While we were driving through Loudon County, on our way back home to Virginia from our Pennsylvania vacation, I noticed a familiar bit of architecture peeking over the treetops.
It was none other than my first bold “Jefferson Influence” sighting!
More than a few pillars here or a piedmont there, it looked like a modern scaled down version of Monticello set in a neighborhood.
Always having loved this style, I never realized it was created by Jefferson.
When I visited Monticello earlier this summer, we focused on the museum portions with a quick jaunt to the mountain top to enjoy Jefferson’s stunning gardens overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Of course, I had to end the day at the Visitor Center Gift Shop, especially the bookstore.
After all, like Jefferson said: I cannot live without books.
While perusing all the options, I discovered this gorgeous book: Thomas Jefferson Architect: The Built Legacy of our Third President by Hugh Howard, which explores Jefferson’s architectural influence on America.
Wow, I’ve seen some of this in the museum today, and at Poplar Forest. I was all in!
Following are some interesting tidbits from each of the chapters.
INFLUENCED BY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
The book opens with Jefferson’s personal studies of the noted Italian Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio, who, himself, was influenced by Greek and Roman design.
JEFFERSONIAN CLASSICISM
From these studies, Jefferson introduced Palladio’s Greek and Roman influenced Italian Renaissance style in America by experimenting with his own ideas…creating Jeffersonian Classicism.
MONTICELLO
Through the lens of Jefferson’s stylistic journey, the author analyzes Jefferson’s two versions of Monticello which look significantly different from each other, because the Monticello we know today is different from what Jefferson first built.
Architecture is my delight, and putting up and pulling down, one of my delights. -Thomas Jefferson
VIRGINIA STATE CAPITOL IN RICHMOND
In 1785, Jefferson was offered the opportunity to propose architectural ideas for the capitol.
A favorable opportunity of introducing into the state an example of architecture in the classic style of antiquity. Jefferson’s autobiography, 1781
JEFFERSON DESIGNED HOMES FOR FRIENDS
Friends and associates of Jefferson noted his constant scribblings of his favorite hobby.
Enticed by his putting up and pulling down, he was often asked by family and friends to design a home for them.
The author analyzes several homes from Virginia to Kentucky which were built during Jefferson’s lifetime that have the Jefferson influence.
He explores the evidence of similar homes: Were they or weren’t they built from plans drawn by Jefferson himself?
POPLAR FOREST
Poplar Forest, Jefferson’s private get away, is currently being restored to Jefferson’s 1812 version of his private retreat, styled after one of Palladio’s 1549 designs.
Looking a bit like a miniature Monticello, this is the house that lets one experience a historical visit to Jefferson while in the midst of his putting up and pulling down.
The Monticello of Jefferson’s day was never in the completed stage we see today.
The “in-progress” construction phase of Poplar Forest is more realistic to what a guest of Jefferson might have seen at Monticello.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
The University of Virginia is perhaps Jefferson’s piece de resistance, bringing together two passions.
His inner compulsion to learn drove his desire to build a state university permitting education to a greater portion of Americans than ever before.
After years of putting up and pulling down his experimentation sifted through the rubble to a solid architectural statement.
POLITICAL STATEMENT
The author makes an argument that Italian architecture was more than a sense of style. It was a political statement.
By the time Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he wanted to make the separation from Britain complete, from the way government is run to the way government buildings looked.
Politically, Jefferson was partly inspired by the early Roman Republic.
Jefferson put his stamp of American ideals through the expression of architecture.
After all, the expression of which he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, self-government, as hinted in the attempts of the early Roman Republic, are symbolized by Italian architecture.
JEFFERSONIAN INFLUENCE THROUGHOUT VIRGINIA
The author poses another interesting thought…what if Jefferson was inspired not by Italian architecture, but by something else…for example, Gothic architecture?
If so, architectural views seen while driving through Virginia would look quite different than seen today.
