Stables
Meanwhile, the proctor arranged for stables to be constructed at a site selected by Jefferson
below the eastern range (see appendix R). The brickworkers judged the area unsuitable
when they arrived to lay the buildings' foundations, however, and Brockenbrough
dispatched a servant named John to Monticello with a message for its owner, informing him
that "the situation for the eastern range pointed out by you is rather unfavorable in
consequence of the ground falling two ways, (to the east & south) about fifty or sixty yards
from the place designated by you and on the same side of the eastern street there is a
beautiful situation for them, if agreeable to you, I will place them there."[712] Jefferson
consented to Brockenbrough's proposal to relocate the stables, "provided it be exactly in the
line designated, that is to say, provided their front is exactly in the range of the line of the
future Hotels &c. on the opposite sides of East & West streets."[713] In September 1826
Doctor Robley Dunglison desired the "corner behind the stable on my side" (Pavilion X) for
a place for his two "Sous" because it did not require "Much fencing" and wrote the proctor
to see if the land was unappropriated.[714]
[712]
712. Brockenbrough to TJ, 27 June 1825, ViU:PP. The proctor's address on the
letter indicates that a servant named "John" took the letter to Monticello and
returned with Jefferson's reply.
[713]
713. TJ to Brockenbrough, 27 June 1825, ViU:PP. John Hartwell Cocke and Alexander
Garrett's Demands of the Resources of the University, 31 May 1826, shows that $40.25 was
owed on "Stables" (DLC:TJ).
[714]
714. Dunglison to Brockenbrough, 8 September 1826, ViU:PP; see also Sherwood and
Lasala, in "Education and Architecture: The Evolution of the University of Virginia's
Academical Village," in Wilson, Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village, 44. One Bremo
slave, Nelson, apparently worked as a "stable servant" and gardener for professor Dunglison
following his removal from house service in the professor's pavilion because of "his
inability to do his duties," and General Cocke seems to have rented slaves to some of the
other professors as well (Dunglison to John Hartwell Cocke, 25 December 1826, ViU:JHC).
