A Tea Room Repair

Connected to the Dining Room, with its bright yellow walls and dumbwaiter systems, is another smaller room called the Tea Room. It served as a sitting room where family and guests came to read or socialize, despite it being one of the coldest rooms in the house, albeit glorious on a sunny day. At times it offered overflow seating at meals when the house was full. In the home of an architect like Thomas Jefferson, you may not expect to find a quick, non-traditional repair to a damaged object, especially in such a public space. Monticello guide, Olivia Brown talks with Diane Ehrenpreis, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts, and Lucy Midelfort, Architectural Conservator, about what uncovered in Monticello's Tea Room.