September 2, 2026 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, he left behind more than a legacy. He also left a mountain of debt. His family eventually sold Monticello, and within years, Jefferson's famous home had fallen into disrepair. Then an unlikely preservationist stepped in.
Marc Leepson, author of Saving Monticello: The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built, shares the remarkable story of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish commodore in the U.S. Navy, and his nephew Jefferson Monroe Levy. Across two generations, the Levy family spent decades and a fortune preserving and restoring Monticello, even fighting a national campaign to take the historic home from them. Without their efforts, one of America's most recognizable landmarks might not look the way it does today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we're back with Our American Stories. Thomas Jefferson's impact
on our country cannot be overstated. He fought for religious liberty, states' rights,
and expanded this country with the Louisiana Purchase. His legacy
(00:24):
is memorialized in many locations across the country, not the
least of which is his own residence in Louisiana. in Charlottesville, Virginia, Monticello.
Mark Leipson brings us the story of one family's fight
to honor Jefferson with the preservation of this historic structure.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, this story has several aspects to it. And, you know,
at its heart, it's a story of historic preservation. It's
a story of Thomas Jefferson. It's a story of architecture, Monticello,
the history of Monticello. And it's a Jewish-American history story,
which we'll see as we get into it. It starts
(01:04):
on one of the most amazing days in American history.
And that was the day that Thomas Jefferson died. And
I think you probably know what day that was. July 4th, 1826.
On that day, up on the mountain at Monticello, Thomas
Jefferson died about one o'clock in the afternoon. And then
(01:24):
a few hours later at his farm up in Massachusetts,
John Adams died. Our second and third presidents died on
the 50th anniversary of the Republic that they were so
instrumental in founding. And, you know, people reacted. I mean,
they didn't have CNN back then, but people found out
soon enough. Sometimes in apocalyptic terms. I mean, John Quincy
(01:45):
Adams wrote in his diary that these two men dying
on this day was a visible and palpable manifestation of
divine intervention. Now, whether it was divine intervention or not,
I'd like you to know one other thing about July 4th,
1826 and Thomas Jefferson. When he died, he was over
$ 107, 000 in debt. Now that's a lot of money today,
(02:10):
but it was a small fortune back in 1826. We're
talking about at least $ 2 million. So the family was
stuck with a $ 2 million debt.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
And who was the family? Who inherited?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, first it was Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph.
Remember Jefferson's wife, Martha, had died, and Martha, his oldest
of two daughters, served many of the roles that his
wife would be as hostess and so on. And then
her son and Thomas Jefferson's favorite grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
(02:44):
So Jeff Randolph, as he was known, and Martha were
from the Randolphs of Virginia, you know, one of Virginia's
first families. But they were land rich and cash poor,
and they didn't know what to do being saddled with
this gigantic debt. So one of the things they did was,
the year after he died, in January 1827, they held
(03:05):
what they called an executor's sale up on the mountaintop,
in which they auctioned off Thomas Jefferson's possessions.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Well, that sale took place. We don't know exactly how.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Much it brought in, But we do know that it
didn't do much to whittle down that large debt. So reluctantly,
Randolph decided they would have to sell Monticello. And, you know,
it didn't sell. It didn't sell for five years. And
it doesn't sort of compute in the 21st century. Monticello is,
(03:41):
you know, an icon of American and world architecture. Monticello
is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's the only residence
listed as a UNESCO.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
World Heritage Site. What are World Heritage Sites?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Well, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, things like that.
If you have a nickel in your pocket, I know
people don't carry change that much these days, but if
you do have a nickel, look on the back. There's
an image of Monticello. Some people have liked to go
up to Monticello, hold up a nickel in front of
one of the entrances, and we can see the nickel
(04:16):
view of Monticello. And it is a gorgeous spot. I mean,
it's almost impossible to take a bad picture of Monticello
standing as it is on this beautiful little mountain in
the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. So why did it
take four and then almost five years for the Randolphs
(04:38):
to sell Monticello? Well, Thomas Jefferson had some interesting ideas
about architecture. They weren't very common. in early 19th century America.
For instance, he was the first person to put a
dome on a residence. You know that Monticello has a
dome on it. You know, it was one of the
first architecturally designed houses in the United States.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It had that dome.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
There is no giant staircase. You know, if you go
into the entrance hall at Monticello, look around. There is
no giant staircase like was common in large mansions of
this type. There are two small doors on two sides
of the entrance hall where you go upstairs. And in fact,
Thomas Jefferson didn't really care about the upstairs. There were
just mostly plain bedrooms up there for his grandchildren who
(05:29):
lived with him. And, you know, Jefferson didn't really believe
in bedrooms, right? On the first floor is his bedchamber,
which is basically a bed in an alcove between his cabinet,
which is his office, and the library. And it was
on the top of a mountain, right? I mean, most
of the plantations of the day were built down along
(05:53):
on flat ground, usually near rivers for transportation sake. And,
you know, those roads were not paved. It's about a
mile road up the mountain to Monticello. And it was
very difficult to bring whatever, including water, food, supplies up
and down the mountain. So It finally did sell in 18.
