ALERTS Client Profile – ARAMARK      

Meet Shannon Christen-Syed 

Shannon is an Administrative Assistant at State and Federal Communications. She works closely with State Researchers in studying ongoing compliance legislation. She also edits and updates state and municipality entries for the Executive Source Guides, and assists in updating ALERTS worksheets for clients. She says, "I enjoy utilizing my formatting and editing skills to enhance the work I do with our political contributions, lobbying laws, and procurement publications as well as assisting the research department with obtaining information that helps our clients."  Shannon has been with State and Federal Communications for almost a year.

Landmarks Series – 
Monticello - Home to the Father of the Declaration of Independence

This is an ongoing series that focuses on historical and/or significant landmarks. Information gleaned from en.wikipedia.org and Monticello.org

On July 4, 2007, there were 76 people from 36 countries sworn in as U.S. citizens at Thomas Jefferson’s home – Monticello – near Charlottesville, Virginia. This was the 45th annual Monticello Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. More than 3,000 people have taken the oath of citizenship there since the program began.

It is a fitting tribute to Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia, who died at his estate on July 4, 1826.

Today, Monticello is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1987 it was designated a World Heritage Site, the only private home in the United States with this distinction.

Jefferson was the original architect of the home, creating it in the Colonial Revival style. The house sits atop an 850-foot-high peak in the Southwest Mountains, and thus has an appropriate name, Monticello, which in Italian, means "little mountain."

Work began on Monticello in 1768, and continued with additions and changes until the house was completed in 1809 with the erection of the dome.

When Jefferson died, Monticello was inherited by his eldest daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph. Having some financial difficulties, she sold it to James T. Barclay in 1831, who in turn sold it in 1834 to Uriah P. Levy, the first Jewish American to serve an entire career as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy, and who greatly admired Jefferson. However, during the Civil War the Confederate government seized and sold the house. After the war, Uriah Levy's estate recovered Monticello, as he had died in 1862. In 1879, Uriah Levy's nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy, a prominent New York lawyer, real estate and stock speculator, and member of Congress, bought out the other heirs, taking control of the property.  He then led a repair, restoration and preservation effort.

A private, nonprofit organization — the Thomas Jefferson Foundation — purchased the house from Jefferson Levy in 1923 and began restoring it. Today, Monticello operates as a museum and educational institution where visitors can view rooms in the cellar and ground floor. The 2nd and 3rd floors are not open to the general public.

Much of Monticello's interior decoration reflects the ideas and ideals of Jefferson himself. There are numerous stories that accompany the house and its many rooms; for one, the library holds many books from his “third” library collection. His first library was burned in a plantation fire, and he sold his second library to the United States Congress to replace the books burned by the British. This second library formed the nucleus of the Library of Congress.

The main house is supported by smaller outlying pavilions to the north and south, with functional buildings nearby, beautiful gardens, and a plantation of 5,000 acres.

Monticello has been honored on a 1956 US postage stamp, on the reverse of the 5¢ nickel, and on the reverse of the US $2 bill.

Photos - Courtesy Thomas Jefferson Foundation – Leonard Phillips