"I had paid to go to a meeting of the Virginia Society of the War of 1812 at the home of President and Dolly Madison at Montpelier near Orange, Virginia, about a two hour drive on a good day. Mom and I had visited Montpelier back in the early 80's sometime after the last Dupont owner died in 1983 leaving the mansion, buildings and along with about 3,000 acres to the Historic Trust of Virginia and they opened it to the public for the first time. I remember at the time the Duponts had built onto the mansion in so many directions that it looked like a hospital, it was all white and there was nothing discernible about it being the former stately home of a president of the United States. But evidently under all the additions there was the old mansion buried deep within and finally after years and years of restoration work Montpelier finally looks like it did when the Madisons lived there.
I remember the first time we visited back in the 80s much of the DuPont’s furnishing and decorations were still there and hadn’t been removed yet, the one room that really stuck me was the bar and game room with a view looking out onto the race and steeplechase tracks in the front of the mansion, the room was totally art-deco with wall to ceiling painting and photos of horses and horse racing, I remember I was really impressed by it and felt like I was back in the 50s, I could picture lots of horse racing people all around the room chatting about horses, happily that room has been preserved in the visitor’s center. Back in the 30s the actor Randolph Scott who was from Orange County, VA was married to one of the DuPont women (Marion DuPont from 1936-1939) for awhile and was probably a regular visitor to Montpelier since Montpelier is in Orange, Virginia, his home as well. James Madison was one of the five founding fathers along with Jefferson, Washington, Adams and Monroe, he was the author of Constitution. Thomas Jefferson who lived down the road was a regular visitor at Montpelier and had much to do with the architectural design of Montpelier. http://www.montpelier.org/ "
I remember the first time we visited back in the 80s much of the DuPont’s furnishing and decorations were still there and hadn’t been removed yet, the one room that really stuck me was the bar and game room with a view looking out onto the race and steeplechase tracks in the front of the mansion, the room was totally art-deco with wall to ceiling painting and photos of horses and horse racing, I remember I was really impressed by it and felt like I was back in the 50s, I could picture lots of horse racing people all around the room chatting about horses, happily that room has been preserved in the visitor’s center. Back in the 30s the actor Randolph Scott who was from Orange County, VA was married to one of the DuPont women (Marion DuPont from 1936-1939) for awhile and was probably a regular visitor to Montpelier since Montpelier is in Orange, Virginia, his home as well. James Madison was one of the five founding fathers along with Jefferson, Washington, Adams and Monroe, he was the author of Constitution. Thomas Jefferson who lived down the road was a regular visitor at Montpelier and had much to do with the architectural design of Montpelier. http://www.montpelier.org/ "
1 comment:
So cool! Thanks for sharing! Your parents are a wealth of knowledge!
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