October 21, 2024 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Thomas Jefferson’s impact on our country cannot be overstated. He fought for religious liberty, states rights, and the expansion and strengthening of America as an up-and-coming nation. His legacy is memorialized in many locations across the country, not the least of which is his own residence in Charlottesville, Virginia… Monticello.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Man, 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 is memorialized in many locations across the country,
not the least of which is his own residence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
(00:32):
Monticello Mark leaps and 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 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. Starts on
(01:04):
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 Wasly fourth, eighteen
twenty sixth. On that day, up at on the mountain
at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson died about one o'clock in the
afternoon and then a few hours later at his farm
(01:26):
up in Massachusetts, John Adams died. Our second and third
presidents died on the fiftieth 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 Adams wrote in his diary that these two
(01:48):
men dying on this day was a visible and palpable
manifestation of divine intervention. Now, whether it was divine intervention
at not or not, I'd like you to know one
other things about July fourth, eighteen twenty six and Thomas Jefferson.
When he died, he was over one hundred and seven
thousand dollars in debt.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Now that's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Money today, but it was a small fortune back in
eighteen twenty six. We're talking about it at least two
million dollars. So the family was stuck with a two
million dollar debt. And who was the family who inherited. Well,
first it was Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph. Remember
(02:29):
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, So
jeff Randolph as he was known, and Martha were from
the Randolphs of Virginia, you know, one of Virginia's first families.
(02:51):
But they were land rich in 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 eighteen twenty seven, they held
what they called an executors sale up on the mountaintop,
in which they auctioned off Thomas Jefferson's possessions. Well, that
(03:16):
sale took place, We don't know exactly how much it
brought in, but we do know that it didn't do
much to whittle down that large debt. So reluctantly, the
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 twenty first century.
(03:40):
Monticello is, you know, an icon of American and world architecture.
Monticello is a YENESCO World Heritage Site. You know, it's
the only residents listed as the UNESCO World You know
what our World Heritage sites, well, the taj Mahal, the
Grand Canyon, things like that. You know, if you have
a nickel in your pocket, I know people don't have
(04:01):
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 view of Monticello,
and it is a gorgeous spot. I mean, it's almost
(04:22):
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 to sell Monticello. Well,
Thomas Jefferson had some interesting ideas about architecture. They weren't
(04:44):
very common in early nineteenth century America.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
For instance, he was the first person to.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
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 house in the United States.
It had that dome. There is no giant staircase. You know,
if you go into the entrance hall at Monticella, look around,
there is no giant staircase like was common in large
(05:12):
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 lived with him, and you know, Jefferson didn't
really believe in bedrooms. Right on the first floor is
(05:33):
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 on flat ground, usually near rivers, for
(05:56):
transportation's sake, and you know, those roads were not paid.
It's about a mile road up 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 eighteen By the way, the Randolphs also sold off
acreage so Monticello and you know, and its surrounding properties.
(06:20):
Jefferson inherited about five thousand acres from his father, Peter Jefferson.
It was down to about five hundred and fifty two acres,
and the randolph sold Monticello to a man named James
Turner Barkley, who bought it for seven thousand dollars plus
he traded a house in Charlottesville. We don't have time
to talk about James Turner Barkley today except to say
(06:41):
that he was kind of eccentric. He was a medical doctor,
he was a pharmacist. But he thought he could go
up there at Monticello and do make a silkworm business.
So along mulberry row, he planted mulberry trees. The silkworm
business didn't work. You know, it appears as though he
almost destroyed the eighteen acre grove what Jefferson called an
(07:04):
ornamental forest. And we do know that he did not
take care of the place. A visitor who came in
eighteen thirty four wrote back that all is in dilapidation
in ruin. So how did Monticello get to be in dilapidation?
In ruin by eighteen thirty four. Thomas Jefferson, you name
(07:25):
a field of endeavor. He was a true Renaissance man.
I mean architecture, archaeology, of course, philosophy. You know, he
had the largest private library in the United States before
he had to sell it to raise money sold in
the United States after the War of eighteen twelve when
the British burned the Congressional Library. You know, he spoke
(07:47):
seven languages. Of course, he was president and Vice president,
Secretary of State, governor of Virginia. He wrote the Virginia
Declaration of Religious Freedom.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And you know, I.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Always illustrated 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 a possible exception of
when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Jefferson had all these talents,
(08:21):
but he was not good at business for whatever reason.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
You know, he inherited all these farms. He bought natural Bridge.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It's in Virginia. It's a beautiful natural formation of rock.