By the way, the Randolphs also sold off acreage. So
(06:16):
Monticello and its surrounding properties, Jefferson inherited about 5,000 acres
from his father, Peter Jefferson. It was down to about
552 acres. And the Randolphs sold Monticello to a man
named James Turner Barkley, who bought it for $ 7, 000. Plus
he traded a house in Charlottesville. We don't have time
(06:39):
to talk about James Turner Barclay today, except to say
that he.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Was kind of eccentric. He was a medical doctor. He
was a pharmacist.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But he thought he could go up there at Monticello
and make a silkworm business. So along Mulberry Row, he
planted mulberry trees. The silkworm business didn't work. It appears
as though he almost destroyed the 18-acre grove, what Jefferson
called an ornamental forest. And we do know that he
(07:07):
did not take care of the place. A visitor who
came in 1834 wrote back that all is in dilapidation
and ruin. So how did Monticello get to be in
dilapidation and ruin by 1834? Thomas Jefferson, you name a
field of endeavor, he was a true Renaissance man. I mean, architecture, archeology,
(07:31):
of course, philosophy. You know, he had the largest private
library in the United States before he had to sell
it to raise money. He sold it to the United
States after the War of 1812 when the British burned
the Congressional Library. You know, he spoke seven languages. Of course,
he was president, vice president, secretary of state, governor of Virginia.
(07:53):
He wrote the Virginia Declaration of Religious Freedom. You know,
I always illustrate it by that great quote that President
Kennedy once said when he had a dinner at the
White House for Nobel laureates. And he said, this is
the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge that
has been gathered at the White House, with the possible
(08:14):
exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Jefferson had all
these talents, but he was not good at business for
whatever reason.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
You know, he inherited all these farms. He died. bought
Natural Bridge. It's in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It's a beautiful natural formation of rock. He thought he
could make it into a tourist attraction. He bought it
from the King of England during colonial days, but it
never made a dime. He owned mills on the river
down there, the Rivanna River. They just leaked money. He
had bad luck with his agriculture. All those farms, you know,
it's like when the crops were good, prices were low.
(08:53):
When the crops were bad, prices were high. He tried
famously to grow grapes up there, start a wine business.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That never worked.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You know, he loved to spend money, bought the finest
furniture and furnishings from all over.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
The world, New York, Boston, London, Paris.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And that place was just filled with beautiful furniture and furnishings.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And you're listening to Mark Leapson tell a heck of
a story about not just a building, but a man.
a man who did almost everything well except hold on
to money. He spent more than he had, and in
the end, one of the world's worst businessmen, but one
of our great, great, great minds, and the architect, in essence,
of much of what we hold dear today. When we
(09:39):
come back, more of the story of how Monticello was
saved here on Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
¶ ¶ Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And we're back with Our American Stories and the story
of Monticello. We just heard about the disarray that Monticello
is in, now owned by James Turner Barkley. It was
a shadow of what it had once been, his place
of hospitality, that Jefferson had made it. Back to Marc
Leapsom with the story.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
He was also overwhelmed with visitors.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
People would love to come up to Monticello, as they
do now, to see his, what President Theodore Roosevelt called,
his essay in architecture. And they would come, family and
friends would come, they would come with servants, they would
come with enslaved people. Sometimes it wasn't uncommon to have 20,
30 or more people living there for days, weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Months at a time sometimes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And so the place with Jefferson suffering financially, they just
didn't have what we would call the money to do
preventive maintenance. So James Turner Barclay, he just couldn't take
living up there either. Visitors came up and bothered him.
The Mulberry business didn't work. So he sold the place
(11:23):
in 1834 to a most unlikely buyer. And his name
was Uriah Phillips Levy, who was a lieutenant in the U.S.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Navy at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And he purchased Monticello from James Turner Barclay. for $ 2, 700.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Now, Barclay had sold off acreage too.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It was down to, I think, 190 acres, 182 acres,
something like that. And the place was in dilapidation and ruin.
And what did Uriah Levy do? Well, he was a
man of means and he repaired, preserved, and restored Monticello
after he took possession in 1836. And, you know, we
have evidence from.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
People who visited that he did really restore the place.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Preserve it and restore it, although preservation and restoration were
not in the language. You can make an argument that
Uriah Levy was the first American house preservationist. You know,
this happened in 1830, starting in 1836. We usually look
at Ann Pamela Cunningham, who bought George Washington's Mount Vernon
from his heirs after he died and saved it from
(12:30):
being divided up and developed. But this was 20 years
before that. So A little bit about Uriah Levy. He
was a hero of the U.S. Navy. He joined the
Navy when he was 20 years old in 1812. He
was born in 1792 in Philadelphia, and he was a
(12:50):
fifth generation American. He came from one of the most
prominent and illustrious Jewish American families. His great-great-grandfather came over
here with a group of 40 Jews in 1733, escaping
the Inquisition from Portugal, went to London. They arrived in Savannah,
Georgia in the summer of 1733 and were among the
founders of the city of Savannah, Georgia. His name was Dr.
(13:14):
Samuel Nunesh. He was the only medical doctor in the
colony of Georgia. He helped stem an epidemic, probably of smallpox,
and he was honored by Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia. He
was also a founder of Congregation Mikveh Israel in 1733.
It's the third oldest Jewish congregation. It's still there, and
(13:35):
of course not in the original building in downtown Savannah.
Jonas Phillips, where the Phillips comes from in Uriah Phillips Gavi,
that was his maternal grandfather, and he came to this
country in 1836, a merchant from Germany, settled in Philadelphia,
got caught up with the Revolutionary War fervor, and actually
(13:57):
joined a Philadelphia militia unit and fought against the Brits.
And he was influential in Uriah Levy, one of his
favorite grandchild's love of country. His two heroes were John
Paul Jones and George Washington growing up at his grandfather's knee,
and was one of the reasons that Uriah Levy joined
(14:18):
the U.S. Navy and became a naval war hero.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Uriah Levy was.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Born in 1892 in Philadelphia, always loved the sea, joined
the Navy in 1812 to fight in the war, and
he was a hero of the War of 1812. He
was assistant sailing master on a ship called the Argus,
which captured British ships in the Channel, and they captured
25 ships, and when they went to capture the 26th,
(14:48):
the Brits won that battle, killed the captain, and kept
the crew imprisoned for the rest of the war, including
Uriah Levy.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
And Uriah Levy came home, went on to have a
50-year career in the U.S. Navy.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
He died in service in 1862. He was a Commodore.
