I just read an interesting article in the Numismatist entitled "Saving Monticello" by Edward C. Rochette. I had never know that Monticello was in terrible disrepair at the time of Jefferson's death. It also failed to sell on the real estate market because of the terrible condition. It seems a few families with foresight and a sense of patriotism managed to keep it from being destroyed and eventually, 1923, the property was passed to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Mark Leepson has written a book called Saving Monticello that tells the story of one of the saving families efforts to keep the Jefferson homestead viable.

That book is on my 2007 reading list. I'll have to see if the ANA Library has a copy.

Don't forget his beautiful Poplar Forest only a few mountain tops away!

*double post*

I've purchased a few things from the Monticello catalog.