Page 128 - REALLY What A time Book IX
P. 128
REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time
FAMILY OUTINGS
Monticello also has it’s majestic beauty. But, where I saw
Washington as an administrator, Jefferson captured my
imagination with his inventive mind. He was the creator and
thinker of a century. His plantation was an example of
himself.
Monticello means a small mountain, and it rests on the top of
Virginia’s foothills, outside of Charlottesville. Charlottesville is
the home of the University of Virginia where he designed the
early quadrangle and invented a curved brick serpentine wall.
Known for it’s strength, yet only one brick thick.
His home was filled with interesting gadgets and inventions.
He invented a contraption that made copies of everything he
wrote. It was like a Leroy. He invented a plow to turn the soil
in the fields. He had smoke houses for ham , venison and
other meat.
The kitchen was below the main rooms which kept the house
warmer, as the heat rose, and made it easier to serve his many
guests. French doors that both opened together. Narrow stair
wells in back for servants and slaves to go up and down the
stairs. Narrow so that two couldn’t stand on them and talk or
visit. His stables were underground so that the weather would
be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. They were
built without nails. All fitted together by tongue and groves.
Yet he had a nail factory on his estate. His gardens were
specially prepared for year around vegetables. Once fish had
been caught he kept them alive in a small pond where they
could be scooped out fresh for dinner.
128

