Montpelier Day 2: Main House Tour

Bruce was waiting for us on the porch. The seven of us had a private tour of the Main House. We started a few minutes early, which gave us a head start before the next tour group. Ed, who has been on this program three other times, passed on the Main House Tour. We had an engaged group not afraid of asking questions.

Seven rooms are furnished representing the time period of 1818 to 1844, when Dolley Madison sold the home. There are over 4,000 items on display, 200 of which belonged to the Madison family. The rest represent the era. Bruce pointed out the Madison items in each room.

The paint is accurate to the era from Benjamin Moore. I recognized some of the colors from my parents' house.

Three generations of Madisons lived here. Ambrose and Francis Taylor Madison had a tobacco plantation on 2,700 acres that they acquired through a King's Grant.

In 1732 Ambrose dies. We learn more about this on Wednesday's Home Farm Tour. Then in 1761, Francis dies. By this point James and Nellie Madison have several children. They decide to build a home.

In 1801, James Madison, Sr. dies leaving the house to his son, James Madison, Jr.

"Junior" is thinking about retiring at the age of 48, so he puts an addition on the family home. Retirement is short lived. Three years later he is tapped to be Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State. He then becomes President of the United States and settles into Montpelier as a retired president. He dies in 1836. Dolley sells Montpelier in 1844. After that, there are five owners over 140+ years, most notably the DuPont Family who breeds horses and dogs on the property and start the horse racing tradition when the track is installed in 1915.

In 1983 when Marion duPont Scott pass away and leaves the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

The Historic Trust makes the decision to bring the house back to how it looked from 1818-1844, but with modern touches including air-conditioning (which is fed through the flues). Twenty-six million dollars was spent over eight years to preserve the house.

Seven rooms are on the tour. The first we enter is the mother-in-law suite where Nellie lived after her son took over the house.

Nellie continues to live in this room and the bedroom next to it, basically in the original portion of the house.

We learned about the future president's education. His mother basically homeschooled him and his siblings (she birthed 12, seven lived to adulthood). At that time, most children did not go to university. He was mostly self-educated. He was a great reader and had a scientific mind. His mother sent him away to boarding school 75 miles away on the coast so he could receive a classical education, learning to read and write Greek and Latin. He came home and Scottish minister Rev. Thomas Martin was hired to be his tutor. Madison suffered from epilepsy as a child.

Once he learned everything the reverend could teach him, he was sent to college. He decided not to go to William and Mary because it was a "party school," instead he opted for the College of New Jersey, today known as Princeton University, likely because his parents wanted him to go someplace more liberal and widen his perception of the world. He brought his manservant Sawney with him, but despite Princeton's presidents having slaves, students did not. Madison had to learn how to take care of himself, food, take care of his room, all those pesky details of life he had not had to concern himself with when he lived at home. He learned a few more languages bringing his total to seven.

At this point Rev. John Witherspoon, future signer of the Declaration of Independence, was president of Princeton University. He took the future President of the United States under his wing. He taught him Hebrew, a skill that would be useful if he decided to become a pastor. He also introduced Madison to politics. In those days, Baptists were being persecuted for preaching. Learning about that influenced Madison's views on the freedom of religion. The seeds of the Bill of Rights were formed while he lived ten miles away from me.

Not talked about, but history I know, is that James Madison was at the Battle of Trenton, along with James Monroe, another future president. Monroe was severely wounded at the battle. I mistakenly remembered it was Madison who was wounded. I was correct in that he was there.

Madison witnessed, but did not sign, the Declaration of Independence. 

Ben Franklin's bust staring
at a gadget used to
create electricity

We leave Nellie's Colonial-style rooms. His mother lived to be almost 98-years old. As we moved to the next room where James and Dolley Madison entertained. The room is covered in red wallpaper, which was Dolley's favorite color, Bruce tells us the duPonts covered the hand-carved wainscotting walls with sheetrock. Fortunately for future historians, that had the effect of preserving the walls. The wallpaper is not original to the house, but is a reproduction of a pattern that was in use at the time.

The only original painting in
the room: Lunch at Emaus with
Jesus and his Disciples

Copy of the Declaration of
Independence as published
in a Philadelphia newspaper.

The room is filled with busts of Madison's friends, and those he respected. Only one (of George Irwin) is an original marble bust. The rest are made from plaster.  

