University of Virginia Library

Documentary History
of the Construction of the Buildings
at the University of Virginia, 1817-1828

Abstract

At the time of its initial phase of construction, from about 1817 through 1828, Thomas
Jefferson's Academical Village at the University of Virginia was one of the largest building
projects ever undertaken in American history. Many of the documentary sources surrounding
the construction of the university have survived and, when taken together, probably represent
the best documented building project from early America, aside from the United States
Capitol. This work pulls together those sources and presents them transcribed and annotated,
along with a lengthy historical narrative, in the format of a permanent electronic database. A
thorough analysis of the process of erecting this unique group of buildings fills a void in the
history of the University of Virginia while supplementing our understanding of Jefferson the
architect and the man. Although the written record confirms previous observations that the
physical structures owed their conception and preliminary designs to Jefferson—as did
nearly everything else connected to establishing the university—the sources also show that
Jefferson incorporated important alterations in his plan as a direct result of contributions and
criticism that he received from several persons, most notably Benjamin Henry Latrobe,
William Thornton, and Joseph Carrington Cabell. Furthermore, the physical characteristics of
the construction site, the availability of skilled workers, and the financial and political
limitations that were imposed on the institution greatly influenced Jefferson's scheme as it
was being carried into effect. Moreover, the documentary record reveals that while the
university's Board of Visitors delegated its overall authority to supervise and inspect the
construction to two of its members, Jefferson and General John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo,
who together formed a committee of superintendence, the bulk of the government of the
day-to-day affairs at the site fell upon the shoulders of one man, the university proctor,
Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough. Finally, the documentary record which forms much of this
account offers a rich source from which to explore some of the texture of the material life
and culture of Virginia society during the second and third decades of the nineteenth century.

This electronic database consists of 1,750 manuscript documents and a lengthy historical
narrative related to the construction of the original buildings of Thomas Jefferson's
nineteenth-century architectural masterpiece, the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville,
Virginia.

Contents

• Acknowledgements


• Introduction

Historical Narrative

• Chapter 1: Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817


• Chapter 2: The Building Campaign of 1818


• Chapter 3: The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 1


• Chapter 4: The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 2


• Chapter 5: The Building Campaign of 1820


• Chapter 6: The Building Campaign of 1821


• Chapter 7: The Building Campaign of 1822


• Chapter 8: The Building Campaign of 1823


• Chapter 9: The Building Campaign of 1824


• Chapter 10: The Building Campaign of 1825


• Chapter 11: The Final Years: 1826-1828


• Epilogue: "The last act of usefulness I can render"


• Appendices


• Glossary


• Bibliography


• Notes

The Documents

• Editorial Apparatus
• Symbols Designating Documents
• Repository Symbols and Abbreviations
• List of Documents

Acknowledgments

Many people encouraged and assisted me during the years that I worked on this project at
the University of Virginia. My greatest debt is to my graduate advisor, W. W. Abbot,
who directed this dissertation, and to the others on the graduate committee, Peter S. Onuf,
and D. Alan Williams, of the Corcoran Department of History, and Richard Guy Wilson
of the Architectural School. It has been a pleasure to know and work with these scholars,
and I thank each of them them for their interest and input, and for their genuine
professional courtesy.

I would also like to thank the following people and institutions:

Daniel P. Jordan, William L. Beiswanger, Bob Self, Lucia C. Stanton, and Ann M. Lucas,
all at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Inc., where I was fortunate enough in
1988 and 1989 to work as an intern researching Jefferson's joinery on Mulberry Row at
Monticello.

K. Edward Lay, and the late Frederick Doveton Nichols and William B. O'Neal of the
University of Virginia Architectural School, and the descendants of General John
Hartwell Cocke, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Johnston of Upper Bremo, and Mr. and Mrs.
Raymond Orf of Lower Bremo.

College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean Robert J. Huskey and the Corcoran
Department of History supported me in attending the National Historic Records and
Publications Committee's Summer Institute for Historical Editing in 1990. The History
Department also provided funding by awarding several Dupont fellowships. Julie Kaplan
at the office of Financial Aid awarded greatly appreciated Book Fellowships. Jeffrey D.
Plank of University of Virginia Development not only encouraged and supported my
endeavors but read the documents and the historical narrative.

Staffs of the Alderman Library's Special Collections: Michael F. Plunkett, the late
William Runge, George E. Riser, Christina M. Deane, Gregory A. Johnson, Robin D.
Wear, Jeanne C. Pardee, Edward F. Gaynor, and Pauline Page of the photography
department; the Albemarle County Courthouse, the Stanton Courthouse, the Virginia
State Library, the Virginia Historical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia (John
Van Horne, Jim Green, Phil Lapsansky), the American Philosophical Society (Beth
Carroll-Horrocks), Pennsylvania Historical Society, the College of William and Mary
Library, the Wisconsin State Historical Society, Jay Gaynor and Max Headly of the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Inc., Jeffrey Cohen of the Papers of Benjamin Henry
Latrobe, and the entire staff of the Papers of George Washington, which steadfastly has
supported me the last half-dozen years.

The Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities, where I had the privilege to
hold a graduate fellowship for the year 1995-1996: John Unsworth, Thornton Staples,
Susan E. Gants, Dina L. Bai, Oludotun Akinola, and Jerome McGann, Jason Haynes, and
Patricia M. Canney. At the University of Virginia's E-text Center, David Seaman,
especially, and his staff, have been instrumental in the evolution of this project since it
became an SGML database.

It would be remiss not to acknowledge those at Virginia Commonwealth University
who influenced me through their teaching: Thelma S. Biddle, William Blake, Norrece T.
Jones, Jr., of the History Department, and Cliff Edwards and Jack D. Spiro of the
Religious Studies Department.

Lindsay and Madeline Robertson for hoteling in Swarthmore, Pa., while on a research
trip to Philadelphia.

Finally, I would like to thank Charles and Nancy Martin Purdue of the University of
Virginia Folklore Archives, and David B. Mattern of the Papers of James Madison for
their special friendship and encouragement over the years, as well as that of Daniel V.
and Barbara Avent, Sam Crocket, and John Owen, who long ago encouraged and
supported my family and I in this insane venture. I owe an unredeemable debt of
gratitude to my parents, Earlene Pearson and Frank E. Grizzard, Sr., for their generous
and untiring support during this phase of my life. Last, but certainly not least, my wife
Pamela has expressed infinite patience and never once harrassed me about the length of
time it took to complete this project, and our six children tolerated my all-too-often
divided attention, Jewel, Sarah, Noah, Hannah, Mary Katherine, and Margaret.

Introduction

Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia in Charlottesville comprise one of the
architectural masterpieces of the new world. Curiously, little of the vast literature that
encompasses Jefferson's life and work has had as its focus the actual construction of these
buildings, erected between 1817 and 1828. This is surprising given the scale of the building
project, perhaps the largest in the history of the United States up to that time, and given the
esteem that the American architectural community holds for the group of buildings.[1] Most
of the authors who have contributed to the written history of the University of Virginia have
approached the subject from perspectives best described as either institutional or
architectural; a third line of inquiry that deviates significantly from the first two is followed
in the present work.

The more traditional institutional histories of the university have tended to highlight the
educational and social achievements of the university's founders, professors, and alumni,
began with the publication in 1856 of Nathaniel F. Cabell's Early History of the University
of Virginia, as Contained in the Letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell. Senator
Cabell of Nelson County was the university's principal spokesman in the Virginia General
Assembly (and the editor's uncle), and the unifying theme of his correspondence with
Jefferson was the political and legislative efforts that were necessary to establish the
university as a state institution. The book is an excellent documentary edition and continues
to be useful.[2] In the decade following the American Civl War, a host of catalogs,
pamphlets, and historical sketches of the University of Virginia and its alumni appeared in
print, many of which called attention to the early history of the university or paid homage to
the alumni's service in the Confederate army or government. Herbert Baxter Adams drew on
many of these writings, most of which are now extremely rare, when editing a report for the
U.S. Bureau of Education in the 1880s, entitled Thomas Jefferson and the University of
Virginia.[3] The report refers to many important facets of the university's founding and
subsequent history, and Adams apparently was the first to synthesize the broad range of
themes associated with the institution's past.

Shortly after the turn of the 20th century a completely different kind of work attempted to
bring the history of the university up to date. Paul B. Barringer and James Mercer Garnett's
University of Virginia: Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics with
Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Founders, Benefactors, Officers and Alumni, was of
a genre that became popular in the late 19th century and, as its subtitle suggests, consisted
largely of biographical sketches of university alumni. The editors did incorporate into the
historical part of their work some worthwhile documents that are primarily of a legislative
and educational nature.[4] The work that best represents the "institutional" perspective,
however, is historian Philip Alexander Bruce's five-volume centennial history of the
university. Gracefully written and full of interesting ancedotes, Bruce's History of the
University of Virginia, 1819-1919: The Lengthened Shadow of One Man quickly settled into
its unrivaled position as the standard history of the University of Virginia.[5] After three-
quarters of a century the entrenchment of The Lengthened Shadow has hardly abated
although many of Bruce's stories have been discounted or are regarded as suspect. A useful
supplement to The Lengthened Shadow is Virginus Dabney's Mr. Jefferson's University: A
History, which brought the history of the university up to the mid-1970s.[6]

The studies of the university that focus upon its architecture are exemplified by the works of
William A. Lambeth and Warren H. Manning, Fiske Kimball, Frederick Doveton Nichols,
and most recently, Richard Charles Cote, K. Edward Lay, and Richard Guy Wilson.[7] To
their credit, each of these authors has tended to write about the creation of the University of
Virginia in the context of Jefferson's larger architectural corpus. Lambeth and Manning's
Jefferson as an Architect and Designer of Landscapes treated its topics in a competent
manner but its appearance in 1913 was overshadowed three years later by the publication of
Fiske Kimball's folio-sized facsimile edition of Jefferson's architectural drawings.[8]
Kimball was the first to articulate the importance of Jefferson to the classical revival, and
the publication in 1916 of his Thomas Jefferson, Architect left an indelible imprint on the
study of Jefferson's architecture.[9] Forty-five years passed before Nichols supplemented
Kimball's work with an annotated checklist of all the then-known Jefferson architectural
drawings. Nichols became recognized generally as the leading authority on Jefferson's
architecture after the publication of Thomas Jefferson's Architectural Drawings, and at his
direction the University of Virginia's Rotunda underwent renovation in time for the
celebration of the nation's bicentennial in 1976. The outpouring of interest in Jefferson's
architecture that manifested itself at that time resulted in the publication of numerous
articles by Nichols as well as other writers and introduced Jefferson's Academical Village to
an audience far greater than ever before.[10]

The recognition of the university as a national architectural treasure is secure, and the
widespread interest in it has shown no signs of waning. In the last twenty years, the
momentum to protect and preserve the buildings has grown and scholarly inquiry from the
architectural perspective has diversified. Focus on the university's architecture has
broadened to include the careers of some of the university's builders, or "architectural
workmen" as Richard Charles Cote called them in his 1980s dissertation on the subject.[11]
K. Edward Lay also has followed the post-university careers of some of the more prominent
builders who had worked at the university and has examined their influence on local
architecture.[12] In honor of the 250th anniversary of Jefferson's birth in 1993, the largest
exhibition ever of Jefferson's architectural drawings for the University of Virginia was held
at the university's Bayly Art Museum. Richard Guy Wilson prepared the accompanying
exhibition catalog, which incorporated the most recent scholarship on the architecture of the
university.[13] Since that time Wilson has been working on an electronic database of
Jefferson-related architectural material that includes all of Jefferson's architectural drawings,
and that will help place the architectural history of the University of Virginia in a larger
context. It promises to transform the work that Kimball began eighty years ago.[14]

A third way of looking at the history of the University of Virginia, however, was pioneered
in the late 1950s by William B. O'Neal, who, while simultaneously writing notes on the
volumes about architecture known to have been owned by Jefferson,[15] began to edit from
primary sources several selections of documents connected to the construction of the
university. O'Neal's efforts resulted in one book, Jefferson's Buildings at the University of
Virginia: The Rotunda, and three articles in The Magazine of Albemarle County History:
"The Workmen at the University of Virginia, 1817-1826," "Michele and Giacomo Raggi at
the University of Virginia," and "Financing the Construction of the University of
Virginia."[16] These studies by O'Neal, who worked from an architectural perspective, along
with the studies of university workmen by Cote and Lay, set the precedent for my own
work. More inclusive than O'Neal's efforts, this project consists of both a history of the
construction of the buildings and the documentary record upon which that history is based.

The recent changes in technology that makes practical Wilson's electronic database of
Jefferson-related architectural drawings also provides the means for presenting in its entirety
this documentary history of the university's construction in an electronic format.
Furthermore, the nature of the emerging electronic environment will allow the future
incorporation of a number of other sources, both primary and secondary, that could
supplement this documentary history as well as stand alone in their own right, like "The
Autobiographical Ana of Robley Dunglison, M.D.," Mathew Carey's 1812 Philadelphia
Price Book, Asher Benjamin's The American Builders Companion, and Andrea Palladio's
Quattro Libri dell'Architettura. Wilson already has incorporated into his electronic database
Kimball's Thomas Jefferson, Architect, Nichol's, Thomas Jefferson's Architectural
Drawings, O'Neal's Jefferson's Fine Arts Library, and Wilson's own Thomas Jefferson's
Academical Village. Vaughan and Gianniny's Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda Restored recently
was converted to an electronic format for the centennial anniversary of the fire that
destroyed the Rotunda. Taken together, these databases may prove to constitute the best case
study (to date) of the origins of American architecture, and their integrated approach will
offer both architects and historians an unprecedented opportunity to reevaluate Jefferson's
prominence in the conceptualization, articulation, and design of the republic's political and
social institutions. Although we will have to wait and see how this new genre will alter our
understanding of Jefferson and his role in American architectural and building history, it is
safe to assume that at the very least its dissemination will supply the means by which
research may be more fully and easily undertaken while helping to provide a more secure
basis for judging existing or new interpretations. It is already clear from the documentary
sources that Jefferson cannot be separated from the specific contexts in which he functioned
or divided into the various roles he filled. This is particularly true in the case under
consideration because for various reasons his architectural plans for the University of
Virginia changed or evolved in significant ways during the process of construction. The
changes reveal that while Jefferson never wavered from his original conception of a rural
academic villa, he was not so rigid or doctrinaire as to reject suggestions that conflicted with
his own ideas when the proposed alterations promised to improve his plan.

