Room23: Thomas Jefferson's House

Hi all,

What a wonderfully intellectually stimulating day I had today!

Firstly, I woke up around 9.00am, had brekky, got my coffee and headed off down the road towards Charlottesville to visit the home of Thomas Jefferson, Monticello (pronounced Monty-Chello - which means Little Mountain in Italian). It is about 90 minutes drive away.

On arrival there were far less people there than the last time I visited. On arrival, you buy a ticket for the tour and then head over to wait for a bus to take you to the top of the mountain and the house. Once at the top, you wait in line for your designated tour (mine was 12.10pm) and then get lead through the house, but only the 1st floor. You are warned straight up however that no photos are allowed to be taken inside the house...boooooo! Below are photographs from outside the house as well as around the grounds and of the tunnel leading under the house.

Jefferson was an amazing architect and designer and did both in building this house, tearing it down and rebuilding it again over 40 years! Many of the ideas stemmed from his time in France as Secretary of State. He had quite the interest in octagons and several rooms are designed as octagons as he felt they were the best way to fit furniture into a room.

He also designed part of the US Capitol building and the main buildings at the University of Virginia, which is in Charlottesville. Oh and he was also the drafter of the Declaration of Independence, Vice President to the Second US President John Adams, Secretary of State and the 3rd President of the United States! But his main interests were agriculture and achitecture!

He was also an amazingly complex man with many contradictions and apparent hypocrisy! For example, he publicly wrote that slavery was an abomination, a crime against those enslaved. However, during his life he inherited, owned, bought and sold over 600 slaves! It is also said he had several children to one slave Sally Hemings.

They are beginning to say that Thomas Jefferson may have been the most important man in US history, and it is not hard to see why. I bought my second book on him today and have throughly enjoyed reading the first chapter. The first book I was recommended was more about him and his house and I am so glad I read 120 pages of it before going back, but it is not telling me what I want to know about this man. What were his accomplishments? Where did he comes from? Why did he do the things he did? What was his mindset? His motivations?

I think it is completely relevant and important to go back and read about if not learn from, those that have come before us. I guarantee you they worried about the same things we did and faced many of the same difficulties that we do now, minus some of the technological improvements we experience. As human beings they certainly faced similar existential issues as we face today and we can learn from those who have come before us. It is also important due tot he fact that our societies as we know them today are a general reflection of what has come before. Most of the time we are the better for our ancestors influence, but there is so much that seems to be forgotten and so much we somehow refuse to learn! Seemingly going through the same problems they had in the past. One thing I can think of are economic cycles! We have seen rises and falls in financial fortunes over many centuries, yet we seem to fail to see the next massive drop in the economy coming.

And if you consider someone like Thomas Jefferson, we are looking at someone who continues to have a massive influence not only on the United States but also on the rest of the world. This is the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and in doing so, outlined the American psyche for time immemorial. It is difficult to argue that the American psyche, more than any other country, influences the way the world currently operates, whether it is agreement or in opposition to it. Therefore why would we not want to learn more about this man, how he thought and why he wrote the things he did? Why is it also the case that more than 200 years later, the US and many of the rest of us, continue to live by those ideals? Is it possible that in studying such a man, we may learn much more than his legacy?

Jefferson is not the only one however. There are many many other men and women from history who appear larger than life and who have had an enormous influence on who we are. Jefferson himself was influenced by some great men including Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Issac Newton. Jefferson put Sir Issac Newton among the 3 greatest men to have ever lived! For me, I put Australia's greatest Prime Minister John Curtin at the top of my list. Others I have a fond interest in are people such as Ben Chifley, Robert McNamarra, Queen Elizabeth I, Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, Sigmund Freud, Nietzche and Carl Rogers. Anyway, enough of my pontificating.

Walking through a place of such historical significance quickly reminded me of my utter dismay and awe at being at the Tower of London some years ago. My absolute favourite part Monticello being Jefferson's 3 private rooms. His Library, office and bedroom. I stood in his library with some of his old books and looked at the desk at which he wrote and immediately felt smarter for the experience. I wanted to sit at his desk and ponder and write down my ideas on life. I felt sitting there I could be even more inspired than every day life usually inspires me and come up with some solution to a long term problem. Oh why do these tours have to be so rushed. I also stood in his bedroom, the very room in which he died at 1.00pm on 4 July 1826, 50 years to the day since the Declaration of Independence and four hours before the death of that other much loved founding father John Adams who died at 5.00pm on the same day. You don't need to make up fiction when reality is this scrumptious! I wanted to live in that house. In those rooms.

