First of all, I am sorry for not writing a blog post sooner. I caught a very bad cold on Saturday but I did not let that stop my presidential houses trip. I have been spending my free time resting from all of our house tours and trying to get better. The first presidential house I visited was Montpelier, the home of James and Dolley Madison's. James Madison was the Father of the United States Constitution and the fourth President of the United States. Montpelier was James Madison childhood home and he lived there periodically before becoming president. After marrying Dolley and serving as President, James Madison came back to Montpelier and began adding onto the house and making architectural changes. Montpelier was very interesting to visit because the columns at the front of the house reminded me of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. I learned that Jefferson and Madison had the same builders, Mr. James Dinsmore and Mr. John Neilson. At Monticello, we learned that Madison liked to visit Monticello and had his own bedroom there. I also learned that Jefferson visited Montpelier several times and liked to stop by when making trips to Washington, D.C. One interesting fact I learned was that James Madison would sit at the middle of his dining room table so that he could hear the conversation around him and so his guests would also be able to hear him speak. Usually, the man of the house would sit at the head of the table but, Madison let his wife, Dolley, sit there since she liked to talk. I visited Highland on Saturday afternoon after visiting Montpelier. Highland was James Monroe's home. James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States and is known as our last founding father because he was the youngest. One very interesting fact about James Monroe is that he is the young man holding the American Flag standing behind George Washington in Leutze's 1851 painting "Washington Crossing the Deleware." Monroe also helped Jefferson draft the Louisiana Purchase. James Monroe wanted to live right beside Jefferson so he bought land right beside Monticello. He only lived at Highland before he served as the President of the United States. After he was elected president, Monroe sold Highland and moved to a plantation that was closer to Washington, D.C. In the pictures below, you will see a yellow house with a white cottage connected to it. The yellow house was built and connected to the white cottage after James Monroe the death of James Monroe. We now know that James Monroe used the white cottage as a guest house. Monroe's original residence burned down after his death. The foundation of the house was just recently found. Historians are still not sure when the house caught fire or why it burned. The rooms in the white cottage are modeled after the ones in Monroe's original residence. Historians know how the house looked because of letters people wrote about their stay at Highland. We were able to see several pieces of furniture that James Monroe owned during his lifetime. |
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