To keep to a chronological narrative, which has been one of my primary objects throughout,
has not been easy. By following the documentary record, the story unfolds unevenly (or
even haphazardly) at places, but it nevertheless accurately reflects the process of building
that took place at the university's construction site. The limitations inherent in rejecting a
more thematic approach in favor of a chronological one while relying strictly on the
documentary record are best overcome by breaking the material up according to the rise and
ebb of the weather-related building seasons, or what architects call building campaigns. This
approach opens (and reopens) many subjects for inquiry and discussion (as the campaigns in
fact did for the workers) but at the same time it cannot settle every question or problem that
arises. Buildings were never finished on time, and certainly not when Jefferson or the
reports said they were, and it is thus very difficult if not impossible to pinpoint their
completion. To confuse matters, repairs, alterations, or additions on buildings were begun in
some cases before the conclusion of the originally planned work.

Many topics directly related to the construction are addressed but left to future researchers
to explore in depth-the processes of brickmaking and laying or woodworking and the
calculation of the quantity of necessary materials used (like sand, lime, water, lumber, etc.),
the transportation of those materials and other supplies by water and across land—questions
remain about what types of boats and wagons were used, for instance, what routes did they
take, and so forth—and what special technology or workmen's techniques were needed to
erect a building the size of Rotunda. (How was the scaffolding built, for instance, or how
were the heavy marble capitals raised to their heights?) The important but largely
undocumented role played by slaves and free blacks at the construction site can only be
alluded to. Also, the study of the contractors and other workers for which their is more
evidence is not exhaustive. Although the work executed elsewhere by these workers is noted
in many cases, no attempt has been made to trace their careers in any detail. Certain
craftsmen or subjects reappear at unpredictable times, too. The Italian stonecutters, for
example, appear on the scene several times, throughout the entire process of building,
working in either Italy or Virginia, or traveling in between. The elder Raggi actually
accompanied the final shipment of marble capitals from Leghorn after an absence from the
university of several years.

It is not yet possible to summarize with any degree of assurance what specific builders and
other workers earned during their years of toil at the university. Early on, the system of
accounting at the Central College and the University of Virginia was poorly organized, and
when finally in place its procedures were primitive. Understanding the financial issues is
complicated by the fact that the university proctor, Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough, failed to
keep proper records for at least the first year after coming to the site. (Many of the receipts
for the period are backdated.) The minute details of construction costs, especially those
involving the division of labor, are obscured, and when combined with the serious financial
and political struggles that were involved in establishing the university, that obscurity leads
to an overall general inconclusiveness about the finances at the institution, although K.
Edward Lay's estimates as to which builders earned the most or the least probably is on
target. It is also impossible to determine if the university's official statements and reports to
the Literary Fund represent the actual state of the finances at a given time.

The complexity of the story of the founding of the University of Virginia very naturally
arises throughout this work, but for the most part I have attempted to stick to the central
theme of building. Important related subjects such as architecture, economics, politics,
aesthetics, and education, are treated superficially, if at all, and only where they directly and
palpably impinge upon the building process, usually in order to show how they enhanced or
impeded the pace of construction. The effect of the building project on the local economy,
which presumably was not unimportant, is ignored, although its impact on various firms and
individuals is apparent throughout. Moreover, the accuracy of many statements in the
documentary record are at points unclear or obscured, and even unreasonable, and
sometimes no attempt is made to sort out their truthfulness. Contrast, for example, Dabney
Cosby's proposal to make and lay as many as 600,000 bricks in a single year, with the aid of
another good brickmaker, with Jefferson's constant carping about the workers and the slow
pace of their work. Whether Cosby's offer was sensible is uncertain; if it indeed was, then
Jefferson's complaints seem hardly valid. The only way to adequately appraise Cosby's
proposal would be to compare it to other projects of the era, which is outside the scope of
this work.

Finally, attention must be drawn to the fact that the society in which Thomas Jefferson lived
and in which the University of Virginia was built was a society in which the methods and
working conditions of laborers, artisans, and craftsmen in many ways had changed very
little since the Middle Ages.[17] The construction that took place during seasonal building
campaigns was governed largely by the vicissitudes of the weather, and the most productive
time for work to be done often was limited to the period from mid-spring to mid-fall. Every
aspect of the building process was labor intensive, whether it was clearing land and cutting
grass, or quarrying and hauling rock, or making and burning and laying bricks, or felling
timber and sawing it into plank, or plastering and painting interior walls and ceilings, or
carving the fine delicate trim and ornamental work. The tools used were hand-tools that
were hand-made; the machinery, where it existed at all, was crude and inefficient.[18]
Nevertheless, the sophisticated and intricate work executed by the post-Colonial artisans and
craftsmen, using hand tools only, rivals any made with the powerful precision instruments of
our modern era, and indeed, the work done by the artisans of the period reveals that the
American craftsman was at the height of his creavity and productivity. The extraordinary
rich style that culminated from the outpouring of the skills, resources, and imagination of
these workers is amply represented in the original buildings of the University of Virginia.

Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817

Initial Conception

Thomas Jefferson's conception of a university for the state of Virginia evolved over a period
of decades. The genesis is found in his bill for the general diffusion of knowledge in 1778,
and his mature thinking can be found in the establishment of the University of Virginia in
the nineteenth century. Not content to make the Virginia university just "another" school or
college, Jefferson conceived the idea of designing and building his school unlike others of
his day. The idea is apparent as early as 1805, when he wrote Littleton Waller Tazewell that
the "Large houses are always ugly, inconvenient, exposed to the accident of fire, and bad in
case of infection. A plain small house for the school & lodging of each professor is best.
These connected by covered ways out of which the rooms of the students should open.
These may be built only as they shall be wanting. In fact a university should not be a house
but a village." [20] Jefferson gave this concept greater expression five years later when
writing to Judge Hugh White of Kentucky:

An early ground plan for a cluster of structures based on the pattern indicated to White was
drawn by Jefferson in the summer of 1814 for the Albemarle Academy, an educational
institution which existed on paper only and of which Jefferson was a trustee. The academy's
board of trustees received the drawing in August 1814 from a committee previously
appointed to "form some idea of the probable cost of improving a site in the vicinity of the
town" for erecting the proposed academy near Charlottesville.[22] Jefferson's simple drawing
illustrates his concept of a large open square containing a series of individual pavilions
connected by student dormitories on three of the square's four sides. Notations on the
drawing suggest the buildings would front an open square of 257 yards. Gardens placed at
the backs of the buildings brought the square's outside limits to 357 yards. The ground plan
is on the verso of Jefferson's early study for a "typical" pavilion, a drawing showing the
elevation and floor plans for a two-story pavilion measuring 34 feet wide by 26 feet deep
and connected by dormitories of 10 by 14 feet surmounted by a Chinese railing.[23] These
drawings, purportedly the earliest of his college- or university-related drawings, may be the
plans that Jefferson presented to the Board of Visitors of the Central College for its
consideration in May 1817.[24]

Typical Pavillion

Jefferson's specifications for the "typical pavilion," eventually built as Pavilion VII,
exemplifies his propensity for mathematical detail and provides a glimpse into how
Jefferson arrived at a cost estimate for constructing the college. Noting that the walls of the
pavilion were 116 feet "running measure," Jefferson calculated that the cellar, "2. bricks
thick, 10 f. high," required 20 bricks to a square foot, or 22,840 single bricks. The pavilion's
upper walls, "23. f. high 1½ brick thick. 18. bricks to a square foot," needed 48,024 bricks.
Add to those sums 4,752 bricks for the chimney and 1,134 for the 6 pilasters, and to build
the average pavilion would require 81,750 bricks. As for the pavilion's twenty adjacent
dormitories, "each Chamber has 36. f. wall, running measure. if 10. f. high & 1 brick thick,"
104,920 bricks were called for, counting those necessary for "one half of the chimney (one
chimney serving 2. chambers)," and 2 pilasters each. Another 6,508 bricks were needed for
the typical pavilion's "necessary Appendix, passage Etc. (61. f. runng measure, 9. f. high. 1.
brick thick)"; therefore 192,248 bricks were required to build a pavilion and its 20 adjacent
dormitories.

The Philadelphia model of making rough estimates for the costs of brick dwelling houses
finished in a plain way, Jefferson observed, set the "Carpenter's work equal to the cost of the
brick walls, and the Carpenter's materials and the ironmongery equal also to the cost of the
brickwalls but in the present case the carpenter's materials, (timber) will either be given or
cost very little, and the ironmongery will be little." At "10. D. the thousand," the brickwork
for 81,750 bricks came to $817.50. Carpenter's work cost another $817.50, and carpenter's
materials and ironmongery, at half that, came to $408.75. Jefferson's rough estimate, based
on this model, for the total cost of a single "typical pavilion" and its "Appendix" was
$2,179.70, and the 20 "chambers" or dormitory rooms was $2,623.60, a total of $4,831.45.

The estimate above is made on the supposition that each Professor, with his pupils (suppose
20) shall have a separate Pavilion of 26. by 34. f. outside, & 24. by 32. f. inside measure: in
which the ground-floor (of 12. f. pitch clear) is to be the schoolroom, and 2. rooms above
(10. 13. f. pitch clear) and a kitchen & cellar below (7. f. pitch clear) for the use of the
Professor. on each side of the Pavilion are to be 10. chambers, 10. by 12. f. in the clear & 8.
f. pitch clear a fireplace in each, for the students. the whole to communicate by a colonnade
of 8. f. width in the clear. the pilasters, of brick to be generally 5½ f. apart from center to
center.

The kitchen will be 24. by 14. on the back of the building adjacent to the chimney, with 2
windows looking back. the cellar 24. by 10. also, on the front side, with 2. windows looking
into the colonnade. the Pavilions fronting South should have their stair-case on the East;
those fronting East or West should have the stairs at the North end of the building, that the
windows may open to the plesanter views.

Back-yards, gardens, stables, horselots Etc. to be in the grounds adjacnt to the South, on the
whole.[25]

Jefferson made a number of changes after he began in earnest in 1817 to design the college,
such as the reduction in the number of "chambers," or dormitories, between the pavilions,
the introduction of the east and west ranges made up of dining hotels and more dormitories,
and the incorporation in the design of a principal large building on the square's north end.
Jefferson's specifications for the preliminary studies prepared for the Albemarle Academy
trustees in 1814 show, however, that the general architectural outline for his academical
community was fixed firmly in his mind well before the Virginia General Assembly
designated the Central College as one of the schools in its state system in late 1816.

College Bill

On 7 September 1814 Jefferson wrote his now famous letter to Peter Carr, the president of
the board of trustees for the Albemarle Academy. The letter opens with a reference to "a
plan adapted in the first instance to our slender funds, but susceptible of being enlarged
either by their own growth or by accession from other quarters."[26] Although the letter is a
detailed description of Jefferson's plans for his educational institution, it includes no
references to architecture or building, unless the quoted words are interpreted as an allusion
to the preliminary plans plan drawn in 1814. At about this time, Jefferson, in the name of the
Albemarle Academy trustees, drew up a petition to the General Assembly asking it to
designate Albemarle County as the site for a state college. Carr, who was Jefferson's nephew
and a "highly agreeable man," died in December 1814,[27] however, and the petition and
supporting papers disappeared without ever being presented to the lower house of the
Virginia General Assembly.[28] Contemplating that the successful introduction into the
legislature of the petition "would have enabled us to have here immediately the best
seminary of the US.," Jefferson turned to state Senator Joseph Carrington Cabell of
Warminster in Nelson County for help and sent him the drafts of his 1814 letter to Carr and
the bill for establishing a college in the county of Albemarle, drawn up in 1815, and which
the General Assembly passed into law on 14 February 1816.[29]

With the passage of the college bill secured, Jefferson once again began promoting his
architectural concept of an educational village. His justification for building a cluster of
small buildings became more sophisticated as he pointed to reasons of safety, health, and
economy in addition to aesthetic and educational values. "I would strongly recommend," he
wrote to Virginia Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas in April 1816,

Although the passage of the college bill set the whole business of founding a college on a
more stable footing and gave Jefferson evident pleasure, it was a whole year after the
writing of his letter to Governor Nicholas before the visitors of the college met for the first
time, and Jefferson's correspondence for that period is largely silent regarding his plans for
the establishment.

The Site is Chosen

In March 1817 Jefferson sent a circular letter to the other visitors of the Central College
—James Madison, James Monroe, John Hartwell Cocke, Joseph Carrington Cabell, and
David Watson—requesting their "attendance as a visitor of our proposed college on Tuesday
the 8th. of April, being the day after our election. you will of course, I am in hopes come
here the day or evening before, that we may have some previous consultation on the subject.
. . . Colo. Monroe I suppose will not be in the neighborhood."[31] Madison, detained in
Washington until 6 April, could not attend either, and, in fact, only two members joined
Jefferson at the April meeting. The law specified for a new date to be set whenever the
board failed to make a quorum, so the 5th of May was next chosen.[32] The reason for the
sudden interest in holding a meeting, aside from the fact that the law establishing the college
mandated at least two meetings a year,[33] was the fact that an attractive tract of land was
being offered for sale by John M. Perry, a house carpenter whom Jefferson employed to do
rough carpenter work when he was remodelling Monticello after his retirement from the
presidency.[34] The tract, located about one mile west of the village of Charlottesville, was
Jefferson's second choice for a building site but nevertheless well-suited to meet his
architectural requirements. The visitors ratified a provisional agreement to purchase the land
at the May meeting after "having themselves proceeded to the said grounds, examined them,
& considered the terms of the Said provisional purchase." The visitors also voted to erect a
pavilion according to the plan previously accepted by the trustees of the Albemarle
Academy and ordered the institution's new proctor, Alexander "Sandy" Garrett,

And it is further resolved that so far as the funds may admit, the Proctor be requested to
proceed to the erection of dormitories for the Students, adjacent to the said pavilion, not
exceeding ten on each side, of brick, and of regular architecture according to the same plan
proposed.[35]

Bacon's Reminiscences

Jefferson's one-time overseer Edmund Bacon asserted when interviewed in Kentucky in
1862 that the visitors "advertised for proposals for a site" and that three local men, Nicholas
Lewis, John H. Craven, and John M. Perry, offered to sell land to the college (see appendix
W). The "Commissioners," according to Bacon, had a meeting at Monticello (apparently the
Board of Visitors' meeting of 5 May) and then traveled to each of the sites to judge between
them.

After they had made this examination, Mr. Jefferson sent me to each of them, to request
them to send by me their price, which was to be sealed up. . . . Lewis and Craven each asked
$17 per acre, and Perry $12. That was a mighty big price in those days. I went to Craven and
Lewis first. When I went to Perry, he inquired of me if I knew what price the others had
asked. I told him I did, but I did not think it would be right for me to tell him. They had both
talked the matter over with me, and told me what they were a-going to ask. But I told Perry
that if he asked about $10 or $12 per acre, I though he would be mightly apt to succeed.
They took Perry's forty acres, at $12 per acre. It was a poor old turned-out field, though it
was finely situated. Mr. Jefferson wrote the deed himself, and I carried it to Mr. Perry, and
he signed it.[36]

Bacon's role in negotiating the purchase has not been substantiated although Jefferson wrote
that "on examining the sites for our college we found not one comparable to Perry's."[37]
Jefferson's grandson George Wythe Randolph declared in 1856, however, that his
grandfather's favorite choice for a building site was not the one finally settled upon but one
on a high ridge to the northeast of Perry's property. Randolph claimed that Alexander
Garrett had often repeated that the property's owner, John Kelly, a local man who reputedly
hated Jefferson's political principles, stated that he would see Jefferson "at the devil" before
he would sell him the land. Jefferson reportedly considered Kelly a fool for his stance but
said "that if they could not get the best site, they would have to content themselves with the
best site they could get."[38]

Dinsmore and Neilson

Buoyed by the prospects of at long last purchasing land for the college, Jefferson
meanwhile, in mid-April, had contacted two master housejoiners who crafted much of the
fine woodwork during the remodelling of Monticello, James Dinsmore and John Neilson, to
offer them employment.[39] "We are about to establish a College near Charlottesville on the
lands formerly Colo. Monroe's, a mile above the town," Jefferson informed Dinsmore. "We
do not propose to erect a single grand building, but to form a square of perhaps 200 yards,
and to arrange around that pavilions of about 24. by 36. f. one for every professorship & his
school. they are to be of various forms, models of chaste architecture, as examples for the
school of architecture to be formed on." Although the projected dimensions of the square
had been reduced considerably from the size indicated in Jefferson's August 1814 drawing,
and he had added the reference to "models of chaste architecture" that he returned to time
and again, the plan remained faithful to Jefferson's original intentions not to include a large
building, and of spacing pavilions on all but the open sides of the square.

Dinsmore, working in Petersburg with Neilson, wrote a reply to Jefferson nine days later,
thanking his former employer for the "Continued attention to my Interests," and accepting
Jefferson's proposal "with pleasure . . . as I prefer that Neighbourhood to any I have yet
lived in tho in a pecuniary point of view this is the preferable place—we expect to finish our
present engagements here in about two months but if it is Necessary I Should have no
objection to make a trip up there at any time Called on—it is probable Mr Neilson will also
move up the Country when we finish here—"[41]

William Thornton Consulted

Following the visitors' actions at its May meeting, Jefferson stepped up his efforts to design
the buildings that would comprise his architectural masterpiece. He first wrote to William
Thornton, the architect of the Capitol in Washington, to inform him that "we are
commencing here the establishment of a college, and instead of building a magnificent
house which would exhaust all of our funds, we propose to lay off a square of about 7. or
800. feet on the outside of which we shall arrange separate pavilions, one for each professor
and his scholars. each pavilion will have a schoolroom below, and 2 rooms for the Professor
above and between pavilion and pavilion a range of dormitories for the boys, one story high,
giving to each a room 10. f. wide & 14. f. deep. the pavilions about 36. wide in front and 24.
f. in depth." Although the dimensions as described to Thornton differed slightly from his
earlier drawings and descriptions, Jefferson described his scheme generally along the same
lines as heretofore, but much more elaborately, and asked his friend and former employee to
contribute to the design:

Eager to please, Thornton responded quickly, expressing his "great pleasure to find Virginia
disposed to erect an extensive College which must produce great effects by Example. I was
also pleased to see an Acct. of the meeting of such distinguished Characters as the three
Presidents of the United States on so praiseworthy an Occasion. How different to the
meeting of the three Emperors on the Continent of Europe, after a bloody Battle! In asking
my sketches you flatter me highly but I fear all I can do will fall very far short of what you
expect." Thornton also enclosed two facade studies that show "an arcade on the bottom story
and columns above," drawings which influenced Jefferson's design of Pavilion VII.[43] The
drawings, coupled with a suggestion in the letter which they were enclosed in to substitute
columns for square piers, greatly altered the design of Jefferson's scheme, and Thornton's
detailed letter deserves to be quoted at length:

[sketch follows]

Jefferson fortunately saw the propriety of adopting Thornton's suggestion to use columns in
front of the dormitories situated on the lawn, though he retained the rectanglier piers for the
columns of the east and west ranges, and the change produced a wonderful effect in contrast.

Latrobe is Enlisted

William Thornton was not the only architect offering advice to Jefferson in the early stages
of building. On 12 June Jefferson sent a letter to Benjamin Henry Latrobe that was nearly
identical to the one he sent to Thornton in May. Latrobe did not reply until late June but
when he did it was readily apparent that he had far exceeded Jefferson's request to make a
"few sketches such as shall take you not more than a minute apiece, mere impressions of a
first trait of imagination."[45] Latrobe insisted that he had "found so much pleasure in
studying the plan of your College, that the drawings have grown into a large bulk that can
conveniently be sent by the Mail. . . . I have put the whole upon one very large sheet, which
I am very unwilling to double."[46] Jefferson eagerly awaited Latrobe's designs, and wrote
him in the first week of July:

Latrobe suggested one variation from Jefferson's plan that coincided with a change in the
design that Jefferson himself had contemplated only since writing Latrobe in June, that of
closing off the north end of the square with "some principal building." This alteration in
Jefferson's conception of his architectural scheme, and its subsequent change in the
appearance of the square, Jefferson later told Latrobe, was necessary because of "the law of
the ground."[48] Instead of building pavilions on the closed side of the square that resembled
those of the open east and west sides, Latrobe suggested closing the square's north end with
a grand central building, something architecturally magnificent. Jefferson agreed and wasted
no time in sensing the beauty of Latrobe's suggestion to construct a spherical building
modeled after the "noblest surviving example" of ancient art, the Pantheon in Rome.[49]
Jefferson reduced the diameter of the Roman Pantheon by half, to 77 feet, causing its area to
drop to one-quarter and its total volume to one-eighth of the original. Inside it contained a
curious design, three oval shaped rooms and an irregular central hall inside a circle with
curving staircases leading up to a single large library room covered with a high domed
ceiling.[50] The gently terraced square that resulted from the "law of the ground" has on
either side between the pavilions an increasing number of dormitories as one moves south,
creating an illusion of perspective as one stands on either end. From the closed north end the
pavilions appear to be spaced evenly apart and from the south end looking northward one's
attention is forced toward the grand central building. The building proved functional if
novel; elegant and spacious, well proportioned, handsome, unique.[51]

The Land Deal

While Jefferson was awaiting Latrobe's answer to his letter, Alexander Garrett closed the
land deal with John M. Perry. Perry sold the college two tracts of Albemarle County land,
for $1,421.25, "the one containing forty three acres & three fourths about a mile above
Charlottesville on the public road to Staunton, the other about five eighths of a mile from the
former, containing one hundred & fifty three acres, comprehending the top and part of a
mountain."[52] As part of the land settlement, the college agreed to contract with Perry for
one of the pavilions scheduled to be built on his former property, "as Perry persisted
positively in refusing a deed but on condition of doing the wooden work of the building now
proposed."[53] Perry, for his part, promised to do "all the Carpenter's and House joiner's
work of the said pavilion as shall be prescribed to him," and agreed to

Proctor Alexander Garret, on behalf of the Central College, agreed

Although Jefferson was satisfied that "on examining the sites for our college we found not
one comparable to Perry's,"[55] the difficulty with the carpenter "retarded the progress of the
Proctor in executeing the plans and designs of the Visitors."[56] Perry's insistence upon
doing the the wood work of the proposed pavilion meant that James Dinsmore could not be
awarded the first contract as Jefferson had wished, and when Jefferson informed his former
housejoiner of this, he noted that "as this leaves us perfectly free as to all the other buildings
we concluded with him [Perry]." Jefferson also told Dinsmore that he planned to meet
Irishman Hugh Chisholm in Lynchburg "a few days hence to engage a bricklayer, master of
the business there."[57] By the middle of July in a small brick kiln near a large spring on the
west side of the square (or lawn as it came to be known) bricks were being made for the new
pavilion.[58]

Squares Laid Off

On 18 July 1817 work began on the site itself. Jefferson fortunately had conceived of the
idea of building a central building on the closed end of the square just in time to incorporate
it in his working plans. According to his specifications book, "Operations at & for the
College," Jefferson in laying out the site divided it into a dozen smaller and thus easier to
manage rectangles of 100 by 127½ feet. "The place at which the theodolite was fixed being
the center of the Northern square, and the point destined for some principal building in the
level of the square . . . each square is to be level within itself, with a pavilion at each
end."[59] Jefferson himself, though past his 74th birthday, surveyed the area and laid off the
squares with the aid of two servants. He triumphantly wrote to fellow Visitor John Hartwell
Cocke the following day that "our squares are laid off, the brick yard begun, and the
levelling will be begun in the course of the week."[60]

Correspondence with Latrobe

A few days afterwards, Latrobe sent Jefferson a sketch of a cubical "center building" taken
from Giacomo Leoni's drawing of Palladio's Villa Rotonda. In the sketch, Latrobe set two
pavilions on either side of the Rotunda, including one in each corner of the square's northern
end.

Center building which ought to exhibit in Mass & details as perfect a specimen of good
Architectural taste as can be devised. I should propose below, a couple or 4 rooms for
Janitors or Tutors, above, a room, [drawing follows] for Chemical or other lectures, above a
circular lecture room under the dome; The pavilions to be, as proposed, habitations of
Professors and lecture rooms. But, if Professors are married, will they not require more than
2 rooms each, and a kitchen. I have exhibited such an arrangement. . . . The above is the
arrangement, I believe, sketched in your first letter, and might be executed on ground, falling
each way East and West from the Center, and descending as much as may be N & South,
because the E & West sides of the Quadrangle might be detached from the upper range.[61]

Although Jefferson could adopt the idea of a central building into the plan for his
academical village, the other elements of Latrobe's design could not be incorporated because
of the size and unevenness of the ground that the college had acquired, and Jefferson
accordingly wrote to Latrobe on 3 August to correct misunderstandings that had arisen
concerning the scheme and to inform him of the topography of the ground.[62] Upon
receiving Jefferson's letter, Latrobe immediately suspended his drawing, which contained a
plan, replied Latrobe, "of the principal building (as I then supposed it) and seven or eight
Elevations of pavilions, with a general elevation of the long ranges of Pavilions and portico.
In this state I will send it to you."[63]

Writing from Poplar Forest, his country villa near Lynchburg in Bedford County,[64]
Jefferson responded by noting the confusion produced by their letters crossing one another
in the mail and directing Latrobe to send the drawings to Monticello, not to Lynchburg:

During the exchange of letters with Latrobe, Jefferson had attended the third meeting of the
Board of Visitors of the Central College, held at the home of James Madison in Orange
County on Monday, 28 July. The members agreed to the previously proposed plan to erect
the first pavilion and requested Alexander Garrett to resign the office of proctor so that
Nelson Barksdale of Albemarle County could be appointed in his stead.[66] The visitors also
agreed "that it be expedient to import a Stone Cutter from Italy and that Mr Jefferson be
authorised and requested to take the requisite measures to effect that object."[67] Meanwhile,
unknown to the visitors, Benjamin Latrobe had located a well-qualified stonecutter, one
Johnson, who could depart for Charlottesville at a few days notice. But by the time Jefferson
received Latrobe's letter informing him about Johnson the Board of Visitors had already
moved to import stonecutters from Italy.[68]

Propaganda Campaign

In late August, while still at Poplar Forest, Jefferson began a propaganda campaign to garner
favorable publicity for the nascent college. He sent Thomas Ritchie a "letter" written for
publication in the Richmond Enquirer. ("I read but a single newspaper, Ritchie's Enquirer,
the best that is published or ever has been published in America," Jefferson later said).[69]
The author (Jefferson), purporting to have recently passed through Charlottesville on his
way to the Warm Springs, comments on the "healthiness of the country, it's fertility, it's
central position with respect to the population of the state, and other advantages." The board
of visitors, the fictitious traveler writes, appointed by the "ex offico Patron of the
institution," the governor of the commonwealth, "have had two or three meetings, have
purchased a site a mile above the town of Charlottesville, high, healthy, & with good water,
have agreed on the outlines of their plan as a College of general science, & are now
proceeding on it's execution." The supposedly unknown tourist, obviously impressed with
the college, described the proposed buildings:

Brickmaking

While still at Poplar Forest, Jefferson received two letters from Hugh Chisholm, the
bricklayer working at the college, which have not been found, apparently indicating the
progress of the brickmaking and offering Jefferson a partnership in the brick manufactory.
"Am glad to learn that the bricks are in such forwardness," Jefferson replied to Chisholm on
the last day of August. "I wish you would by every week's mail drop a line stating what the
progress then is. I am anxious to know that the cellars are dug and their walls commenced
laying. but be careful to inform me in time and exactly by what day you will have got the
walls up to the surface of the earth; because there mr [David] Knight must begin, and by that
day I will make it a point to be in Albemarle, and have him there." Declining Chisholm's
offer of a business relationship, Jefferson gave his opinion of the quality of building in his
native Albemarle County.

