If you’ve never been to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, today is your chance to see it in Genuine FauxD©! These 1970’s springtime images give a glimpse at the estate in Charlottesville, Virginia in all its three dimensional glory.
I’ve been fortunate enough to visit the Jefferson home twice; once in 1971 and again in 2017.
Interior views of the estate are hard to find, as tourists are typically not allowed to take photos. Here’s the entry hall:
These interior shots came from a batch of vintage black and white postcards:
Both of these images show the Dining Room:
This 1952 shot shows a young lady perusing the dumb-waiter located on the side of the Dining Room fireplace:
From the vintage publicity blurb:
When Jefferson wanted some refreshment in a hurry from his wine cellar, he sent a servant down to put the desired vintage on this dumb-waiter and got results fast. Another of the president’s inventions, this was the first dumb-waiter in America.
Jefferson also invented the automatic opening doors being displayed by these two lovely ladies. From the vintage publicity blurb:
Jefferson devised these doors in such a way that opening one of them automatically opened the other—an effect similar to modern trolley and bus doors. The exact mechanism is unknown because it has never been necessary to open the woodwork covering its smooth operation.
Back to the set of postcard images, we have the Drawing Room:
Another view of the Entry Hall:
Jefferson’s Bedroom, where there’s no waking up on the wrong side of the bed!
Jefferson’s piano:
Two more color vintage views:
Another view of the dumb-waiter:
See more Monticello photos at my main website.
That part about the doors is remarkable. Those doors have been opening together via an unknown system, meanwhile here I am in 2022 and everything i buy off the shelf is unusable a couple of years later.
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