A Splendid Misery: Looking Forward to Life after the Presidency

Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Virginia on April 13th, 1743. While best known for his role as principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, Jefferson preferred to think of himself as a gentlemen farmer. In fact in 1808 he wrote a friend, "It is now among my most fervent longings to be on my farm, which, with a garden & fruitery, will constitute my principal occupation in retirement". 

Poplar Forest, a two story, octagonal structure, was designed by Jefferson to include four elongated, octagonal rooms that surround a cubed center room. The main level of the house was used as living space by Jefferson and the few family members who accompanied him. The lower level was storage and sleep spaces for the workmen who built the house.

Throughout Jefferson's Presidency, he constantly tinkered with designs. Here is a drawing of the President's House including the now famous West Wing, a carriage turnaround and clumps of trees. While the wing was incorporated into the White House, the carriage turnaround and clumps of trees weren't. Luckily for Jefferson, he had another spot to incorporate these landscape features: Poplar Forest.

The clumps of trees on either side of the North Portico at Poplar Forest provided a landscape feature for visual interest and shaded the house.

This architectural drawing depicts the South view of the house with its accompanying wing of offices.

As a working tobacco and wheat plantation, Poplar Forest was also home to roughly 96 enslaved people at its height of production. This image shows a Slave Quarter Site located on the property circa the 1790s-1810s.

Poplar Forest had long been a working plantation with an enslaved community before Jefferson began building his retreat. This begs the question, how did the enslaved population's lives change after Jefferson began visiting regularly? What bigger change than suddenly having to build a brick, octagonal structure? Over 240,000 bricks were handmade on site to build Poplar Forest including these curved bricks that were used to build eight columns.

A specific enslaved person who was greatly impacted by Jefferson's retreat was a woman named Hannah. Born at Monticello, Hannah moved to Poplar Forest in her teen years. Once Jefferson built the house at Poplar Forest, Hannah was designated as cook and housekeeper. Part of her duties was to stay in the Wing of Offices while Jefferson was staying at Poplar Forest to ensure that his meals were delivered in a timely fashion. This stew grate was found during an excavation of the wing site and may have been used by Hannah.

Poplar Forest had an extensive weaving and spinning operation onsite, both for consumption on the property and for sale. These weaving loom beater cradles and the lace bobbin were found during the excavation of the Wing of Offices.

John Hemmings was an enslaved master craftsman and joiner who was often sent to Poplar Forest to complete detailed word work throughout the house. The balustrade seen here is an example of work that he was in charge of. Although this is not the original balustrade, it was recreated just as it originally was. 

This door is one of only a few pieces of original wood work from Jefferson's day. A fire in 1845 destroyed the wood work in the house, but owners saved a couple of doors. Handmade by John Hemmings, there would have been roughly 14 doors like this in the house. 

Colbert was Jefferson's enslaved butler and would often travel with Jefferson for his visits to Poplar Forest. This artifact is part of a bell system that existed from the main house to the kitchen in the wing of offices. It may have signaled to Colbert when to bring food in for meals to to let Hannah know something about mealtimes as well. 

The home at Poplar Forest was built as a sanctuary for Jefferson. Here he kept a library of about 900 books, wrote hundreds of letters, and even did more architectural designs for another famous Jefferson building: the University of Virginia. 

While created as a private retreat, Jefferson was well aware that visitors would still come. In keeping with that, he designed the interior of the house to be quite exciting. This view is from the entry hall looking through the dining room. As you can see, entrants would have been able to see straight through two sets of glass sash doors and out onto the South Portico on the opposite end.

"About twilight of the evening, we sally out with the owls and bats and take our evening exercise on the terras", Jefferson wrote in a letter to his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph. The terras to which he is referring is this, the roof of the Wing of Offices. The terras roof, was a design created by Jefferson and provided a relatively flat service on top, but collected water underneath and funneled it out. In Jefferson's day, the metal railings would not have been present.

At Poplar Forest, Jefferson was able to exercise his love of architectural design and find the peace and quiet not always available at Monticello. However, Poplar Forest was home to so many more than just Jefferson. Almost one hundred enslaved people lived and worked at Poplar Forest to provide Jefferson the retreat he so desired. The commingling of Jefferson, his family, and his enslaved community created the personal retreat Jefferson had always wanted.