Freemasons Relay Request

Also on the last day of August 1817, Jefferson replied to another request he received while
at Poplar Forest, communicated to him by his granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph, from
the masonic societies of Charlottesville. A representative of the freemasons, probably the
college's treasurer, Alexander Garrett, had relayed a request to Jefferson's daughter and
son-in-law, Martha Jefferson and Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., to be allowed to lay the first
brick of the Central College. Jefferson answered that "I do not know that I have authority to
say either yea or nay to this proposition; but as far as I may be authorised, I consent to it
freely. The inhabitants of Charlottesville deserve too well of that institution to meet with any
difficulty in that request, and I see no possible objection on the part of the other visitors
which exposes me to risk in consenting it."[72] Thus the Widow's Son Masonic Lodge No.
60 and Charlottesville Lodge No. 90. conducted the cornerstone laying ceremony for the
first pavilion, the present-day Colonnade Club, on 6 October 1817.[73]

Cornerstone Ceremonies

The laying of the cornerstone took place amidst a flurry of preparation that culminated with
the walls of the building rising to the "surface of the ground" by Sunday 5 October, the day
before the periodical meeting of the visitors as well as that of the county and district courts
and the scheduled date for the ceremonial laying of the pavilion's cornerstone.[74]

Jefferson's overseer Edmund Bacon described the scenes of those early days in an interview
with Reverand Hamilton W. Pierson some thirty-five years later. After personally recruiting
"ten able-bodied hands to commence the work," Bacon said that he accompanied Jefferson
and James Dinsmore from Monticello to the site of the Central College to begin laying the
foundation of Pavilion VII. "As we passed through Charlottesville," Bacon recalled, "I went
to old Davy Isaacs' store and got a ball of twine, and Dinsmore found some shingles and
made some pegs, and we all went on to the old field together. Mr. Jefferson looked over the
ground for some time and then struck down a peg. He stuck the very first peg in that
building, and then directed me where to carry the line, and I stuck the second. He carried
one end of the line, and I the other, in laying off the foundation of the University. He had a
little rule in his pocket that he always carried with him, and with this he measured off the
ground and laid off the entire foundation, and then set the men at work. I have that rule
now." Bacon's assertion that Jefferson laid off the foundation with (in Pierson's words) a
"small twelve-inch rule, so made as to be but three inches long when folded up" is absurd.
Bacon claimed to have recovered the rule from the Rivianna River during low water some
time after it fell out of Jefferson's pocket while the two men were "crawling through some
bushes and vines" along the bank of the canal.[75]

"After the foundation was nearly completed," Bacon continued, "they had a great time
laying the cornerstone. The old field was covered with carriages and people. There was an
immense crowd there. Mr. Monroe laid the cornerstone. He was President at that time. He
held the instruments and pronounced it square. He only made a few remarks, and Chapman
Johnson and several others made speeches. Mr. Jefferson—poor old man!—I can see his
white head just as he stood there and looked on."[76] Jefferson, only briefly mentioning the
ceremony in passing in his correspondence, was more concerned in fact with guaranteeing
the quick arrival of Lynchburg bricklayer David Knight so that he could commence laying
the brick walls of the pavilion while the Virginia weather was still relatively hospitable.[77]

Masonic Ritual

The cornerstone ceremonies, attended by one sitting American president and two former
ones, in addition to a host of other dignitaries, would have been an unusual sight anywhere
in the country, but it must have seemed even more so on a former farm a mile from the tiny
village of Charlottesville. Alexander Garrett's detailed plans for the ceremonies indicates
that the freemasons planned to meet on the college grounds "in a room up stairs of the Stone
house precisely at 10 Oclock" to form the ceremonial procession.[78] The parade marshal
then called the brethren out two by two, in the following order: tylers (with swords drawn),
apprentices, fellows, masters, past masters, stewards, deacons, secretaries, treasurers,
wardens, visiting masters, substitutes, and the grand master and chaplain. Following the
members, three by three, were the Board of Visitors of the Central College, and the bearers
of corn, wine, and oil, themselves followed by the orator and his aid. Bringing up the rear
before the musical band joined the procession in single file was the principal architect, John
M. Perry, and following the band was another tyler leading a paired string of judges,
attorneys, and visiting gentlemen. The grand master opened the ceremony with a brief
greeting to the assembly: "Gent. Visitors of the Central College. You have been pleased to
grant to the masonic order here present, the high & important previlage of laying the corner
stone of this building. Will you if you please further indulge us with your aid & participation
on this interesting occasion."

Preceding the laying of the stone the grand master offered an opening prayer in behalf of the
Central College:

Following the prayer came the actual laying of the stone in its bed by the substitute and
principal architect, who then presented the "implements used by our ancient fraternity"—the
square, the plumb, and the level—to the grand master, who in turn presented the tools to the
members of the Board of Visitors, with the command to "each of you apply this square to
this stone & assertain its fitness." When the visitors had finished, the grand master himself
applied the three implements to the stone "in like manner," after which the substitute
presented the grand master with a mallet, who struck the stone 3 times, saying, "I pronounce
this stone well formed & trusty." Immediately upon saying this, the ban struck up "Hail
Columbia" for 5 minutes. When the music stopped, the corn, the wine, and the oil were
scattered over the throne and the grand master offered another prayer:

The grand master then asked the chaplain for instruction for the occasion from the "1st. &
greatest light of masonry," which was given in the form of an Old Testament prophecy:

The chaplain then offered another prayer before the grand master thanked the visitors of
the Central College, "The masonic societies haveing exercised your kind previlage granted them
by laying (with your aid) the corner stone of this structure, beg leave to offer you their best
wishes for its prosperity." The band struck up "Yankee Doodle" for a few minutes before the
orator, "an eminance," was introduced, who gave an oration relevant to the occasion. To
close the ceremony, the band played "Jeffersons march" while the procession reformed, and
"Madisons march" as the group paraded back to the stone house to close the lodge.
Following the ceremony the freemasons held a dinner for the board of visitors and other
"invited Gentlemen." Thus the auspicious official ceremonial beginning of the Central
College.

On the day following the cornerstone ceremony, a Tuesday, the full Board of Visitors of the
Central College met for its fall meeting, during which it expressed an official opinion that
the ground for the proposed buildings "should be previously reduced to a plane or to teraces
as it shall be found to admit with due regard to expense, that the Pavilions be correct in their
Architecture and execution, and that when the family of a Professor requires it, 2 additional
rooms shall be added for their accommodation." This opinion resulted in a resolution
authorizing the proctor "to hire Laborers for Leveling the grounds and performing necessary
services for the works or other purposes."[79]

Latrobe's Drawings Received

Jefferson renewed his correspondence with Benjamin H. Latrobe on 12 October after
receiving Latrobe's letter respecting his "port folio for the drawing I had made," written on
the same day the cornerstone ceremony was held at the Central College. Latrobe, who had
not forwarded the coveted architectural drawings to Monticello until now, returned home to
Washington after being away from the city for some time to discover, to his horror, that "the
whole mass of papers in the same place, almost destroyed by the effects of the dreadful
storm of the [blank] Augt. which had driven the soot from the Chimney with Water, against
that part of my Office, without my discovering it. I was therefore under the necessity of
washing out, the dirt as well as I could,—altho it still bears marks of the accident,—and
redrawing every thing but the outline."[80] Besides the time needed to repair the damaged
documents, the pressure of business and the "most dreadful misfortune" of losing his eldest
son to the yellow fever in New Orleans prevented Latrobe from sending the drawings to
Jefferson before.[81] Jefferson was ecstatic at finally receiving "the beautiful set of
drawings" from Latrobe.

Bill for System of Public Education

The next couple weeks proved to be very busy for Jefferson. Besides being reappointed to
the Central College Board of Visitors by Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas,[83] Jefferson
drafted his Bill for Establishing a System of Public Education and sent it to Joseph
Carrington Cabell to push forward in the Virginia General Assembly. The bill is a
comprehensive plan for state education that called for the establishment of "schools at which
the children of all the citizens of this Commonwealth may recieve a primary grade of
education at the common expense," the establishment of "Colleges whereat the youth of the
Commonwealth may within convenient distances from their homes recieve a higher grade of
education," and the establishment "in a central and healthy part of the state an University
wherein all the branches of useful science may be taught."[84] The bill was written,
"however slow & painful the operation of working is become from a stiffening wrist, and
however deadly my aversion to the writing table," and upon its completion Jefferson
instructed Cabell to "take it and make of it what you can, if worth any thing. . . . I meddle no
more with it. there is a time to retire from labor, & that time is come with me. it is a duty as
well as the strongest of my desires to relinquish to younger hands the government of our
bark and resign myself, as I do willingly to their care." More concerned about the progress
of the work at hand, Jefferson went on to complain that

Philadelphia Price Book and Workmen's Wages

One of the issues employing Jefferson's energies about this time was how to determine the
method of payment to the contractors. Jefferson decided to standardize prices along the lines
printed in Mathew Carey's 1812 Philadelphia Price Book. The problem lay in the fact that
neither Jefferson nor anyone he knew could lay their hands on a copy of the book, and to
complicate matters, a spurious edition was rumored to be floating about. On the first of
November Jefferson fired off two letters in search of the book, one to Latrobe and the other
to Thomas Carstairs, a "practical contractor" who worked with Jefferson, William Thornton,
Stephen Hallet, and James Hoban on the Capitol building in Washington in the 1790s.[86]
The letter to Carstairs, renewing an acquaintance "after a separation of near 20. years," must
have surprised the contractor, but Jefferson did not hesitate to ask Carstairs the favor of
finding, in addition to a copy of the book, "whatever percent" on the prices that is
"habitually now allowed there as the advance of prices since the date of that book." Latrobe
experienced trouble in locating the Philadelphia Price Book, promising to send instead the
"Pittsburg pricebook, compiled from that of Philadelphia," but Carstairs in January 1818
finally sent Jefferson a copy of the book, provided by Carey himself.[87] As for the prices,
Carstairs informed Jefferson, "I find the only material difference is the new book allows
about twenty per cent on floors & ten per cent on common stairs more than the book I have
sent you, our present working prices and for some years past, is from ten to twenty per cent
discount from the book prices or what is generaly termd the old price[.] The expence of a
measurer from Philad. would not cost much, if you should want one, three per cent is a
regular charge and pays there own expenses-I daresay would be agreed to."[88] Jefferson's
decision to base the workmen's wages on the 1812 Philadelphia Price Book came back to
haunt the University of Virginia later when it became involved in a prolonged lawsuit with
the principal contractor of Pavilion I, James Oldham, who earlier had built the interior doors
for Monticello (see appendix J).[89]

In addition to not having the Philadelphia Price Book, Jefferson told James Madison two
weeks later that "we are sadly at a loss for a Palladio. I had three different editions, but they
are at Washington, and nobody in this part of the country has one unless you have. if you
have you will greatly aid us by letting us have the use of it for a year to come." Moreover,
Jefferson complained to his old friend, "we fail in finishing our 1st. pavilion this season by
the sloth and discord of our workmen, who have given me much trouble. they have finished
the 1st. story and covered it against the winter. I set out to Bedford tomorrow, on a short
visit, and at Lynchbg shall engage undertakers for the whole of next summer's
brickwork."[90] Madison dutifully sent by stage the college his copy of Palladio's Four
Books of Architecture.[91]

Brickworkers Sought

With winter nearing, the building at the college slowed, but there was a need to line up
workers for the following year. Irishman Joseph Antrim, who later plastered the dining room
at Jefferson's octagonal country home Poplar Forest and who may have worked at
Monticello, offered a proposal in December "to Plaister the Central College," which was
accepted. "Mode of Measurement that of Richmond: which is all the openings to be
measured, Except the price of the Materials which will be deducted," Antrim suggested, "Or
if you Chuse Philad. Mode, the Mode of this place [Lynchburg] is to Make no deductions
for Opening & Nether for work Nor for Materials."[92] Antrim eventually executed the
interior plaster work at the Rotunda and all the pavilions, hotels, and dormitories, and
stuccoed the brick columns at the pavilions.[93] Awarding a contract for making the 300,000
to 400,000 bricks thought necessary for the ensuing year was a more serious consideration.
Jefferson's trip to Lynchburg in search of bricklayers brought him to Matthew Brown, an
area contractor well qualified and capable of making the required number of bricks.
Jefferson and Brown made a provisional verbal agreement based partly on Brown's 10
December proposal "For making & Laying Common Brick finding all the Materials &C,
15$ pr. thousand all hard, oil Brick 30$ Rubed & guaged work 10/6 pr. foot Superficial
measure Cornice & parepet walls 25 Cts pr. foot Runing measure Extra[.] the time mention
In which half of the work to be Done is too Short but the whole may be Completed In good
time In full or say by 1st. November 1818-which is safe for Brick work on account of
Frost."[94] This agreement was reached only after Jefferson failed to engage other
Lynchburg bricklayers, and it was not to the entire satisfaction of either Jefferson or Brown.

Brown's dissatisfaction with the provisional brickmaking contract grew out of Jefferson's
insistence that the current Lynchburg prices for brickwork govern the prices of the
agreement. "I have two objection to a Referance to the Lynchburg prices for Brickwork,"
Brown complained to Jefferson on 20 December, "1st as I have Some Influance as to the
price & wishh to avoid Suspician[.] 2ndly. Dislike the mode of doing business on that
account I Submit to It with Reluctance but am Satisfied the prices Should be no higher than
those of Lynchburg." Additionally, Jefferson wanted David Knight to be hired to lay the
brick facades of the buildings. Knight had proven his ability to do superior work during the
fall when working on Pavilion VII. "I would not be bound that Knight Shoud Do the front
work," Brown countered, "but would Say that the Franklin Hotell shoud be the model
Should your Brothern Concur with you In giving me the Job you'l be So good as to give me
the Earliest possible Information."[95] The four story Federal-style Franklin Hotel on the
west corner of Main and Eleventh streets in the Chestnut Grove area of Lynchburg, built by
Jefferson's Lynchburg friend Samuel Jordan Harrison, had just opened on the 1st of
November. Brown supplied the brick for the 68 by 50 feet slate-roofed structure, at the time
as "refined as anything yet seen in the Piedmont," and Jefferson is said to have chosen its
wines.[96]

The verbal agreement between Brown and Jefferson was to stand only long enough for
Jefferson to consult with the other visitors, and Jefferson lost no time in writing to Senator
Joseph Carrington Cabell to request him to advertise for brickworkers of the "1st. degree of
skill" in the Richmond area. "At what prices do they do the very best work?" Jefferson
wondered.

