ALDIE, Va. (AP) — The room where President James Monroe crafted part of his famed doctrine exudes a quiet, stately atmosphere.
Inside the enclosed west porch a few footsteps away, a quarried-stone floor marked by fossilized dinosaur tracks glimmers in the sunlight. Just around the corner, a portico built by enslaved African Americans looks out over rolling foothills stretching into the misty northern Virginia horizon, a captivating view untarnished by monied property developments bellying up nearby.
It’s an early morning at Oak Hill, where centuries of history are deeply rooted in Monroe’s Loudoun County estate. It’s the last home of a presidential Founding Father still in private hands, according to conservation
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