Ash Lawn-Highland

Highland, formerly Ash Lawn–Highland, located near Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, and adjacent to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, was the estate of James Monroe, a Founding Father and fifth president of the United States. Purchased in 1793, Monroe and his family permanently settled on the property in 1799 and lived at Highland for twenty-five years. Personal debt forced Monroe to sell the plantation in 1825. Before and after selling Highland, Monroe spent much of his time living at the plantation house at his large Oak Hill estate near Leesburg, Virginia. Before owning Highland, Monroe's original local estate was Monroe Hill in Charlottesville, with his residence and law office now comprising the oldest extant buildings at the University of Virginia.

Monroe named this estate "Highland". For many years after Monroe's death until 2016, the house was known as Ash Lawn-Highland or merely Ash Lawn. The estate is now owned, operated and maintained by Monroe's ''alma mater'', the College of William & Mary.

History

Monroe establishes Highland

Encouraged by his close friend, Thomas Jefferson, Monroe purchased a deed for one thousand acres (4 km²) of land adjacent to Monticello in 1793 for one thousand pounds from the Carter family. The land formerly had been a part of the Blenheim Plantation owned by Champe Carter.An Account of James Monroe's Land Holdings by Christopher Fennel
/ref> Six years later, Monroe moved his family onto the plantation, where they resided for the next twenty-five years. In 1800, Monroe described his home as: "One wooden dwelling house, the walls filled with brick. One storey high, 40 by 30 ft. Wooden Wing one storey high, 34 by 18 ft."
Over the next 16 years, Monroe continued to add onto his home, adding stone cellars and a second story to the building. He also expanded his land holdings, which at their greatest included over 3,500 acres (14 km²). However, by 1815, Monroe increasingly turned to selling his land to pay for debt. By 1825, he was forced to sell Highland completely.

Slave quarters

Highland was a thriving plantation employing the labor of 30-40 slaves. Their housing no longer exists. Quarters for field hands were at some distance from the main house, while the domestic slaves lived closer to their Monroe's home.

Highland after Monroe

Edward O. Goodwin purchased Highland from Monroe at twenty dollars an acre and often referred to the property as "North Blenheim." At the time of the purchase, Monroe described Highland as containing:

a commodious dwelling house, buildings for servants and other domestic purposes, good stables, two barns with threshing machine, a grist and sawmill with houses for managers and laborers . . . all in good repair.

Goodwin sold the house and six hundred acres (2.4 km²) in 1834 and it was sold again in 1837 to Alexander Garrett. Garrett gave the property its second name which remained with it to the present day, "Ash Lawn." Over the course of thirty years, Ash Lawn–Highland was sold numerous times until 1867, when John E. Massey purchased it. It remained in the possession of the Massey family for the next sixty-three years. In that time period, the family added to the house, whereupon it took on its present-day appearance.

Highland was sold for the last time in 1930 to philanthropist Jay Winston Johns of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Johns family soon after opened the house to public tours and upon his death in 1974, Johns willed the property to James Monroe's ''alma mater'', the College of William and Mary.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Highland today

The property today includes the 1818 guest house, an 1850s addition, and an 1870s Victorian style farmhouse. Also on the property are a reconstructed three-bay slave quarter, a reconstructed gable-roofed ice house, a gable-roofed overseer's cabin with an exterior end brick chimney, and a smokehouse

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases