In 1961, a 33-year-old real-estate developer surveyed an expanse of land adjacent to Washington, DC, languishing in neglect and thriving only in its junkyards and cheap motels. I imagine this place being where criminologists came up with broken windows theory. But Robert H. Smith looked at this area and he did not see failure—he saw opportunity.
Continuing my professional journey at this historic place, the home of James Madison, is a tremendous honor. Madison restored himself on these lands before returning to the Herculean task of creating a new nation. I, too, feel restored in returning home to Virginia, to the rolling Piedmont hills, and to the red earth of Orange County.
Here at the home of the Father of the Constitution a countdown to a highly anticipated anniversary is underway. One month from today, Montpelier will celebrate the Constitution’s 225th birthday!
Mr. Marion Broglie, a long-time participant in the Center for the Constitution’s seminars for teachers, recently took a few moments to share his thoughts on his professional development experiences. Mr. Broglie is an eighth grade civics teacher at Lynnhaven Middle School in Virginia Beach, Va.
Movements of people toward greater self-governance sometimes struggle to gain lasting hold, but there is a determination in the human spirit that drives these movements toward freedom. And it often takes multiple attempts at revision to eventually get it right.
Have you ever wondered what an insider’s view of Montpelier is like? The Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier is offering the chance to find out! Participants in the Center’s new evening seminar, “James and Dolley Madison and the Founding of Our Nation” will come to Montpelier, learn about the Constitution, tour the Madisons’ home, and see the latest archaeological dig through this rare educational experience.
Two hundred sixty years ago today Nelly Conway Madison gave birth to James Madison, Jr. in Port Conway, Virginia. Nelly and her husband, James Madison, Sr. raised their son at Montpelier, where young James developed an insatiable intellectual curiosity. This curiosity remained with Madison as he traveled to the College of New Jersey (today Princeton University), where he completed the curriculum ahead of his classmates and became the school’s first graduate student.
It’s not every day you see James Madison walking around Capitol Hill. In fact, last Thursday, many members of Congress and staffers did a “double-take” as a fully costumed “James Madison” passed them.
