Editing Monticello (section)

==Design and building==
Jefferson's home was built to serve as a [[plantation house]], which ultimately took on the architectural form of a [[villa]].<ref name="Archipedia">{{Cite web |title=Monticello |url=https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-CH48 |access-date=April 30, 2023 |website=Archipedia |date=March 13, 2019 |publisher=Society of Architectural Historians |language=en}}</ref> Work began on what historians would subsequently refer to as "the first Monticello" in 1768, on a plantation of {{cvt|5,000|acre|ha|abbr=off}}. Jefferson moved into the South Pavilion (an outbuilding) in 1770, where his new wife [[Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson|Martha Wayles Skelton]] joined him in 1772. Jefferson continued work on his original design, but how much was completed is of some dispute.<ref name="Archipedia" /> In constructing and later reconstructing his home, Jefferson used a combination of free workers, indentured servants, and enslaved people.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |url=http://slavery.monticello.org/slavery-at-monticello/life-monticello-plantation/monticello-house |title=The Monticello House |access-date=April 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425181434/http://slavery.monticello.org/slavery-at-monticello/life-monticello-plantation/monticello-house |archive-date=April 25, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

After his wife's death in 1782, Jefferson left Monticello in 1784 to serve as Minister of the United States to France. During his several years in Europe, he had an opportunity to see some of the classical buildings with which he had become acquainted from his reading, as well as to discover the "modern" trends in French architecture that were then fashionable in Paris. His decision to remodel his own home may date from this period. In 1794, following his tenure as the first [[United States Secretary of State|U.S. Secretary of State]] (1790–1793), Jefferson began rebuilding his house based on the ideas he had acquired in Europe. The remodeling continued throughout most of his presidency (1801–1809).<ref name="Monticello">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/journey/mcl.htm |title=Monticello |publisher=National Park Service, US Dept of the Interior |access-date=April 30, 2011 |archive-date=November 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103211809/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/journey/mcl.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Although generally completed by 1809, Jefferson continued work on Monticello until his death in 1826.
[[File:Montecello-Dome3.jpg|thumb|left|Under the dome]]
Jefferson added a center hallway and a parallel set of rooms to the structure, more than doubling its area. He removed the second full-height story from the original house and replaced it with a [[Mezzanine (architecture)|mezzanine]] bedroom floor. The interior is centered on two large rooms, which served as an entrance-hall-museum, where Jefferson displayed his scientific interests, and a music-sitting room.<ref name="Archipedia" /> The most dramatic element of the new design was an octagonal [[dome]], which he placed above the west front of the building in place of a second-story portico. The room inside the dome was described by a visitor as "a noble and beautiful apartment," but it was rarely used—perhaps because it was hot in summer and cold in winter, or because it could be reached only by climbing a steep and very narrow flight of stairs. The dome room has now been restored to its appearance during Jefferson's lifetime, with "Mars [[yellow]]" walls and a painted green and black checkered floor.<ref name=":3">{{cite web |url=http://www.chriskern.net/essay/jeffersonsDomeAtMonticello.html |title=Jefferson's Dome at Monticello |last=Kern |first=Chris |access-date=July 10, 2009 |archive-date=September 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915083853/http://www.chriskern.net/essay/jeffersonsDomeAtMonticello.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Summertime temperatures are high in the region, with indoor temperatures of around {{cvt|100|F}}. Jefferson himself is known to have been interested in Roman and Renaissance texts about ancient temperature-control techniques such as ground-cooled air and heated floors.<ref name=":4">{{cite web |url=http://www.poplarforest.org/sites/default/files/Poplar%20Forest%20-%20Privacy%20Restored.pdf |title=Poplar Forest - Privacy restored, p33 |website=PoplarForest.org |access-date=February 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811092400/http://www.poplarforest.org/sites/default/files/Poplar%20Forest%20-%20Privacy%20Restored.pdf |archive-date=August 11, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Monticello's large central hall and aligned windows were designed to allow a cooling air-current to pass through the house, and the octagonal cupola draws hot air up and out.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-17-mn-50593-story.html |title=Cooling Trend Predicted for Mount Vernon |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=May 17, 1998 |author=MARYLOU TOUSIGNANT |access-date=August 7, 2016 |archive-date=August 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822221912/http://articles.latimes.com/1998/may/17/news/mn-50593 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the late twentieth century, moderate air conditioning, designed to avoid the harm to the house and its contents that would be caused by major modifications and large temperature differentials, was installed in the house, a tourist attraction.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Stealth Ductwork |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lx2mOwNM924C&pg=PA29 |date=October 2000 |journal=Popular Science |page=29 |issn=0161-7370 |access-date=October 23, 2016 |archive-date=November 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102081114/https://books.google.com/books?id=Lx2mOwNM924C&pg=PA29 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Before Jefferson's death, Monticello had begun to show signs of disrepair. The attention Jefferson's [[University of Virginia|university project in Charlottesville]] demanded, and family problems, diverted his focus. The most important reason for the mansion's deterioration was his accumulating debts. In the last few years of Jefferson's life, much went without repair in Monticello. A witness, [[Samuel Whitcomb Jr.]], who visited Jefferson in 1824, thought it run down. He said, "His house is rather old and going to decay; appearances about his yard and hill are rather slovenly. It commands an extensive prospect but it being a misty cloudy day, I could see but little of the surrounding scenery."<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Book Peddler Invades Monticello |author=Peden, William |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |year=1949 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=631–636 |doi=10.2307/1916755 |jstor=1916755 |oclc=5545215252}}</ref>