This site was the first of the few UNESCO sites I visited during my trip to the US in Dec 2024. It made for a great stop on my way to spending the holidays with family in Virginia. I made sure that we visited both Monticello and the University of Virginia campus, which I think is the best way to really appreciate the OUV of this site. 

Monticello

Monticello was Thomas Jefferson's primary plantation and house, situated on a hill or a small mountain ('Monticello' in Italian) southeast of Charlottesville. We visited the site on a sunny but bitterly freezing afternoon on the first day of our stay in the town. The entrance to the site and the David M Rubenstein visitor centre sit just below the hill. It is highly recommended to watch the introductory film being screened at the theatre, as it gives you a rough introduction to Thomas Jefferson, his time in the plantation, and the plantation itself. You may also want to visit the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Gallery, which has excellent exhibitions featuring the fruits of Jefferson's ideas and work.

To access the house, you would have to join a tour or purchase the Grounds Ticket, which allows you to wander around the gardens and grounds at your own pace. In our case, we booked the Highlights Tour, a 45-minute guided tour that would give you an overview of the president, a tour of the first floor spaces of the house, and most importantly, the lives of slaves and slavery at the time of Thomas Jefferson.

We entered the house through the eastern front, arriving at the Hall which is pretty much a museum pretending to be a visitors' waiting room. Heaps of items are displayed in the Hall, including elk antlers, paintings, Native American artifacts, and the Great Clock. It's best to pay attention to the tour guide when they explain the mechanics of the Great Clock. We then moved to the Family Sitting Room, which Jefferson's daughter Martha used as a classroom when teaching her children. Next, we proceeded to the Library, which once housed many of his books, though they are now stored and exhibited at the Library of Congress (which I got to visit when I went there). We then passed through the Cabinet, which used to be Jefferson's office, and finally, Jefferson's Bed Chamber, though I didn’t get much time to appreciate it as we quickly moved on to the Parlor.

The Parlor was the living room, where the family entertained guests. Like the Hall, it resembled a museum with its paintings, busts, and decorative arts. The glass windows of the Parlor offer a view of the lawn fronting the western front. The tour guide would also happily demonstrate how the Parlor's double doors work, which I suspect Jefferson designed more for his love of nifty things than out of necessity. After spending quite some time at the Parlor, we moved to the Dining Room, a space I found attractive because of its interior design, dinnerware, furniture, and friezes. Jefferson also put some of his inventions to use here, such as the dumbwaiters and tiered trays. Don't forget to check out the Tea Room, which is separated from the Dining Room by double pocket doors.

I'd like to point out that each room has its own characteristic colours--the Hall and Parlor has white/cream, the Dining Room bright yellow, the Family Sitting Room pastel blue, and the Cabinet green. It makes each room distinct or specialised, but not necessarily disjointed.

We then moved outside, skipping Madison's and Abbe Correa's Rooms. We walked across the lawn, gawking at the western front and the iconic dome. It is said that Monticello's dome is the country's first ever dome on a residential building. From the lawn, you can truly appreciate the architecture of the house, which was inspired by Palladian and classical architecture and is now often credited as the neoclassical Jeffersonian architecture. The amalgamation of Jefferson's interpretation of certain European architectural styles and his vision of the US as a new country demonstrate the OUV of this site.

Jefferson's paternity drama

We finished our tour by strolling around the lawn and discussing slavery and the life of Sally Hemings, a slave who was said to have borne at least one child by Thomas Jefferson. I could only imagine the scandal caused by the goss that Jefferson fathered a slave's child(ren). Using genetic analysis, Foster et al (1998) claimed to have confirmed Jefferson's paternity.

However, a scientific correspondence, also published in Nature, stated that any of Jefferson's family members could have fathered the children, to which Foster and his colleagues responded. Marshall (1999) published a short article supporting the idea that there is no conclusive proof that Jefferson was indeed the father. Interestingly, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation released a statement confirming Jefferson's paternity. This seems to have sealed the deal, but for some reason, all I could think of was the episodes of Maury yelling, 'You are not the father!'

And the controversy does not stop there, as Sally Hemings and Martha Wayles (Jefferson's wife) are half-sisters.

The house has an exhibit retelling the story of Sally Hemings, her offspring, and this controversy. Be sure to check it out, along with the other exhibits showcasing the lives of slaves who lived on the plantation.

Mulberry Row 

From the lawn, we went down to Mulberry Row, the 'centre' of plantation and industrial activities. An info panel there states that several buildings once lined this street, though only four have survived. These buildings housed shops, storehouses, stables, and dwellings for both slaves and free white workers. You can only imagine how busy Mulberry Row must have been at the time. We walked further down to the vegetable gardens and the garden pavilion, which offers spectacular views of the woods below. We continued down Mulberry Row until we reached the graveyard where Jefferson's gravesite can be found. The graveyard is also a shuttle stop and luckily for us, we didn't have to wait long as the shuttle to the visitor centre was already there when we arrived.

It is a known fact that Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" and advocated for emancipation and yet owned hundreds of slaves. I think it is just proper to observe that without the servitude of his slaves, Jefferson wouldn't have had the time or the ability to maintain his health and engage in intellectual pursuits, along with all the other privileges he enjoyed. In this sense, I would attribute much of the credit for his intellectual and political achievements to his slaves. 

Here's an interesting read, for those who want to know more about Jefferson as a slave owner.

University of Virginia campus

The weather was an absolute contrast to what we had the day before visiting Monticello, and so I didn't linger much around the campus. Besides, it was Christmas Eve, and so everything was closed. The inscribed property spans approximately 11 hectares of the sprawling campus. The area was what Jefferson referred to as his "academical village", which embodies his ideals relating to higher learning and intellectual exchange. This is also an excellent set of the built environment showcasing Palladian and neoclassical architecture (lucky students!).

The rectangular Lawn is at the centre of the inscribed property. The Rotunda, modelled by Jefferson after the Pantheon in Rome, dominates the northern part of the Lawn. The university offers historical tours of the Rotunda, though their website states that these tours are currently unavailable. The Lawn is flanked on both sides by the Pavilions, which contain a total of 54 highly sought-after rooms that students in their final year of undergraduate study must apply for. At the time of visit, many of the doors of the room are adorned with Christmas decorations, posters, and flags.

Walking towards the south of the Lawn you'd see a statue of Homer fronting the beautiful Old Cabell Hall. To the southwest of the Lawn is Garrett Hall (see photo), where the University's School of Leadership and Public Policy is house. It stands opposite Brian Hall and the McIntire Amphitheatre, which is an obvious choice to hold speaking events, concerts, and outdoor gatherings. The amphitheatre is also surrounded to the east and west by Cocke Hall and Minor Hall, respectively. The ensemble of these brick buildings with clean white columns is just pretty to see.

I had planned to explore the buildings west of the Lawn, but the rain only got heavier. I figured it was a sign to head back to the car and begin the drive north, towards Washington, DC.