A visit to Monticello

Posted by Kim

We recently had the pleasure of visiting three presidential historic homes – Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, James and Dolly Madison’s Montpelier, and James Monroe’s Ash Lawn.  Although they are located quite close together, each site is distinctly different and each is definitely worth the time to visit.  Today’s blog is focused on Monticello.

Jefferson’s beautiful home is a World Heritage Site and one of the most visited historic homes in the United States, so Jim and I were quite interested to see how it operated both from a tourist’s point of view as well as a professional view.  Monticello is owned and operated by the Monticello Foundation.  As you arrive at the visitor’s center complex you have several choices:  a huge gift shop, café, theater, gallery, and information center.   A shuttle will take you from the visitor’s center to the house.

As for tours, they offer a virtual smorgasbord.  There is a guided tour of the first floor, or you can pay more and get a tour of the 2^nd and 3^rd floor.  There is also a tour of the grounds or a guided walking tour of the extensive gardens.  You can pick and choose which tours you want to take.  We chose the first floor tour which lasts 30 minutes.  It was immediately apparent that our tour guide expected us to have a good working knowledge of Jefferson’s personal history and I realized I should have taken the time to see the film offered in the theater at the visitor’s center before embarking on the tour.  Her reason for omitting a lot of Jefferson’s personal history was obvious – she only had 30 minutes to get her group through the house!  Each time we left a room, another tour group entered on our heels.  This site must accommodate a lot of guests!  I was disappointed that our tour only lasted ½ hour and felt it was a bit rushed, but I understood the reason for it and their variety of choices in tours to accommodate more guests made sense.  I would have liked to see the house tour guides wearing white gloves as a museum etiquette reminder to guests “not to touch”.  I appreciated the guides asking guests to silence their cell phones during the tour.

At Monticello, the kitchens, storage rooms, stables and servant work areas were all located under the main house and these were my favorite areas.  There was no guide or interpreter though, and I think the education staff is missing a wonderful opportunity here!  If two or three interpreters or reenactors could be assigned to work these areas daily, a lot of education about the life of slaves could be offered to guests.  I hope that they will be able to do this in the future.

We visited the gardens on our own and were not disappointed – they were impressive and well kept.   The Museum Gift Shop was delightful, full of interesting things, and we spent quite a bit of money there.  Every staff person that we encountered was hospitable and helpful.  All operations seemed to flow smoothly and efficiently. 

This is a home well worth visiting and I applaud the foundation and staff for the good job they are doing in preserving and presenting this site.  Next week . . . I’ll talk about James Madison’s beautiful Montpelier.