The land upon which Poplar Forest was built shows archaeological evidence of having been populated by native peoples from the Paleo-Indian through Late Woodland periods.

[5] The 4,000-acre property was legally defined by a 1745 patent in which William Stith (a colonial minister and planter) assumed ownership, but did not live on the land.

[5] Similar to Stith, Wayles did not live on the property due to his career as an attorney and businessman in Charles City County, Virginia.

[5] Near the end of his life, Jefferson sought to find permanent residents for the property, and his grandson Francis W. Eppes and wife Mary Elizabeth moved to Poplar Forest shortly after their 1823 marriage.

[5] The period from 1745 to 1840, in which Poplar Forest was sold many times in quick succession many enslaved men, women, and children were separated from their families as the owners settled their predecessor's debts.

The Hutter's son Christian purchased the property in the late nineteenth century and used it as a summer home and working farm into the 1940s employing labor from both black and white hired farmhands and tenant farmers.

[11] Jefferson also added pedimented porticoes on low arcades that were attached to both the northern and southern facades as well as the east and west stairwells.

[11] Scholars agree that the retreat house at Poplar Forest is an excellent example of octagonal symmetry; Jefferson's design for the building reflects a consistent geometric approach likely made possible by his well-known proficiency in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and Newtonian calculus.

[11] Under different owners, the main house underwent many alterations, and the plantation's acreage was incrementally reduced to 50 acres (20 ha) at the time of acquisition by the Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest.

[5] There was a fire in 1845; the Cobbs and Hutter families rebuilt in the Greek revival style and added an attic story for sleeping; this modified the interior plan of the house.

[11] The Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest used early 19th-century building materials including heavy timber-frame construction, hemp sash cord, and iron hardware from Colonial Williamsburg.

They also used 19th-century building techniques, such as column rendering and burning limestone to produce traditional lime mortar and plaster, for their restoration work.

[5] Records from Edward Hutter's tenure at Poplar Forest show that enslaved individuals were regularly tasked with tilling fields and digging ditches in addition to their work growing and harvesting plants to be sold at market.

Other enslaved individuals (including two women named Lucy and Matilda) are known to have had access to money during this time so that they could buy items on behalf of the Cobbs/Hutter families.

[15] He also rewarded women who married a fellow slave from Poplar Forest with a pot; archaeologists have found remnants of these gifts in archaeological studies of the property.

Archaeology has revealed several sites associated with the enslaved population at Poplar Forest as well as uncovered valuable information about Jefferson's original landscape surrounding his retreat.

[17] More recent excavations focused on an area believed to have held paper mulberry trees; Jefferson planted two rows in order to help create naturalistic wings to complement the Palladian style of his retreat house.

[17] Other ongoing and future excavation plans include the area surrounding an antebellum slave cabin as well as Jefferson's ornamental plant nursery.

[15] Documentary evidence suggests that the slave housing structures at Poplar Forest were made of logs and that several houses had two rooms that each measured 12.5 x 15 feet; this is corroborated by archaeological evidence suggesting that the slave structures contained root cellars designed by the occupants, which were used to store clothing, tools, and iron hardware.

Enslaved men and women at Poplar Forest ate fruits and vegetables as well as beef, pork, venison, opossum, rabbit, chicken, turkey, and fish, and possibly had access to firearms with which to hunt animals.

[22] Poplar Forest first welcomed visitors in 1986, and now conducts guided tours thematically dedicated to the main retreat house and the enslaved community in addition to its ongoing restoration and archaeological work.