Materials & Techniques

From heavy timber frame construction, to hemp sash cord custom-made in Holland, and iron hardware wrought at Colonial Williamsburg, the details and materials used to restore Jefferson’s retreat home have been carefully and faithfully reproduced as the building was restored in a Jeffersonian-era way. Details and materials, such as lumber, glass, lead, hardware, bricks, mortar, paint and finishes were carefully researched for site specific correctness and executed with accurate historical precision, even to the point of reviving a few “lost art” techniques such as column rendering and burning limestone for the production of traditional lime mortar and plaster. A conscious decision to have the restoration follow Jefferson’s historical sequence of finishing the house makes the interpretive process unique among museums.