The specialized tours are led by such experts that are doing the renovation or archeological studies etc. Go while you can still drive in on the gravel road! It's not original to the property but I enjoy the woods and driving up right in front of the home. It is time for the new entrance but one day we'll say we remember when the entrance was a one lane gravel road. Don Smith 15 May Jefferson designed, oversaw construction in addition to being President of the first octagon home in America.
Like all of his other brilliant architecture and inventions, this home is a must see accompaniment to Monticello. Jon Garner 22 Apr We have visited Poplar Forest several times. It is a wonderful place. The house always has a newly added restored feature. Learn More. Group Tours Poplar Forest welcomes group tours. Museum Shop Visit our Museum Shop for an array of gifts and souvenirs that offer historic insight into architecture, archaeology, Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved community of Poplar Forest.
New Paths to Jefferson A new two-lane entrance parkway will soon make Poplar Forest more visible and accessible to visitors, while a system of hiking and walking trails connects the native woodlands, agricultural fields, streams and historic sites. Octagons fascinated him.
Poplar Forest was one of his many octagonal designs and the only octagonal house actually built. The one-story brick residence is set on a high basement. The front and rear elevations are strictly symmetrical and feature Classical porticoes with pediments and four Tuscan columns.
On the interior, four elongated octagonal rooms surround a central chamber illuminated by a large skylight. This central space is a perfect cube, measuring 20 feet in all directions.
Jefferson liked octagonal rooms in part because they allowed for more light, especially important in a time prior to electricity. The abstract symmetry of the house extended to the landscape as well.
Two artificial mounds on either side of the sunken lawn behind the house served as ornamental elements and screened identical octagonal privies. The villas of Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio, influenced the design, with the mounds replacing pavilions.
Approximately 94 slaves worked on the plantation. Letters and documents, as well as excavations of the slave quarters scattered about the property, provide glimpses into their lives. Slaves at Poplar Forest performed a variety of jobs, including fieldwork, road building, livestock tending, brick-making, blacksmithing, woodworking, carpentry, masonry construction, weaving, and spinning, as well as service in the house.
A replica campeachy or "siesta" chair, favored by Jefferson. The Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest Jefferson kept to a regimented daily schedule for most of his life, and the time he spent at Poplar Forest was no exception.
0コメント