November 15th, tomorrow, is National Philanthropy Day, as President Ronald Reagan first deemed it back in 1986. It’s a time to recognize those who give and volunteer in our communities.
With that, the story now of a wealthy fan of American history.
While the homes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are multi-million dollar tourist attractions for Virginia, a $10 million donation now means the managers of James and Dolley Madison’s home, Montpelier, will be stepping up their game as well.
David Rubenstein founded a private equity firm, the Carlyle Group, which earned him $3 billion, but don’t call him a billionaire, a financier or even a philanthropist.
“I don’t have a title. Just American citizen. No title.”
Rubenstein’s father was a postman and neither parent graduated from high school, but he amassed a fortune thanks in part to the American system of government.
“Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence were perhaps the most famous words in the English language: We hold these truths to be self-evident. But as important as the Declaration of Independence is, the Constitution is the living document under which we live, and the Constitution wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for James Madison.”
Rubenstein wants Americans to know more about Madison - a man who liked to work behind the scenes, and he doesn’t pull punches. Madison owned slaves. Which is why part of Rubenstein’s $10 million donation will be used to recreate the places where Montpelier’s enslaved people lived and worked. Kat Imhoff is Montpelier’s CEO.
“We happen to know a little bit about who were living in some of these buildings in the South Yard, and one of them was a young man named Paul Jennings who was born into slavery. He serves Mr. and Mrs. Madison in the White House and actually helps save the portrait from the burning of George Washington from the burning of the White House. He is here at Montpelier when Madison dies and captures all of this, being the first person to write a memoir of life in the White House. He earns his freedom, buys his two sons out of slavery, helps in his lifetime forge papers for the underground railroad, and his two sons go on to fight on the side of the Union, and one of his descendants, Margaret Jordan, serves on our board of directors.”
The donation will also enable Montpelier to furnish now empty rooms.
“We know quite a lot about what were in the rooms because of visitor accounts. People wrote a lot of letters about visiting James and Dolley Madison. They had many guests. In fact Dolley Madison talks about seating a hundred people here at Montpelier.”
By speeding up the restoration, David Rubenstein hopes the Orange County estate - located 90 miles southwest of Washington - can attract more visitors and educate more kids about American history. He knows there’s work to be done.
“More high school sophomores can name the first three names of the Three Stooges than the first three names of any Founding Fathers, and Americans - when asked what river George Washington crossed during the Revolutionary War - 30% said the Rhine River, which of course is not in the United States.”
The gift puts Montpelier close to completing the $40 million renovation which began in 2003.