When he died, he was the first Jewish Commodore in
the U.S. Navy. So Uriah Levy's naval career was recognized
by the Navy. The first Jewish chapel on any naval
base at Norfolk, Virginia, opened in 1862. 1942, named the
Commodore Levy Chapel. There was a destroyer escort named after
(15:23):
him in World War II, the USS Uriah P. Levy,
which actually took part of the Japanese surrender in the Pacific.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
And then about 15 years ago.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I think it was 2006, the Commodore Uriah P. Levy
Center was dedicated at the U.S.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Naval Academy. So his place in naval history is assured.
As far as his owning Monticello, the question is, you know,
why did he do it?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
He never said it out in print that we know,
but we can take an educated guess. One reason is
that on his own in 1833, while he was in Paris,
while he was in the Navy, on his own, he
commissioned a full-length statue of Thomas Jefferson by one of
the top sculptors of the day, David d'Angers, and He
(16:16):
donated that statue to the people of the United States,
a plaster model. He donated it to New York City,
which is where he lived. Congress got it in 1833
and didn't quite know what to do with it. It
was finally taken to the White House. And if you
see old pictures in the first one, Dawn of Photography
in the 1860s, you'll see that statue of Thomas Jefferson
(16:39):
on the lawn of the White House, you know, facing
Lafayette Park. It was taken inside in the 1870s because
it wasn't doing very well outside.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
It was cleaned up.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It was first put in Statuary Hall in the Capitol,
and today it is in the Rotunda, the Rotunda of
the U.S.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Capitol.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
As you come in one of the entrances, you'll see
it on the right, and it's the only privately donated
statue in the Capitol. If you look at the plaque,
it says donated to people of the United States by U.S.
Navy Lieutenant Uriah Phillips Levy. Now, I said earlier that
Levy was a man of means. He lived in New
York City, and in the 1820s, he invested in rooming
(17:21):
houses in a farming village in the city. That was
Greenwich Village, and when the streets were paved and artisans
and others moved in there, he made a fortune with
his real estate ventures in New York City, which is
what allowed him to purchase Monticello to repair, preserve it,
and restore it. You know, he didn't live there full time.
(17:47):
So Uriah Levy died in 1862 in New York City.
He was still in service in the Navy. And he
left a will in which no one knows exactly what
he was thinking when he bequeathed Monticello to the people
of the United States to be used as an agricultural
school for the orphans of Navy warrant officers.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I mean, we don't know if there were any orphans
of Navy warrant officers at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So Uriah Levy married late in life, didn't have any children,
but he.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Had lots of brothers and sisters and nieces and nephew.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
There were 64 people who were named in the will
and they filed what was called a partition lawsuit against
the will.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
And you're listening to Mark Leapson tell a heck of
a story about the man who saved Monticello and in
a way about the man who built it, too. And
the book, by the way, is saving Monticello. The Levy
family's epic quest to rescue the house that Jefferson built.
And Jefferson built his house in Charlottesville, Virginia, and also
(18:55):
built the University of Virginia there, too. By the way,
up the road is Madison's house, and not further up
the road is Washington's. There's something special about the contribution
of Virginia to the birth of this nation. When we
come back, more of the remarkable story of Monticello is
told by Mark Leapson here on Our American Stories. And
(19:38):
we're back with our final segment on the battle to
preserve part of Jefferson's legacy, his home, Monticello. Uriah Levy,
the first Jewish Commodore in the U.S. Navy, owned Monticello.
but had just passed away in March of 1862. In
his will, he left Monticello to, quote, the orphans of
naval warrant officers. But his nieces, nephews, brothers, and other
(20:02):
relations weren't thrilled with that, and so they took legal action.
Back to Leipson with the conclusion....
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And the lawsuit was filed in New York, where he lived,
and in Virginia. It took until 1879 for the lawsuits
to win their way through the courts of Virginia and
New York. They wound up eventually in the Supreme Courts
of both cases, and they weren't settled until 1879. Now,
in the middle of that, while the heirs were fighting
(20:39):
over his personal property, the.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Civil War happened.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And, you know, people often ask, did anything happen up
at Monticello during the Civil War as far as action? No.
Charlottesville was a crossroads. Troops were always going in and out.
There was tiny skirmishing that happened, but nothing that damaged Monticello. However,
during the war, the South confiscated all property owned by Northerners.
(21:10):
In November of 1864, the South took possession of Monticello,
auctioned off all of Uriah Levy's property, including his enslaved people,
and auctioned off Monticello. And it was purchased by a
man named Ben Ficklin for something like $ 50, 000 in Confederate money.
Ficklin was a colonel in the Confederate Army who He
(21:33):
never lived there, but he moved his family up there,
and this was in November of 64, but by the
time the war ended just six months later in March,
it went back to the family, and the lawsuit dragged
on and on and on. This is when Monticello went
to its second period of deterioration, and we have photographic
evidence of what it looked like from the early days
(21:55):
of photography in the late 1860s into the 1870s, and
the place looks worse than dilapidation and ruin. I mean,
you could see for yourself in these old photographs that
windows were broken, the shutters were hanging down, the roof
was caving in, the grounds were in terrible, the terraces
were rotted away, the grounds were in terrible condition. And
(22:16):
one reason was that Monticello was under the care of
a caretaker who didn't take very good care of it.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
His name was Joel Wheeler.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
He allowed University of Virginia students to have parties there.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
So the place was wrecked.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, the lawsuits were finally settled in 1879 when Uriah
Levy's nephew, whose name was Jefferson Monroe Levy, yes, he
was named after two presidents, he was the son of
Uriah Levy's eccentric brother, bought out the other heirs. for
something like $ 10, 500, and he took control of Monticello in 1879.