Cabell was unable to find workmen willing to travel from Richmond to Charlottesville, but
Jefferson did not yet know this when he reported to James Madison on 30 December that "I
have not yet been able to engage our brickwork. the workmen of Lynchburg asked me 15. D.
a thousand, which I refused. I wrote to mr Cabell to see what engagements could be
obtained in Richmond. that & Lynchburg are our only resources, and I very much fear we
shall have to give 13. if not 14. D. it is this advance of price which has raised my estimate of
the pavilions & Dormitories to 7,000. D."[98] Sometime during the month Jefferson drew up
an advertisement for workmen, which he wanted published in the central Virginia
newspapers:

Concluding an agreement with the bricklayers for the upcoming year dominated Jefferson's
concerns for the college as 1817 drew to an end, and after the new year, when writing to ask
his colleagues on the Board of Visitors to consider for approval the draft of his report to the
new governor, James Patton Preston,[100] he informed them of his efforts to procure
bricklayers for the Central College and of his "provisional bargain with one of the best of
them, to give what shall be given in Lynchbg the ensuing season."[101] Cabell wrote back to
Jefferson on 5 January concerning his quest for workmen in Richmond, enclosing a letter
sent to him from Christopher Tompkins, the contractor for the governor's mansion, on the
previous day, "from which you will perceive that the rates here are very exorbitant, and that
you cannot do better than to close with Brown. There are some 6 or 8 skilful workmen in
Richmond; most of them have families; and all of them prefer working in town: each of
them contracts for one million or one million & a half of bricks every year, and has more
work offered than he can well attend to." Tompkins did manage to find one bricklayer for
Cabell, a "workman who is willing to come up and make bricks at $2 pr. m being found
every thing, is named Night, and is the brother of Night who worked on the College walls in
November. He is said to be a better workman. I regret that I am unable to send you a more
agreeable answer."[102]

Upon receiving Cabell's answer regarding Richmond brickmakers, Jefferson wrote Matthew
Brown in the middle of January to seal the bricklaying contract in accordance with the terms
of Brown's letter of 20 December, impressing on him the importance of his finishing
one-half the work by the beginning of July, and reiterating Jefferson's own desire that David
Knight would be engaged for the front-work.[103] When Brown contracted for the brickwork
at Pavilion III and sixteen dormitories on the west lawn the irritating matter of contracting
for bricklaying was taken care of for the present and there was nothing left for anyone to do
for the buildings of the Central College but sit back and wait out the rest of the Virginia
winter.[104]

Chapter 2
The Building Campaign of 1818

Commissioners Appointed

On 21 February 1818 the Virginia General Assembly passed an "An Act appropriating part
of the revenue of the Literary Fund and for other purposes," section 8 of which required the
executive to appoint twenty-four "discreet and intelligent persons, who shall constitute a
Board of Commissioners to aid the Legislature in ascertaining a permanent scite for a
University and for other purposes." On 18 March Preston appointed the commissioners,
including James Madison, for the senatorial district composed of the counties of
Spotsylvania, Lousia, Orange and Madison.[105] This act was an important step in the story
of the founding of the University of Virginia but it is largely outside the scope of this
study.[106]

Stonecutters Sought from Italy

Now that arrangements for the brickwork were taken care of for the moment, Jefferson
turned to another matter that also would consume much of his time, that of recruiting
stonecutters from across the Atlantic. He initially contacted Thomas Appleton, the
American consul in Leghorn, setting out his requirements for a cutter's qualifications, and
specifying that the craftsman must come to Norfolk or Richmond, and to no other place.
Since vessels usually did not often sail from Leghorn directly into either of those ports,
Appleton wrote to Jefferson on 20 December to say that "had you been less explicit, I
Should have Sent an excellent workman to the immediate care of the Collector of Baltimore,
requesting he would not suffer him to remain a Single day in that City; but I have not
thought myself at liberty to deviate in the smallest degree from your positive
instructions."[107] By the time Jefferson received Appleton's letter and could send a reply
three and one-half months had gone by. On 4 April Jefferson apologized for his "ignorance
of the degree of intercourse between Leghorn and Virginia" and for his "unfortunate
instructions" that prevented his wishes to be carried out. He informed Appleton that he now
needed two stonecutters instead of one, "as our college will furnish them abundant
employment. and let both be competent to the cutting an Ionic or Corinthian capitel this is
indispensable." Appleton could consign the artists to merchant John Hollins in Baltimore,
"the best port out of Virginia,"[108] and the following day Jefferson wrote to Hollins to
advise him of the role he was desired to play in managing the stonecutters arrival from
"Leghorn, where I know they can be had of the first degree of skill, and for one third of what
ours ask. . . . forward them on by the stage to Charlottesville. in this case it will be essential
that they be not permitted to stay in Baltimore a single day as they would learn there the
wages of that place, and would not come on, or stay when come."[109] It would be four
months before Jefferson's letter to Appleton arrived in Leghorn, and much longer before the
Italians stonecutters arrived in America.[110]

Progress is Slow

As the spring flowered forth a commensurate growth in the progress of building at the
college failed to materialize. Jefferson did write to Latrobe on 19 May to apologize for his
failure to keep up his end of their correspondence.

Although Jefferson planned to utilize Latrobe's drawings in designing some of the individual
pavilions for the Central College, his mind was clearly thinking about the larger scheme that
might yet be accomplished through the assistance of the Virginia legislature, that of
designing the buildings of a full-fledged a university for the Old Dominion.

John Lewis, a nephew of Jefferson's law professor George Wythe and an attorney who
moved west from Virginia to Franklin County, Kentucky, in 1832, said in an interview many
years after Jefferson's death that while visiting Monticello in 1819 Jefferson told him that
the $15,000 annual appropriation from the Virginia legislature "would be so expended, that
they would amount to nothing, unless more were added. Finally, the amount would be so
great, rather than lose it all, they would go on and complete the work. By this I learned that
Mr. J. had a character for artlessness and simplicity, where in fact—he could accomplish his
measures by deep laid schemes."[113]

Arrival of Brickmasons

Other than Jefferson's letter to Latrobe, correspondence for the period is silent about
progress on the buildings at the Central College until the middle of June, when the
bricklayers finally arrived to begin their work. The process of brickmaking of course was
carried on in full force as the seasonal weather permitted in order to prepare the final
product for the workmen's schedule. In an age when most buildings were still built entirely
of wood, making several hundred thousand brick was quite an undertaking.[114] Bricks are
simple artificial building blocks made out of natural materials (chiefly clay, lime, and water,
with small quantities of other compounds) that are baked at a temperature much higher than
the boiling point to expell the water. Although the sizes and usages of bricks varied widely
from place to place, as did the exact "processes of manufacture," the "standard" size or
"building dimensions" of bricks in the 19th century was about the same as today, 9 inches
long, 4 inches wide, and 3 inches thick. Hand-made bricks typically require some type of
mold to form the blocks' shape and to allow for sun-drying before burning and cooling,
which takes place in a kiln, itself a brick structure built to house thousands of bricks.[115]
When writing about Jefferson's insistence on the use of stone and marble in The South in
Architecture, Lewis Mumford observed that building with brick and stone was "a little
different" from what the average American workers were used to. "It took time to explore
the resources of clay and stone; to test out their hardness, their ability to stand fire, their
weathering qualities. Native resources are not always immediately visible; and when they
are, there are often difficulties of transportation to overcome."[116] Jefferson was fortunate in
that his beloved Virginia Piedmont provided a ready source of quality clay and lime, and
when the bricklayers arrived at the college on 17 June John Perry wasted no time in
notifying Jefferson that "The Brick layers got here yesterday and will begin to lay Some
time this evening. I Should be glad you Could make it Convenient to Come to the building
to day—the dormetories will be laid of to day—the Circle next the road is Staked of So that
you Can See how to fix on the level."[117] Before the end of the month Hugh Chisholm was
drawing $800 to pay to John Perry "on account of Brick work done at the Central
College."[118]

Bernard Peyton Recruited

In the week before the arrival of the brickmasons at the college, Jefferson had written
Richmond merchant Bernard Peyton laying claim to a "right to give you occasional trouble
with [the college's] concerns." For the next decade Peyton proved to be an unflagging
supporter of the university's interest in Richmond, caring for important details like arranging
for the purchase of pork for the university and managing the difficult and dangerous job of
loading the heavy marble capitals onboard the small vessels that would carry them by water
from Rockett's wharf on the James River in Richmond to Milton, the busy village on the
Rivanna River just east of Charlottesville near Monticello.[119] Jefferson's immediate
request for the college was the recruitment of a slater, preferably "a mr. Jones, a Welshman
who did some excellent work in Charlottesville, and who is supposed to be now in
Richmond," to come and examine the slate on "all our lands on Henderson's & B. island
creeks," to see if it would serve to cover the buildings. Promising Jones, or "some other
good slater," expenses and wages if he would come without delay, for he was to set out for
Bedford in 3 weeks for a month's stay, Jefferson enclosed "a specimen of our slate from
which he may form some judgment of the probability of finding what will answer."[120]

Rockfish Gap Commission

Jefferson, who did go to Poplar Forest as planned, arrived back at Monticello on Saturday
18 July to find the buildings for the college coming on "with some spirit." He immediately
begin preparing for his journey the next week to Rockfish Gap in eastern Augusta County,
where the commissioners appointed to report to the legislature were to determine, in his
words, whether the Central College "ought not to be adopted for the University."[121]
Jefferson met from 1 to 4 August 1818 with nearly two dozen distinguished Virginians
(three commissioners failed to show) at the tavern at Rockfish Gap in the Blue Ridge
Mountains.[122] "It was convenient to me to send a mattrass & trussels for myself," he
informed a Mr. Barnet, and he requested "ever so small a lodging room to myself."[123]
Thanks to Jefferson's "shrewd preparation" during the spring and summer, the meeting at
Rockfish Gap became a triumphal turning point;[124] the commissioners divided along
sectional lines, choosing for the university the eventual site of the Central College
in Charlottesville as a "convenient & proper" place to establish the University of Virginia over
either a Staunton or Lexington location.[125] Jefferson, jubilant that the vote was 16 to 5 in
favor of his college, wrote his daughter, Martha, on the last day of the meeting: "I have
never seen business done with so much order, harmony, nor in abler nor pleasanter society.
We have been well served too. Excellent rooms, every one his bed, a table altho' not elegant,
yet plentiful and satisfactory. I proceed today with Judge Stuart to Staunton."[126]

The Commission's Report

The Rockfish Gap Commission's final report, written by Jefferson and signed by the
twenty-one commissioners present, was, says Jefferson scholar Noble Cunningham, "the
mature product of years of contemplation on the subject of education in a republic."
Although the report contains Jefferson's comprehensive plan for instruction and governance
at the University of Virginia, only one paragraph of this "remarkable document" is relevant
to the matter at hand,[127] "that of proposing a plan for its buildings." The commission was
of opinion that the plan

The Rockfish Gap Commission's recommendation that the Central College adequately fit the
description of "some central and healthy part of the commonwealth" sufficient to situate a
state university assured the college's future selection by the legislature when it came time to
actually charter the University of Virginia. The inclusion in its report of the above general
scheme of building guaranteed that Jefferson's architectural wonder eventually would
receive state financial assistance (and hence stability), and the official sanction of the plan
by the commission set the precedent that would become important later when Senator
Cabell waged the necessary political battles in Richmond.

The Virginia Springs

From the Blue Ridge Jefferson journeyed to Warm Springs, where he thought he might
"remove some Rheumatic affections which have long incommoded me occasionally." Upon
his arrival at the spa, he wrote his old friend Thomas Cooper, who at this time was
scheduled to become the Central College's first professor, to inform him that the school had
been selected as the site for the university but complained that "Our 1st. pavilion has been
much retarded by the disappointments of workmen. I think it may be ready to recieve you
within 3. months from this time, and that within that time one wing of 9. dormitories may be
ready, and in the course of the season another pavilion & 2. more wings of dormitories."[129]
Obviously the pace of the work was moving much more slowly than Jefferson had
anticipated, and Board of Visitor member John Hartwell Cocke noted in his diary on his way
to the Virginia springs nearly three weeks later that he found the work at the college
"progressing slowly towards Completion—The first pavillion of the Doric order just cover'd
in—and one range of Dormitories ready for roofing—The leveling of the top of Hill will be
compleated this Fall.—The foundation of the North range of Dormitories just dug
out.—[130]

Partnership Established

In late September the Lynchburg bricklayer Matthew Brown notified Proctor Nelson
Barksdale that Charlottesville carpenter John M. Perry had joined him as an "equal partner
in the Brickwork I have already done and also all that will be done by me this present
year."[131] Perry apparently handled both the labor and the financial aspects of the
partnership, for in December Brown wrote to Barksdale again to assure the proctor that
Perry "is fully authorised to Conclude the Settlement with you for the Brick workd done by
me this year at the Central Colage."[132] When making a proposal for brickmaking the
following spring, Perry claimed that the brickwork for the Corinthian pavilion "which tho
undertaken by M. Brown was actually executed by me."[133]

John Perry was involved in more than brickmaking during this period. The talented and
active carpenter continued to work on the pavilion he had managed to weasel a contract for
when he sold the land to the college, and he had the foresight and means to purchase a
sawmill on Ivy Creek in the fall of 1818 and thus began hauling lumber to the college for
other contractors beginning in September. That piece of minor good luck apparently helped
expedite the work across the grounds, for Perry's account with James Dinsmore, who was
building "Pavillion No 2 West," shows that he steadily provided Dinsmore with scantling for
his building, even during the slow winter months.[134] Perry proved to be the most
enterprising contractor in the area and ultimately profited more from the building of the
Academical Village than any other undertaker at the university.

