Welcome!
Allow us to introduce you to the James Monroe Birthplace Park & Museum, featuring the newly built Birthplace Home.
The James Monroe Birthplace Park & Museum is a +70-year project of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation, which was established by the descendants of President James Monroe. Through the charitable contributions and generous donations of everyday people both here and abroad, we are now beginning to see the culmination of this project with the establishment of the Visitors Center and the completion of the Birthplace Home with the park's various activity trails. On behalf of the Foundation, I wish to thank every person who, of their own accord, continues to perpetuate the legacy of this great man, James Monroe.
~ Shelby Chandler, Park Superintendent & Monroe Historian
Birthplace Home Museum
Open from Memorial Day to Labor Day for Free Tours from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Born to Spence Monroe and his wife, Eliza Jones, young James Monroe came into this middle-class family and lived the largest part of his life here on a 500-acre peach and apple orchard plantation. This rebuilt home is designed to the specifications of the original blueprint and save for the necessary modern convenience for purpose of preservation and security, the Birthplace Home is an exact replica of the original home. Within this new home, volunteers will offer a room-to-room tour and convey to you the upbringing and lifestyle of a young colonial gentleman.
When Monroe sold the property, he reported the following:
For SALE, the fifth of January next...About 500 acres of land in Westmoreland county on Monroe’s creek, within a mile and a half of Potowmack river. It is perfectly level and rich; has standing on it, a quantity of valuable oak timber, adjoins the creek, large marshes which with part of the adjoining land, may be turned into a good meadow. There are also on the tract, a dwelling house with a passage and several rooms below and above, with a kitchen, barn, stables, and other necessary out-houses... (Virginia Gazette, Richmond: Purdie and Dixon, No. 94, 23 Dec 1780)
Visitors Center & Museum
Open from Memorial Day to Labor Day from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
From the Visitors Center we will focus on the life of James Monroe following the time he left his birthplace home to seek out his own fortunes in Williamsburg. From this building, discussions of Monroe’s military and political life will become the topics and forum here with these Park Attendants. Water fountain and restrooms are also available here, as well as air conditioning that you may, or may not, have need of it.
Park and Trails
Open Year Round
Virginia's Northern Neck Peninsula is the “birthplace of our nation” with three of the first five American presidents being born here, along with other prominent families that helped form our nation and its Declaration of Independence. The property that is now entrusted to the James Monroe Memorial Foundation is a 74-acre property that runs from the main highway to a pier at Monroe Creek and sits just outside of Colonial Beach proper. The Commemorative Timeline Walking Trail is the heart of the park which is free and open to the public and tells the life and events surrounding James Monroe. There is ample parking, a working service road and more in the works as we continue to improve and expand.
Our Elected Officials and Appointed Officers
A very special thank you to all the devoted volunteer workers, docents and park attendants who continue to make this dream a reality.
Directions and Contact for the Birthplace Park & Museum
For general information, please call (804) 214-9179 during business hours or contact us.
For up-to-the-minute park information, check out our Facebook Page.
For appointments or request for a private tour or any emergency pertaining to the Birthplace Park & Museum property, please contact Shelby Chandler at (540) 603-6675 or at schandler@monroefoundation.org