Montpelier (James Madison)
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Montpelier was the estate of James Madison, fourth President of the United States. It is four miles south of Orange, Virginia and covers some 2,750 acres.
The land, in the Piedmont of Virginia, was acquired by Ambrose Madison (James Madison's grandfather) and his brother-in-law, Thomas Chew, in 1723. Ambrose and his family moved to the estate, then known as Mount Pleasant, in 1732. Ambrose died only six months later, apparently poisoned by three slaves, and his wife Frances managed the estate, later with Ambrose's only son, James, later Colonel Madison. Colonel Madison's first-born son, also James, was born in 1751 at his mother's family estate in Port Conway, but soon moved to Montpelier. He spent his first years here, before moving to a new house built by his father half a mile away. This new house forms the heart of the main house at Montpelier today. Built around 1764, with two stories of brick in Flemish bond, and a low, hipped roof with chimney stacks at both ends.
James, Junior inherited Montpelier at after his father's death in 1801 and retired there after his second term as president came to an end in 1817. In 1797, after his first retirement from politics, he added a 30 foot extension, and a Tuscan portico to the dwelling. Single-storey flat-roofed extensions were built at either end of the house and a Drawing Room was created out of two of the exsiting rooms in around 1810. James Madison died in 1836 and is buried in the family cemetery at Montpelier. His widow, Dolley Madison, moved back to Washington, D.C. after his death and sold the estate in 1844.
After some renovations in the later 1800s(c. 1855 and c. 1880), the house was acquired in 1901 by William and Annie Rogers duPont of the du Pont family. The du Ponts preserved much of the core of the Madison home, gardens, and grounds of Montpelier as a legacy for all Americans while enlarging the house considerably. They added wings that more than doubled the size of the house to 55 rooms. In 1983, their daughter Marion du Pont Scott bequeathed the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Open to paying visitors, a major restoration programme was started in October 2003 and is expected to end in 2007. Montpelier continues to host the annual Montpelier Hunt Races, an autumn steeplechase event started by Marion du Pont Scott and her brother William du Pont, Jr. in 1934.
Montpelier is abutted by the James Madison Landmark forest, a 200 acre stand of old growth forest, one of the largest and best preserved groves of old-growth piedmont forest in the eastern United States.
