Monroe establishes Highland Encouraged by his close friend, Thomas Jefferson, Monroe purchased one thousand acres (4 km2) of land adjacent to Monticello in 1793 for one thousand pounds from the Carter family. The land formerly had been a part of the almost 10,000 acre land grant owned by
Secretary John Carter. Six years later, Monroe moved his family onto the plantation, where they resided for the next twenty-five years. In 1800, Monroe described his home as: "One wooden dwelling house, the walls filled with brick. One story high, 40 by 30 ft. Wooden Wing one story high, 34 by 18 ft."
Highland after Monroe Edward O. Goodwin purchased Highland from Monroe at twenty dollars an acre and referred to the property as "North Blenheim." At the time of the purchase, Monroe described Highland as containing: a commodious dwelling house, buildings for servants and other domestic purposes, good stables, two barns with threshing machine, a grist and sawmill with houses for managers and laborers . . . all in good repair. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Highland was featured in
Bob Vila's
A&E Network production,
Guide to Historic Homes of America and in ''C-SPAN's Cities Tour, Charlottesville.'' In 2016, the name Ash Lawn-Highland was dropped, and the house was redesignated James Monroe's Highland to more clearly communicate the relationship to its first owner, President James Monroe. Today, Highland is a 535-acre (2.2 km2) working farm, museum, and a performance site for arts, operated by the
College of William and Mary. It is open to the public year-round, though with limited hours from October through March.
Discovery of larger house Evidence that this home, long believed to be an original wing of Monroe's residence, was in fact, a guest house, surfaced when archaeologists discovered the foundations of a much larger home presumed to be Monroe's home. Additional evidence for the current residence being a guest house include construction techniques that post-date Monroe moving into his mansion at the end of 1799, and
dendrochronology which dates the existing structure as being made from trees harvested between 1815 and 1818. ==See also==