This morning, I made the 4-hour drive to Charlottesville in central Virginia. A couple months ago, I had seen a picture similar to the one above, and decided that I really wanted to visit Thomas Jefferson's plantation home, Monticello. After reading a long biography of Jefferson, I finally decided to book the tickets for my brief weekend getaway.
At Monticello, there are two basic ticket types. The standard admission is about $20 and covers the first floor of the home and tours of both the garden and the slave quarters. For $40, however, you can get this - plus a behind the scenes tour of Monticello's upper floors. Since I figured this would likely be my only visit I'd ever make to Monticello, I went ahead a splurged on the more expensive tour.
My "Behind the Scenes" home tour was scheduled for 2:30, so I had plenty of time to explore before my guided tour. I spent some time in the museum, but found it a little lacking. Fortunately, I was able to join the hour-long guided tour on "Slavery at Monticello." Although this tour was fairly educational, I found it a little disappointing. The tour was little more than an educational lecture - there was nothing really to see (just the empty spaces which once contained slave quarters...you would have thought that they could have reconstructed at least one of the cabins.)
Fortunately, the slavery tour did fill most of my time, so I simply walked the grounds taking pictures while I awaited my house tour. When it came time for the house tour, I learned that the "Behind the Scenes" groups are much smaller than the normal groups (which are herded through the house at 15-minuter intervals.) My group of about 15 was first led through the ground floor (which all the tours see and is decorated as it was in Jefferson's day. Eventually, we were led to a very narrow stairwell and continued to the second and third floors.
In the recent past (like six-months ago), these upper floors were used as the museum's offices; in fact, they are currently still in the process of renovating these rooms. Only one of the rooms had actually furnishings, but it was very interesting to see the unfinished rooms (we could see what the flooring under the stoves was like and how the beds looked when not outfitted with bedding.) The highlight of the upstairs tour is the dome room atop the house (the large empty room directly below the front dome.) Overall, it was a very impressive tour (and well worth the extra $20.)
After the house tour, I continued with a tour of the flower and vegetable gardens that surrounded the house. I was actually surprised how many flowers were in bloom (I thought the summer heat would have killed them...) After the garden tour, I made a quick stop at the Jefferson's grave site and continued back to my car. It was a long (hot) day at Monticello, but I definitely enjoyed myself.
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