James Monroe's Highland

Monroe bought a thousand acres adjacent to Monticello in 1793 for a thousand pounds, settled his family there six years later, and called it Highland. Thirty to forty enslaved people worked the plantation; their quarters no longer exist. Debt forced him out in 1825. Archaeologists later discovered the building visitors tour today is actually the 1818 guesthouse — the house Monroe's family lived in is gone. The College of William & Mary, his alma mater, has owned the 535-acre working farm and museum since 1974.