He thought he could make it into tourist attraction.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
He bought it from the King of England, you know,
during colonial days, but it never made a dine. He
owned mills on the river down there, the Ravanna River.
They just leaked money. He had bad luck with his agriculture,
all those farms, you know, like when the crops were good,
prices were low. When the crops were bad, prices were high.
He tried famously to grow grapes up there, to start
(08:59):
a wine business that never worked.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
You know. He loved to spend money, bought the finest.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Furniture and furnishings from all over the world New York, Boston, London, Paris,
and that place was just filled with beautiful furniture and furnishing.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And you're listening to Mark Leaps and tell a heck
of a story about not just a building, but a man,
a man who well did almost everything well except hold
onto 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 here today. When
(09:39):
we come back more of the story of how Monticello
was saved here on our American Stories, and we're back
(10:10):
with our American Stories and the story of Monticello. We
just heard about the disarray that Monticello was 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 Mark Leapsom with the story.
Speaker 4 (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 and architecture. And they would come, family and
friends would they would come with servants, they would come
with enslave people. Sometimes it wasn't uncommon to have twenty
thirty or more people living there for days, weeks, months
(10:59):
at a time sometimes. And so the place with Jefferson,
you know, suffering financially. He just didn't have what we
would call the money to do preventive maintenance. So James
Turner Barkley, he just couldn't take living up there either.
Visitors came up and bothered him. The mulberry business didn't work,
(11:21):
so he sold the place in eighteen thirty four to
a most unlikely buyer and his name was Uriah Phillips Levy,
who was a lieutenant in the US Navy at the time,
and he purchased Monticello from James Turner Barkley for two
thousand and seven hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Now Barkley had sold off acreage too.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It was down to I think it was one hundred
and ninety acres one hundred and eighty two acres, something
like that. And the place was into apidation and ruin.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
And what did Uriah.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Levy do Well, he was a man of means, and
he repaired, preserved and restored Monachello after he took possession
in eighteen thirty six. And you know, we have evidence
from people who visited that he did really restore the
place and preserve it and restore a low preservation and restoration.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
We're not in the language.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You can make an argument that Uriah Levy was the
first American house preservationists. You know, this happened in eighteen
thirty Starting in eighteen thirty six, we usually look at
Anne Pamela Cunningham, who bought George Washington's Mount Vernon from
his heirs after he died and saved it from being
divided up and developed. But This was twenty years before that.
(12:35):
So a little bit about Uriah Levy.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
He was a hero of the.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
US Navy, joined the Navy when he was twenty years
old in eighteen twelve. He was born in seventeen ninety
two in Philadelphia, and he was a 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 forty Jews in seventeen thirty three,
(13:02):
escaping the Inquisition from Portugal went to London. They arrived
in Savannah, Georgia in the summer of seventeen thirty three,
and were among the founders of the city of Savannah, Georgia.
His name was doctor Samuel Munish. He was the only
medical doctor in the colony of Georgia. He helped stem
an epidemic, probably of smallpox, and he was honored by
(13:24):
Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia. He was also a founder of
Congregation Nick for Israel in seventeen thirty three, which the
third oldest Jewish congregation. It's still there, and of course
not in the original building in downtown Savannah Jonas Phillips
where the Phillips comes from in Uriah Phillips Alvey. That
was his maternal grandfather, and he came to this country
(13:47):
in eighteen thirty six a merchant from Germany settled in Philadelphia,
got caught up with the Revolutionary War fervor and actually
joined a Philadelphia militia unit and fought against the Brits.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And he was influential in.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Uriah Levy one of his favorite grandchilds a 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 the US Navy and
became a naval war hero.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Uriah Levy was born.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
In eighteen ninety two in Philadelphia. Always loved the sea,
joined the Navy in eighteen twelve to fight in the war,
and he was a hero of the War of eighteen twelve.