Once the house tour was over, I did a 45 minute tour of Mulberry Row where the slaves lived and tended to the daily chores. On Mulberry Row, Jefferson had a vegetable garden where he not only gained sustenance but also experimented with his agricultural ideas. There was also a blacksmith that not only made the normal fare, but also did all the metal work for the house and included a nail factory that he used for building the house but also to sell for profit to neighbours. There was also a joinery shop for preparing the wood for the house and for making furniture.

After this I went down to the family cemetery and saw Jefferson's grave and then returned to the house to go through the tunnel under the house before returning to the visitor center. I then had lunch and headed back to Farmville.

Such a great experience.

Now as if that was not enough, I headed to the bookstore to have a coffee and read my new book. As I sat I couldn't help but pick up on a conversation going on next to me between two Longwood Student-athletes. They were from different sports and different sexes. Mostly they were lamenting some issues they were having within their teams. I couldn't help myself but say hi and enter the conversation. I explained who I was, why I was at Longwood and my interest in sports psychology. I was recognised not by face but for the fact that I was meant to give my talk on Tuesday, two and two were put together quickly. One of them said they had every intention of going but couldn't make it due to a test at the same time. They also couldn't believe nobody went. Perhaps their could have been an audience if the talk was at another time.

So we got into a deep and lengthy conversation about some on-field issues and frustrations. In the end we were able to work through some ideas which I am sure could be helpful and both expressed great interest and gratitude. We hope to get together again before I leave and perhaps stay in touch in the future to continue to work.

From a personal point of view, this is why I want to be a sports psychologist. These experiences. To see an athlete get the ideas you are discussing and be able to see how those ideas could help them in their own game is tremendously rewarding. I walked away from the conversation simply buzzing and highly stimulated. Throw away your drugs, get a passion or finding a meaning to your life. Then spend some time every day working on it, believe me, that hole you are trying to fill inside yourself will soon be filled to over flowing!!!!

Tonight I saw a new movie called Water for Elephants. Great movie, I highly recommend you see it when it comes to a theater near you :-) While on the movie topic, there is a very topical golf/ sport psychology type movie coming out soon called Seven Days in Utopia. Can't wait.

Please enjoy the pictures.

D

This is the front of the house as you walk up to it. It looks a bit messy to the left there as two massive trees were blown over the night before int he massive storms we had. Everyone is happy they decided to fall away from the house!!!!

This is the back of the house. I want to mention the main window you can see to the left of the left hand column. That was the dining room if I remember correctly and contained what may be the first 'Cone of Silence' centuries before Maxwell Smart made the concept famous. He created a double door system to this room where he could have private meetings and sound could not be heard outside of the room. Think conversations with people such as John Adams, James Monroe and James Madison among others!!!!! I'd like you to take notice of the terraces leading to the left and right of the house.

This is view of the various vegetables grown along Mulberry Row. This is only a small portion as the vegetable garden was about 1000 feet in length. The little building is a place where Jefferson loved to go and ponder or read. You can see the view he had in the background.

Mulberry Row. Slaves quarters and various shops and the vegetable garden are tot he left. There are full time archeologists working at Monticello.

This wing comes off of the right hand terrace you saw above. The terrace comes away from the house and then makes a right hand turn for this structure. This structure contained toilets , slave quarters for slaves that worked within the house and the kitchen. The kitchen was not built inside the houses in these days due to the fear of fire! A fire had to be stoked 365 days of the year and as many houses had a lot of wood in them, people could not risk fire breaking out in their kitchen and spreading to the rest of the house. So kitchens were built outside of the main house, but, not so far that food would get cold on its way from the kitchen to the dining table!

The gate leading into the Jefferson cemetery.

The inscription on Jefferson's head stone, which is actually an oblisk.

A not so typical slave quarters. This quarters is quite up market.

One of the tunnels underneath the terraces and leading right under the house. These tunnels also housed the wine and beer cellar as well as food storage facilities. It is also where the slaves roamed as they were not allowed in the house except for the most trusted, including the butler.

The two trees blown over by the storm.

Behind the middle column you can see a clock installed by Jefferson. The clock inside the house is far more spectacular which includes a device to show which day of the week it was! The small black spec to the left of the middle column is a wind direction device that still works. The clock and day indicator also still work. However the joke between the tour guides is that the indicator for Saturday could fit on the inside wall so it is down in the cellar :-)