It's was too pretty a day to stay home, so we went for a ride top visit the home of James Madison in Virginia. Very interesting tour of the house and its history. Photo #1 was the boyhood home of Madison. His father built the family home on a land grant of 2600 acres and was a tobacco plantation. It was a fraction of what you see today... just imagine the photo minus the columns and the portico. Later as James grew up and married, he added the second section, photo #2 to the building as two separate residences. Later after his parents passed, James knocked doorways connecting the two into one residence. The center doorway (double doors) replaced the original windows to created a main entrance. As James progressed in politics to later become president, the house was expanded on both sides (photos #3), and the new main entrance provided straight access to the main greeting room for reception of public figures and dignitaries. The columns and a wide portico was added to complete the look of a finished mansion. Quite impressive. You would never know that it wasn't all built at the same time. The inside was decorated with period pieces and room decor as described in written documents of the time... giving you a good feel for how it appeared during the life of our 4th President. Quite interesting. We scheduled a tour at 1pm and got lucky that no one else booked the time slot... as we had a private guided tour, just for us! Lots of great information and interesting period artifacts to see. Here's a few photos. The view of the country side is front the front portico (porch) looking out over some of the 2600 acres towards the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance.
