Fulfilling Nerdy Tourism Goals (John Adams's Homes)

After our trip to Charlotteville, Virginia I had a revelation: If I only could visit John Adams's house, I would have visited all of the first five presidents' homes. Yeah. So that totally had to happen.

When Jess and I were making our plans for Boston, I told her my two must-sees were the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and John Adams's House. She was happy to go along with my whims. In fact, she had never been to John Adams's house before, so it was a perfect little trip.

We arrived at the Adams National Historical Park bright and early. Jess regaled the rangers with the story of how I had been to George Washington's house, Thomas Jefferson's house, James Madison's house, and James Monroe's house and with this tour I would be five for five. They were duly impressed.

First, we stopped at the birthplace of John Adams. He was born here in 1735.

After John married Abigail they moved next door to the home where John Quincy Adams was born. And did you know that John Quincy Adams was our sixth president? You see where I'm going with this, yes? I have been to the first six presidents' homes!

After our tours of the birthplaces we got back on the trolley and rode to The Old House at Peace field. John and Abigail moved into this home in 1788 after they returned from London where Adams had been serving as ambassador.

Peace field was home to generations of Adamses. John and Abigail lived and died there. John Adams died, famously, on July 4th, 1826 -- the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Remarkably, this is also the day that Thomas Jefferson died. And, Adams's last words were "Jefferson survives." In truth, Jefferson had died some hours earlier. 

John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, also lived at Peace field. The Stone Library that sits on the property and is home to over 12,000 volumes. It's considered the first memorial presidential library.

It was interesting to see how the home had changed over the years. It was the home of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams; First Ladies Abigail and Louisa Catherine Adams; Civil War Minister to Great Britain Charles Francis Adams (John Quincy's son); and literary historians Henry and Brooks Adams.

Jess and I quite enjoyed our tour and our tour guide. We may have nodded adamantly during the stories we knew. I like to think we were star students.

You'd better believe that next time we are heading through Nashville we will be stopping at Andrew Jackson's home (and also the Nashville Parthenon).

P.S. I visit Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, and Ash Lawn-Highland.

Presidential Houses - Part 2, Monticello and Ash Lawn-Highland

We began our second day of Presidential house tours at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

Jefferson's illustrious career included drafting the Declaration of Independence and serving as a member of the Virginia legislature, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, as Governor of Virginia, as the U.S. minister to France, as the Secretary of State, as Vice President, and, of course, as the third President of the United States. He was also an inventor and a scientist. He was a busy guy. Good thing he only needed five hours of sleep a night.

The night before our Monticello tour Felix got very little sleep in his pack and play. He was very tired. So, instead of wrangling him through the house, Nate and I took turns. One of us took Beckett into the house, where he sat in an umbrella stroller and played the iPad while the adult enjoyed the tour. The other parent stayed outside with Felix, who was a mess. Then we switched places.

I really enjoyed my tour. Jefferson's home is very interesting. It's full of inventions, like the polygraph that made a copy as he wrote. He had a special reading stand that could hold five books at a time. I think that would have been handy when I was writing my dissertation.

Jefferson was very into octagons. The dome of Monticello sits on an octagon, and some of the rooms are octagonal as well. Jefferson was also very into conserving space, so he placed beds into nooks in the wall. Below Jefferson's bed spans the space between two rooms. Above in the circles is where he stored all of his out of season clothing.

source - not my photo. No pictures allowed inside. Check out this article for more pictures of the interior.

Madison often visited Jefferson. They lived close to one another and were good friends. He didn't find his bed quite so comfortable. It was also in a wall alcove which did not allow for good air circulation in the summer. Jefferson had 12 grandchildren living with him at Monticello. It was interesting to imagine the house full of children.

One thing that all the houses had in common was that the kitchens and serving rooms were essentially a long corridor underneath the house. This is the serving area under Monticello.

Felix fell asleep in his stroller while Nate and Beckett were touring the house. 

We walked back down the hill to the visitor's center.

Jefferson's grave.

After our tour of Jefferson's house, we thought, "why not visit James Monroe's house too?" Monroe lived at Ash Lawn-Highland, only two miles from Monticello. In fact, Jefferson selected the Monroe house site and sent gardeners from Monticello to start the orchards. Jefferson wanted his friend Monroe to live close by.

Monroe's house is quite a bit smaller than Jefferson's or Madison's, but the tour was extremely interesting. Monroe was our fifth president. Apparently he was a man of action. The tour guide said, "If you want an idea beautifully expressed in writing, ask Jefferson. If you need logic to back up your idea, ask Madison. But, if you want to do something with an idea, ask Monroe." For example, Jefferson always gets credit for the Louisiana Purchase, but it was actually Monroe who bought the land. He was in France as Jefferson's envoy to negotiate access to the Mississippi via New Orleans when Napoleon offered to sell the Louisiana territory. This was very unexpected, and Monroe obviously couldn't get a message back to Jefferson, so he bought the land.

