33. Restoring Monticello
Today, Monticello is a pristine mansion, carefully restored to its caretakers’ best conception of Thomas Jefferson’s original plan. It is difficult to imagine that lovingly cared for plantation as having once been a seedy and rundown mess. Yet a seedy and rundown mess was what Uriah Levy bought when he purchased Monticello in 1834. He set about its restoration with a will.
Levy gathered a small army of workers, including a dozen slaves whom he purchased, to clean out the house’s interior, repair its exterior, and restore the surrounding lawns and gardens. He went to great lengths to restore Monticello to its former glory, including chasing down furniture that had been auctioned off after Jefferson’s death. Because of his naval career and business in NYC, Levy lived only sporadically in Monticello. When he died in 1862, he left Monticello to the US government, plus income from his estate, valued at the then-princely sum of $300,000, to support an agricultural farm at Monticello for the orphaned sons of sailors and others.