Textile Workshop
One of the first buildings on Mulberry Row, this mortared stone structure was built around 1778 as a free workmen’s house. It served as living quarters for skilled white woodworkers and masons who lived here during the construction of Monticello. During the interval between the construction and remodeling of the main house (1784–96), this building housed enslaved people who worked on the mountaintop, principally members of the Hemings family. By 1815, the structure had become a textile workshop, where the Herns, Gillettes and other enslaved families produced summer-weight cotton and hemp as well as winter woolens. Monticello archaeologists discovered several bricks after excavating the floor, which provided key information for the restoration of the original brick floor. The building offered several other clues that revealed what it once looked like. Cuts at the ends of the original ceiling joists survived, showing the angle of the roof’s pediment. The shape of the building’s unusual triangular vestibule was revealed by holes in the walls that held the plates framing it. Original plaster provided evidence for whitewashed walls, and elements of an original window frame showed the size of the windows and how they were trimmed. The restored building features an exhibit about Mulberry Row and a room depicting the factory where enslaved workers turned cotton, hemp and wool into cloth.
After-and- before photos of the upstairs Nursery restoration.
The Textile Workshop in 1905 and as it now appears after it was restored in 2018 to its original appearance, based on Thomas Jefferson’s plans for the building and physical evidence.
Upper Floors
On Monticello’s second and third floors, nine rooms were restored and furnished in recent years as part of the Mountaintop Project. Occupied primarily by Jefferson’s eldest daughter, son-in-law, sister, grandchildren and guests, these private quarters illustrate the dynamics of family life in the early 1800s, including how their lives were interwoven with those of enslaved people. Of all the upstairs spaces that were restored, reinterpreted and furnished during the 2013-2018 Mountaintop Project, the Nursery was the most complex. After being repurposed over the years by the Levy family as a bathroom and storage room, the room required extensive architectural restoration to show its function after Jefferson’s retirement from the presidency. Manuscript evidence indicates that Jefferson specifically designated a room to serve as a nursery in the expanded Monticello in the 1790s. In 1809, his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph and her family moved to Monticello. Priscilla Hemmings, an enslaved servant, cared for more than a dozen of Jefferson’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren and their visiting cousins. In 2014, restoration department staff removed features such as Levy-era flooring, cement plaster and modern insulation. To return the Nursery to its original appearance, they investigated surviving original elements such as molding, flooring and wall plaster. Curators pored through family inventories, letters and notes to identify what furnishings were used in the Nursery and drew from Monticello’s collection of original baby clothes to add period details to the room.
Massachussetts Historical Society
14 SPRING / SUMMER 2023 14 SPRING / SUMMER 2023
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