(22:59):
And Jefferson Levy did what his uncle did, lived in
New York City, but he spent significant amounts of time
at Monticello. And with his money, again, a second member
of the Levy family repaired, preserved, and restored Monticello. Jefferson Levy,
(23:22):
a lifelong bachelor, was a very social man. When he
was at Monticello, he was often entertaining congressmen, senators, ambassadors,
two presidents. Grover Cleveland made a trip up there. Theodore
Roosevelt made a trip up there. He would also have
(23:42):
the Bridge Club from Charlottesville come up, have meetings up there,
the DAR, and so on and so forth. So, what's
that expression? No good deed goes unpunished. In 1912, a
movement grew up to take Monticello from Jefferson Levy and
(24:02):
turn it into a government-run shrine to Thomas Jefferson. It
was led by a woman named Maude Littleton, who was
married to a New York congressman named Martin Wiley Littleton.
And she decided that this would not stand. She started
a national movement to condemn Monticello and turn it into
(24:24):
a government-run shrine to Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
She had influence.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
A bill was introduced in Congress to that effect in
1912 in which the government would condemn this property, this
private property, and turn it into a government-run house museum.
She had the time. She had the money. She had
the inclination. She got petitions. She had people working for her.
She had articles written, newspapers and magazines. And this bill
(24:52):
is debated in the summer of 1912. And Jefferson Levy,
not a shy and retiring man, you know, he once said,
when the White House is for sale, then I'll sell Monticello.
So here we have this series of hearings in 1912
in Congress, which were very bombastic. Jefferson Levy and his lawyer,
he hired a man named Tom Duke, Judge Duke from Charlottesville,
(25:15):
whose great-grandfather was Thomas Jefferson's father's lawyer. And Judge Duke
and Jefferson Levy fought it out with Mrs. Littleton and
her supporters for the future of his house. Some people
called it the War of 1912.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Well, the War of.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
1912 ended in December when a bill came to the
floor of the House of Representatives that would have done
what we just said, condemned Monticello and turned it into
a government-run house museum. It was defeated on what we
would now call today a property rights argument. The government
had never confiscated anybody's private property, much less tried to
(25:49):
turn it into a government-run shrine to one of our
founding fathers. Well, Jefferson Levy declared victory, but Mrs. Littleton
did not concede defeat. So the bill was reintroduced in 1913.
There were more hearings in 1914. And then in October
of 1914, Jefferson Levy, who had swore he would.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Never sell the place, said, okay, okay, I will.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And he said, he announced that he would sell Monticello
for $ 500, 000, which he reckoned was about half of what
he had spent buying it, repairing it, preserving, restoring it,
and taking care of it. Well, you know, Congress could
never wrap their arms around that.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
$ 500, 000 figure.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Now, I have to tell you that the campaign to
take Monticello from Jefferson Levy.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Was tinged with anti-Semitism. Neither Mrs.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Littleton nor her supporters ever said it out loud. Jews
shouldn't own Monticello. But she used code words in her speeches,
in magazine articles, newspaper articles that were written on her behalf.
For instance, they called the Levees aliens. They called the
Levees outsiders. And how could they be less aliens? I mean,
(27:02):
at this point, Jefferson Levy is a sixth generation American.
It's unfortunate, but we can't tell the story without mentioning that.
He announced that since Congress wasn't interested, he put Monticello
on the market for that $ 500, 000 asking price.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
He hired a.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Realtor in Washington who specialized in Virginia estates, and there
was a beautiful sales brochure that was put out with
a woodcut of Monticello on the cover. You open it up,
there's testimonials from Theodore Roosevelt, from the Marquis de Lafayette,
about how wonderful this place is, and the next page
it says, all this can be yours for $ 500, 000. Finally,
(27:44):
in 1923, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation formed and met.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
In New York City. It was made up of lawyers.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
And financiers, some of whom had Virginia roots, and they
agreed to Jefferson leverage and purchase price in 1923. And
I'll just end by reading to you from the closing
table when they, this is in December of 1923, and
a man who was there said that, this was December 1st, 1923,
(28:16):
the cash and the bonds and mortgage were delivered to Levy,
and Levy signed the deed conveying full title to the
property and all belongings to the foundation. This was a
very emotional scene, and he burst out crying. He said
that he never dreamt he would ever part with the property.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Three months later, on March 6th, 1924, at his.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Home, In New York City, Jefferson Levy died of heart
disease five weeks short of his 72nd birthday. And I'll
just finish by telling you that this man, Jefferson Levy,
not a shy and retiring type, liked to compare himself
to Thomas Jefferson. You know, he was named after Thomas Jefferson.
(28:56):
He was a tall man like Jefferson was. You know,
he would make it a point to be at Monticello
on 4th of July and he'd have an Independence Day party.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
He'd invite people up to.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
The mountaintop from Charlottesville and guests. They would picnic, they
would have bands, patriotic music, there'd be fireworks, and supposedly
he would end the evening by coming out on the
lawn and reciting the Declaration of Independence from Thomas Jefferson's
music stand.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling
by Robbie Davis, and a special thanks to Mark Leapson,
for sharing the story of saving Monte. which, by the way,
is the title of his book, Saving Monticello, the Levy
family's epic quest to rescue the house that Jefferson built.
