All of the bricks were made on-site by hired men or slaves. Because they were, Jefferson had bricks of three different shapes made so that he could achieve his perfectly octagon-shaped home. Very, very few nails were used; it was mostly mortise and tenon construction where wood or timbers were used.
Subsequent owners removed the roof and added a second floor. When it was finally claimed for history tourism, quite a bit had to be done to restore it to Jefferson's original plans - right down to the use of old growth or "antique" wood and replicating the construction techniques.
An interpretive sign says, "Jefferson spent most of his life ordering and reordering glass from Europe and then Boston and Philadelphia." If you consider the number of windows he had at Monticello and Poplar Forest it's easy to see why! In June of 1819, a major hail storm broke out 77 panes of glass just here. Naturally, the restoration required glass and they were faithful to use hand blown panes just like Jefferson would have used.
The walls of Poplar Forest were over a foot thick. Jefferson had the window openings beveled so more sunlight entered the rooms. I laid a brochure down at the standard 90 degree angle so you can see how much of an angle was used.
I wish I had thought of this in the building our log home. The logs are 9" deep and then we have window trim, too. The angle would have been nice as I have about as many windows for light as Jefferson did, but our glass is tinted for privacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment