WASHINGTON - One time slave quarters will be re-created at Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello, and more of the Declaration of Independence writer’s living quarters will be restored using a $10 million gift from a philanthropist who has an keen interest in the nation’s history.
Mulberry Row, the community where slaves lived on the Virginia plantation, will be reconstructed with the funds. Monticello officials plan to rebuild at least two log buildings where slaves worked andlived and want to restore Jefferson’s original road scheme on the plantation. The gift will also fund the restoration of the second and third floors of Jefferson’s home, which are now mostly empty, and will replace aging infrastructure.
Businessman David Rubenstein, the co-CEO of The Carlyle Group private equity firm, announced his gift Friday night. It is one of the largest ever to the Monticello estate.
Archaeologists and historians designing the project will follow a drawing Jefferson made in 1796, describingthe material and dimensions of the log structures along Mulberry Row.
Over the next two years, they plan to rebuild a structure described as being among “servants’ houses of wood, with wooden chimneys and earth floors.”
It’s believed to have housed members of the extended Hemings family, which held important positions at Monticello. Most historians believe Sally Hemings, a slave, had a relationship with the third president and that he was the father of her six children.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 04/21/2013