Our Breakfast Table The Jefferson Tea Room Like many Americans in the early nineteenth century, Thomas Jefferson and his family ate only two meals a day at Monticello: breakfast, typically at eight, and dinner, in the late afternoon. Both meals were served in the Dining Room, and, if extra space were needed, in the adjoining Tea Room. Before every meal, two bells rang to alert family and guests, one to call them to the table, and one when the meal was served. Fresh from the Oven Several guests recorded accounts of breakfast at Monticello. One visitor in particular, Mrs. Margaret Bayard Smith, spent time with Jefferson both in Washington, D.C., during his presidency, and also in Charlottesville, in the summer of 1789. Her excellent accounts of these visits are included in the book, The First Forty Years of Washington Society, and reveal much about daily life at Monticello. Mrs. Smith wrote: Our breakfast table was as large as our dinner table; . . . we had tea, coffee, excellent muffins, hot wheat and corn bread, cold ham and butter. Fifteen years later, Daniel Webster enjoyed an almost identical breakfast at Monticello, partaking of tea or coffee, bread always fresh from the oven . . ., with a slight accompaniment of cold meat.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:00:00 +0000
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