And by the way, it's so true, when the house
goes up for sale, well, no one wanted it at
(29:52):
the time. It had a dome on it. Houses didn't
have domes. And of course, it was on top of
a mountain. And in came the Levy family. First Uriah,
and straight through to Jefferson, wanting to keep this legacy alive.
And alive they kept it. The story of Monticello, the
story of the Levy family, the story of Thomas Jefferson,
and so much more here on Our American Stories.
And we're back with Our American Stories. Thomas Jefferson's impact
on our country cannot be overstated. He fought for religious liberty, states' rights,
and expanded this country with the Louisiana Purchase. His legacy
(00:24):
is memorialized in many locations across the country, not the
least of which is his own residence in Louisiana. in Charlottesville, Virginia, Monticello.
Mark Leipson brings us the story of one family's fight
to honor Jefferson with the preservation of this historic structure.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, this story has several aspects to it. And, you know,
at its heart, it's a story of historic preservation. It's
a story of Thomas Jefferson. It's a story of architecture, Monticello,
the history of Monticello. And it's a Jewish-American history story,
which we'll see as we get into it. It starts
(01:04):
on one of the most amazing days in American history.
And that was the day that Thomas Jefferson died. And
I think you probably know what day that was. July 4th, 1826.
On that day, up on the mountain at Monticello, Thomas
Jefferson died about one o'clock in the afternoon. And then
(01:24):
a few hours later at his farm up in Massachusetts,
John Adams died. Our second and third presidents died on
the 50th anniversary of the Republic that they were so
instrumental in founding. And, you know, people reacted. I mean,
they didn't have CNN back then, but people found out
soon enough. Sometimes in apocalyptic terms. I mean, John Quincy
(01:45):
Adams wrote in his diary that these two men dying
on this day was a visible and palpable manifestation of
divine intervention. Now, whether it was divine intervention or not,
I'd like you to know one other thing about July 4th,
1826 and Thomas Jefferson. When he died, he was over
$ 107, 000 in debt. Now that's a lot of money today,
(02:10):
but it was a small fortune back in 1826. We're
talking about at least $ 2 million. So the family was
stuck with a $ 2 million debt.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
And who was the family? Who inherited?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, first it was Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph.
Remember Jefferson's wife, Martha, had died, and Martha, his oldest
of two daughters, served many of the roles that his
wife would be as hostess and so on. And then
her son and Thomas Jefferson's favorite grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph.
(02:44):
So Jeff Randolph, as he was known, and Martha were
from the Randolphs of Virginia, you know, one of Virginia's
first families. But they were land rich and cash poor,
and they didn't know what to do being saddled with
this gigantic debt. So one of the things they did was,
the year after he died, in January 1827, they held
(03:05):
what they called an executor's sale up on the mountaintop,
in which they auctioned off Thomas Jefferson's possessions.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Well, that sale took place. We don't know exactly how.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Much it brought in, But we do know that it
didn't do much to whittle down that large debt. So reluctantly,
Randolph decided they would have to sell Monticello. And, you know,
it didn't sell. It didn't sell for five years. And
it doesn't sort of compute in the 21st century. Monticello is,
(03:41):
you know, an icon of American and world architecture. Monticello
is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's the only residence
listed as a UNESCO.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
World Heritage Site. What are World Heritage Sites?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Well, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, things like that.
If you have a nickel in your pocket, I know
people don't carry change that much these days, but if
you do have a nickel, look on the back. There's
an image of Monticello. Some people have liked to go
up to Monticello, hold up a nickel in front of
one of the entrances, and we can see the nickel
(04:16):
view of Monticello. And it is a gorgeous spot. I mean,
it's almost impossible to take a bad picture of Monticello
standing as it is on this beautiful little mountain in
the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. So why did it
take four and then almost five years for the Randolphs
(04:38):
to sell Monticello? Well, Thomas Jefferson had some interesting ideas
about architecture. They weren't very common. in early 19th century America.
For instance, he was the first person to put a
dome on a residence. You know that Monticello has a
dome on it. You know, it was one of the
first architecturally designed houses in the United States.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
It had that dome.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
There is no giant staircase. You know, if you go
into the entrance hall at Monticello, look around. There is
no giant staircase like was common in large mansions of
this type. There are two small doors on two sides
of the entrance hall where you go upstairs. And in fact,
Thomas Jefferson didn't really care about the upstairs. There were
just mostly plain bedrooms up there for his grandchildren who
(05:29):
lived with him. And, you know, Jefferson didn't really believe
in bedrooms, right? On the first floor is his bedchamber,
which is basically a bed in an alcove between his cabinet,
which is his office, and the library. And it was
on the top of a mountain, right? I mean, most
of the plantations of the day were built down along
(05:53):
on flat ground, usually near rivers for transportation sake. And,
you know, those roads were not paved. It's about a
mile road up the mountain to Monticello. And it was
very difficult to bring whatever, including water, food, supplies up
and down the mountain. So It finally did sell in 18.
By the way, the Randolphs also sold off acreage. So
(06:16):
Monticello and its surrounding properties, Jefferson inherited about 5,000 acres
from his father, Peter Jefferson. It was down to about
552 acres. And the Randolphs sold Monticello to a man
named James Turner Barkley, who bought it for $ 7, 000. Plus
he traded a house in Charlottesville. We don't have time
(06:39):
to talk about James Turner Barclay today, except to say
that he.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Was kind of eccentric. He was a medical doctor. He
was a pharmacist.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But he thought he could go up there at Monticello
and make a silkworm business. So along Mulberry Row, he
planted mulberry trees. The silkworm business didn't work. It appears
as though he almost destroyed the 18-acre grove, what Jefferson
called an ornamental forest. And we do know that he
(07:07):
did not take care of the place. A visitor who
came in 1834 wrote back that all is in dilapidation
and ruin. So how did Monticello get to be in
dilapidation and ruin by 1834? Thomas Jefferson, you name a
field of endeavor, he was a true Renaissance man. I mean, architecture, archeology,
(07:31):
of course, philosophy. You know, he had the largest private
library in the United States before he had to sell
it to raise money. He sold it to the United
States after the War of 1812 when the British burned
the Congressional Library. You know, he spoke seven languages. Of course,
he was president, vice president, secretary of state, governor of Virginia.
