JEFFERSON, Thomas (1743-1826). Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") as President to James Dinsmore, Washington, 27 February 1809.

One page, 248 x 200mm (several tears, one slightly affecting signature, reinforced with temporary archival tape on verso).

A week before he stepped down from the Presidency, Jefferson sends instructions to his master carpenter for building work at Monticello. After acknowledging receipt of Dinsmore's last letter, Jefferson advises that he will "send a bunch of good bell wire by the waggon," and adds that he would like the "Piazza to be plaistered as soon as the weather will permit. it is not to be white washed. I have given directions through mr Bacon to mr Watkins as to the manner of finishing the stone house now building, to wit, with a roof hipped every way, so that there will be no pediment." Jefferson was referring to the north piazza which was one of the final projects that James Dinsmore supervised before departing to begin work on James Madison's Montpellier (McLauglin, 331). The "stone house" was likely a building used for slave quarters that had been built on the site of a former washhouse. It was partly dismantled in 1839 by Monticello's later owner, Uriah Phillips Levy (see https://www.monticello.org/slavery/landscape-of-slavery-mulberry-row-at-monticello/view-places/stone-house/). However, no work was to commence until Jefferson had "got everything for the garden," and closed with the promise that he would soon be back at Monticello "after the middle of March." He arrived home on 17 March to see a nearly completed mansion—a project he had begun fifteen years earlier. For more information, see Jack McLauglin, Jefferson and Monticello The Biography of a Builder (1990).