Monticello, Jefferson’s Dream “Monticello”, the Italian word for little mountain is the appropriate wording for Thomas Jefferson’s dream home. He picked out the site for such a fabled home as a young boy. At eight hundred and sixty-five feet tall, Jefferson truly does have his little mountain on which to live. Thomas Jefferson built his chalet in an abnormal spot in accordance with the times. Most if not all the people in the seventeen hundreds built their homes in the low lands or near rivers. On the contrary Thomas Jefferson was an abnormal man as that he was a statesman, a designer, a scholar, a astronomer, a philosopher, and lawyer. The fact that Thomas Jefferson was an untrained designer with what seems to be architectural genius would give reason enough to study and research his works. Jefferson said, “Architecture is my delight.” Monticello, the Virginia Capital, and the University of Virginia being Jefferson’s most well known architectural feats. His French style architecture can be seen all over the state of Virginia and the world. Marquis De Chastellux, who was a Frenchman, described and praised Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Marquis De Chastellux said of Monticello: The house, of which Mr. Jefferson was the architect and often one of the workmen, is rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without fault; it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance to which is by two porticoes, ornamented with pillars. The ground floor consists chiefly of a very large, lofty saloon which is to be decorated entirely in the antique style; above it is a library of the same form; two small wings with only a ground floor and attic story, are joined to this pavilion, and communicate with the kitchens, offices, etc., which will form a kind of basement story, over which runs a terrace. . . we may safely aver, that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine art...
