Thursday, July 21, 2011

Montpelier

The morning we visited Monticello we also visited James Madison's house Montpelier which is in Virginia. Because it has really only looked like this for three years, it is very sparse inside. They are still looking for some of Madison's furniture or similar things to fill the house with. And you can imagine that those things would be expensive. 

I find it interesting that Monticello actually has some art that was originally James Madison's while Montpelier actually has the copies. I think they should probably give those back, but I guess Monticello wouldn't like to lose it.


After Madison died, his stepson basically lost the house. It was went through a few hand before ending up in the DuPont family. They had several additions to the house and added some pink stucco. When the last DuPont died in 1983, she gave it to National Trust for Historic Preservation. The must have toured it like this for while before they decided they could take the stucco off and took off the additions. 

It almost doesn't look like the same house. I would love to go back in a few years to see what they have added. 

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