Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1743 -1846) was elected the third President of the United States and served from 1801 to 1809. He was also passionate about architecture. During the late 1700s he saw little in American architecture that he liked.

“Buildings are often erected, by individuals, for considerable expense. To give these symmetry and taste would not increase their cost. It would only change the arrangement of the materials, the form and combination of the members. This would often cost less than the burthen of barbarous ornaments with which these buildings are sometimes charged. But the first principles of the art are unknown, and there exists scarcely a model among us sufficiently chaste to give an idea of them.”

—Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia [1781, 1787], 152-153.

He then began to design his own home in a new style, later to be named Federal. Monticello, his home for many years, was constructed and then remodeled according to plans he drew, as was the University of Virginia.

Greenfield Public Library Cornice fragment. View this item in the Online Collection.

Details

Date1743–1846
TopicArchitecture, Buildings
Politics, Government, Law, Civics
EraRevolutionary America, 1763–1783
The New Nation, 1784–1815