March 2021

 

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

 

Volume XVIII, Number 3                                                      March 1, 2021

“The study of the past is a constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner

 

SISTER AMELIA: Soon after Jefferson Levy, a life-long bachelor, took control of Monticello in 1879, he put his mother Frances (known as Fanny) in charge of running the household—with the help of his younger sister Amelia.

All of them lived in New York City, but spent considerable time at Monticello, especially after Jefferson Levy and his Monticello superintendent Thomas Rhodes began repairing and restoring the place, which nearly went to ruin during the seventeen years the family fought over Uriah Levy’s will.

After Fanny Levy died in January 1893, Jefferson Levy asked Amelia—who had married Charles Mayhoff, a German immigrant and successful New York City cotton broker—to take over from her mother as his hostess during his frequent stays at Monticello. Amelia did so with relish, and continued in that role until Jefferson Levy sold Monticello to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923.

Amelia Levy Mayhoff, who was named after her aunt Amelia Levy (one of Uriah Levy’s sisters), and her husband lived most of the year in Manhattan at 66 East 34th Street, the same block where Jefferson Levy lived. The Mayhoff’s only child, Monroe, was born in 1897. Amelia took control of Monticello’s social activities for the first time in the summer of 1893.

Jefferson Levy and sister—like Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Martha before them—regularly hosted long visits from friends and relatives who often arrived at Monticello with children and servants. At other times Amelia played host to innumerable social events, with and without her brother present, presiding over countless dinner parties at Monticello, and welcoming visiting members of Congress, university professors, and friends from Charlottesville, New York, and elsewhere. She also occasionally accompanied Jefferson Levy on his travels to Washington and to Europe

Charles Mayhoff sometimes joined his wife at Monticello. When he did, the couple stayed in a suite of rooms on the first floor. Saturdays most often were set aside for receiving guests.

In October 1904 a visitor from Ohio reported that Mr. and Mrs. Mayhoff were “occupying the residence this fall.” Carl Mayhoff was “most courteous and kindly in his treatment of me,” the visitor said. “He showed me into the house and gave me much local history of the place.”

Jefferson Levy left his entire estate to his sister in a will he had executed on September 28, 1923, less than six months before he died. Within days after her brother’s death Amelia Mayhoff announced that she would not stand in the way of the transfer of Monticello to the Foundation, following the closing of that real estate deal in December 1923.

She also—as I noted in Saving Monticello—actively tried to keep the Levy legacy alive after her brother’s death, offering, as the executor of his estate, to sell the full-length portrait of Uriah Levy that hung in Monticello for many years (above, handing in Monticello circa 1912) to the Foundation, an offer that was refused.

“It was my brother’s wish that it be sold to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation,” Amelia wrote in a letter to the Foundation on March 10, 1924. “Arrangements for its purchase of the property had been almost completed when my brother died. I will carry out his wish in that respect.”

Four years later, Amelia Mayhoff offered to donate a portrait she had inherited of Jefferson Levy to the Foundation, along with the Uriah Levy portrait that had long been hung in Monticello, provided that they were put on display in the house.

Jefferson Levy “was a representative in Congress from the State of New York for three terms and made a strenuous fight for the cause of sound money and for legislation which finally culminated in the Federal Reserve Act,” Amelia wrote to the Foundation. “He restored the ancient beauties of the place and brought to it many ornaments which were in keeping with the ideals of Thomas Jefferson. I ask that his portrait now at Monticello be rehung.”

She went on to say that if the Foundation accepted and rehung the portraits, she would “give other relics to Monticello in my possession” to the Foundation.

“I have a great sentiment for Monticello, which was my home in my childhood [she was born in 1857], girlhood and womanhood,” she said. “I also think that it is only appropriate for some recognition to be given the family that preserved Monticello for ninety-one years [it actually was 89] and were in possession of it for a longer period than any other owner.”

After the Foundation turned down her request to donate the portraits, she presented the full-length Uriah Levy oil painting to the U.S. Navy. It is on display today at the Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis. Amelia Mayhoff presented the life-sized oil painting of Jefferson Levy to the New York Democratic Club. Jefferson Levy was one of that New York City organization’s founders.

Amelia Levy Mayhoff continued to promote Uriah Levy’s legacy until a few years before her death at age 90 on June 7, 1947. On March 28, 1943, during the height of World War II, she agreed to serve as the sponsor—a woman chosen to christen a ship—of the USS Levy, a 1,300-ton, $3.5 million destroyer escort named after her uncle.

She christened the ship that day at the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company’s Port Newark shipyard. The ship joined the war in May, and went on to serve in the Pacific. Also in attendance that day at Port Newark was her niece, Frances Levy Lewis.

Two months later, in May 1943, Amelia presented a copy of a photograph of Uriah Levy (above) to the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, which had lobbied the U.S. Navy to name a ship in honor of Levy, the first Jewish American to have a full Navy career (1812-1862), and the nation’s first Jewish Commodore—the highest rank in the Navy at that time.

She also bequeathed an 1815 painting of Uriah in his dress Navy uniform (below) to the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, Mass., and a framed photograph of her father, Jonas Phillips Levy, to the Center for Jewish History in New York City. 

EVENTS: I have three Zoom events on tap for March.

·         On Saturday, March 6, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, I’ll be doing a talk on Monticello and the Levys for Context Conversations. For more info and to register, go to http://bit.ly/ContextMonticello

·         On Thursday, March 11, it’s a Q&A about the Levys and Monticello for the CloseUp Foundation, which offers programs for teachers across the country.

·         On Saturday, March 13, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, a talk on the life of Francis Scott Key highlighting the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” for Context Conversations. Info: http://bit.ly/ContextFSK

GIFT IDEA:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.