He was assistant sailing master on a ship called the
Argus which captured British ships in the Channel, and they
captured twenty five ships and when they went to capture
the twenty sixth, the Brits won that battle, killed the
(14:50):
captain and kept the crew imprisoned for the rest of
the war, including Uriah Levy and Uriah Levy came home
went on to have a fifty year career in the
US Navy. He died in service in eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
He was a.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Commodore when he died. He was the first Jewish commodore
in the US Navy. So Uria levy naval career was
recognized by the Navy. The first Jewish chapel on any
naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, opened in nineteen forty two,
named the Commodore Levy Chapel. It was a destroyer escurt
named after him. In World War Two, the USS Uriah P. Levy,
(15:26):
which actually took part of the Japanese surrender in the Pacific.
And then about fifteen years ago, and I think it
was twenty six, the Commodore Levy Center was dedicated at
the US Naval Academy. So his place in naval history
is assured. As far as his owning Monticello, the question is,
(15:50):
you know, why did he do it? He never set
it out in print that we know, but we take
an educated guess. One reason is that on his own
in eighteen thirty three, while he was in Paris.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
While he was in the Navy.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
On his own, he commissioned a full length statue of
Thomas Jefferson by one of the top sculptors of the day,
David Doge, and he donated that statue to the people
of the United States.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
A plaster model.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
He donated to New York City, which is where he lived.
Congress got it in eighteen thirty three, didn't quite know
what to do with it. They finally it was finally
taken to.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
The White House. And if you see old pictures.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
In the first one dawn of photography in the eighteen sixties,
you'll see that statue of Thomas Jefferson on the lawn
of the White House, you know, facing Lafayette Park. It
was taken inside in the eighteen seventies because it wasn't
doing very well outside of front statue, it was cleaned up.
It was first put in Statuary Hall in the Capitol,
(16:53):
and today it is in the rotunda, the rotunda of
the US Capital as you come in one of the
entrance as you'll see it on the right, and it's
the only privately donated statue in the Capitol. It's if
you look at the plaquet says donated to People of
the United States by US Navy Lieutenant Uriah Phillips Levey.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Now I said.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Earlier that Levy was a man of means. He lived
in New York City and in the eighteen twenties he
invested in rooming houses in a farming village in the city.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
That was Greenwich Village.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
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. So Uria
Levy died in eighteen sixty two in New York City.
(17:51):
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.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Of Navy warrant officers.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I mean, we don't know if there were any orphans.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
And Navy warrant officers at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So Rayah Levy married late in life, didn't have any children,
but he had lots of brothers and sisters and nieces
and nephew There were sixty four 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 leaps and 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 families epiquest 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 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 we're back
(19:39):
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 US Navy, owned Monticello but had
just passed away in March of eighteen sixty two. 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 Leipsen with the conclusion of the story.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And the lawsuit was filed in New York, where he lived,
and in Virginia. It took until eighteen seventy nine 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
eighteen seventy nine.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Now in the middle.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
In the middle of that, while the heirs were fighting
over his personal property, the Civil War happened. And you know,
people often asked that 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
(20:58):
was tiny skirmishing that happened, but nothing that damaged Monticello.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
However, during the war, the.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
South confiscated all property owned by Northerners, and in November
of eighteen sixty four, the South took possession of Monticello,
auctioned off all of ur I.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Levy's property, including.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
His enslaved people, and auctioned off Monticello and it was
purchased by a man named Ben Fickland for something like
fifty thousand dollars in Confederate money. Fickland was a colonel
in the Confederate Army. He never lived there, but he
moved his family up there, and this was in November
of sixty four. But by the time that war ended
(21:40):
just six months later in March, it went back to
the family and the lawsuit dragged on and on and on.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
This is when.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Montachello went to its second period of deterioration. And we
have photographic evidence of what it looked like from the
early days of photography in the late eighteen sixties into
the eighteen seventies, and the place looks worse than dilapidation
and ruin. I mean you could see for yourself and
these old photographs that windows were broken, the shutters were
(22:10):
hanging down, the roof was caving in, the grounds were
in terrible the terraces were rotted away, the grounds were
in terrible condition. And one reason was that Monticello was
under the care of a caretaker who didn't take very
good care of it.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
His name was Joel Wheeler.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
He allowed University of Virginia students to have parties there,
so the place was wrecked well. The lawsuits were finally
settled in eighteen seventy nine 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,
(22:50):
bought out the other heirs for something like ten five
hundred dollars and he took control of Monticello in eighteen
seventy nine. And Erson 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.
