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Foundations of the Fourth: A look at where the signers of the Declaration of Independence lived.

The document that launched a nation celebrates its 249th anniversary

Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. (Martin Falbisoner)
Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. (Martin Falbisoner)

There's no place like home.

In a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend and physician, Dr. George Glimer, our nation's third president said, "I am as happy no where else and in no other society, and all my wishes end, where I hope my days will end, at Monticello."

Jefferson called his beloved Virginia home his "essay in Architecture" — one that took him more than 40 years to write, rewrite and reimagine.

He did live out his final days at Monticello. He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of arguably the most important document he drafted: the Declaration of Independence.

According to one account, his final words were, "Is it the Fourth?"

On this Fourth of July, the 249th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, we thought it would be fun to explore some of the homes of the signers, our nation's founding fathers.

Virginia

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

Rhode Island

New York

New Jersey

North Carolina

New Hampshire

Maryland

Massachusetts

Georgia

Connecticut

Delaware

George Read’s Colonial country house in New Castle, Delaware, was built around 1730. Read owned the home in the 1750s and 1760s; he sold it in 1769. Today, it’s a private residence listed for $365,000. (Kurtz Aerial Photography)<br>
George Read’s Colonial country house in New Castle, Delaware, was built around 1730. Read owned the home in the 1750s and 1760s; he sold it in 1769. Today, it’s a private residence listed for $365,000. (Kurtz Aerial Photography)