ORANGE, Va. – Descendants of President James Madison and the slaves who lived on his plantation joined U.S. Supreme Court justices and politicians last month to celebrate the end of a five-year, $24 million architectural renovation.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said while the home, called Montpelier, was a fitting tribute to Madison, the most prominent memorial is the fact that the United States is “a free country governed by the rule of law.”
Historians credit Madison with being the architect of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and Sept. 17 marked the 221st anniversary of the Constitution's signing.
The brick Georgian home at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains underwent an architectural restoration to make the structure authentic to the period between 1809, when Madison was elected the nation's fourth president, and 1836, the year he died.
The Montpelier Foundation, which operates the estate, started the restoration in 2003, nearly two decades after the National Trust for Historic Preservation took ownership of the property. The trust says the project was one of the nation's largest and most complex architectural restorations.