(23:21):
Jefferson Levy, a lifelong bachelor, had was a very social man.
He often had when he was at Monticello. He was
often entertaining congressman, senators, ambassadors to presidents. Grover Cleveland made
a trip up there.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Theodore Roosevelt made a trip up there.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know, he would also have the Bridge Club from
Charlottesville come up, have meetings up there, the Daar.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
So what's that expression, No good deed goes unpunished. In
nineteen twelve, a move and grew up to take Monticello
from Jefferson Levey and turn it into a government run
shrine to Thomas Jefferson. It was led by a woman
named Maude Lyttleton, who was married to New York congressman
named Martin Wileye Lyttleton, and she decided that she would
(24:18):
this would not stand. She started a national movement to
condemn Monticello and turn it into a government run shrine
to Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
She had influence.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
A bill was introduced in Congress to that effect in
nineteen twelve, in which the government would condemn this property's
private property and turn it into a government run house museum.
She had the time, she had the money, she had
the inclinations, she got petitions, she had people working for
she had articles written newspapers and magazines. And this bill
(24:52):
is debated in the summer of nineteen twelve, 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 nineteen
twelve in Congress, which were very bombastic. Jefferson Levy and
his lawyer. He hired a man named Tom Duke, Judge
(25:14):
Duke from Charlottesville who's like great grandfather was Thomas Jefferson's
father's lawyer, and Judge Duke and Jefferson Levy fought it
out with Missus Littleton and her supporters for the future
of his house. Some people called it the War of
nineteen twelve. Well, the War of nineteen twelve ended in
December when a bill came to the floor of the
House of Representatives that would have done what we just said,
(25:36):
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 turn it into a
government run you know, shrine to one of our founding fathers. Well,
you know, Jefferson Levy declared victory, but Missus Littleton did
(25:57):
not concede defeat. So the bill was reinjured produced in
nineteen thirteen. There were more hearings nineteen fourteen, and then
in nineteen October of nineteen fourteen, Jefferson Levey, who had
swore he would never sell the place, said okay, okay,
I will, and he said he announced that he would
sell Monticello for five hundred thousand dollars, which he reckoned
(26:18):
was about half of what he had spent buying it,
repairing it, preserving, restoring it, and taking.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Care of it. Well, you know, Congress could never.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Wrap their arms around that five hundred thousand dollars figure.
Now I have to tell you that the campaign to
take Monticello from Jefferson Levee was tinged with anti Semitism.
Neither Missus Littleton nor her supporters ever said it out
loud Jews shouldn't own Monticello, But she used code words
(26:48):
in her speeches, in magazine articles, newspaper articles that.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Were written on her behalf.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
For instance, they called they called the Levees aliens, they
called the Levan outsiders, and how can they be less aliens?
I mean, 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,
(27:16):
he put Monticello on the market for that five hundred
thousand dollars asking price. He hired a realtor in Washington
who specialized in the Virginia states. 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 la Fayette
(27:37):
about how wonderful this place is. In the next page
says all this can be yours for five hundred thousand. Finally,
in nineteen twenty three, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation formed and.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Met in New York City.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
It was made up of lawyers and financiers, some of
whom were had Virginia roots, and they agreed to Jefferson
Levy's purchase price.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
In nineteen twenty three.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And I'll just end by reading to you from a
closing table when they in December of nineteen twenty three,
And a man who was there said that this was
December first, nineteen twenty three.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
The cash in 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.
Three months later, on March sixth, nineteen twenty four, at
his home in New York City, Jefferson Levey died of
(28:39):
heart disease, five weeks short.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Of his seventy second birthday. And I'll just finished by
telling you that this man, Jefferson Levy, not a shy
and retiring type like to compare himself to Thomas Jefferson.
You know, he was named after Thomas Jefferson. He was
a tall man like Jefferson was.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
He would make it a point to be at Monticello
on fourth of July and he'd have an Independence Day party.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
He'd invite people.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Up to the mountaintop from Charlottesville and guests. They would picnic,
they would have bands, patriotic music, there would 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 Leipsen
for sharing the story of Saving Monticello, which, by the way,
is the title of his book Saving Monticello, the Levee
family's epiquest 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 at the time.
