How a Jewish navy veteran and his descendants saved one of America's most recognizable architectural landmarks

When Thomas Jefferson died deeply in debt in 1826, his heirs were forced to sell thousands of acres of his land, his furniture and artwork, and eventually Monticello itself to make ends meet. In Saving Monticello Mark Leepson presents the absorbing history of Jefferson's famous home after his death, especially the little-known story of the Jewish family that saved it from falling into disrepair. Monticello twice came to the brink of ruin and was saved by two different generations of the Levy family, who cared for it as a national treasure for nearly a century. In 1833 Uriah Phillips Levy, a US Navy Commodore, purchased the house that the Marquis de Lafayette called "the most beautiful house in America" and committed considerable resources to restoring the mansion from its state of decay. After his death, Monticello again fell on hard times, with cattle housed on its first floor and grain in its upper rooms. Again a member of the Levy family stepped in: Uriah Levy's nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy, a three-term New York congressman and wealthy real estate and stock speculator, who gained possession in 1879. Despite pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the upkeep of Monticello, Levy faced a vicious national campaign, with antisemitic overtones, to turn the building over to the government. The saga finally ended in 1923 with the purchase of Monticello by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, and today half a million people make the pilgrimage to this fully restored national landmark every year.