Poplar Forest
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Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg, in Bedford County, Virginia, is a house designed by Thomas Jefferson as a private retreat from a very public life. While well known as the architect of such buildings as Monticello, the University of Virginia, and the Virginia State Capitol, Jefferson built the more remote and lesser-known Poplar Forest as a place to escape the hordes of visitors at Monticello and seek the "solitude of a hermit."
Jefferson inherited the estate of 4,800 acres (19 km²) in 1773 from his father-in-law. He supervised the laying of the foundations for a new octagonal house in 1806, while still President of the United States. The Octagon house includes a central cube room, 20 feet on a side, porticos to the north and south, and a service wing to the east.
Since 1986, the house has been undergoing several phases of restoration to return it to the state it was in when Jefferson lived there.
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