Ash Lawn-Highland — Home of James Monroe

Ash Lawn-Highland was the working plantation home of James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, who lived here from seventeen ninety-nine until he sold it in eighteen twenty-five. Monroe chose this land in Albemarle County partly because it placed him two miles from his friend and mentor Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Jefferson reportedly sent his own gardeners over to help prepare the grounds before Monroe arrived.

Monroe used the property as a base through service as Secretary of State, a brief stint as Secretary of War under Madison, and ultimately two terms as president from eighteen seventeen to eighteen twenty-five. He is remembered for the Monroe Doctrine of eighteen twenty-three, warning European powers against further colonization of the Americas. The Virginia Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated this marker on July twentieth, nineteen eighty-five.