Oak Hill: Monroe's Doctrine House

James Monroe began building Oak Hill in the early eighteen twenties, seeking advice on the design from both Thomas Jefferson and James Hoban, the architect of the White House. The estate took its name from the oaks on its grounds.

It was Monroe's home as president and in retirement. The foreign policy statement we now call the Monroe Doctrine, declaring the Western Hemisphere closed to new European colonization, came in eighteen twenty-three, while he was still in office. Lafayette visited Oak Hill in eighteen twenty-five on his celebrated American tour.

Oak Hill remained in private hands for nearly two centuries, a Founding Father presidential home still in private hands. In November twenty twenty-five, the Conservation Fund acquired the estate to preserve it permanently, averting subdivision in one of Northern Virginia's fastest-growing corridors.