But many visitors came here with little formal introduction other than their school lessons. A visitors center was located off the mountain, attached to a tourist office on a busy highway. Eight in 10 visitors drove by the old center without stopping, preferring to ascend the scenic winding road and head straight for Jefferson's house. They took a tour of the mansion, perhaps stayed to survey the gardens and hear a talk about slavery, and then departed. While they saw one of the most important and breathtaking sights in the country - the magnificently restored home and grounds, the remark ably preserved views - the context about the man could be lacking. Much more needed to be told about the ideas and life of one of the most revolutionary, confounding, and indispensable men in history.
This week, however, the Monticello experience is to be born anew with the opening of a years-in-the-making visitors center and museum-like education hall. It is the most Jeffersonian of ideas, a 21st-century construct of the man's endless quest to refine and reimagine Monticello. The center can no longer be completely bypassed. Admission tickets are sold at the site, which includes a theater, exhibits, cafe, gift and book store, classrooms, and children's center.
"Simply visiting the house wasn't a broad enough experience. We wanted to engage and connect people with Jefferson's ideas," said Susan R. Stein, Monticello's senior curator. The center is the latest part of Monticello's effort to expand its educational and scholarly reach, following the opening seven years ago of the Jefferson Library at the nearby International Center for Jefferson Studies.