(07:53):
He wrote the Virginia Declaration of Religious Freedom. You know,
I always illustrate it by that great quote that President
Kennedy once said when he had a dinner at the
White House for Nobel laureates. And he said, this is
the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge that
has been gathered at the White House, with the possible
(08:14):
exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Jefferson had all
these talents, but he was not good at business for
whatever reason.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
You know, he inherited all these farms. He died. bought
Natural Bridge. It's in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It's a beautiful natural formation of rock. He thought he
could make it into a tourist attraction. He bought it
from the King of England during colonial days, but it
never made a dime. He owned mills on the river
down there, the Rivanna River. They just leaked money. He
had bad luck with his agriculture. All those farms, you know,
it's like when the crops were good, prices were low.
(08:53):
When the crops were bad, prices were high. He tried
famously to grow grapes up there, start a wine business.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That never worked.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
You know, he loved to spend money, bought the finest
furniture and furnishings from all over.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
The world, New York, Boston, London, Paris.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And that place was just filled with beautiful furniture and furnishings.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And you're listening to Mark Leapson tell a heck of
a story about not just a building, but a man.
a man who did almost everything well except hold on
to money. He spent more than he had, and in
the end, one of the world's worst businessmen, but one
of our great, great, great minds, and the architect, in essence,
of much of what we hold dear today. When we
(09:39):
come back, more of the story of how Monticello was
saved here on Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
¶ ¶ Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And we're back with Our American Stories and the story
of Monticello. We just heard about the disarray that Monticello
is in, now owned by James Turner Barkley. It was
a shadow of what it had once been, his place
of hospitality, that Jefferson had made it. Back to Marc
Leapsom with the story.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
He was also overwhelmed with visitors.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
People would love to come up to Monticello, as they
do now, to see his, what President Theodore Roosevelt called,
his essay in architecture. And they would come, family and
friends would come, they would come with servants, they would
come with enslaved people. Sometimes it wasn't uncommon to have 20,
30 or more people living there for days, weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Months at a time sometimes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And so the place with Jefferson suffering financially, they just
didn't have what we would call the money to do
preventive maintenance. So James Turner Barclay, he just couldn't take
living up there either. Visitors came up and bothered him.
The Mulberry business didn't work. So he sold the place
(11:23):
in 1834 to a most unlikely buyer. And his name
was Uriah Phillips Levy, who was a lieutenant in the U.S.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Navy at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
And he purchased Monticello from James Turner Barclay. for $ 2, 700.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Now, Barclay had sold off acreage too.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It was down to, I think, 190 acres, 182 acres,
something like that. And the place was in dilapidation and ruin.
And what did Uriah Levy do? Well, he was a
man of means and he repaired, preserved, and restored Monticello
after he took possession in 1836. And, you know, we
have evidence from.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
People who visited that he did really restore the place.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Preserve it and restore it, although preservation and restoration were
not in the language. You can make an argument that
Uriah Levy was the first American house preservationist. You know,
this happened in 1830, starting in 1836. We usually look
at Ann Pamela Cunningham, who bought George Washington's Mount Vernon
from his heirs after he died and saved it from
(12:30):
being divided up and developed. But this was 20 years
before that. So A little bit about Uriah Levy. He
was a hero of the U.S. Navy. He joined the
Navy when he was 20 years old in 1812. He
was born in 1792 in Philadelphia, and he was a
(12:50):
fifth generation American. He came from one of the most
prominent and illustrious Jewish American families. His great-great-grandfather came over
here with a group of 40 Jews in 1733, escaping
the Inquisition from Portugal, went to London. They arrived in Savannah,
Georgia in the summer of 1733 and were among the
founders of the city of Savannah, Georgia. His name was Dr.
(13:14):
Samuel Nunesh. He was the only medical doctor in the
colony of Georgia. He helped stem an epidemic, probably of smallpox,
and he was honored by Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia. He
was also a founder of Congregation Mikveh Israel in 1733.
It's the third oldest Jewish congregation. It's still there, and
(13:35):
of course not in the original building in downtown Savannah.
Jonas Phillips, where the Phillips comes from in Uriah Phillips Gavi,
that was his maternal grandfather, and he came to this
country in 1836, a merchant from Germany, settled in Philadelphia,
got caught up with the Revolutionary War fervor, and actually
(13:57):
joined a Philadelphia militia unit and fought against the Brits.
And he was influential in Uriah Levy, one of his
favorite grandchild's love of country. His two heroes were John
Paul Jones and George Washington growing up at his grandfather's knee,
and was one of the reasons that Uriah Levy joined
(14:18):
the U.S. Navy and became a naval war hero.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Uriah Levy was.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Born in 1892 in Philadelphia, always loved the sea, joined
the Navy in 1812 to fight in the war, and
he was a hero of the War of 1812. He
was assistant sailing master on a ship called the Argus,
which captured British ships in the Channel, and they captured
25 ships, and when they went to capture the 26th,
(14:48):
the Brits won that battle, killed the captain, and kept
the crew imprisoned for the rest of the war, including
Uriah Levy.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
And Uriah Levy came home, went on to have a
50-year career in the U.S. Navy.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
He died in service in 1862. He was a Commodore.
