When we went to Monticello we purchased a Presidential Pass which gave us additional tours of Ash Lawn-Highland, President and Mrs. Monroe home and Michie Tavern. We didn't want to leave the area without taking advantage of these tours.
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| A view while driving. |
The drive was really pretty and had kind of a magical feel - the Fall colors cloaked in a light fog that didn't reach the ground. We took lots of pictures and one view was even more interesting than the next. But pictures never are able to capture the power of Great Spirit.
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The front door of
Ash Lawn - Highland |
As you approach Ash Lawn-Highland there is a very long drive up to the house that an owner, after the Monroes left, had planted ash trees along both sides. these trees are now huge and now you drive through a golden yellow and red tunnel of beauty. At the end of the drive is a building which is the gift shop that you go through to begin the tour.
As you approach the home you pass the gardens, both vegetable and flowers, which were being well tended. Work was being done on the wooden part of the home - it was being scraped and painted. Unlike Monticello you just walk up and into the front door of the home. We were greeted by a tour guide and were told the first two rooms are open for self touring. There were a lot of displays and everything had very detailed explanations of what each item was and where it had come from. It was really amazing how many original Monroe pieces were in the home - many more than any other tour we had been on.
The tour guide started our tour and to begin with it was only Sam and I, after about 5 minutes another couple joined us. This tour is one of the best I have ever been on - not only because it was a small group with a very informative guide but also because you didn't stand behind ropes. You were invited into the rooms and could walk around and really look closely at everything. No touching but you felt more like you were invited into a family's home.
We learned that the wooden part of the home had been rebuilt because a fire burned the original wooden part that would have been there during the Monroe's time. Unlike Monticello with detailed drawings of every part there weren't any drawings of what had been there when the Monroe's were there so things are kind of a guess.
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| Back view |
The dining room would be my favorite - turquoise walls and rich turquoise curtains. The silverware was silver with pearl handles - very pretty! The art work so really amazing.
Because the Monroe family still comes to the house for reunions they also contribute family heirlooms - even the desk that President Monroe used in the White House is there. Inside the living room there was a beautiful black & gold clock on the mantel over the fireplace. The clock was from the Napoleonic Era. The original Monroe Harp Clock is in another collection and when this harp clock came up for auction the museum decided to acquire it. Once they did, a research study was done and it was discovered that the clock had once belonged to Stonewall Jackson. Earlier in the summer there had been several tours that had people from the Stonewall Jackson home and museum. the Monroe director told all of the guides not to mention the clock or bring any attention to it all. Competition in the Museum World!
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| Slave quarters |
The guide talked to us about Monroe being a salve owner but also being an abolitionist. One of the main reasons that both Monroe and Jefferson didn't free their slaves was that so much of their finances were tied into their slaves. But also also there was evidence that neither of them could conceive of a country that would accept a "mixed" population. Pretty interesting considering the information that history has shown of Sally Hemmings and her children. When we went outside we were shown the 3 homes - really a 3 room row home that housed 30-40 slaves and the overseer's home.
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Table in the kitchen -
waffle iron in the front
tea tile and grater in the back |
We were then introduced to another guide who showed us the 2 kitchens and smokehouse. Unlike most homes of the time the kitchens were not a separate building but were built in the French style under the house with stone covered with plaster. The most interesting item was a tea tile. It is a block of compressed tea - made in China with very ornate designs on the front and square designs on the back. To use it - you simply just grate off what you need. The tea tile was also used as money - the reason for the squares on the back. You could break off what amount of "currency" was needed. The tea tiles are what would have been in the boxes at the Boston Tea Party. I had no idea!
We also learned that the Monroe's had lived in a couple of houses in the area before settling at this home - always moving closer to Thomas Jefferson, a close friend. One of the homes was lower on the mountain and was called The Lowlands. So when they moved to this home it was named The Highlands. The later owner who planted the ash trees called it Ash Lawn. He is the person who gave the home in his will to the college so that is why the name is Ash Lawn - Highland.
To leave the tour you go back through the gift shop. (They really know how to plan this stuff!) Of course I had to get postcards but I was able to buy a tea tile. The one I got is green tea, They still are made in China. I paid $24. - wonder what the cost was for the Monroes?
We then drove back down the road to Mickie Tavern. Sam dropped me off in front so I could stand in line at "the Ordinary", the restaurant, while he parked the car. We had such good food there the last time we decided to eat before we began the tour of the Tavern. Good thing too because we would need all our energy for the tour.
To get to the main building you went down a flight of stairs from "the Ordinary" around a ticket booth up a hill and then a double flight of stairs up to the front porch of the Tavern. We meet the tour guide and four other people in the tour, got some general information and then headed inside. It was interesting to see how "the common folks" would have traveled. Very different arrangements - most slept on the floor but if you did rent a bed you slept with strangers and the rule was no more than 5 people per bed. the bed was alittle smaller than a full size bed.
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| Virgina Reel |
Another flight of stairs...up... another small set of stairs...up... Women probably slept upstairs and once the Mickie Family moved to a separate house their room could be rented out. The cost for all the other spaces in the house were regulated but their room was listed as private space so they could charge whatever they wanted.
We were told about the main room upstairs where women slept, was used for music and dances. We were then taught the Virginia Reel. Sam took pictures of the group while we all danced. I was the guide's partner.
Another small set of stairs...down... Another flight of stairs...down... We then headed into the keeping room. This is where the large table was and the food was not cooked here but was kept warm at the fireplace - hence the keeping room. The table came apart into 2 sections with each flipped up in tall benches - very cool. Sometimes a woman would sleep in this room while traveling because it would have felt more familiar. We then left the Tavern to view the out buildings,
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| UP UP UP! |
Another flight of stairs...down... Because all the out buildings are built on a mountainside there are now stairs built up to them or down from them and once you come out the back door the only way is to do the loop thru all the out buildings.
Another flight of stairs...up... to the privy.
Another flight of stairs...up and over... to the kitchen.
Another flight of stairs...up and over... to the spring house.
Another flight of stairs...up and over... to the smoke house.
Another flight of stairs...down to the well.
Another flight of stairs...down...
Another flight of stairs...down... to what would have been the wine cellar in the basement of the Tavern and now into the Gift Shop! More postcards!
While we were having lunch our server told us that the apple cider was made from the orchard next to the Tavern. We drove all the way to the very top of the mountain. Wow! what a drive - winding thru the forest and then through grape vines and finally to the apple trees. The buildings were really built on the very tip top of the mountain - what great views! But both Sam and I commented on what a steep trek into the orchards it would be for harvesting!
Oh yea! I discovered another wine tasting - only one wine I wanted to taste. I'd seen it at a store I was in at Greenville. Didn't buy it but I had thought about it ever since. It was blackberry and really good! So this time I bought a bottle.
We then bought apples - pink lady for me and golden delicious for Sam and a gallon of cider. The cider was pricey! $8.00 a gallon. But it's good!
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| Mother Nature in her Fall Glory! |
We then drove down the mountains between where Skyline Drive ends and Blue Ridge Parkway begins. to say the views going back to Greenville was beautiful is such an understatement. I can't image Mother Nature doing Fall any better any where than she was doing it that day!
We went back to the little store in Greenville - really like a mini mart but the only business in town. Before we left on this trip both Sam and I had dreams that we won the Mega Millions while on the trip. We hadn't told each other when it happened but after we began the trip we talked about it. So we wanted to get Mega Millions tickets and I wanted to buy 2 more bottles of blackberry wine from them.
After getting back to the RV we drank wine and enjoyed the rest of the evening!