Professorship Declined

It was near the end of October before Jefferson took up his pen again to describe "what we
called the Central college, about a mile from the village of Charlottesville and 4. miles from
this place [Monticello], and have made some progress in the buildings." This time Jefferson
was writing to entice Nathaniel Bowditch to accept the chair of mathematics at the college,
soon to be a new state university. "The plan of building," said Jefferson according to a now
familiar theme, "is not to erect one single magnificent building to contain every body, and
every thing, but to make of it an Academical village . . . with kitchen, garden Etc. distinct
Dormitories for the students, not more than two in a room, & separate boarding houses for
dieting them by private housekeepers." Besides offering Bowditch a salary of $2,000,
Jefferson bragged about the area's soil, health, "genial climate," extremely cheap
"necessaries of life," religions, and the inhabitants, the "substantial yeomanry of farmers
(tobacco long since given up)." In short, Jefferson concluded, "our society is neither
scientific nor splendid, but independant, hospitable, correct and neighborly."[135] Bowditch
nevertheless declined the generous offer of a professorship, citing for a reason "several
important trusts (amounting to nearly half a million of dollars) undertaken for the children
of an ancient merchant late of this Town . . . My income from these various trusts &c.
exceeds $3,000, Considerable time is left to me to devote to those studies which have been
the delight of my leisure hours."[136]

William John Coffee

As winter approached Jefferson received a letter from William J. Coffee, an English artist
skilled especially in plaster of paris who later made the detailed ornamental frieze work for
the university buildings as well as the interior plaster ornaments for Poplar Forest.[137]
Coffee, not yet employed on any of those projects, wrote concerning "inquires with relation
to your Cisterns," a favor Jefferson had asked of him on a previous visit to Monticello.
According to Coffee, what was needed to line the cisterns at Monticello, and what the
university did in fact later use, was "A cement caled Roman Cement but made in England in
many Places it is much Cheaper and by all that have used it in this great City thought to be
the best Cement ever Introduced for works under water. this I my Self know that in England
20 years Experianc has proved to this to the world its Value." In addition to his letter, Coffee
made and enclosed his "Notes on the Roman Cement," a rambling description of the
substance complete with lengthy detailed directions for its application, with an observation
that "All the new And fashionably Houses have Cistrens made of this Cement and in Som
Cases the Outsids Are decorated it is now coming in to Vouge in this City Very fast." Coffee
told of supposed examples of the cement's success and indicated its cost ($9 pr Barrel of five
Bushels); he also enclosed a "printed Card so that you will know ware to Aply to should you
make up your mind to use it," and "two or three Specimens of the Cement as Imported . . . I
got from out of A Barrel Just Opened in The Public Store for Inspection this you know must
be Considerd a fare trial." After rambling on about the "Operation" of the cement (Coffee's
advice on how to apply it) the eccentric artist concluded, "I fear by this time you will be
very glad my Small sheet of paper is allmost full of Any thing you like to Call it you have
brought it on your Self and thar cant blame me."[138] Coffee's inquiry into the Roman
cement had been done as a favor to help Jefferson fix the cisterns at Monticello, and the
university later benefitted from the investigation when it began to build cisterns to hold
water for the university's fire apparatus (see appendix T).[139]

The Raggi Brothers

In November 1818 Thomas Appleton sent Jefferson the good news that he had finally found
two Italian stonecutters willing to travel to America. "By the first vessel bound to any
Southern port, I shall convey to you, the two artists you are desired of obtaining, and I hope,
Sir, you will find them corresponding, in all respects, to the wishes you express'd in your
letter." The elder of the two, said Appleton, was Giacomo Raggi, a very able artist in his
45th year: "he is capable of cutting the columns of every order of Architecture, and in which
are compris'd pilastres, cornice, basement, pedastals, indeed all those members, which come
within the denominations of "il Solida": After this, another order of workman is requir'd,
which is term'd in italian "Ornalista," who performs all the ornamental parts of the
columns." For this latter work Appleton selected Michele Raggi, Giacomo's 35 year old
cousin, said to be equally able in his profession. Both men were married and had been
warmly recommended to Appleton by friends at Carrara, and both men, said Appleton,
"appear in great vigour of health; and their morals are irreproachable." Agreeable to
Jefferson's instructions, Appleton stipulated a three year term, with a "Suitable lodging and
diet," and $525 Spanish dollars wages to each annually.

This apparent good news from Italy respecting the importation of stonecutters would not be
received by Jefferson until 19 February 1819, three months later.

Tin Roofs Considered

Also in November 1818, Jefferson dispatched housejoiner and college contractor James
Dinsmore to the Virginia Shenandoah Valley on a tour to "report on the Eligibility of Tin as
a Covering for Houses as Introduced in Staunton." Dinsmore interviewed a Mr. Smith and a
Mr. Cowan, owners of the two "Principal Houses" that recently had been covered with the
roofing material, as well as A. H. Brooks, the workman who put it on, and who eventually
covered the roofs of seven pavilions.[141] "They all acted with great Candour & were at
Considerable Pains to give me every Information they were in possesion of," Dinsmore said.
Cowan, who assisted in the covering of his roof and at the beginning lacked a "pratical
Knowledge of the evils to be avoided," experienced some leakage when the first side of his
was covered. He thought tongued and grooved sheeting would be an additional security but
was afraid the heat of the sun through the tin would draw up the edges of the sheeting and
thereby render the surface of the tin uneven. Dinsmore, for his part, said he did not have
"any apprehension on that Score with Pine Sheeting Seasoned & well nailed down, without
Groveing." Jefferson's favorite workman also "Suggested the Propriety of Painting the tin
before laying down," a step all three men agreed would be an advantage. Smith in fact
already had painted his roof, a measure that sealed the joints "perfectly tight" and that
eliminated minor leakage from "Suction as heretofor." Smith also warned that the laps at the
lower ends of the courses of tin should not be less than one and one half inches.

With these precautions Dinsmore thought a tin roof may be made as tight as one of any
other metal and claimed to have it on good authority that in Montreal and Quebec tin roofs
had proved their durability by lasting forty or fifty years without painting or loosing any of
their soundness. "The last one executed in Staunton (Mr Cowans)," he added, "has a very
handsome appearance and its lightness is Certainly a great recomendation." As far as cost,
Dinsmore informed Jefferson that "the first Cost of the tin for Covering Mr Smiths House
was about $8 pr Square Say $135 for what Coverd 17½ Square but one eighth additional
may be allowed for Increasing the width of the laps—Mr Brooks price for Cutting and
machineing is $2 per Box—for Putting on $5 per Square—the Cost for nails is very
trifleing." The Staunton men cautioned that a considerable quantity of inferior tin was on the
market and Dinsmore closed by saying that "Zinc Costs 21 Cts the Sup[erfici]al foot and
appears to be a very Solid evenly, Sheet about the thickness of English milld Lead . . . it
Solders very well."[142]

Now that it was known that tin was a viable roofing option at the college, in addition to slate
which had been considered back in the summer, one more material was left to considered,
the traditional wooden shingle. The week following his report on tin, Dinsmore and fellow
undertaker John Perry set about to determine the cost of covering the college's roofs with
this more traditional material. "From the best Calculations Mr Perry & My Self Can make,"
Dinsmore reported, "we find that a Square of Hart Pine Shingling, all expences Included,
viz. timber, getting, Hauling Putting on, Nails &c Cannot at Present be done for less than ten
Dollars."[143] At one third less the cost per square (100 square feet), wood shingling
appeared far cheaper than tin, but considering the limited life span for exposed pine as
compared to the other materials, it ultimately was decided to cover the buildings with slate
or experiment with tin.

Search for More Bricklayers

As the year neared its end and the winter begin to set in, only the perennial matter of
contracting with brickmakers was left to be taken care of at the college. On 14 December
David Meade Randolph, Jr., of Presqui'ile plantation wrote to recommend an Englishman
"named Warrener, a bricklayer & plasterer by trade," who was qualified to "execute the
ornamental branches of his trade," and who was looking for employment in his line of work
and willing to "work one month on trial on any terms you please."[144] Jefferson was
unwilling to deliver such a large undertaking to the Englishman, who though thoroughly
skilled obviously lacked the necessary capital and other means to carry on the scale of work
required at the college. He replied to Randolph a week later that should the legislature adopt
the Central College for the site of the university, "advertisements will be immediately put
into the public papers for undertakers of the brickwork Carpentry & housejoinery, from
which every one will learn in that way & to whom they are to apply for employment. there
will be abundant work for them."[145]

Planning the manufacture and laying of hundreds of thousands of bricks for the coming year
was more important than the application of one unemployed (even if highly skilled)
bricklayer and plasterer. Apparently the college was experiencing some difficulty in
maintaining quality control over the brickwork, for a chimney built by Hugh Chisholm for
James Dinsmore on Pavilion II had to be taken down and rebuilt, according to a
measurement Dinsmore made for Central College Proctor Nelson Barksdale on 20
December. The new chimney for the Doric pavilion, composed of 4,878 bricks, cost a total
of $162.09—$57.11 for 3,807 common bricks, $29.98 for 1,071 oil stock bricks, and $75 for
labor.[146] On Christmas day Jefferson received a letter from Dabney Cosby, a successful
Staunton bricklayer who had followed his calling upwards of twenty years, who offered to
"Put up from 3 to 400,000 this Year And from 6 to 700,000 next Year and as long afterwards
as required . . . in the event I undertake the Clay May be exposed as Much as Possible to the
frost this Winter."[147] Cosby, among others, did land a contract after the state sanctioned the
Central College for its new state university, and in the future chimneys at the site did not
need to be taken down and rebuilt.[148]

More immediate, however, was Jefferson's problem of determining the price to be paid for
the brickwork already completed by Matthew Brown, to be settled according to the price for
similar work in Lynchburg and its neighborhood. As previously noted, Brown and John
Perry had joined forces back in the fall and Brown now left his more astute partner to settle
the payment.[149] Since Jefferson's ill health prevented him from making a winter
pilgrimage to his Bedford estate, he accordingly wrote Radford & Yancey of Lynchburg on
the last day of the year to solicit the firm's help, suggesting that he "always expected" to pay
Brown $13 the thousand—$8 for the bricks and $5 for the labor—and noting that the
"advances of money to him have been ready and liberal, and his full paiment will not be
delayed beyond April or May."[150] No record reply from Radford & Yancey has been
located.

Year-End Balance Sheet

At the end of the year 1818 the balance sheet for the Central College showed its (projected)
income at $25,229.86 ($3,280.86 from the proceeds of the sale of Albemarle County glebe
lands and $21,949 from the first two installments of private subscriptions). The expenditures
for building added up to only $18,648, however, leaving a projected balance to be spent in
1819 of $6,581.86. The breakdown of expenditures is as follows:[151]

The eight laborers mentioned in the year-end account may have included some of the slaves
belonging to Pallison Boxley of Louisa County that Proctor Nelson Barksdale and Ludlow
Branham of Boswell's Tavern gave a $670 security bond for on Tuesday 15 December 1818,
"it being for the hire of Four Negro men two boys and a woman for the next ensuing year
and the Said Negroes to be returned on or before the 25th day of Decmr."[152]

Chapter 3
The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 1

Richard Ware

Dr. Thomas Cooper, the Philadelphia scientist who later had a distinguished career as
professor and president at the University of South Carolina, ran a few errands in
Philadelphia for the college as a favor to his old friend, the retired sage of Monticello,
including an attempt to recruit some Philadelphia craftsmen to move down to Virginia.
Cooper's efforts proved successful on one account, for on 5 January he informed Jefferson
that he was sending him a man "whose honesty and industry I have entertained a good
opinion of from near 20 Years observation. He asks so many questions that I have persuaded
him to go to the place & look for himself, and make his own bargain. He is a Carpenter, &
can command workmen: he can also induce bricklayers & brickmakers to come, if he
determines to go himself: also a Tin man, & probably other trades: upon all this you will
make your own enquiries in your own way. I have said nothing to him about prices."[153]

The carpenter, it turned out, was Richard Ware, who visited the construction site in late
March armed with a letter of recommendation from four prominent Philadelphians as well
as one from Jefferson's architectural protegé Robert Mills, then in Baltimore. "We do not
hesitate" to state, wrote the four gentlemen, that Ware "has long been held in high estimation
as a workman of intelligence, Skill, and fidelity; that many of the handsomest and best
buildings of our city have been of his construction; and that we Should deem him in every
way worthy to be employed, and competent, as a carpenter, to assist in the contemplated
Structure."[154] Calling Ware a "respectable Master Carpenter," Mills noted that the
Philadelphian "bears with him recommendations from Gentlemen well known to you in
Philadelphia, with whose names I will cheerfully associate mine, as I have had business with
Mr. W— during my residence in Pha."[155] Ware liked what he saw in Albemarle and
offered to "undertake three portions mentioned in the advertisement & uppon the conditions
their specified at fifteen percent below the Book of Prices published by M Cary in
1812."[156] A fifteen percent discount off Jefferson's preferred price list coupled with the
assurance that he could bring a gang of workers from Philadelphia to build the east range
easily won a contract for Ware, although it would be the summer before Ware and his
workmen showed up for work at the university. Ware and his men executed the carpentry
and brick work for Pavilions II, IV, and VI, thirteen dormitories on the east lawn, and the
carpentry work for Hotel F.[157]

University Bill

Planning for the spring and summer was well and good (and necessary) but for now the best
thing that could be done to enhance the building at the college was to set it upon a proper
financial footing by gaining permanent state support. This would come in due time
following the adoption of the site of the Central College as the University of Virginia, which
took place in the Virginia House of Delegates on 21 January 1819, and four days later in the
Senate. Jefferson actually had drawn up the university bill in late 1818, carefully inserting a
clause giving the visitors authority over the "erection preservation and repair of the
buildings, the care of the grounds and appurtenances, and of the interests of the University
generally: they shall have power to appoint a Bursar, employ a Proctor and all other
necessary agents."[158] (Carpenter James Oldham appealed to this clause when he later sued
the university over his contract.) The votes, 143 to 28 in the House of Delegates and 21 to 1
in the Senate, constituted a "vast majority," Board of Visitor member David Watson
recorded in his memoranda book; the $15,000 per annum "endowment by the publick" was
paltry but not refused.[159] Upon hearing of the bill's passage, Jefferson immediately sent a
congratulatory letter to Joseph Carrington Cabell in Richmond and informed the senator of
the need for a meeting of the visitors,

The last request would become one of Jefferson's often repeated refrains, trapping Cabell
between his willing allegiance to Jefferson and the university on the one hand and the
realities of the Virginia Senate.[161]

Proctor Wanted

The day before the university bill was passed into law, Jefferson wrote to local magistrate
and businessman Richard Duke to offer him the opportunity to handle a part of the proctor's
work for the university. The duties of proctor, Jefferson asserted, are "of two characters so
distinct, that it is difficult to find them associated in the same person. the one part of these
duties is to make contracts with workmen, superintend their execution, see that they are
according to the plan, performed faithfully and in a workman like manner, settle their
accounts, and pay them off. the other part is to hire common laborers, overlook them,
provide subsistence, and do whatever also is necessary for the institution." Nelson
Barksdale, Jefferson observed, was fully qualified to handle the latter part; the other part,
however, amounting to two days in the week, "we have thought would be better done by a
person more accustomed to that sort of business."[162] Duke's situation did not allow for him
to serve in that capacity, however, and Barksdale, although he would remain employed at
the university, was soon replaced with a well-qualified and experienced undertaker from
Richmond, Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough.

