Archaeology at Mount Pleasant

Artistic impression of Mount Pleasant showing the original homestead and outbuildings.
Image by Linda Boudreaux Montgomery.
[Click picture for a larger image.]

Through archaeological surveys and excavations, the location and layout of the president’s childhood home at Mount Pleasant is being reconstructed. As a plantation complex, Mount Pleasant consisted of much more than the home.  It included the kitchen, storage buildings, slave quarters, barns, and work areas necessary for processing the crops harvested from the fields.   Nearly all of this complex was abandoned when the Madison family moved to the Montpelier main house in 1760.

Following this move, the main house was razed and burned and the kitchen was likely the only structure remaining on the site.  A fire in the kitchen/slave quarters in 1800 resulted in the last structure at the old homesite being destroyed.  Following the kitchen fire, the only remaining vestige of Mount Pleasant was the Madison Family Cemetery. 

With the sale of Montpelier by the Madison family in 1844, the overseer’s house was abandoned and the field containing the Mount Pleasant site was plowed under.

Since 1997 archaeologists have uncovered the remains of the dwelling house and its service yard. Archaeological excavations have revealed not only details of the layout and appearance of the site, but also the complicated sequence of events that led to its demise.

Aerial photograph of Mount Pleasant (oriented toward the mansion, not shown).
[Click on picture for larger image.]

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