Founding Father. Author of the Declaration of Independence. Third President. Thomas Jefferson was all of these. He also was an avid reader, inventor, farmer, architect and lifelong Virginia resident.
In addition to his well known home Monticello, he also founded the University of Virginia and designed much of its architecture, had summer home Poplar Forest and is reputed to have designed the bath houses at The Jefferson Pools in Warm Springs.
Recently, we’ve had a chance to visit a couple of these sights that are a little off the beaten path to Monticello and UVA. This spring on our way to the Highland Maple Festival, we stopped by The Jefferson Pools. They were closed so we couldn’t go in so we limited ourselves to walking around the outside, enjoying the warm spring waters flowing down a small stream and taking a peek inside the building.
It was a brisk morning so steam was rising from the 98 degree water and the bite of sulfur was in the air. The spring houses are the original buildings and are clearly in need of some refurbishing – hopefully the Homestead Resort will invest the time and money to preserve them before it is too late.
Last week we took a day off work to go visit Poplar Forest. Poplar Forest was built on a few thousand acres of land Jefferson inherited via his wife when her father passed away. Here, away from the hustle and bustle of life at the Capital and the constant stream of visitors at Monticello, Jefferson built his personal retreat.
An octagonal home modeled after the Villas he admired in Europe, Jefferson blended architecture and landscape to create his vision of the perfect “get away.”
