Probe finds James Monroe's real home

Charlottesville, Virginia

FOR decades, tour guides led visitors through a modest two-room cottage on the outskirts of this city, recounting the accomplishments of James Monroe, the country's fifth president, and highlighting details of life at Highland, the homestead where he lived with his wife, Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, from 1799-1823.

But that chapter of the home's history came to an abrupt and slightly embarrassing end last month when the estate's director revealed what some recent explorations turned up at the site: a fieldstone foundation for a much larger house with a footprint of approximately 74 feet by 30 feet. The humble house that tourists had been touring was, in fact, merely a guesthouse - and Monroe's actual home, a mansion, had probably burned down after he sold the property.