James Monroe
Birthplace Park and Museum
4460 James Monroe Highway, Colonial Beach, VA
The Visitor's Center and Museum
The Birthplace
James Monroe’s Birthplace
James Monroe was born on this site on April 28, 1758, to Spence and Elizabeth Jones Monroe. Over a century earlier his paternal great-great-grandfather, Andrew Monroe, emigrated to America from Scotland and patented a large section of land in Westmoreland County, Virginia. It was on a tract of this land that his birthplace stood, a modest two-story house surrounded by farm- and wetlands. In addition to the farm, the family grew tobacco and they maintained an apple and peach orchard plantation. Nearly a third of James Monroe’s life was connected to this property.
Come Visit Us!
Visitors Center and House:
We are open weekends from April 25 to Labor Day for Free Tours from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Additionally, we can schedule private tours. If you are interested, please contact us.
Park and Trails, are open year-round!
About the House
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).”
Park and Trails
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.
Birthplace Park Management
Birthplace Superintendent: Shelby Chandler
Deputy Superintendent: Dr. Leonard Levin
Operations Coordinator / Chief Docent: Ann Gwynn
Education Coordinator: Dr. Theresa Snell
Communications Coordinator: Krystal Eldred
Buildings & Grounds Coordinator: Dr. Leonard Levin
Presentation Coordinator: Maria Everett, Esq
Security & Safety Coordinator: Thomas Moncure
Birthplace Park Personnel
Chief Docent Emeritus: Bucky Doerr
Birthplace Museum Curator: Sumpter Priddy
Birthplace Park Archaeologist: Susan Church
Master Tradesman: Daniel Mayhew
Chief Gardner: Patrizia Mayhew
Educational Program Instructors
Dr. Theresa Snell
Les Greeley
Angela Self
Craft & Resource Support
Donald Foley
Saara Prezbylek
Robert Breitenbach
Angela Self
Allen Snell
Material Content & Special Projects
Dr. Christopher Tripp
Seth Roderick
Michael Dove
“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.”