James Madison's Montpelier (8/6/2021)

Friday, August 6, 2021

Yep, another United States president's home!

Tamiko with James and Dolley Madison (KSS)

James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, was a petite, quiet man who ended up marrying a vivacious, tall widow, and together they were a formidable political couple. Madison is considered the Father of the United States Constitution. During the Constitutional Convention, Madison kept up correspondence with Thomas Jefferson who was the United States Minister to France at the time. Even before then, when it was decided to amend the Articles of Confederation, Madison studied the legal documents of other countries. By the time the convention began in Philadelphia in 1787, Madison was already thinking about a whole new constitution. James Madison, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, wrote a series of papers to defend the ratification of the constitution, now known as the Federalist Papers.

Montpelier (c 1764) was started by James Madison's father;
when James Madison was married in 1797, the main house
was extended and the portico was added, and in 1809 the
wing additions were built on each side

After James Madison's death, Dolley had to sell the property
to pay off debts; eventually the property was acquired in
1901 by William and Annie Rogers du Pont, of the Delaware
family that started with gunpowder and expanded into
chemicals and the automotive industry

It was the du Pont family that built the stables and racetrack that are still used today. The du Ponts made more additions to the house, and it was covered with pink stucco. When Marion du Pont Scott died in 1983, she bequeathed the house to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and requested that it be restored to what it was during the time of James Madison. There is very little of the furnishings that are original to Madison.

Similar to Thomas Jefferson's parlor, the
drawing room of Montpelier was filled
with conversation starters, including a
static electricity machine seen on the table

Montpelier dining room, where apparently Madison
liked to sit in the middle along the side of the table,
so that everyone could hear him

Madison's library

A small reconstructed house where James Madison lived
with his parents and 11 siblings while the big house was built

Entrance to the Annie du Pont Garden

Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus/Globe
Artichoke is, yes, a species of thistle (KSS)

Annie du Pont Formal Garden

Madison's Temple (1810-1811), a gazebo used by Madison
during his retirement, and underneath is an ice house

Marion du Pont Scott was a horse trainer and breeder who
purchased the racehorse Battleship in 1931; the horse was
sired by Man o' War; Battleship won the 1934 American
Grand National and the 1938 Grand National in Britain,
making him the only horse to have won in both countries

Montpelier

Madison Family Cemetery

Grave marker of the Madison patriarch,
Ambrose Madison, the grandfather
of James Madison (KSS)

Grave marker of President James Madison

Grave marker of Dolley Payne Todd Madison

Site of the cemetery of the enslaved people

Nearby is the Montpelier Station (1910) that was built by
William du Pont to allow him to travel to work in Delaware;
restored to the 1910 era, it is now a museum on segregation
(the doors are separate for whites and coloreds)

Next: Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens.