Marc Leepson - Saving Monticello: The Levy Familys Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built

THE FREE PRESS
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Visit us on the World Wide Web
http://www.SimonSays.com
Copyright 2001 by Marc Leepson
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.
The Free Press and colophon are trademarks
of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ISBN-10: 0-7432-2602-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-2602-8

INTRODUCTION
Jeffersons House

O n July , 1776 , the day the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence marking the beginning of the end of the British empire, King George III wrote in his diary: Nothing of importance happened today.

On July , 1826 , as people across the United States joyously celebrated the young nations Independence Day Jubilee, several matters of great importance took place. Early that afternoon, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, died in his bed at Monticello, his beloved home in Central Virginias Blue Ridge Mountains. The nations third president was eighty-three years old.

Later that day, in one of the more remarkable coincidences of history, Jeffersons fellow founding father John Adams died in Massachusetts. The nations second presidents last words were: Thomas Jefferson still survives.

Thomas Jefferson rarely was sick during his long, productive life. But in the spring of 1825 he had developed dysuria, a painful discharge of urine, probably caused by an enlarged prostate gland. The condition weakened him considerably and he was under a physicians care all that summer.

My own health is very low, not having been able to leave the house for three months, Jefferson wrote on August . At the age of , with one foot in the grave, and the other uplifted to follow it, I do not permit myself to take part in any new enterprises.

Jefferson suffered greatly until his death the following summer. His physical suffering was made worse by mental anguish. In his last year, Jefferson was tormented by thoughts about the fate of his only surviving daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, who was then fifty-three, and her children after his death.

It is agony to leave her in the situation she is now in, Jefferson said to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph (Marthas oldest son) two weeks before he died. She is sinking every day under the suffering she now endures; she is literally dying before my eyes.

Plagued by large debts, failed farming and other business ventures, constant extended visits from friends and family, and by his own often profligate spending habits, Jefferson knew that Martha would inherit only debts. He also knew that she would be forced to sell all of his propertyincluding Monticello, the neoclassical mansion Jefferson called his essay in architectureto satisfy his creditors.

On June , 1826 , Jefferson called for his physician, the British-born Dr. Robley Dunglison of Charlottesville, who came up to Monticello and stayed there, attending the dying Jefferson during the last weeks of his life. Martha sat at her fathers bedside during the day. Her oldest son (known to the family as Jeff), then thirty-three, and Nicholas Trist, her son-in-law, took over at night, aided by several household slaves, including Burwell Culbert, Joe Fossett, and John Hemings.

Jefferson seemed to become calmer as death drew near. He lost consciousness on the night of July . He awoke briefly on the morning of Monday, July . At least once that day he asked if the Fourth of July had come. Dr. Dunglison told him the day would soon be upon them. Nicholas Trist nodded in assent. He and his brother-in-law Jeff sweated out the last hours of July , staring at Jeffersons bedside clock as midnight approached, silently hoping he would keep breathing until the Fourth of July. He did.

Jefferson awoke around : in the morning on July and called to his slaveswhom Jefferson referred to as servantsin what those around him said was a clear voice. He then lapsed into unconsciousness for the last time. Jefferson died in his sleep at : in the afternoon.

Church bells began tolling soon thereafter in Charlottesville. The next day was a day of mourning in that university town. The fifty-year-old nation began grieving soon thereafter. Jefferson was buried at Monticello on July .

When Jefferson died, Monticello, his idyllic mountaintop home, was in the early stages of physical decay. Due to his fiscal troubles, from the time Jefferson stepped down from the presidency in 1809 and retired to Monticello, he could not afford the upkeep on the mansion he had lovingly designed and created.

Monticello was an unbearable burden for Martha Randolph and her son, who was named executor of Jeffersons estate. They were forced to put Monticello on the market to try to raise cash to pay off Jeffersons $ ,000-plus debts. The Randolphs soon discovered, however, that no one wanted Monticello, which today is recognized worldwide as a priceless architectural masterpiece. No one wanted what today has become an iconic structure revered by millionsa house whose image has graced the back of the Jefferson-head nickel since 1938 and was engraved on the back of the two-dollar bill for a half century.

In 1827 , at Monticello the Randolphs auctioned off Thomas Jeffersons slaves, household furniture and furnishings, supplies, grain, and farm equipment. Then they sold or gave to relatives nearly all of his priceless collection of artwork, along with thousands of acres of land he owned in Virginia.

That left Monticello bereft of furniture and furnishings. Martha Randolph fled the decaying, almost-empty mansion. When the Randolphs put the house itself and its surrounding acreage on the market, there were no takers for years. The house sat virtually neglected until 1831 when James Turner Barclay, a Charlottesville druggist, bought Monticello and acres for $ , .

Barclay and his family lasted less than three years in the house before they sold Monticello to a most unlikely buyer: U.S. Navy Lieutenant Uriah Phillips Levy, a colorful, brash, controversial man who was an ardent Jefferson admirer. Levy, the first Jewish American to make a career as a U.S. naval officer, had amassed a fortune in real estate. He immediately set about making much-needed repairs at Monticello.

Uriah Levy, by all accounts, saved Monticello from physical ruin. Although he did not live there, Levy opened Jeffersons mountaintop home to visitors who showed up to pay homage to his memory. Later, during the Civil War when the South seized Monticello because it was owned by a Northerner, another period of physical decline set in.

Uriah Levy died childless in 1862 . He left a strange, convoluted will that did not sit well with his family heirs, who challenged it in court. Seventeen years of legal wrangling ensued, during which time Monticello again fell into near ruin.

In 1879 , Uriah Levys nephewthe strangely but aptly named Jefferson Monroe Levygained title to Monticello. Jefferson Levy was a big-time New York City lawyer, flamboyant stock speculator, real estate wheeler-dealer, and three-term U.S. congressman. When the lifelong bachelor took title to Monticello the building was falling apart. He immediately began spending what soon amounted to a small fortune to repair and restore Monticello and its grounds.

Like his uncle, J. M. Levy was a New York City resident, although he spent many summer weekends at Monticello. He allowed visitors to roam the grounds and permitted some to tour the house. Like his uncle, he was a great admirer of Jefferson. He served as host to one president (Theodore Roosevelt), countless members of Congress, ambassadors, and other officials and dignitaries who flocked to Monticello out of respect and admiration for Thomas Jefferson.