When he died, he was the first Jewish Commodore in
the U.S. Navy. So Uriah Levy's naval career was recognized
by the Navy. The first Jewish chapel on any naval
base at Norfolk, Virginia, opened in 1862. 1942, named the
Commodore Levy Chapel. There was a destroyer escort named after
(15:23):
him in World War II, the USS Uriah P. Levy,
which actually took part of the Japanese surrender in the Pacific.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
And then about 15 years ago.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I think it was 2006, the Commodore Uriah P. Levy
Center was dedicated at the U.S.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Naval Academy. So his place in naval history is assured.
As far as his owning Monticello, the question is, you know,
why did he do it?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
He never said it out in print that we know,
but we can take an educated guess. One reason is
that on his own in 1833, while he was in Paris,
while he was in the Navy, on his own, he
commissioned a full-length statue of Thomas Jefferson by one of
the top sculptors of the day, David d'Angers, and He
(16:16):
donated that statue to the people of the United States,
a plaster model. He donated it to New York City,
which is where he lived. Congress got it in 1833
and didn't quite know what to do with it. It
was finally taken to the White House. And if you
see old pictures in the first one, Dawn of Photography
in the 1860s, you'll see that statue of Thomas Jefferson
(16:39):
on the lawn of the White House, you know, facing
Lafayette Park. It was taken inside in the 1870s because
it wasn't doing very well outside.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
It was cleaned up.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It was first put in Statuary Hall in the Capitol,
and today it is in the Rotunda, the Rotunda of
the U.S.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Capitol.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
As you come in one of the entrances, you'll see
it on the right, and it's the only privately donated
statue in the Capitol. If you look at the plaque,
it says donated to people of the United States by U.S.
Navy Lieutenant Uriah Phillips Levy. Now, I said earlier that
Levy was a man of means. He lived in New
York City, and in the 1820s, he invested in rooming
(17:21):
houses in a farming village in the city. That was
Greenwich Village, and when the streets were paved and artisans
and others moved in there, he made a fortune with
his real estate ventures in New York City, which is
what allowed him to purchase Monticello to repair, preserve it,
and restore it. You know, he didn't live there full time.
(17:47):
So Uriah Levy died in 1862 in New York City.
He was still in service in the Navy. And he
left a will in which no one knows exactly what
he was thinking when he bequeathed Monticello to the people
of the United States to be used as an agricultural
school for the orphans of Navy warrant officers.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I mean, we don't know if there were any orphans
of Navy warrant officers at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So Uriah Levy married late in life, didn't have any children,
but he.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Had lots of brothers and sisters and nieces and nephew.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
There were 64 people who were named in the will
and they filed what was called a partition lawsuit against
the will.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
And you're listening to Mark Leapson tell a heck of
a story about the man who saved Monticello and in
a way about the man who built it, too. And
the book, by the way, is saving Monticello. The Levy
family's epic quest to rescue the house that Jefferson built.
And Jefferson built his house in Charlottesville, Virginia, and also
(18:55):
built the University of Virginia there, too. By the way,
up the road is Madison's house, and not further up
the road is Washington's. There's something special about the contribution
of Virginia to the birth of this nation. When we
come back, more of the remarkable story of Monticello is
told by Mark Leapson here on Our American Stories. And
(19:38):
we're back with our final segment on the battle to
preserve part of Jefferson's legacy, his home, Monticello. Uriah Levy,
the first Jewish Commodore in the U.S. Navy, owned Monticello.
but had just passed away in March of 1862. In
his will, he left Monticello to, quote, the orphans of
naval warrant officers. But his nieces, nephews, brothers, and other
(20:02):
relations weren't thrilled with that, and so they took legal action.
Back to Leipson with the conclusion....
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And the lawsuit was filed in New York, where he lived,
and in Virginia. It took until 1879 for the lawsuits
to win their way through the courts of Virginia and
New York. They wound up eventually in the Supreme Courts
of both cases, and they weren't settled until 1879. Now,
in the middle of that, while the heirs were fighting
(20:39):
over his personal property, the.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Civil War happened.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And, you know, people often ask, did anything happen up
at Monticello during the Civil War as far as action? No.
Charlottesville was a crossroads. Troops were always going in and out.
There was tiny skirmishing that happened, but nothing that damaged Monticello. However,
during the war, the South confiscated all property owned by Northerners.
(21:10):
In November of 1864, the South took possession of Monticello,
auctioned off all of Uriah Levy's property, including his enslaved people,
and auctioned off Monticello. And it was purchased by a
man named Ben Ficklin for something like $ 50, 000 in Confederate money.
Ficklin was a colonel in the Confederate Army who He
(21:33):
never lived there, but he moved his family up there,
and this was in November of 64, but by the
time the war ended just six months later in March,
it went back to the family, and the lawsuit dragged
on and on and on. This is when Monticello went
to its second period of deterioration, and we have photographic
evidence of what it looked like from the early days
(21:55):
of photography in the late 1860s into the 1870s, and
the place looks worse than dilapidation and ruin. I mean,
you could see for yourself in these old photographs that
windows were broken, the shutters were hanging down, the roof
was caving in, the grounds were in terrible, the terraces
were rotted away, the grounds were in terrible condition. And
(22:16):
one reason was that Monticello was under the care of
a caretaker who didn't take very good care of it.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
His name was Joel Wheeler.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
He allowed University of Virginia students to have parties there.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
So the place was wrecked.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Well, the lawsuits were finally settled in 1879 when Uriah
Levy's nephew, whose name was Jefferson Monroe Levy, yes, he
was named after two presidents, he was the son of
Uriah Levy's eccentric brother, bought out the other heirs. for
something like $ 10, 500, and he took control of Monticello in 1879.
