower the people of the United States during his two terms as president. One of his major accomplishments was cleared the Revolutionary debt the US incurred. He did this by putting his frugal/simple economic plan into effect, reducing the navy to several ships and the army down to small militias. This was one of his 3 main goals at the start of his presidency that he accomplished. He also spent $15 million in acquiring the Louisiana Territory from a war-weary Napoleon Bonaparte. This doubled the size of the US Overnight and he went to work by sending expeditions westward and incorporating the people. This was important because previously, people had simply pushed past the boundary illegally or squatted, thus stabilizing the nation. Jefferson also nixed Adam's and Washington's monarchial lives by not using a horse-drawn carriage or being called "Majesty" and gave more power to the states. As a strict-constructionist, he believed all powers not given to the federal government belonged to the states. This was important because…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jefferson was an advocate for agriculture. He saw America’s future more in farming and staying similar to how things were in the present. However, he had a very…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Furthermore, if his objective is to favor the working landowner over the political and financial opportunists that seem to flourish in large central governments, he needed to temporarily use the authority of his central office to expand the decentralized territories that would indeed support the landowners and local laborers. By today’s standards Thomas Jefferson was a strict idealist. His variations from his belief were rare but when he did vary, he did it in a grand way as in the purchase of the Louisiana territory.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Thomas Jefferson was president he accomplished many things. One of Jefferson’s major presidential achievements was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, through which the United States…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thomas Jefferson was a very important person in American history. He was arguably the most influential in the early United States. He was the principle writer of the Declaration of Independence, the Vice President, and eventually, the President of the United States.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Jefferson through his life, his experiences have changed his view to suit what he believes is best for America. Jefferson grew up in a wealthy family and grew with a positive view of the people. He served as a Virginia delegate and as a Virginia state legislature member. Then, he was an author of the Declaration of Independence to create the new nation of America. Later, he became part of Washington’s cabinet as Secretary of State and served as a U.S. Minister to France. Through his political background, he grew skills to help hone his vision on how…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Thomas Jefferson DBQ

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In 1800 when Thomas Jefferson became the President, he recognized major changes in the US government. The Federalist Party was weakening at a high rate. Jefferson’s views and opinions were very from the Federalist Party. He believed in a smaller government and a more equal economy for all classes. During his presidency, his greatest achievement was most likely the Louisiana Purchase. This is where for only 15 million dollars; the United States purchased a large region of land left of the Mississippi from the Spanish. Although Louisiana was an incredible price, it was not good enough for the Republican territorial. The territories were too vague. Jefferson pushed ahead his plans to gain West Florida, but his attempts failed. Jefferson…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Jefferson himself helped to build a new nation based on individual freedom and self-government. The Jefferson Paradox is the Paradox of Liberty, which was to discover slaves and enslaved people through a different perspective of Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. The plantation itself played the big role in the era of slavery. Peter Jefferson, father of Jefferson, was the one who established a tobacco farm on the slopes of a mountain. Thomas Jefferson called this mountain, Monticello and made his world, free and enslaved workers built his famous house and enslaved the laborers to produce cash crops of tobacco.…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    His father, Peter Jefferson, whose skills were developed after decades of work at the family 's five-thousand-acre Shadwell plantation, was a successful planter and surveyor. The surrounding area of the plantation today is known as the city of Charlottesville. Jefferson 's mother, Jane Rudolph Jefferson, came from a prominent Virginia family and was conditioned to be a stay-at-home mother, as was common at the time. As the third child of the couple and the eldest son, Jefferson was a sibling to seven other children, including only one brother. Thomas was survived by his brother and three of his…

    • 2516 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Jefferson: Man on a Mountain is a biography of Thomas Jefferson focusing in on not just his public life. Natalie S. Bober zooms in on Jefferson’s love life, his relationship with his slaves and the reader also gets insight into his thoughts about various situations around the colonies. Bober shifts smoothly and carefully through incidents in Jefferson’s early years, marriage, and family life to follow his career development, which encircled everything from farming to teaching and writing.…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Swann Woodcock

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Thomas saw the land tore up. There were old log cabin houses that were now decaying and littering the landscape. For the creation of these artificial river systems and dams, the ground was brought up and trees were uplifted. Instead of cleaning up the mess in those days,…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A second literary device that the author uses to express the theme is symbolism. The most obvious symbol in the story is the house that Jefferson dreams to buy. Right from the first paragraph he says: “I must own a price o’ Canada!”(27) This suggests that he wants to buy a property for himself. As the story goes on, we notice that he…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Jefferson loved architecture. He studied and read about architecture in books and designed many buildings from what he learned. The buildings he designed and built still exist today. One of which was his own home, called Monticello. Monticello is a great example of neoclassicism in that the house features classic Roman styles and features. Most of what Jefferson learned and applied to his design was from Andrea Palladio. Palladio modeled his work after ancient Roman buildings and Jefferson admired that.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    James Hoban

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages

    At first he lived in Charleston, South Carolina where he built the first South Carolina State House and the Charleston Theater. Wanting wanted more opportunities and being able to build something bigger, Hoban decided to move to Philadelphia. As soon as he settled there he put an ad in the paper saying "Any gentleman who wishes to build in an elegant style."(Heritage, p.38). Then he helped build the first Bank of America. He was not fully credited for that project because he had to share it with Samuel Blodgett who helped design it. A major event in James Hoban’s life happened when he met the first American president, George Washington. Having met Washington did not bring anything great to his career until the President got fed up with French architect Enfant. That was good for Hoban’s career because Enfant was supposed to be the one to build the White House but because he was too slow Washington decided to fire him. After firing Enfant, George Washington created a contest to decide who was going to design the White House. Since Washington had met Hoban and liked him, he decided to invite him to take part of the contest. Hoban and 15 other contestants, including Thomas Jefferson, designed what they thought would be the perfect president house. Hoban ended up winning the contest. Washington was not…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Montresor

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the opening line, Montresor states that he has suffered a thousand injuries at the hand of Fortunato but now Fortunato has also insulted him and this is too much to take. Therefore, Montresor plots revenge. However, there is an indication that Montresor is insane because of lack of proof that Fortunado has ever injured or insulted him and of Fortunado’s friendly behaviors towards Montresor. In the whole story, Montresor has never narrated a single incident of injury or an act of insult that pushes him to the edge, that makes him a murderer. And even if Fortunado has done the thing that he, in Montresor’s mind, did, why would Montresor revenge for just one single insult? Wouldn’t “a thousand injuries” make a better motive for killing (Poe)? Therefore, Montresor’s reason to murder one person seems very unreasonable. Furthermore, later when they meet at the carnival, Fortunado is very friendly towards Montresor. If he has ever injured Montresor a thousand times for real, he will avoid meeting Montresor at the beginning. If Fortunado has insulted Montresor recently, he should have talked about that incident, or he may even say sorry about it. He can’t just let it go. Nevertheless, Fortunado has hardly mentioned it, and he is very cordial, like they’re best friends. Not only does Fortunato act friendly, but then volunteers to leave the carnival to go with Montresor to his home to test the Amontillado. Fortunato's vanity in being a connoisseur is part of that willingness, but surely he would not have been so cheerful in doing Montresor such a favor. Finally, Fortunato, this supposed enemy of Montresor, goes down into Montresor's cellar without the slightest bit of hesitation in being all alone in the dark cellar with someone he has supposedly injured and insulted. Montresor’s lack of proof and Fortunado’s warm actions both eliminate the idea that Fortunado is Montresor’s enemy. The one conclusion that can be drawn from the contradiction between Montresor's words and…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays