University of Virginia Library

Colorful Folklore Surrounds 'Ugly Weed'

By BARBARA HAND

Unpopular among students
and onlookers since its
construction in 1876, Brooks
Museum has been described as
the "one ugly weed used in Mr.
Jefferson's agricultural
garden."

Because of the building's
Victorian architecture,
contrasting radically with Mr.
Jefferson's neo-classic design,
many legends and myths have
sprung up regarding its origin.

One University student of
bygone decades showed his
animosity towards the building
by commenting:

"The usual first impression
the Geology Building presents
is that the workmen, after
finishing Mr. Jefferson's
beautiful academic village,
gathered up all the leftover
bricks and boards and threw
together the Brooks Museum as
their own tasteless
afterthought.

"A second impression might
be that the workmen merely
forgot to pull down their
work shed when they finished
Virginia's university."

Though neither of these two
philosophies is hardly feasible
in explaining the building's
origin, the ingenious minds of
University students have passed
other explanations down
through the generations.

The most commonly heard
story among the Grounds to
explain the "ugly weed"
concerns a mix-up in
architectural plans.

The story goes that Mr.
Lewis Brooks, a wealthy,
retired woolen manufacturer of
Rochester, New York, donated
money to the University to
build a Museum of Natural
Science.

By chance, Harvard had
hired the same architect to
design a building of
approximately the same size
and proportions.

Due to a mishap on the
architect's part, the
Charlottesville contractor
received Harvard's plan and
built according to the
blueprints.

The legend concludes that if
you look around Harvard's
campus you will find our
Geology Building, complete
with white columns, red brick
and neo-classic design.

However, interviews with
Harvard students have revealed
that no building answering the
description exists, and if it did,
it is torn down now.

The only evidence found
that might back up the Harvard
story is that the architect was a
graduate of the University. One
would believe that someone
who had been so intimately
acquainted with the Grounds
would have made some effort
to preserve the architectural
harmony.

There is still one more
commonly told tale which has
become entrenched in
University folklore where the
same wealthy woolen
manufacturer mentioned
before, Mr. Brooks, had no
original intentions of donating
money to the University.

Washington and Lee
College, Lexington, was to be
the recipient of a generous gift
of $68,000. So, Mr. Brooks
sent one of his assistants with a
check and instructions to give
it to the Washington and Lee
president with Mr. Brooks' best
wishes.

The assistant, a stranger to
the South, got off the train he
was riding at Charlottesville
instead of Lexington, without
realizing it. When he asked
directions at the station "to
the University" he was directed
towards the Grounds.

When he arrived at the
Rotunda, he asked a student
for further directions to the
President's home, and was
directed to Carr's Hill. He
personally delivered the check
according to orders, never
doubting that he might be at
the wrong University.

When Mr. Brooks found out
the mistake after the assistant's
return, he rushed down to
Charlottesville himself to
correct the error. After
redelivering the check to
Washington and Lee, Mr.
Brooks felt terribly
embarrassed.

CD/Andy Groher

Brooks:

Mistaken Blueprint Or Ministering Of Christian Charity?

Wanting to give the
University something in return
for the Indian-given
endowment, he then presented
the University with a stuffed
prehistoric mammoth. There
was one minor problem...there
was no building large enough
to keep it.

The President told Mr.
Brooks that he could not
accept it without a building. As
a result we now have the
gangly, imposing Brooks
Museum.

Efforts to prove the validity
of this legend have been almost
futile.

But according to a magazine
published in 1878, Mr. Brooks
"in the year 1875...presented
to Washington and Lee
University cabinets of natural
science to the values of
$10,000..." Thus, Mr. Brooks
did donate money to
Washington and Lee just one
year prior to the University's
endowment.

The legends of Brooks
Museum are so colorful and
inventive that the true story
seems rather dry in
comparison.

Mr. Lewis Brooks, being a
wealthy bachelor and very
much interested in helping
humanity, wished to endow a
university with a museum for
natural science.

Through his agent Henry A.
Ward, he anonymously offered
the University $45,000 in
railroad bonds–$25,000 for
construction and $20,000 for
exhibit materials in natural
science.

The main attraction at the
museum were two giant-size
replicas of pre-historic
mammoths. A two-floor high
exhibition room housed the
dinosaurs.

Now housing the
Environmental Sciences
Department, the inside
structure has undergone
extensive modernizations.

When Mr. Brooks died in
1877, he was revealed as the
anonymous donor of the
Museum and the building was
named after him. Also at that
time, the true intent of his
generous gift to the University
came to light.

In the 1870's the south was
beginning the first painful
stages of reconstruction
following the Civil War. The
educational system had been
greatly weakened, and
monetary sources to improve it
had been depleted.

As a New York newspaper
put it, Mr. Brooks was one of
the most liberal citizens of the
North who was trying to
"obliterate every lingering
trace of a bitter, unfortunate
past and to render this country
a Union in fact as well as in
name."

Though the architectural
style may not be pleasing to
all, William B. O'Neal, recently
retired architecture professor,
said "I've always defended it
...It's very bold with beautiful
carving." He added that a little