“living in a brick-kiln”: Intent and Reality at the First Monticello, 1767–1796

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello was one of the most ambitious architectural projects in early America. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an iconic architectural landmark, it draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. But before the house we see today existed, Jefferson designed a smaller, eight-room Palladian villa surrounded by a fantastical English landscape garden known as the first Monticello. This thesis explores the design and construction of this first Monticello with a focus on the differences between Jefferson’s intent and the reality on the ground. The limitations of the early house – evidenced by, among other things, a newly interpreted Jefferson drawing – question the prevailing theory that French neoclassicism was the primary impetus for Jefferson’s decision to expand the house beginning in 1796. New evidence suggests instead that circulation patterns and the institution of slavery played a greater role in the present appearance of Monticello than previously thought.