Keeping the Legacy Alive

Several sites in Virginia work to keep alive James Monroe's legacy. In Westermoreland County, Monroe Hall, Monroe's birthplace and the place he called home until he was 16 years old, has been re-created.

- Meg Chorlian

A visitor's center there functions as a small museum. And a nature walk doubles as a time line-as visitors follow the path to the water behind the house, dated stone markers describe milestones in different periods of Monroe's life. The site is open to the public seasonally.

Located in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia, about 50 miles south of Washington, D.C., is the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library. The museum and library were founded in 1927 by Rose Gouverneur Hoes. Hoes was the daughter of Samuel L. Gouverneur Jr. She also was the granddaughter of Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur and the great-granddaughter of James and Elizabeth Monroe.

To avoid demolition of the building where her great-grandfather had practiced law, Hoes bought part of the city lot that he had owned from 1786 to 1792. She was the first of several Monroe descendants to donate family objects and furniture to build the museum's collection. Her son, Laurence Gouverneur Hoes, also donated pieces of family history. He oversaw an addition to expand the museum, too. He then gifted the museum and library to the state of Virginia. In 1966, the museum was declared a National Historic Landmark. Today, it is run by the University of Mary Washington.