What you see here is a reconstruction of the North Terrace wing. The original wing, built 1801-05, housed Jefferson's carriages and the horses and carriages of visitors; most of Jefferson's horses were stabled at the east end of Mulberry Row. Horses and carriages were essential modes of transportation in Jefferson's era. Over the course of his lifetime, Jefferson bought, sold, commissioned, and designed many types of carriages for his own use. These varied from simple one-horse, self-driven gigs to coaches drawn teams of horses controlled by enslaved postilions. Israel Gillette often rode postilion on Jefferson's annual trip to his Poplar Forest plantation.
Traveling in the phaeton Mr. Jefferson used oftentimes to take the reins himself & drive. Whenever he wanted to travel fast drive he'd drive: would drive powerful hard himself.
Reminiscences of former Monticello slave Isaac (Granger) Jefferson, 1847
Carriages
In 1782, Jefferson designed a phaeton (a small, two-passenger, open-bodied carriage) constructed at Monticello by William Orr, a hired smith, and Davy Watson, a hired joiner. Jefferson took it to France where he acquired cabriolets with folding tops, chariots (traveling chaises smaller than coaches), and a crane neck-style chariot made in London.
During his presidency, Jefferson purchased a sulky, a gig, a double phaeton, and a $1200 Philadelphia-made chariot that saw little use. He sold the chariot upon his retirement for $500.
Jefferson's Design
The tack room, horse stalls, and carriage bays here were reconstructed in the late 1930s. They had fallen into disrepair in the late 1800s and were completely gone by the turn of the 20th century. Study of photographs and the subsequent discovery of additional Jefferson documents indicate that Jefferson's plans for this wing differed from what you see today.
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