(22:59):
And Jefferson Levy did what his uncle did, lived in
New York City, but he spent significant amounts of time
at Monticello. And with his money, again, a second member
of the Levy family repaired, preserved, and restored Monticello. Jefferson Levy,
(23:22):
a lifelong bachelor, was a very social man. When he
was at Monticello, he was often entertaining congressmen, senators, ambassadors,
two presidents. Grover Cleveland made a trip up there. Theodore
Roosevelt made a trip up there. He would also have
(23:42):
the Bridge Club from Charlottesville come up, have meetings up there,
the DAR, and so on and so forth. So, what's
that expression? No good deed goes unpunished. In 1912, a
movement grew up to take Monticello from Jefferson Levy and
(24:02):
turn it into a government-run shrine to Thomas Jefferson. It
was led by a woman named Maude Littleton, who was
married to a New York congressman named Martin Wiley Littleton.
And she decided that this would not stand. She started
a national movement to condemn Monticello and turn it into
(24:24):
a government-run shrine to Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
She had influence.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
A bill was introduced in Congress to that effect in
1912 in which the government would condemn this property, this
private property, and turn it into a government-run house museum.
She had the time. She had the money. She had
the inclination. She got petitions. She had people working for her.
She had articles written, newspapers and magazines. And this bill
(24:52):
is debated in the summer of 1912. And Jefferson Levy,
not a shy and retiring man, you know, he once said,
when the White House is for sale, then I'll sell Monticello.
So here we have this series of hearings in 1912
in Congress, which were very bombastic. Jefferson Levy and his lawyer,
he hired a man named Tom Duke, Judge Duke from Charlottesville,
(25:15):
whose great-grandfather was Thomas Jefferson's father's lawyer. And Judge Duke
and Jefferson Levy fought it out with Mrs. Littleton and
her supporters for the future of his house. Some people
called it the War of 1912.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Well, the War of.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
1912 ended in December when a bill came to the
floor of the House of Representatives that would have done
what we just said, condemned Monticello and turned it into
a government-run house museum. It was defeated on what we
would now call today a property rights argument. The government
had never confiscated anybody's private property, much less tried to
(25:49):
turn it into a government-run shrine to one of our
founding fathers. Well, Jefferson Levy declared victory, but Mrs. Littleton
did not concede defeat. So the bill was reintroduced in 1913.
There were more hearings in 1914. And then in October
of 1914, Jefferson Levy, who had swore he would.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Never sell the place, said, okay, okay, I will.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And he said, he announced that he would sell Monticello
for $ 500, 000, which he reckoned was about half of what
he had spent buying it, repairing it, preserving, restoring it,
and taking care of it. Well, you know, Congress could
never wrap their arms around that.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
$ 500, 000 figure.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Now, I have to tell you that the campaign to
take Monticello from Jefferson Levy.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Was tinged with anti-Semitism. Neither Mrs.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Littleton nor her supporters ever said it out loud. Jews
shouldn't own Monticello. But she used code words in her speeches,
in magazine articles, newspaper articles that were written on her behalf.
For instance, they called the Levees aliens. They called the
Levees outsiders. And how could they be less aliens? I mean,
(27:02):
at this point, Jefferson Levy is a sixth generation American.
It's unfortunate, but we can't tell the story without mentioning that.
He announced that since Congress wasn't interested, he put Monticello
on the market for that $ 500, 000 asking price.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
He hired a.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Realtor in Washington who specialized in Virginia estates, and there
was a beautiful sales brochure that was put out with
a woodcut of Monticello on the cover. You open it up,
there's testimonials from Theodore Roosevelt, from the Marquis de Lafayette,
about how wonderful this place is, and the next page
it says, all this can be yours for $ 500, 000. Finally,
(27:44):
in 1923, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation formed and met.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
In New York City. It was made up of lawyers.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
And financiers, some of whom had Virginia roots, and they
agreed to Jefferson leverage and purchase price in 1923. And
I'll just end by reading to you from the closing
table when they, this is in December of 1923, and
a man who was there said that, this was December 1st, 1923,
(28:16):
the cash and the bonds and mortgage were delivered to Levy,
and Levy signed the deed conveying full title to the
property and all belongings to the foundation. This was a
very emotional scene, and he burst out crying. He said
that he never dreamt he would ever part with the property.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Three months later, on March 6th, 1924, at his.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Home, In New York City, Jefferson Levy died of heart
disease five weeks short of his 72nd birthday. And I'll
just finish by telling you that this man, Jefferson Levy,
not a shy and retiring type, liked to compare himself
to Thomas Jefferson. You know, he was named after Thomas Jefferson.
(28:56):
He was a tall man like Jefferson was. You know,
he would make it a point to be at Monticello
on 4th of July and he'd have an Independence Day party.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
He'd invite people up to.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
The mountaintop from Charlottesville and guests. They would picnic, they
would have bands, patriotic music, there'd be fireworks, and supposedly
he would end the evening by coming out on the
lawn and reciting the Declaration of Independence from Thomas Jefferson's
music stand.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling
by Robbie Davis, and a special thanks to Mark Leapson,
for sharing the story of saving Monte. which, by the way,
is the title of his book, Saving Monticello, the Levy
family's epic quest to rescue the house that Jefferson built.
And by the way, it's so true, when the house
goes up for sale, well, no one wanted it at
(29:52):
the time. It had a dome on it. Houses didn't
have domes. And of course, it was on top of
a mountain. And in came the Levy family. First Uriah,
and straight through to Jefferson, wanting to keep this legacy alive.
And alive they kept it. The story of Monticello, the
story of the Levy family, the story of Thomas Jefferson,
and so much more here on Our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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