Proposals and Contracts

As winter set in the construction slowed and little building was accomplished. In
mid-February Ambrose Flanagan of Louisa County offered a proposal to haul plank during
the coming spring from Union Mills on Friendship Mills Creek:

             

My charge
for weatherboarding plank price	hundred	$1.00
Three quarter plank	hundred feet—	$1.35 Cts
Inch plank	hundred feet—	$1.70
Floreing plank	hundred feet—	$2.00
Scantling 3 inches by 4	hundred feet—	2.50
Sash plank for 4 Dollars	hundred[163]

Barksdale informed Flanagan in late March that Jefferson was satisfied with his prices, and
that the university would buy all the plank that his mill could produce, a proposal which
Flanagan accepted eagerly on the first of April.[164] Unknown to Jefferson, during the same
week that Flanagan made his proposal, Leghorn Consul Thomas Appleton was signing a
contract with the Raggi "brothers" for stonecarving. The Italian sculptors contracted to carve
marble at the university for three years and, receiving $200 each against their future
earnings, agreed to take the first opportunity that Appleton could arrange for them to sail to
America. In addition to paying their passage to America, the university agreed to pay the
artists' 526 Spanish dollars a year plus provide a diet acceptable to their station (see
appendix L). A further stipulation entitled the university to retain one-fourth of the two
men's salary until the end of their three-year term.[165] On 25 February Appleton wrot e
Jefferson that the Raggis had "embark'd on board the Brig Strong Captain Concklin for
Baltimore," at a cost of $140 each.[166] As usual, however, months passed before the
delivery of letters from abroad; in fact, it was the end of June before Jefferson learned of
Appleton's actions.[167]

New Board of Visitors

In the third week of February Jefferson received Joseph Carrington Cabell's letter from
Richmond written to inform him that Governor James Patton Preston had named the first
Board of Visitors for the University of Virginia and fixed the date of their first meeting for
the last Monday in March. Besides Jefferson, Cabell, James Madison, and John Hartwell
Cocke, who all had served on the board for the Central College, three new men received
appointments, Chapman Johnson, who was born at Boswell's Tavern in Louisa and lived in
Staunton, James Breckenridge of Botetourt County, and Robert B. Taylor of Norfolk. James
Monroe and David Watson, visitors for the college, were not reappointed.[168] In his reply to
Cabell, Jefferson called the makeup of the new board "entirely unexceptionable," noting
only that Breckenridge and Taylor lived at such a distance as to "render their attendances
uncertain." Calling attention to the "lateness of the day" (March 29) for the new board's first
meeting, Jefferson considered it indispensable for the old board to meet and apply all its
funds to building so as not to lose the chance of employing workmen for the coming year.
Otherwise, there would be a delay in the opening of the institution for a year, and, he
thought, the university should not be opened "until we can do it with that degree of splendor
necessary to give it a prominent character." He requested that the college's visitors meet at
Madison's Orange County home, Montpelier, on the following Friday (26 February) "to
determine at once" what buildings could be undertaken during the coming season. He
believed their funds would permit two pavilions in addition to the two already being
constructed, one "boarding house" (hotel) and 20 or 30 more dormitories.[169]

Cabell, of course, could not travel from Richmond to Montpelier in late February; Jefferson
notified Watson in Louisa and Cocke in Fluvanna that their presence was necessary to form
a quorum.[170] Jefferson himself (nearly 76 years of age and not fully recuperated from the
severe illness he developed at the springs following the meeting at Rockfish Gap the
previous August), informed General Cocke that "the roads being impassable for a carriage, I
shall take it on horseback, dividing the journey into two days. if the weather is good I shall
probably go to Colo. Lindsay's on Wednesday & to mr Madison's the next day, if you have
time for such leisurely movements I shall be happy in having your company."[171] On the
day of the meeting, however, Watson sent a missile informing the board that the "badly of
the weather, & the state of my health . . . absolutely forbid my attempting to meet you" at
Madison's. He did plan to go to Albemarle on the 28th, though, and he proposed that in the
mean time the board meet and "do as if I were personally present, & assenting to whatever
you & the visitors you may advise with, think necessary & proper; use no ceremony, but
affix my name to any paper or papers that may require it."[172] The board did just that, and
Jefferson, on his way back home following the meeting, obtained Watson's signature on the
minutes of the visitors.[173]

Jefferson's Design Approved

At their meeting the visitors resolved to carry out the plans for the buildings along the lines
that Jefferson indicated to Cabell a week earlier. They unanimously agreed that "the urgency
of the advancing season, and the importance of procuring workmen before they become
generally otherwise engaged for the season, render . . . that certain measures be forthwith
taken."[174] "Certain measures" meant immediately advertising for workmen for the
university and awarding contracts, a process which Jefferson started on 1 March.[175] After
voting on Jefferson's initial goals for the buildings, the visitors supplemented their ruling by
adding that "we approve of the propositions for covering with tin sheets the Pavilions and
Hotels hereafter to be covered, and for bringing water to them by wooden pipes from the
neighboring highlands." Also, the board appointed Alexander Garrett, treasurer of the
Central College, to become Bursar of the University "until otherwise provided," and so that
he could "meet the immediate and pressing calls for money," it authorized Garrett to receive
the $15,000 public endowment for 1819.[176]

Dissatisfaction with Design

In the week following the last meeting of the Central College visitors, outgoing member and
House of Delegates representative David Watson came to the realization that he had played
a vital role in promoting a plan for building at the university that he did not like in any
respect. He wrote John Hartwell Cocke on 8 March to inform the general that he had met
Jefferson on the road "& did what was necessary in the business that carried you to Mr.
Madisons. While I was up, I visited the University, which, to my shame, I had not seen,
since the foundation stone was laid; & I now regret this the more, as the buildings are not
upon a plan to meet my notions of convenience & utility." Watson "breifly & imperfectly"
stated some of his objections to Jefferson's architectural plan, which, in his words, lacked
convenience and fitness as well as the requisite size for the purposes for which they were
intended. "Without this architectural order, & chastity, & beauty, which Mr. Jefferson talks
of, will be all thrown away. The pavilion which was first raised, is altogether unfit for the
residence of a professor who has a family," Watson asserted. "The cellar is barely sufficient
for a kitchen; & where will meal, meat, & all the necessary articles of ordinary subsistance,
which you can readily imagine, be kept? The second pavilion is larger, & of course less
objectionable; but even that will be deficient in convenience." But most of all, Watson objected
to the dormitories. Lacking convenience, too small, and too public for study, he
predicted that the

The boarding houses, "an important appendage," rankled Watson as well because they were
disconnected from the dormitories and lacked proper gardens. "I fear too that the flat roofs
will leak, for I scarcely ever knew a flat roof in Virginia that did not. The interior of the
pavilions are built too expensively. The floors, for instance, are too costly both as to
materials and the manner of laying them." Warning Cocke that there was no time to lose and
advising him to get assistance if necessary from "some one experienced in planing large
establishments," the frantic Watson finally exclaimed, "I am quite an ignoramus in
architecture; but I can feel what is convenient & inconvenient; and, by all our ardent prayers
& wishes, let us not sacrifice the important, long sought object, for the want of suitable
convenience in the plan of the buildings, & other arrangements." Watson, realizing too late
and too imperfectly the scope of Jefferson's architectural vision, at last concluded, "Mr. J. is
sacraficing every thing to Attic & Corinthian order & chastity; about which I know nothing,
& care almost as little; tho' I certainly should be pleased that the establishment should have
an eligant & dignified appearance."[177]

Proctor Recruited

On the last day of the month, Jefferson's old friend and former governor Wilson Cary
Nicholas wrote him that Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough was willing to contract with the
university for the carpenter's work and also could engage to "undertake the superintendence
of all your work of every sort at that place." This proved a great boon for the university and
for Jefferson as the amount of work increased greatly the ensuing spring and summer, for
the capable Brockenbrough served as a reliable and zealous promoter of the institution's
interests. A brother of Judge William Brockenbrough, Thomas Brockenbrough, Dr. Austin
Brockenbrough, and Dr. John Brockenbrough, Jr., and like them a man of "excellent
character," Arthur Brockenbrough was known as a "compleat workman" and said to be
"more scientific than any of our public," asserted Nicholas.[178] He built the new banking
houses in Richmond, his brother's new house (either John's White House of the Confederacy
or William's "simpler house of red brick on Broad Street, across Ninth from the Swan
Tavern, and on the site of the present [1923] Smithdeal College"),[179] and many others,
including one for Judge Spencer Roane. "If you want such a person," the enthusiastic
Nicholas said,

Jefferson responded positively to Nicholas' suggestion, calling Brockenbrough "exactly such
a character" as the institution needed but pessimistically added, "I fear much that altho. he
would suit us, our salary would not suit him." Sandy Garrett traveled down to Richmond to
consult with Nicholas and Senator Cabell before contacting Brockenbrough directly, and the
three men decided to encourage Brockenbrough to visit the site of the university.[181] The
day after their meeting, Nicholas wrote Jefferson again to inform him that "Mr. B. is not a
common workman, I understand he is a competent architect. His brother the Doctor, who
has both experience & taste, tells me he is master of all the different orders of Architecture. I
hope you will pardon my anxioustness upon this subject, it proceeds entirely from my desire
to save you trouble."[182] (Nicholas also stated his opinion that the price of brickwork in
Richmond was expected to fall under $10 per thousand for the summer due to "a total
suspension of every thing like building.") Brockenbrough left Richmond on 27 March to
talk to Jefferson and the Board of Visitors about the position,[183] and the university Board
of Visitors at their first meeting on Monday 29 March authorized its committee of
superintendence (Jefferson and John Hartwell Cocke) to engage Brockenbrough as
proctor for $2,000 a year.[184]

After Brockenbrough's return to Richmond, Governor Nicholas continued to negotiate with
him for the university but did not feel authorized to make a deal because Brockenbrough's
prior commitments prohibited his moving to the university before August.[185] In mid-April
Brockenbrough traveled to Cocke's James River plantation in Fluvanna County located
about half-way between Richmond and Charlottesville, called Bremo, at the urging of
Senator Joseph Carrington Cabell. Brockenbrough carried letters from Cabell to Cocke, who
wrote his friend that "I hope you will hold on upon Brockenbrough,"[186] and one from
Governor James Patton Preston to Cocke introducing Brockenbrough as the executive
superintendant of repairs at the capitol and of the improvements of the public square. "He is
judicious œconomical and industrious in this business . . . a man possessing good taste and
understands the mode of executing work as well as any person, having been regularly bred
to the business of building. He possesses a most Amiable & unexceptionable character & I
think he would not engage in any business that he was not perfectly competent to."[187]
Brockenbrough accepted the position while at Bremo but could not move his family to the
university site until the end of July.[188]

Advertisement for Contractors

Nelson Barksdale in the meantime continued to serve in the capacity as proctor for the
university. On the first day of March an advertisement for house carpenters and joiners
obviously penned by Jefferson began to circulate in Barksdale's name. It specifically
required contractors to submit bids for work at the university based upon Mathew Carey's
1812 Philadelphia Price Book, although undertakers were free to adjust their proposals in
either direction by percentage.[189] Lumber alone was excepted, to be settled at its actual
cost, but the kiln drying of unseasoned boards would be at the contractors' expense.[190] The
advertisement was placed in the local newspaper as well as in several other localities,
including Staunton, Winchester, Richmond, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.[191]

The appearance of the advertisement in the newspapers brought an immediate and
overwhelming response, making the month of March 1819 one of the most important in the
building of the University of Virginia. The worker's proposals that began to trickle into the
university at first apparently were instigated by word of mouth. Several prominent
Lynchburg citizens sent letters to Jefferson in early March recommending plasterer David
White, who was the brother of the deceased Albemarle County resident William White, and
who was presently engaged in plastering a house in Botetourt County for Charles
Johnston.[192] White, described as "well acquainted with stucco & ornamental
plaistering,"[193] had been "closely employed at his profession" in the Lynchburg area for
several years, fulfilling his contracts "with neatness, and dispatch," much to the satisfaction
of his employers until a "great depression here in all kinds of business, have put . . . an
entire stop, to all improvement."[194] White arrived at the university, armed with a fresh
recommendation from Christopher Hudson of Mount Air labeling him "one of the best
workmen in his line" and with his proposal in hand:

             

Three	Coat Plaster	and Lathing	62½	Cents
Three	Do	Brick Do. Walls	46
Two	Do.	and Lathing	46
Two	Do	on Brick Walls	34
One	Do	and Lathing	34
One	Do	and Brick Walls	17
I wish to undertake all the plastering as I see no difficulty in accomplishing it.[195]

Judge Archibald Stuart of Staunton sent an interesting letter of introduction to Jefferson for
Dabney Cosby, the brickworker. Besides describing Cosby as a person desirous of
undertaking "a small part of the Brick work . . . say to Make and lay 350,000 bricks," Stuart
also warned of a plot to monopolize the brickwork by some of central Virginia's most
prominent contractors:

I have been advised that separate proposals will be made by Messrs Jordan, Brown,
Hawkins, Darst and perhaps others for parts of the brick work takeing care that such parts
shall include the whole while in fact they are all to be partners in the proposed
undertakeing—If they are successful they will exclude all competition & this monopoly may
eventuate even worse that that of an Individual—Mr. C[osby] assures me he stands
unconnected in the Offer he shall make & I believe it is his object so to demean himself as
to attract the future attention of the Visitors.[196]

No evidence of this alleged conspiracy to monopolize the brickwork at the university has
been identified, however. Cosby made the trip across the Blue Ridge on 14 March when he
interviewed the ex-president in person. He waited until late March to submit his proposal to
make and lay 200,000 to 300,000 bricks for $14 per thousand, "Lime unstacked from
Agusta" and "Sand from Secretarys ford."[197] When meeting with Jefferson, Cosby
mentioned the possibility that his friend Bolinger might be willing to lay the wooden water
pipe for the university. Immediately upon his return to the valley Cosby consulted Bolinger,
who stated his price as "$6. Pr Hd. feet & One Shilling for fiting each Joint. If fited with
Boxes no charge for Joints. Diameter of the bore 2 inches Bonding found also sufficient help
to Lay them down." Bolinger "Prefers pine, to Chesnut," said Cosby, "the latter will split in
Jointing and requires a band. Logs should be cut 18 or 20 feet long, from 10 to 14 inches
diameter at the Stump. He desires you to let me Know in 8 or 9 days whether you will
consider it a contract."[198] Bolinger could not begin work at the university until late April,
however, so when Jefferson informed Bolinger that the university was accepting his offer he
told him to put off coming until the first week of May.[199]

A Flood of Proposals

The publishing of the advertisement calling for workers at the University of Virginia, as
previously mentioned, was an incident of almost unparalleled importance in the institution's
young history. The promotion of the Central College to university status certainly lent the
establishment the legitimacy it needed to draw off workers from Philadelphia, the country's
premier city when it came to construction and the building trades. Furthermore, the fact that
workers willing to leave Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, or even Lynchburg, to come to
Jefferson's lonely hill-top site highlighted the fact that 1819 proved to be a particularly
depressed year in the nation's economic history. The craftsmen that inundated the mailboxes
of Jefferson and Nelson Barksdale with a welcome flood of business propositions in the last
half of March wasted little time in preparing their proposals although decisions about which
to accept were postponed until the Board of Visitors meeting on 29 March.

