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Posted on 04/13/2026 1:37:00 PM PDT by Libloather
Archaeologists have uncovered a previously unknown remnant of Thomas Jefferson’s era at Monticello: a brick kiln used to build his home.
The kiln was recently found on the east side of the Founding Father’s home amid an excavation that began in March, officials said.
Monticello historians believe it dates back to the early 1770s, sometime before Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
It was part of the construction of Monticello I, the first version of Jefferson’s home.
The current structure reflects a later rebuild and expansion completed after his time in France, after 1789.
Photos from the site show researchers working around a rectangular dig at Monticello, exposing evenly spaced brick channels and revealing several bricks stamped with initials.
The kiln was a large, temporary oven used to harden bricks, said Crystal O’Connor, manager of archaeological field research at Monticello.
O’Connor told Fox News Digital that archaeologists found brick channels “filled with overcooked brick rubble, and the soil beneath them had been baked hard by intense heat.”
Archaeologists “immediately started hitting brick, and uncovered a series of low parallel brick walls, evenly spaced about a foot and a half apart, with channels running between them,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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That’s what’s missing from my yard. I need one of those
A Kiln makes sense, but I’m going with an outdoor pizza oven; Jefferson was WAY ahead of his time. ;)
It’s been about 35 years since I last visited Monticello, but I seem to remember spending a lot of time in the slaves’ quarters. At the expense of everything else Jeffersonian.
Similar kilns are at the real getaway, Poplar Forest. Many other innovations as well.
Cuts down the number of trips to Home Depot.
They “direct” the tiresome repetitious monologues to the “more important” dwellers, as if somehow they would have been there in any other capacity were Jefferson never to have designed and built the place. Talk about stretching the story of a genius to fit modern “presentism”. Quite annoying, and, it is taught as a greater ‘truth’, while they skim over earth shattering history of the polymath Founder and giant of history.
Well-said
LOL. That makes sense to me.
Thanks Diana in Wisconsin for the ping! Sounds like TJ was kiln it!
It wasn’t bad enough that Jefferson was a slave holder and used slave labor. He was a murderer, too! How many victims in his kiln fields? Just like Pol Pot!
I went there as a high school senior. That was…….56 years ago. Sad to say I don’t remember much.
The historic ‘Octagon House’ was on a street where I lived many years ago. There are a few around the Midwest, I think.
It’s simply gorgeous and a real step back in time!
https://www.octagonhousemuseum.org/
I owned a big old Victorian at the time, so this house pushed all my buttons. :)
...stuck a feather in his cap and called it pepperoni!
I have always been a nut for spiral staircases. How amazing that would be!
Thanks for the video link, Diana!
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