Montpelier (Orange, Virginia)

Montpelier is a historic house and plantation estate in Orange County, Virginia, that was the lifelong home of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, and his wife Dolley Madison. The two-story brick dwelling, laid in Flemish bond under a low hipped roof, was begun around 1764 by James Madison Sr. and expanded by his son in two later building campaigns between 1797 and 1812. The DuPont family owned the estate from 1901 to 1983 before it passed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which carried out a major restoration between 2003 and 2008 to return the house to its 1820 appearance. Montpelier was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and has become known for its documentation of the lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked there.