"Palladian" style. Jefferson used Palladio's U-shape design for Monticello. P3There were many sights that Jefferson had seen in Europe that made him question the appearance of Monticello. For one thing, country homes in America did not have multiple stories but city houses did. There was more room in the country to spread out where city houses had to be stacked and cramped. Jefferson then realized his lack of spreading out Monticello. He believed it should reach outward not upward and he wanted it larger. He also wanted to combine the ancient classical buildings in Monticello that he was able to view in Europe. Among these buildings were the Maison Carree in Nimes, the Hotel de Salm in France, and the Roman Pantheon in Rome. The Roman Pantheon was also an inspiration to Palladio. So in 1789, when Jefferson became secretary of state, he decided to completely remodel Monticello. He believed it looked "clumsy, old-fashioned and out of step with what a modern country home should look like." Jefferson once said, "Architecture is my delight, and putting up and pulling down is one of my favorite amusements." Jefferson decided to make Monticello much larger and to have all of the rooms on one floor and make it seem to be one-story when it was actually three floors. He would pull down Monticello's upper portico, which gave the entire structure a lower appearance, and he would then provide the center section of the home with a dome. It would be the first on an American home. The dome and colonnaded porch were among those architectural features that connected Jefferson with Palladio and to the classical building design. Finally in 1809, Monticello was finished and is the mansion that is known today. Jefferson made sure that he took up as little space as possible with items like stairs because he wanted to show off his inventions, collection of Indian artifacts and natural history such as antlers, a buffalo head, and mastodo...
