Jefferson Monroe Levy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jefferson Monroe Levy (April 16, 1852 - March 6, 1924) was a three-term U.S. Congressman from New York, a leader of the New York Democratic Party, and a renowned real estate and stock speculator.
Born in New York City, Levy attended public and private schools and graduated from the New York University Law School in 1873. He was admitted to the bar and practiced in New York City. In 1879, after he bought out the other heirs, Jefferson Levy purchashed Monticello (formerly the estate of Thomas Jefferson). At the time the house and grounds were in severe disrepair. Levy, who owned the house until he sold it to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation in 1923, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing, restoring and preserving Monticello.
He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth Congress, serving from March 4, 1899 to March 3, 1901). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1900. After this, he resumed the practice of law in New York City. He was later elected to the Sixty-second and Sixty-third Congresses, from March 4, 1911 to March 3, 1915). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1914. He resumed the practice of law in New York City and died there, and was interred in Cypress Hills Cemetery.
[edit] Source
- This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
[edit] References
- Leepson, Marc, Saving Monticello: The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built, University of Virginia Press, 2003, ISBN-8139-2219-4[1]
- Urofsky, Melvin, "The Levy Family and Monticello", Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 2002.
