Following criticism from the foundation that manages Thomas Jefferson’s estate on the potential impact that the planned acquisition would have on employees throughout the foundation’s expanding business portfolio, Monticello has reconsidered its decision to acquire Michie Tavern, which is located in the same historic neighborhood. In 1973, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation purchased the land that was once known as the Michie Tavern and acquired the right of first refusal. And in January, the foundation made its move, declaring its plan to purchase the restaurant that has been serving food to guests for a long time at the base of Jefferson’s hilltop mansion. The price of the sale was never made publically available. According to the records of Albemarle County, the site of the Michie Tavern, which encompasses 6.7 acres, was most recently valued at $2.63 million.
As was the case with the foundation’s purchase of the adjoining 400-acre Jefferson Vineyards for $11.75 million the previous year, the acquisition of Michie Tavern was intended to serve a dual purpose: It would bring in additional revenue from a popular tourist attraction on Thomas Jefferson Parkway and prevent land surrounding Monticello from falling into the hands of private developers — though, for the record, no private developer has so far expressed interest in acquiring and tearing down the historic tavern first built miles away in 1784 and moved to its current location in 1927.
According to Tobias Dengel, chair of the foundation’s board and president of WillowTree, an app developer based in Charlottesville, “I think it was one of the last properties that exist along the Route 53 corridor that we felt we wanted to preserve to ensure that the approach for generations is what it is today,” he said in an interview with The Daily Progress in January. The goal of our organization is to make sure that when people reach the traffic light and climb the mountain, they have the impression that they are in a unique and exceptional location. On the other hand, Michie Tavern made the announcement on its Facebook page on March 7 that the purchaser had “terminated the contract.”
