Monticello Saved by Levys

Uriah Phillips Levy (left) and Jefferson Monroe Levy (right). Public Domain.  

If you’re one of the fortunate people who have visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, you know that the home and grounds are remarkable and magnificent – a masterpiece of American architecture. Everything seems perfect and well maintained, and it feels as if Mr. Jefferson will return at any moment.

Visiting Monticello today you’d never know that when Jefferson died in 1826, he was in extreme debt and his beloved estate was severely run-down and ragged. His grandson and executor of his will, Thomas J. Randolph, was forced to sell just about everything Jefferson owned to pay his creditors.

With so many required repairs, interest in the home was low, but it finally sold in 1831 for about $7,500 to an eccentric Charlottesville druggist, James Turner Barclay. In his two years of ownership, Barclay essentially did nothing to improve the property. Instead, he tore out many of Jefferson’s trees and extensive gardens to plant mulberry trees – he wanted to turn the estate into a silkworm farm. When writing to a friend, Jefferson’s daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph remarked, “The garden is plowed up to the door and planted in corn. The terrace is a complete wreck. The place, I am told, is so totally changed that it is distressing to see it. It will all be one mass of ruins so rapid has the work of destruction been.”

Barclay put the plantation back on the market in 1834 and Uriah Phillips Levy, a fifth-generation Jewish American and a U.S. Naval officer, acquired it for just $2,500. Despite enduring antisemitism, Levy was a hero of the War of 1812 and became the first Jewish commodore who was instrumental in ending the Navy’s practice of flogging. He was a lifelong admirer of Jefferson and his ideals of religious liberty.

Instead of gutting and remodeling it, Levy chose to maintain and preserve Monticello as Jefferson created it. He owned and cared for it until his death in 1862 and in his will, he bequeathed the property to the U.S. government because he thought it would be best for the historic home. Unfortunately, with no prior experience in such ownership, the government declined. By this time, the Civil War raged, and the home fell into the hands of the Confederacy. But after the war, Levy’s heirs contested Uriah’s will, and in 1879 won it back.

That same year, ownership and care of Monticello passed to Jefferson Monroe Levy, Uriah’s 27-year-old nephew. He also resisted modernization of the historic home and chose instead to restore it as closely as possible to Mr. Jefferson’s design, investing around $1 million during his 44 years of ownership. By the end of the 19th century, interest in Thomas Jefferson and his estate increased, so Levy opened it to the public and hosted dignitaries from around the world.

But not everyone agreed that Levy was the best person to conserve the estate. In 1911, Maud Littleton began a movement to transfer the property to the U.S. government and maintain it as a public museum.

Levy was offended and objected to having his beloved home pulled from his hands. He stated, “I cannot commercialize the sentiment of years by putting a price upon this noble property.”

In 1919, due to financial strain, Levy ultimately agreed to sell and “The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation,” formed in 1923, purchased it for $500,000, assuming ownership on December 1, 1923. Jefferson Monroe Levy died three months later.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. still owns and manages Monticello, based on its original principle – to purchase, preserve, and maintain Monticello as a memorial to Thomas Jefferson and his ideals.

Today, Monticello welcomes visitors from around the world to the estate of Thomas Jefferson – thanks to the commitment and care by Uriah and Jefferson Levy, whose combined ownership lasted for nearly 90 years.