(29:53):
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
Man, 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 is memorialized in many locations across the country,
not the least of which is his own residence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
(00:32):
Monticello Mark leaps and 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 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. Starts on
(01:04):
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 Wasly fourth, eighteen
twenty sixth. On that day, up at on the mountain
at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson died about one o'clock in the
afternoon and then a few hours later at his farm
(01:26):
up in Massachusetts, John Adams died. Our second and third
presidents died on the fiftieth 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 Adams wrote in his diary that these two
(01:48):
men dying on this day was a visible and palpable
manifestation of divine intervention. Now, whether it was divine intervention
at not or not, I'd like you to know one
other things about July fourth, eighteen twenty six and Thomas Jefferson.
When he died, he was over one hundred and seven
thousand dollars in debt.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Now that's a lot of.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Money today, but it was a small fortune back in
eighteen twenty six. We're talking about it at least two
million dollars. So the family was stuck with a two
million dollar debt. And who was the family who inherited. Well,
first it was Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph. Remember
(02:29):
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, So
jeff Randolph as he was known, and Martha were from
the Randolphs of Virginia, you know, one of Virginia's first families.
(02:51):
But they were land rich in 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 eighteen twenty seven, they held
what they called an executors sale up on the mountaintop,
in which they auctioned off Thomas Jefferson's possessions. Well, that
(03:16):
sale took place, We don't know exactly how much it
brought in, but we do know that it didn't do
much to whittle down that large debt. So reluctantly, the
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 twenty first century.
(03:40):
Monticello is, you know, an icon of American and world architecture.
Monticello is a YENESCO World Heritage Site. You know, it's
the only residents listed as the UNESCO World You know
what our World Heritage sites, well, the taj Mahal, the
Grand Canyon, things like that. You know, if you have
a nickel in your pocket, I know people don't have
(04:01):
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 view of Monticello,
and it is a gorgeous spot. I mean, it's almost
(04:22):
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 to sell Monticello. Well,
Thomas Jefferson had some interesting ideas about architecture. They weren't
(04:44):
very common in early nineteenth century America.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
For instance, he was the first person to.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
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 house in the United States.
It had that dome. There is no giant staircase. You know,
if you go into the entrance hall at Monticella, look around,
there is no giant staircase like was common in large
(05:12):
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 lived with him, and you know, Jefferson didn't
really believe in bedrooms. Right on the first floor is
(05:33):
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 on flat ground, usually near rivers, for
(05:56):
transportation's sake, and you know, those roads were not paid.
It's about a mile road up 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 eighteen By the way, the Randolphs also sold off
acreage so Monticello and you know, and its surrounding properties.
(06:20):
Jefferson inherited about five thousand acres from his father, Peter Jefferson.
It was down to about five hundred and fifty two acres,
and the randolph sold Monticello to a man named James
Turner Barkley, who bought it for seven thousand dollars plus
he traded a house in Charlottesville. We don't have time
to talk about James Turner Barkley today except to say
(06:41):
that he was kind of eccentric. He was a medical doctor,
he was a pharmacist. But he thought he could go
up there at Monticello and do make a silkworm business.
So along mulberry row, he planted mulberry trees. The silkworm
business didn't work. You know, it appears as though he
almost destroyed the eighteen acre grove what Jefferson called an
(07:04):
ornamental forest. And we do know that he did not
take care of the place. A visitor who came in
eighteen thirty four wrote back that all is in dilapidation
in ruin. So how did Monticello get to be in dilapidation?
In ruin by eighteen thirty four. Thomas Jefferson, you name
(07:25):
a field of endeavor. He was a true Renaissance man.
I mean architecture, archaeology, of course, philosophy. You know, he
had the largest private library in the United States before
he had to sell it to raise money sold in
the United States after the War of eighteen twelve when
the British burned the Congressional Library. You know, he spoke
(07:47):
seven languages. Of course, he was president and Vice president,
Secretary of State, governor of Virginia. He wrote the Virginia
Declaration of Religious Freedom.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
And you know, I.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Always illustrated 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 a possible exception of
when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Jefferson had all these talents,
(08:21):
but he was not good at business for whatever reason.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
You know, he inherited all these farms. He bought natural Bridge.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It's in Virginia. It's a beautiful natural formation of rock.