Beckett in front of Monroe's statue.

Monroe also was the only president besides George Washington to run unopposed. He was very popular, and his presidency was called "The Era of Good Feelings." His Monroe Doctrine formed the cornerstone of America's foreign policy up to the present day. The tour also featured lots of interesting stories about Monroe and Napoleon. Their children were very good friends.

Monroe, like Jefferson and Madison, was in debt after his presidency. (Being president did not pay well. Or at all.) Unlike the other two, he sold his house and paid off his debts.

A common theme in all the tours was the issue of slavery. All the men had enslaved workers running their lands and homes, and all three were very troubled about it, but, for all their accomplishments, could not figure out how to solve that problem. It would have to be dealt with by future generations.

Our final stop on this presidential architectural tour was the University of Virginia. Jefferson designed the University's Rotunda and the surrounding buildings.

He was clearly very inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

Like the houses, the Rotunda has a service corridor below ground.

On the grounds at the University of Virginia.

We have now been to 4 of the 5 first presidents' homes. I think we might need to visit John Adams's house too.

P.S. We visit George Washington's Mount Vernon: here and here.

Presidential Houses - Part 1, Montpelier

Ever since we moved to Maryland we have been talking about going to Monticello. This October we finally made that happen. But why settle for just one Presidential house when you can have three?

We began our tour of Presidential homes at the home of James Madison, Montpelier.

Madison was our fourth president, and he is also known as the Father of the Constitution. He spent much of his life studying governments and helping to form our fledgling nation. We owe much of the Constitution to his ideas. Madison was the author of many of the Federalist papers which helped spur voters to ratify the Constitution. He also introduced the Bill of Rights.

Madison's house has had an interesting life. It started out fairly modest and then grew. At one point it was a duplex with Madison's parents living on one side of the house and James and Dolley living on the other. Jefferson's Monticello inspired Madison to put the portico on the house, and Jefferson designed the entryway that you see below.

Our tour guide at Montpelier. She was so awesome.

Madison met Dolley in Washington when he was serving in Congress. After he became president, Dolley really helped to define what the role of the First Lady would be. She was apparently very politically savvy. Madison was the president during the War of 1812, and Dolley also gets the credit for saving the White House's big portrait of George Washington before the British burned the capital.

Madison had an amazing view from his front door.

After Madison died the home fell into disrepair. Madison was in debt when he died, partially because the presidents at this early period in the country's history had to fund everything themselves--their travel, the White House parties. It was expensive to be the president. Currently the home is being restored to its 1836 state. The architectural restoration is complete and they are working on furnishing  the house. You can go down to the archeological site to see what new, old things are being discovered.

Beckett and Felix hanging out in the temple.

This is Madison's outdoor study. I insisted on calling it a folly. It fits perfectly into the tradition of 18th century gardens and landscaping.  I guess it wasn't purely decorative because they did keep all their ice far underneath the temple. Apparently Dolley really liked oyster ice cream. This was in the very early days of ice cream.

The Annie duPont Formal Gardens just behind the house are stunning.

We then took a walk through the James Madison Landmark Forest. It was a bizarrely warm October weekend. It looked like fall, but it felt like summer.

In 1901 William and Annie duPont purchased Montpelier. (Yes those duPonts.) They enlarged the house significantly and preserved the grounds. Big horse people, they built a race track that still hosts horse races today. They also convinced the railroad to build a Montpelier stop so that William could commute to Delaware. Their last surviving heir willed the house to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

B in front of another train station.

We loved visiting Montpelier. The tour was superb. The kids survived it. The grounds were pretty, quiet, and peaceful. 

After our tour of Madison's home we drove into Charlottesville. There we got everyone ice cream (but not oyster ice cream) for good behavior in the big house.

B ate some too, but Felix eating ice cream is cuter.

P.S. Interested in the War of 1812? Trips to Fort McHenry here, here, and here.

Washington's Home

We took Dorothy to Mount Vernon. It had been about a year since I went to Mount Vernon with Jill. We went on a Thursday afternoon and avoided the crowds. We walked straight into the house. No waiting in line whatsoever.

The Potomac from the backyard with its unobstructed view. There is an ordinance that nothing can be built across the river from Washington's house so that the view looks as it would have when Washington enjoyed it.

Beckett sitting on the back porch being a ham.

On our way to explore the other buildings on the estate.

Washington's transportation. I don't think this chair/cart looks like a very fun ride.

At the memorial to the slaves.

Looking back toward Washington's grave.

Walking down to the river.

Washington wanted to be remembered as a farmer, so we visited the sixteen-sided barn.

After we toured the grounds we went to the museum and education center. They have a really fun kids room where we spent a long time talking to an employee who graduated from BYU-Idaho and is related to Mitt Romney.