Montpelier celebrates renovation

MONTPELIER STATION — Amazing things have been done to Montpelier.

President James Madison’s newly renovated Orange County home is smaller, prettier and more authentic now.

Its authenticity was feted Wednesday under cool blue skies by thousands, including school children, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and two U.S. Supreme Court justices.

The celebration included pageantry, singing, speeches, a “living” flag made by 2,600 children who held out red, white and blue placards, a powerful rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by Eric Greene of the Virginia Opera Company and a few jokes.

Pithy speeches about the $24 million, five-year facelift were offered to the huge crowd.

“The pink stucco is gone, and James Madison is back,” said Richard Moe, the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns Montpelier. “In my line of work, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Moe was talking about the challenges of turning the once pink-stuccoed, 55-room mansion — recon-figured by the duPont family — back into the 26-room house lived in by Madison and his wife, Dolley.

“It was the biggest and most complex renovation ... probably in the history of the nation,” Moe said.

The careful renovation included removing wings added by the duPont family in the early 1900s, replacing and repairing thousands of damaged bricks, rebuilding the massive, columned front porch, relocating doors and windows and replacing the old tin roof with an authentic old-growth cypress shingle roof.

The task, though daunting and expensive, was done successfully. Most of the speech-givers agreed the day was a good one.

“This is a wonderful day for the home of James and Dolley Madison,” said Michael Quinn, the president of the Montpelier Foundation.

“It’s a great day to be a Virginian,” Kaine said.

“This is truly a momentous day,” said U.S. Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-Henrico, who holds Madison’s seat. “He was a hero who stepped up to save a floundering nation.”

The keynote speaker was U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who was accompanied by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

“Happy Constitution Day,” Roberts said in opening his speech, noting that it was the 221st anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, of which Madison is considered the father.

“There is no better place to celebrate Constitution Day than James Madison’s home,” said Roberts, who nevertheless said Montpelier was “in no sense the most fitting memorial to Madison. Instead, look around at a free country governed by the rule of law.”

There was some levity, too.

PBS’s Jim Lehrer, who served as master of ceremonies, quoted an anonymous pundit as saying that Madison “was such a genius that he invented a government that could be run by idiots.”

Historians agree that Madison, the architect of the Bill of Rights and the fourth president, is underappreciated. He was shy, lacked charisma, was physically unassuming and was a lousy speaker. But his accomplishments and his Montpelier home belied all that. The lively crowd seemed to agree.

“I thought the celebration was just great,” said Mark Walker of Richmond. “It reminds us of our origins. It takes us back to our origins. We can’t forget those. Our children and grandchildren need these places to come to.”