He thought he could make it into tourist attraction.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
He bought it from the King of England, you know,
during colonial days, but it never made a dine. He
owned mills on the river down there, the Ravanna River.
They just leaked money. He had bad luck with his agriculture,
all those farms, you know, like when the crops were good,
prices were low. When the crops were bad, prices were high.
He tried famously to grow grapes up there, to start
(08:59):
a wine business that never worked.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
You know. He loved to spend money, bought the finest.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Furniture and furnishings from all over the world New York, Boston, London, Paris,
and that place was just filled with beautiful furniture and furnishing.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And you're listening to Mark Leaps and tell a heck
of a story about not just a building, but a man,
a man who well did almost everything well except hold
onto 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 here today. When
(09:39):
we come back more of the story of how Monticello
was saved here on our American Stories, and we're back
(10:10):
with our American Stories and the story of Monticello. We
just heard about the disarray that Monticello was 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 Mark Leapsom with the story.
Speaker 4 (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 and architecture. And they would come, family and
friends would they would come with servants, they would come
with enslave people. Sometimes it wasn't uncommon to have twenty
thirty or more people living there for days, weeks, months
(10:59):
at a time sometimes. And so the place with Jefferson,
you know, suffering financially. He just didn't have what we
would call the money to do preventive maintenance. So James
Turner Barkley, he just couldn't take living up there either.
Visitors came up and bothered him. The mulberry business didn't work,
(11:21):
so he sold the place in eighteen thirty four to
a most unlikely buyer and his name was Uriah Phillips Levy,
who was a lieutenant in the US Navy at the time,
and he purchased Monticello from James Turner Barkley for two
thousand and seven hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Now Barkley had sold off acreage too.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
It was down to I think it was one hundred
and ninety acres one hundred and eighty two acres, something
like that. And the place was into apidation and ruin.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
And what did Uriah.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Levy do Well, he was a man of means, and
he repaired, preserved and restored Monachello after he took possession
in eighteen thirty six. And you know, we have evidence
from people who visited that he did really restore the
place and preserve it and restore a low preservation and restoration.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
We're not in the language.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You can make an argument that Uriah Levy was the
first American house preservationists. You know, this happened in eighteen
thirty Starting in eighteen thirty six, we usually look at
Anne Pamela Cunningham, who bought George Washington's Mount Vernon from
his heirs after he died and saved it from being
divided up and developed. But This was twenty years before that.
(12:35):
So a little bit about Uriah Levy.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
He was a hero of the.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
US Navy, joined the Navy when he was twenty years
old in eighteen twelve. He was born in seventeen ninety
two in Philadelphia, and he was a 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 forty Jews in seventeen thirty three,
(13:02):
escaping the Inquisition from Portugal went to London. They arrived
in Savannah, Georgia in the summer of seventeen thirty three,
and were among the founders of the city of Savannah, Georgia.
His name was doctor Samuel Munish. He was the only
medical doctor in the colony of Georgia. He helped stem
an epidemic, probably of smallpox, and he was honored by
(13:24):
Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia. He was also a founder of
Congregation Nick for Israel in seventeen thirty three, which the
third oldest Jewish congregation. It's still there, and of course
not in the original building in downtown Savannah Jonas Phillips
where the Phillips comes from in Uriah Phillips Alvey. That
was his maternal grandfather, and he came to this country
(13:47):
in eighteen thirty six a merchant from Germany settled in Philadelphia,
got caught up with the Revolutionary War fervor and actually
joined a Philadelphia militia unit and fought against the Brits.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
And he was influential in.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Uriah Levy one of his favorite grandchilds a 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 the US Navy and
became a naval war hero.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Uriah Levy was born.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
In eighteen ninety two in Philadelphia. Always loved the sea,
joined the Navy in eighteen twelve to fight in the war,
and he was a hero of the War of eighteen twelve.
