Monticello [mahn tuh chel'O], which means "little mountain" in Italian, was designed and built by Thomas Jefferson near Charlottesville, Virginia. Jefferson began preparation for construction in 1767 and in November 1770 moved into the first completed structure, a one-room brick outbuilding. He began building the main house in 1770, but because he kept changing and updating his plans it was not completed until 1809. Jefferson borrowed many ideas from classical European buildings. The columned portico idea, for example, came from Andrea Palladio's Villa Rotonda in Veicenza. The dome resembles the dome of the Hotel Salem in Paris. All the materials used in the construction of Monticello were produced on the estate.

After Jefferson's death in 1826, ownership of Monticello passed through many hands until 1923, when it was purchased by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, which has owned and maintained the estate ever since. In 1954, after extensive restoration, Monticello was opened to the public.

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