Friday, October 30, 2009

Two stops today; Appomattox and Poplar Forest.

First, a correction to what you might think about the surrender of the Confederacy. The surrender of Robert E. Lee was not at Appomattox Court House. The signing took place at a home near the court house. The home belonged to the McLean’s. (Photo above) The date was April 9, 1865. Did you know that Lincoln was assassinated 5 days later? The history that Connie and I are seeing is overwhelming. Everywhere you turn in Virginia, and other states, there is something we can be looking at about our history. We are driving by more history than we are seeing.

Our second stop of the day was at Poplar Forest - Thomas Jefferson’s octagonal home near Lynchburg, VA. It was a retreat home. One of the first times he used it was when the British were trying to capture all government officials in 1775. Jefferson was governor of Virginia at the time. He left Monticello just two hours before the British arrived at Monticello to arrest him. Over the following years he only used the home as a vacation home, the only books in the library were books of poems and literature.

Poplar Forest is said to be the first octagonal house in America. Why does it not surprise us that Jefferson would design the first octagonal house? Jefferson was an architect, farmer, and politician. The rooms are also octagonal and the center of the house, the dining room, is a cube; it’s 20’X20’X20’. The house has just one ‘wing’ which Jefferson called the office wing (the smoke house, laundry, and kitchen). There’s a photo of the kitchen with cooking stations similar to what I tried to describe yesterday. Just under the window are three different size cooking areas. They would put hot coals just below the surface and have grates to set copper pans on top of. The ashes would fall down into the hole below and be removed. This type of cooking was popular in Europe at that time and there were few kitchens in America like it. Jefferson was a very forward thinker.

What impressed us about Poplar Forest is the accuracy and attention to detail they have used in restoring the house. After the foundation got the building back in 1980, they set out to rebuild/refurbish the house to its original condition. The beams are all hand-cut, just as they would have been 250 years ago. Even the wood trim will be hand planed, not machined. It’s a ‘work in progress’ and they are doing a great job.