He was assistant sailing master on a ship called the
Argus which captured British ships in the Channel, and they
captured twenty five ships and when they went to capture
the twenty sixth, the Brits won that battle, killed the
(14:50):
captain and kept the crew imprisoned for the rest of
the war, including Uriah Levy and Uriah Levy came home
went on to have a fifty year career in the
US Navy. He died in service in eighteen sixty two.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
He was a.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Commodore when he died. He was the first Jewish commodore
in the US Navy. So Uria levy naval career was
recognized by the Navy. The first Jewish chapel on any
naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, opened in nineteen forty two,
named the Commodore Levy Chapel. It was a destroyer escurt
named after him. In World War Two, the USS Uriah P. Levy,
(15:26):
which actually took part of the Japanese surrender in the Pacific.
And then about fifteen years ago, and I think it
was twenty six, the Commodore Levy Center was dedicated at
the US Naval Academy. So his place in naval history
is assured. As far as his owning Monticello, the question is,
(15:50):
you know, why did he do it? He never set
it out in print that we know, but we take
an educated guess. One reason is that on his own
in eighteen thirty three, while he was in Paris.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
While he was in the Navy.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
On his own, he commissioned a full length statue of
Thomas Jefferson by one of the top sculptors of the day,
David Doge, and he donated that statue to the people
of the United States.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
A plaster model.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
He donated to New York City, which is where he lived.
Congress got it in eighteen thirty three, didn't quite know
what to do with it. They finally it was finally
taken to.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
The White House. And if you see old pictures.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
In the first one dawn of photography in the eighteen sixties,
you'll see that statue of Thomas Jefferson on the lawn
of the White House, you know, facing Lafayette Park. It
was taken inside in the eighteen seventies because it wasn't
doing very well outside of front statue, it was cleaned up.
It was first put in Statuary Hall in the Capitol,
(16:53):
and today it is in the rotunda, the rotunda of
the US Capital as you come in one of the
entrance as you'll see it on the right, and it's
the only privately donated statue in the Capitol. It's if
you look at the plaquet says donated to People of
the United States by US Navy Lieutenant Uriah Phillips Levey.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Now I said.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Earlier that Levy was a man of means. He lived
in New York City and in the eighteen twenties he
invested in rooming houses in a farming village in the city.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
That was Greenwich Village.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
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. So Uria
Levy died in eighteen sixty two in New York City.
(17:51):
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.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Of Navy warrant officers.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
I mean, we don't know if there were any orphans.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
And Navy warrant officers at the time.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
So Rayah Levy married late in life, didn't have any children,
but he had lots of brothers and sisters and nieces
and nephew There were sixty four 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 leaps and 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 families epiquest 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 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 we're back
(19:39):
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 US Navy, owned Monticello but had
just passed away in March of eighteen sixty two. 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 Leipsen with the conclusion of the story.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
And the lawsuit was filed in New York, where he lived,
and in Virginia. It took until eighteen seventy nine 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
eighteen seventy nine.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Now in the middle.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
In the middle of that, while the heirs were fighting
over his personal property, the Civil War happened. And you know,
people often asked that 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
(20:58):
was tiny skirmishing that happened, but nothing that damaged Monticello.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
However, during the war, the.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
South confiscated all property owned by Northerners, and in November
of eighteen sixty four, the South took possession of Monticello,
auctioned off all of ur I.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
Levy's property, including.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
His enslaved people, and auctioned off Monticello and it was
purchased by a man named Ben Fickland for something like
fifty thousand dollars in Confederate money. Fickland was a colonel
in the Confederate Army. He never lived there, but he
moved his family up there, and this was in November
of sixty four. But by the time that war ended
(21:40):
just six months later in March, it went back to
the family and the lawsuit dragged on and on and on.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
This is when.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Montachello went to its second period of deterioration. And we
have photographic evidence of what it looked like from the
early days of photography in the late eighteen sixties into
the eighteen seventies, and the place looks worse than dilapidation
and ruin. I mean you could see for yourself and
these old photographs that windows were broken, the shutters were
(22:10):
hanging down, the roof was caving in, the grounds were
in terrible the terraces were rotted away, the grounds were
in terrible condition. And one reason was that Monticello was
under the care of a caretaker who didn't take very
good care of it.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
His name was Joel Wheeler.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
He allowed University of Virginia students to have parties there,
so the place was wrecked well. The lawsuits were finally
settled in eighteen seventy nine 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,
(22:50):
bought out the other heirs for something like ten five
hundred dollars and he took control of Monticello in eighteen
seventy nine. And Erson 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.
