Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Architecture Monticello Jeffersons Dream Monticello Jeffersons Dream “Monticello”, the Italian word for little mountain is the appropriate wording for Thomas Jefferson’s dream home. He picked out the site for such a fabled home as a young boy. At eight hundred and sixty-five feet tall, Jefferson truly does have his little mountain on which to live. Thomas Jefferson built his chalet in an abnormal spot in accordance with the times. Most if not all the people in the seventeen hundreds built their homes in the low lands or near rivers. On the contrary Thomas Jefferson was an abnormal man as that he was a statesman, a designer, a scholar, a astronomer, a philosopher, and lawyer. The fact that Thomas Jefferson was an untrained designer with what seems to be architectural genius would give reason enough to study and research his works. Jefferson said, “Architecture is my delight.” Monticello, the Virginia Capital, and the University of Virginia being Jefferson’s most well known architectural feats. His French style architecture can be seen all over the state of Virginia and the world. Marquis De Chastellux, who was a Frenchman, described and praised Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Marquis De Chastellux said of Monticello: The house, of which Mr. Jefferson was the architect and often one of the workmen, is rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without fault; it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance to which is by two porticoes, ornamented with pillars. The ground floor consists chiefly of a very large, lofty saloon which is to be decorated entirely in the antique style; above it is a library of the same form; two small wings with only a ground floor and attic story, are joined to this pavilion, and communicate with the kitchens, offices, etc., which will form a kind of basement story, over which runs a terrace. . . we may safely aver, that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather. Not only was Jefferson the architect but in many cases, he was the general contractor. He was surely a tradesman too as in he taught his slaves and free men bricklaying, stonecutting, carpentry, cabinetmaking, and ironmongering. Jefferson’s genius is easily seen and should be researched and studied. Jefferson was also the second vice president and the third president of the United States of America. There is a history in the United States of holding whatever the Presidents have and do as national treasures. This includes the building in which they were born, grew up in, lived in, and died in. It seems that the popularity and success of the President is also a variable in the public’s eye. Under this assumption, Monticello would also be studied since it is the place where one of the greatest Presidents of all time lived and died. Monticello is considered one of the greatest architectural feats for the time in which it was built. Thomas Jefferson built a home that was years beyond its time. He included sunlights to let in the sun for extra lighting. Jefferson also was one of the first people to go away from the block style building with a hall down the middle and rooms off to the left and right. He created a central room with a circular path going around the rooms. This is one of the beginnings of the contemporary style that is still going strong today. Monticello is a total brick structure with porticoes in the front and rear lined with six pillars. Marquis De Chastellux’s quote above is a great description of how the house is laid out. Jefferson’s octagonal shape created many angles from which the house could expand. When Jefferson enlarged the first Monticello, he added all over the grounds. The original building which was an octagon became an octagon with two “L” shaped wings running on the north and south wings of the structure. These “L” sections were designed back into the natural curve of the mountain. Jefferson hid a smokehouse, a kitchen, dairy rooms, an icehouse, stables, and harness rooms within these lower “L” shaped wings. The inhabitants of these wings were totally disguised from visitors because they were designed exactly like the house. Therefore these wings blended in with the main estate. This left the East and the West as the main entrances to his grand house. The west front of Monticello was the true entrance as his driveway looped directly in front of the portico. In his remodeling of Monticello, Jefferson created a look of a one-story house. In fact Jefferson went to great pains to accomplish this. He changed the staircases and hid them in small corners and shortened them to a mere two and a half feet wide. Jefferson believed that stairs were just a tool to be used to maneuver from floor to floor. In addition to hiding the stairs, Jefferson also enlarged the porticoes on the outside to create a one-story building. In reality Jefferson’s Monticello is a thirty two-room mansion but, appears to be much smaller at first glance. Monticello is also a haven for many of the early inventions and break-throughs in the design world. As you see Jefferson was also an inventor and always believed that there was some better way to do everything. In this respect Jefferson evoked his ideas on Monticello. Jefferson loved arches. He used the arches to divert the loads and to add elegance to the basic parts of the structure. These arches can be observed on the outside of the building all around the frame of the house. Jefferson used the arches to divert all the loads of the walls into columns. These columns were connected to the foundation and thus allowing the structure to not have great expansive foundations. By using the arches on the outside walls of the building, Jefferson was able to include a fully furnished basement with a wine cellar and other essential rooms. Another great idea that Jefferson evoked into his home was the use of domes. On the east end of the building, Jefferson has a massive two story tall dome that allows in the light. This dome is quite heavy and is some twenty or thirty feet in diameter. These loads are directed directly down into the foundation, which is almost four full stories down from the top of the dome. This is a basic load path for the dome. On the west and east ends Jefferson has two large porticoes. These porticoes also bear some of the weight from Jefferson’s vast roof that rolls and flows all over the top of Monticello. The Pillars on the front and rear of the building help to stabilize and ease the loads pushing down on the walls of the house. They act as stilts for the roof. And finally the last thing is that Jefferson designed his house in the shape of an octagon. This octagonal shape gives the structure more wall area to support the massive roof. This also helps ease the loads from the large domes and skylights. As you can see from the drawings that Jefferson’s dream of an octagonal house also is economical. Being that Jefferson lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, he did not have much in the line of selection for materials to use on his house. In fact Jefferson used wood that he grew from when he was a young boy. He taught his slaves how to mill the wood. Also in an attempt to save some money, Thomas Jefferson started his own nail shop which turned out nails for the second renovation of Monticello and for public sale. After the final improvements to Monticello were finished, the nail shop had to be closed because it was not producing any income. Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner in the south. He owned eighty-three slaves and thirty-four free men. These servants were treated with respect and love from Jefferson. And in return Jefferson’s slaves gave him all they had. When Jefferson returned from five years serving as Secretary of State in France, the slaves unhitched his wagon and pulled him up his steep hill and into his home. When Thomas Jefferson went about building his first rendition of what Monticello would be, he had his slaves help him. He taught them how to be carpenters and build frames. Jefferson also started a brick kelm and showed some of his servants how to make and cook bricks. Other than that he also taught his slaves exactly how to mill wood into a finished product. He did all of this because he was always riding the line between survival and death in the financial state. His many ideas proved expensive. Thomas Jefferson at the time was one of the only people known to actually use his slaves as the builders of his home. Most whites of the time used other whites because they believed blacks and other slaves to be inadequate. However Jefferson was a not one to discriminate at all. In fact he once said that if not for society that he would not own slaves or have anything to do with them. So Jefferson acted as his own general contractor and designer. Jefferson would not have been able to do any of the renovations to his home if not for the use of his slaves because he was always in such financial turmoil. It is amazing that Jefferson took such diligence to teach all of his slaves how to be trained workers when in reality Jefferson himself had little if any first hand knowledge of the skills. He was definitely a great man to be able to grasp so many skills in his life. When Jefferson came back from his five-year tour as Secretary of State in France, he brought back new plans for Monticello and the area. He decided that what was Monticello was out of date and old. So he once again designed in depth plans for his mansion and got to work. After two years of teaching his slaves how to do some of the tasks and ordering the correct materials he started on the grand expansion. Again Jefferson was the general contractor and designer for the first year and a half of the project. He had his whole house torn down in the front and the back. The front portico was demolished so that he could enlarge the outer walls to give extensive room for expansion. Thomas Jefferson oversaw all of this action with close diligence and care. Over time Jefferson realized that there was not quite enough skilled help to complete the expansion. He became frustrated and upset with his home. Jefferson was quoted in a letter saying “this is nothing but a brick kelm, for nothing is better than better before.” At this time Jefferson hired three trained men from all over the country to help complete the task of constructing his master house. These men have been considered the only reason that Jefferson was able to move into his new expanded home before his own retirement. They were in charge of teaching the slaves and servants how to do proper construction techniques. But their main jobs were to do the elaborate work that was necessary for the house to truly look and feel its greatness. Now if Thomas Jefferson was a wealthy man then he would have probably hired more trained men to do some of the work on Monticello. But since he was always short on funding due to all of his extravagant ideas he was forced to use his slaves as manpower. In the long run though, Jefferson might have been just as successful if not more by using hired workers. That is because his slaves were taken away from their daily duties of tending to the fields and the crops, which were also a form of income to the Jefferson family. Without Jefferson’s genius though none of these grand ideas would have been instituted and what we now call Monticello would have never been constructed. In the end Jefferson got the project done and was very pleased with the final product so there should not be any quarrel since we still praise this monument today. Thomas Jefferson was truly a great man. Jefferson was an abnormal man as that he was a statesman, a designer, a scholar, an astronomer, a philosopher, and lawyer. He accomplished more in a few years than many can say for their entire lives. Thomas Jefferson and his grand adventure of building Monticello shows us exactly how will and determination carries someone through to their goal. And still today thousands visit Jefferson’s home at Monticello. Bibliography: Word Count: 2121
Copyright © 1998-2008 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved. DMCA Notifications and Requests