In 1844 when the new owners move in, they send everything they don't want to an auction house. Original artwork now resides in museums. The new owners made an inventory for fire insurance. 

Archaeologists have not found evidence of an outhouse or bathtub. Yes, the questions archaeologists ask.

We shifted to the dining room. The addition was built for James Madison's retirement. It is two rooms up, two rooms down duplex. There is no interior access between their side and where his mother lived. That has since been added to make giving tours easier.

The silver on display did belong to James and Dolley. The sideboard, which also belonged to them, was too big to move, which is likely why it remained in this room after they moved out. The dining room table is mahogany. It is one of two tables. The Madisons entertained 25 people twice a week using French-style service. There were seven courses. Each served one at a time. In-between courses, the table was completely emptied with all new plates and silverware. The things one can do with help, I suppose. The Canton China is on loan to Montpelier. It chips easily and cracks.

Madison was a tiny man. Bruce said he was 5 foot 4 inches. I thought he was 5'2". I have a picture of Ashley standing next to a statue of him at Philadelphia's Constitution Center eight years ago in 2018. Rather than sitting at the end of the table, he preferred to sit in the middle so he could better hear Dolley.

The wallpaper chosen for the room was based on what was popular in Philadelphia at the time since Dolley moved here from Philadelphia when they married. The room is decorated with many presidents.

There is also a cutout of Paul Jennings, an enslaved man who spent 50 years with Madison. From the age of 10 he was taught to be a butler and served at the White House.

The medallion is a copy. The original is in Washington, DC.

Above the door is an etching of Napoleon that was recently acquired.

The house has 18 fireplaces, 22 rooms, and six to seven chimneys. The red living room was two rooms and has two flues. During the renovations they converted two flues into one. The air-conditioning and heat flow through the fireplaces.

We moved to what was planned as Madison's final library, but was turned into his bedroom when arthritis made it too hard to climb stairs. Dolley, 16 years his junior, moves her bedroom downstairs, too. From all accounts they had a very loving and affectionate marriage. The furniture in his last bedroom was chosen to be period appropriate. There is a wingtip chair with a chamber pot tucked under it.

 

As we left the room I asked about the parrot. This stuffed parrot represents a gift given to Dolley Madison. It was taught to speak French. I'm glad I asked.

Percy from our group looked at the window hoping for a glance of the Temple and our dig. Alas, the pine trees that are there now block the view Madison hoped to have.

Next to the library was another room with a smaller bed. This is where he died in 1836. His manservant, Paul Jennings, was an eye witness. After 16 years he became a free man, and authored two books including Colored Man Reminisces of James Madison. Available on Amazon. He left behind 120 slaves, and instructed Dolley not to sell them. She did to cover her son's gambling debt before she moved to a smaller place in Washington, DC.

We saw the master bedroom. festooned in fertility symbols despite them never having any children. It is rumored that Madison fathered a child with an enslaved woman, a cook.

She sold her bed to a local family, but the foundation was able to get it back.

Dolley's timeline:

1767 born Dolley Payne

1790 married Mr. John Todd, they have two children

1793 Todd and the youngest son die in Philadelphia from Yellow Fever

Photo by Martha

She stays in Philadelphia. Meets James Madison. He has his eye on her. Aaron Burr makes the introduction. Four months later they are married. They are in love. He adopts her son, John "Payne" Todd.  

They are deep in debt. There was a ten-year drought in the early 19th century. The tobacco industry crashes. Too much money is spent on entertaining. They both grew up wealthy and didn't know any other way to live.

1836 James Madison dies. Dolley moves to Washington, DC. Paul Jennings is freed, but he continues to bring her food. She receives the first wartime pension and lives in genteel poverty. She dies in 1849 and receives a parade and is buried in the congressional cemetery. Her body is later moved to Montpelier and is reinterred next to her husband.

Our tour concludes "in the room where it happened," where James Madison wrote

the Constitution. He spent a year meeting with colleagues discussion the Constitution and the Bill of Rights before drafting them. Later that week I heard a talk about James Wilson, a forgotten Founding Father, who claims to have written the all important phrase: We the People. Montpelier claims James Madison wrote those famous words. Success has many parents. He was 35 when he wrote the Consitution.

The view is virtually unchanged. The bookcases are full of books from his era, but not from his personal collection. The books were listed in his will making it easier to recreate his library.