(23:21):
Jefferson Levy, a lifelong bachelor, had was a very social man.
He often had when he was at Monticello. He was
often entertaining congressman, senators, ambassadors to presidents. Grover Cleveland made
a trip up there.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
Theodore Roosevelt made a trip up there.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know, he would also have the Bridge Club from
Charlottesville come up, have meetings up there, the Daar.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
So what's that expression, No good deed goes unpunished. In
nineteen twelve, a move and grew up to take Monticello
from Jefferson Levey and turn it into a government run
shrine to Thomas Jefferson. It was led by a woman
named Maude Lyttleton, who was married to New York congressman
named Martin Wileye Lyttleton, and she decided that she would
(24:18):
this would not stand. She started a national movement to
condemn Monticello and turn it into a government run shrine
to Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
She had influence.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
A bill was introduced in Congress to that effect in
nineteen twelve, in which the government would condemn this property's
private property and turn it into a government run house museum.
She had the time, she had the money, she had
the inclinations, she got petitions, she had people working for
she had articles written newspapers and magazines. And this bill
(24:52):
is debated in the summer of nineteen twelve, 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 nineteen
twelve in Congress, which were very bombastic. Jefferson Levy and
his lawyer. He hired a man named Tom Duke, Judge
(25:14):
Duke from Charlottesville who's like great grandfather was Thomas Jefferson's
father's lawyer, and Judge Duke and Jefferson Levy fought it
out with Missus Littleton and her supporters for the future
of his house. Some people called it the War of
nineteen twelve. Well, the War of nineteen twelve ended in
December when a bill came to the floor of the
House of Representatives that would have done what we just said,
(25:36):
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 turn it into a
government run you know, shrine to one of our founding fathers. Well,
you know, Jefferson Levy declared victory, but Missus Littleton did
(25:57):
not concede defeat. So the bill was reinjured produced in
nineteen thirteen. There were more hearings nineteen fourteen, and then
in nineteen October of nineteen fourteen, Jefferson Levey, who had
swore he would never sell the place, said okay, okay,
I will, and he said he announced that he would
sell Monticello for five hundred thousand dollars, which he reckoned
(26:18):
was about half of what he had spent buying it,
repairing it, preserving, restoring it, and taking.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Care of it. Well, you know, Congress could never.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Wrap their arms around that five hundred thousand dollars figure.
Now I have to tell you that the campaign to
take Monticello from Jefferson Levee was tinged with anti Semitism.
Neither Missus Littleton nor her supporters ever said it out
loud Jews shouldn't own Monticello, But she used code words
(26:48):
in her speeches, in magazine articles, newspaper articles that.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Were written on her behalf.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
For instance, they called they called the Levees aliens, they
called the Levan outsiders, and how can they be less aliens?
I mean, 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,
(27:16):
he put Monticello on the market for that five hundred
thousand dollars asking price. He hired a realtor in Washington
who specialized in the Virginia states. 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 la Fayette
(27:37):
about how wonderful this place is. In the next page
says all this can be yours for five hundred thousand. Finally,
in nineteen twenty three, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation formed and.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Met in New York City.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
It was made up of lawyers and financiers, some of
whom were had Virginia roots, and they agreed to Jefferson
Levy's purchase price.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
In nineteen twenty three.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
And I'll just end by reading to you from a
closing table when they in December of nineteen twenty three,
And a man who was there said that this was
December first, nineteen twenty three.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
The cash in 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.
Three months later, on March sixth, nineteen twenty four, at
his home in New York City, Jefferson Levey died of
(28:39):
heart disease, five weeks short.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Of his seventy second birthday. And I'll just finished by
telling you that this man, Jefferson Levy, not a shy
and retiring type like to compare himself to Thomas Jefferson.
You know, he was named after Thomas Jefferson. He was
a tall man like Jefferson was.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
He would make it a point to be at Monticello
on fourth of July and he'd have an Independence Day party.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
He'd invite people.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Up to the mountaintop from Charlottesville and guests. They would picnic,
they would have bands, patriotic music, there would 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 Leipsen
for sharing the story of Saving Monticello, which, by the way,
is the title of his book Saving Monticello, the Levee
family's epiquest 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 at the time.
(29:53):
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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