Atop a gentle rise in Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains sits Ash Lawn-Highland, the former home of James Monroe, America’s fifth president, who lent his name to the Monroe Doctrine and fought with distinction in the Revolution. It is tidy and comfortable, but far from grand. Trees block the view of Thomas Jefferson’s far more stately Monticello—only a mile away—but do not obscure a cluster of tall communications towers on a nearby ridge, ground once encompassed by Monroe’s 3,500-acre plantation. A timber harvest has denuded a hill overlooking the house and it is clear that the estate, now 535 acres, has lost considerable ground over the years.

That visitors can come to Ash Lawn-Highland at all is something of a miracle. If not for the dedication of Carolyn Holmes, who has managed the plantation for Monroe’s alma mater, the College of William and Mary, for more than 30 years, it is doubtful that there would have been a celebration of Monroe’s 250th birthday on April 28. The estate was in serious disrepair in 1975 when the college acquired it as a gift. Critics warned that it could become a white elephant.”

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