Thomas Jefferson’s plantation home near Charlottesville, Virginia, is Monticello.
Monticello stands on a mountaintop in Albemarle County, just outside Charlottesville. Jefferson began planning the house after inheriting land from his father and continued redesigning it for much of his life. The finished residence combines neoclassical and Palladian influences, including a distinctive dome, columned portico, octagonal rooms, and carefully organized gardens.
Monticello was not merely a country house: it was the center of a large plantation operated through the forced labor of enslaved people. Enslaved workers cultivated tobacco and later wheat, maintained gardens and workshops, produced nails, and performed domestic labor. Modern interpretation of the site therefore emphasizes both Jefferson’s architectural and scientific interests and the lives of the people he enslaved.
Jefferson was buried at Monticello in 1826. The house and the University of Virginia were named together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. Monticello also appears on the reverse of the U.S. nickel, with the exception of the special designs issued in 2004 and 2005.