Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

Josh Hancher, 13, tries his hand on a replica of Jefferson's polygraph in the Discovery Room, where officials encourage visitors to "please touch."

Photos by SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times

The visitor center boasts many high-tech features, such as a touch-screen, interactive exhibition (above) called "The Boisterous Sea of Liberty." Below, head flower gardener Debbie Donley tends part of the Monticello gardens, which contain contemporary fowers and plants that rotate through the year.

A bust of Thomas Jefferson by Jean-Antoine Houdon is on display in the visitor center.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Monticello is still the star.

That's one visitor's conclusion after visiting the new $43 million visitor and education center at Thomas Jefferson's historic estate outside Charlottesville -- and no doubt the Thomas Jefferson Foundation folks wouldn't want it any other way.

On a recent late spring day, Jefferson's quirky, two-century-old masterpiece gleamed on its hilltop. Flowers bloomed, The vegetable garden flourished. The lawn was spacious and inviting, while all around were views of Virginia where its mountains meet the piedmont. In one direction was the Blue Ridge, and in the other, flatlands as far as the eye could see.

Monticello is, in a word, spectacular. But the visitor center, despite its unobtrusive, natural-wood-and-glass architecture, plays a new and critical supporting role.

It used to be that to get to Monticello, you drove to a shuttle stop below the grounds and parked your car. At the shuttle stop was a ticket window, some vending machines and "a little snack bar," recalled Monticello communications specialist Liesel Nowak.

There was a visitor center -- but it was two miles away. Some 75 percent to 80 percent of visitors to Monticello never even made it there, Nowak said. "If you missed the sign off the Interstate, you'd never see it."

T-shirts and apple butter

That's not a problem now. Monticello's new three-level visitors complex, situated between the parking lots and the shuttle stop, is impossible to miss. Indeed, the path to Monticello runs right through it.

Nearly a decade in the planning, the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center looks a little like a modern small college campus, complete with classrooms, green spaces and computer stations. A cafe with both indoor and outdoor seating offers light fare with coffee, beer or wine. A supermarket-sized gift shop gives visitors an opportunity to take home everything from Monticello T-shirts to Monticello apple butter, as well as plenty of reading material, including "The papers of Thomas Jefferson " in five volumes.

A statue of Thomas Jefferson marks the shuttle bus stop that still leads visitors to Monticello on the hilltop. Among the advantages of the new visitor center, Nowak said, is a huge increase in exhibit space. Space for interpretative or hands-on exhibits has never been available in Jefferson's house itself.

"Obviously it changes the visitor's experience," Nowak said. "There's a lot more that we can show."

Since the visitor center opened in April, she said. "A lot of people are coming back, and staying longer."

'Please touch'

It's tempting to refer to Monticello's new visitor complex as a "welcome center," but that's not altogether true. Many people are in a hurry to get to Jefferson's masterpiece first, said Nowak, and go straight to the trolley stop after buying their tickets. It is on the way back that they linger, enjoying the new exhibits or stopping at the cafe.

Also on the return journey, children who are tired of hearing "do not touch" may finally let themselves go in the Discovery Room, which Nowak calls the "please-touch room."

Here, replicas of many Monticello objects are available for play, including Jefferson's polygraph -- an invention he called "the finest invention of the present age." A polygraph is a kind of antique copy machine, in which a second pen mimics whatever the first pen writes, thus creating a copy. In the Discovery Room, visitors can try the polygraph for themselves.

The room includes an alcove bed, like Jefferson's at Monticello, which people are free to try out, and a chess set. Chess was one of Jefferson's favorite games.

There are also replicas of a slave cabin and Mulberry Row -- the row of buildings where the service functions of the plantation were carried out.

"It's primarily for the age groups 6 to 11," said Marta Ramsey, an educational instructor. "But all age groups come in here and interact in some way. I've had babies and I've had elderly people on the bed."

And despite a general atmosphere of "mass confusion," she said, "you can't believe how many come in and play chess."

Elsewhere in the new center, visitors can enjoy interactive exhibits, see a film about Jefferson and Monticello and find plenty of places to sit down and stretch their legs.

Up in the cafe, visitors seemed impressed.

"I love it," said JoAnne Myers, who was visiting from Fort Worth, Texas. "This gives a wealth of information before you even get started. You could definitely spend a full day up here."

Echoed Andria Jackson of Houston:

"It makes it feel like an event."

If you want to go

Hours: Monticello is open every day of the year except Christmas. March through October hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. November through February hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Cost: $8 to $20, with children under 6 admitted free. Some special events cost more.

Information: (434) 984-9822: monticello.org