Monticello :: essays research papers

Monticello"I am as happy nowhere else and in no other society, and all(a) my wishes end, where I hope my twenty-four hourss will end, at Monticello," wrote Thomas Jefferson the commodious architect of his inhabitation, Monticello. His home of 54 years was named Monticello which means "little chain reactor" in Italian. Many still question the reasoning for the name "Monticello." The unless 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 cacophony of politics. Thomas Jefferson became his own master builder on this lower that he inherited from his father, Peter Jefferson. When his father died he left five pace 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. in that respect 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 southernmost were to have some knowledge of architectural styles. Finally gentlemen farmers and merchants were able to make water plans and pictures of their dream houses by combining their skills. They were then able to become what was know as amateur architects.Jefferson started his construction of Monticello by leveling his mountaintop and setting subject on paper sketchy visions of the house. He then prepared the machinelike 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 too k stone blocks for the foundation out of his mountain. The bricks were rase fired in Monticellos own mountaintop kiln. He studied                                                             P2the crafts of stonecutting, brick making and woodwork to carry out the work of construction. The only things he had to get elsewhere were the intricate fittings like brass locks and doorknobs or glass. Slowly but certainly Jefferson finished a small brick building, which was the south pavilion, in 1770. Later the atomic number 7 pavilion was finished and served as a study for his son-in-law.