Stonecutter Levi Taylor of Baltimore had the honor of being the first to inquire about the
advertisement even though it had not mentioned his craft.[200] Next, four prominent
Philadelphians and architect Robert Mills wrote to recommend Richard Ware as "worthy to
be employed, and competent, as a carpenter, to assist in the contemplated Structure."[201]
Jefferson's son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., of Varina forwarded a letter from a
relative who recommended Daniel R. Calverly as a painter "surpassed by none in
Richmond" who had done a "great deal" of painting at Tuckahoe. Calverly trekked from
Richmond to Charlottesville to present his petition in person.[202] Christopher Branch wrote
from Manchester regarding the carpenter and joiner work but found himself at a loss how to
make an offer, not knowing "For Instance the Door & Window frames, Doors and Sash,
(plain & fancy,) If there should be fancy Sash wanting particularly Guilt."[203] Carpenter
Jacob H. Walker, writing from Smyrna, Delaware, proposed to "work ate teenty five per
cent" advance on "Mathea Caray house Carpents Book of prises," promising to send letters
of "Rcomendashen amedently" upon receiving "wourd what the prise of Bouard is By the
week."[204]

Patrick Gibson and Dr. John Brockenbrough, Jr., brother of soon-to-be proctor Arthur Spicer
Brockenbrough, each wrote from Virginia's capital to recommend David Hickey, the
"skillful workman" who recently finished the plaster work at Brockenbrough's mansion and
at Richmond's new courthouse.[205] Hickey waited until the summer to offer to "undertake
and Compleet the plastering and Stone worke of Mr. A. S. Brockenbrough new houses now
building and furnish all Meaterials Nesesary for Said worke at the following prices[:] three
Coat plastering 35 Cts. pr. yd. Opnings 25 Cts pr yd.[;] two Coat plastering 33 Cents pr. yd.
Opnings 16 Cts pr yd.[;] Lathing 17 Cents pr yd. Opnings 8 Cents p yd.[;] plain Cornice 45
Cents pr ft."[206]

John Parham, a "Master Carpenter" in Philadelphia for 17 years with 5 apprentices, wrote to
complain that Carey's 1812 Price Book "is not Known at all by the Measurers and
Carpenters of this City; and was never used as a rule for Measurement." Philadelphia
carpenters used two books, said Parham, who was a man of considerable property and a
competent draftsman, "One belonging to old, and the other to what is called the New
Carpenters Hall."[207] Chilion Ashmead saw the university's advertisement for workers in
the Baltimore paper and wrote to ask if the painting and glazing "Have all Reddy" been
contracted for and mentioning the "Presedent & Managers of the Balto Exchange Co and Mr
Latrobe A Gentlema[n] I Presume well none to you" as possible references.[208] Curtis
Carter and William B. Phillips, who together would land a contract for brickwork at the
university, sent in a proposal to make and lay 700,000 to 1,000,000 brick and complete it by
the first of November next:

       

For all walls faised with oil stock Brick	$18/m
For all walls faised with sand Stock Brick	$13 do
all walls such as partitions brest of chimneys and Seller walls below the surface	$12 do
The Bricks to be all harde the sand & lime to be the best the nabourhood affords and the worke to be exeucuted in a nice and workman like manner[209]

Jefferson reserved 300,000 bricks for Carter & Phillips at the price of $11½ for "place-
brickwork" and $20 for "oil-stock work," which they accepted.[210]

More Proposals

William Hawley, Jr., of Winchester, whose business was "hascepainting glazin and
paperhanging," not knowing the university's "choice of cullers," wrote to give his customary
price, "I have one still for a sollid yaurd which I Beleave is the price in washington citty[.]
my price for glazin and materiale found" is, Hawley stated,

             

Six	By	eight	4	cts
8	By	10	6
10	By	12	8
12	By	16	10
12	By	18	12
12	By	20	16
price of glazin

Hawley promised to bring to "sharlottes Vill" his "first rate worke man he is so called in
winchester."[211] Another painter, Thomas Smith, appealed to William T. Gray of
Fredericksburg for an introduction to Jefferson. Gray declined, not having ever "had that
honour myself," but did say that Smith was a "sober and industrious citizen" of "correct
conduct. He is considered a good painter."[212] E. W. Hudnall of Buckingham County
noticed the advertisement in the Richmond Enquirer and submitted a proposal of 12½ cents
per square yard for each coat of "plain painting" in "girt measure." (Girt measurements take
into account the entire surface of an object, including depressions and projections.) For
fancy painting such as "Mahogany, Marble Satin Woods, Stone colour &c." he charged 75
cents, and venetian blinds depended on the size. Hudnall's price for glazing is as follows:

       

For	Glazing	10.	by	12	for	each	light	10.	Cents
For	Glazing	12	by	14	for	each	light	12½
For	Glazing	14	by	16	for	each	light	17
For	Glazing	16	by	24	for	each	light	25

The Glass must be of the proper sizes or I shall charge 2 Cents for every light I cut & if cut
all round or circular 4 Cents.

"You will please address me at New Canton," Hudnall concluded, "My character as a painter
and Glazier, will if necessary be laid before you by the following Gentlemen (who will
vouch for the neatness of my execution, and the promtitude of my dispatch) Viz. Littlebury
Moon of Scottsville, Charles Irving & George Booker Esqr. of Buckingham, Alexander
Brent of Cumberland, & Wm. Perking Sherriff of Buckingham," who were all prominent
men in central Virginia.[213] Norborne Ratcliffe wanted to undertake the making and laying
of 100,000 brick at $15 per thousand, much higher than the current prices in Richmond
where he had worked for the last two or three years. "or if the bricks is made by a Seperate
Contract & every thing delivered on the Spot," Ratcliffe added, "I will lay them at the Price
of three Dollers Per thousen arches to be a load conciderred a ceperate charge in either of
my Proposals: brick makeing I am well acquanted with & dou a Shore you if I be come and
undertaker of any Part of this work will use every exertion to give Satisfaction to the
Parties."[214]

Former Richmond Mayor John Adams introduced Russell Dudly, who built the Union Hotel
in Richmond, to new university Board of Visitor member General James Breckenridge,
saying the carpenter "is associated in any offers which he may make with Mr. Otis Manson,
who is an Architect of the first order & has designed & executed most of the most elegant
buildings in the lower part of our City."[215] Richard Ware's proposal to undertake "three
portions" of carpenter work already has been mentioned.[216] Although he modified his
initial proposal in early April, James Oldham, who previously worked as a joiner at
Monticello, tendered his "Servises" to undertake the carpentry and joinery for "one or two of
the Buildings" at a 25 percent "advance on the adopted rule, the worke to be performed
agreeable to the Turms specifyed in the Advertisment, but the kilndrying of Plank and
bordes will be charged for."[217] James W. Widderfield, working as a carpenter for
contractor John M. Perry, obligated himself to do the all the woodwork work of a hotel and
its attached dormitories at the "prices heare to fore giveen for work of the same description
done at the University or by M Carrys book of prices printed in Phildelppia in 1812."[218]
But housejoiner and contractor James Dinsmore, nearing completion of Pavilion II,
submitted an informed opinion that he "Should not Consider my Self Justifiable in
undertakeing by the Book mentioned as the Standard at a less advance than the difference of
the Currency between Pensyvania & Virginia." Dinsmore, knowing first hand "the manner in
which the work is Expected to be executed, and the difficultys we Labour under here in
procureing good workmen," offered to undertake the carpentry and joinery work of the Ionic
pavilion with its range of dormitories at 5 percent less the book price, "Provided they get an
experienced Philadelphia measurer to measure the work after it is Executed, which would
Probably be best also for Preventing disputes between the Visitors & undertaker." This last
suggestion later was required by the courts before James Oldham's lawsuit against the
university could be settled (see appendix J).[219]

Report on Water

On the same day that Dinsmore offered his proposal for consideration, he and John Perry
(by now the two contractors with the most experience and knowledge at the university
construction site) submitted a report informing the Board of Visitors that they "haveing
leveled from the doric pavillion to the Springs on the mountain—find the two first to be 6.
feet above the water table—at the distance of 1,100 yards—one hundred yards further is
another Spring 26. feet above the water table of pavillion—and Still further—Say abut 60
yards there is another 75 feet above the sd. level—all of these are bold good Springs—the
furtherest Spring—1,260. yards from the pavillion—as near as we Could tell by Steping it
of[f]."[220] Although the distance was troublesome and the university would be plagued by
water supply problems for some years into the future, the fact that the springs were strong
was good news (see appendix T). As for John Perry, on the same day he submitted his own
proposal to make and lay 300,000 bricks at $14 per thousand and to execute the "appendant"
woodwork for a hotel and dormitories at 25 percent above the prices printed in Carey's
"philadelphia price book—that makeing the prices Virginia Currency"; he also offered to
furnish the lumber from his own sawmill.[221]

More Proposals

When the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia met for the first time several
workmen were yet preparing their proposals for the coming year. Painter and window glazer
Thomas Smith showed up in person while the visitors were meeting to submit his bid,
saying that he would install window glass for 10 cents per square foot for precut glass and
15 cents otherwise. As for outside painting, Smith's price for one "collor and the work is
plain no Carved work attached" was 25 cents per square yard for 2 coats, 10 cents for
additional coats. For inside work he charged 30 cents per yard for two coats and 12 cents for
additional coats for one color. "Imitating Mahagony on Doors or Elsewhere and varnishing
the same with Copal varnish," cost 75 cents per yard, and he suggested the "same price for
painting in imitation of Sattiny wood or Norway Oak."[222] John Percival addressed a letter
to Jefferson proposing to work at 40 percent advance on the Philadelphia Price Book but not
before he offered the former president a "fiew remarks" of admonishment. "It is very
astonishing," wrote Percival, "that the first men in this very extensive & riseing Empire
Should fix as a standard perhaps the most Antient in the present Day the most illiberal the
most Obsolete & the least Scientific of all Books extant and by this means to enslave with a
yoke & reduce to Vassalage the most extinsive & useful Branch of the Republic."[223]

Decisions by the Board of Visitors

The new Board of Visitors met as scheduled on Monday, 29 March, with all members
attending, and appointed Jefferson rector of the university, Peter Minor secretary to the
board, and Alexander Garrett bursar, allowing the latter $250 a year for compensation. The
board also appointed Jefferson and Cocke to a committee of "advice, Superintendence and
controul," authorizing them "jointly or severally" to direct the agents of the institution
during the intervals of its sessions, but "jointly only" to call a special meeting of the board
when necessary. It instructed the new committee to purchase at a "fair valuation or
reasonable price" such portion of John Perry's land that lay between the two tracts
heretofore purchased of him, "as may conveniently unite the whole in one body," provided it
could defer the payment until the institution received the fourth installment of subscriptions
or the third year's public endowment. Another important matter devolving to the committee
of superintendence was the hiring of Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough as proctor of the
University for $2,000 or less, or if he could not be engaged, then any other person "on such
terms as they find necessary."

The board also resolved to instruct acting Proctor Nelson Barksdale to examine into the state
of the property real and personal (monies and credits excepted) formerly appertaining to the
Central College, and he make an inventory of the same, "as it stands at this day, specifying
the items whereof it consists, and noticing the buildings and other improvements already
made and those which are in progress." It also instructed the new bursar to make a statement
of the funds in money and credits and debts relative to the Central College. Finally, the
board reaffirmed the decision made by the visitors of the Central College at their last
meeting (26 February) to delay the opening of the institution by diverting all incoming funds
into construction of the buildings and resolved to approve and pursue the measures "adopted
by them for the buildings of the present year."[224]

Yet More Proposals

The month of March, so pregnant with possibilities, finally ended, but not before one more
undertaker set down to write out a proposal to undertake work at the university. Abraham
Woglome of Philadelphia, 20 years as a "master Employer," offered to bring five or six
bricklayers to Virginia and to "Superintend the Mason & brick work."[225] After this the
flood of incoming proposals began to abate, albeit slowly. In fact, April opened with three of
the local carpenters resubmitting their bids. James Dinsmore and John M. Perry, learning of
the proctor's advertisement and expecting fierce competition for the award of contracts,
withdrew their previous proposals and together handed in a new one accepting the "Book
mentioned as the Standard Counting a Dollar there [Pennsylvania] Equal, to a Dollar
here."[226] James Oldham followed suit two days later, "very desireous of getting to worke if
on Turms onely that will cover my daly expenses," offering a proposal that was accepted a
few days later.[227] Thus three of Jefferson's favored workmen from the Monticello
reconstruction of a few years earlier were given employment. The fourth, master craftsman
and architect John Neilson, sent a letter from Upper Bremo, the plantation on the James
River in Fluvanna County where Neilson was constructing a Palladian mansion for John
Hartwell Cocke, turning down employment for the present season.[228] Richard M. Burke
offered to make window "Sashes frames Doors &c" in his Richmond shop.[229] Daniel
Flournoy of "Chester-field" offered to make 5 or 600,000 bricks "this season."[230] In
mid-April David Cobbs wrote "for the perpus of of nowing wheather I Could undertak the
Jobs of piping the warter to the bildings: my price is ten sentes pr foot. the Dich augr the
Loges Hold & the Borer furneses. I will Compled. it in 2 month."[231] Cobb's proposal was
the last to arrive until mid-June, when Albemarle County resident William Wood offered to
provide scantling and "every kind of plank, well seasoned" after the first of October.[232]
Although a couple more proposals trickled in during the course of the summer, by the end of
the first week in April the matter of undertaking for the building had been effectively settled
for the coming season.[233]

The one important matter left to be taken care as the season for work opened up was that of
hiring a replacement for Nelson Barksdale to keep track of the progress of the work and the
workers, a task increasingly requiring energies beyond those possessed by the still agile but
aged Jefferson.[234] The hiring of Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough as the new proctor in
mid-April was a godsend which came none too soon, but before the new proctor could leave
Richmond in mid-summer, a creditable beginning had been made by those undertakers
fortunate enough to land a contract. By the end of the year the pace of construction had been
established at the building site, although Jefferson habitually complained that the work
"have gone on miserably slow."[235]

Ware in Trouble

The first contractor fortunate enough to secure a contract from among the many proffers,
Philadelphia carpenter Richard Ware, caused a minor crisis at the university. Jefferson wrote
Ware on 9 April to inform him that the university would accept his contract on the condition
that Ware engage Philadelphia brickmakers and bricklayers to do the brickwork for his
buildings, Pavilion V, Hotels A and B, and 23 dormitories (all on the east side of the square,
requiring an estimated 578,530 bricks). Promising work for the next year and a
"considerable time afterwards," Jefferson also offered dormitories for lodgings for the
master workmen and their cellars for the under workmen.[236] Ware considered the wages
liberal and sent word to Jefferson via Thomas Cooper that he wanted to accept the terms but
that the area brickmakers were already engaged in their summer work. One Cribbs, a
"conceited old man a Brickmaker, who appears to have acquired wealth in the pursuit,"
accompanied Ware's messenger (a Quaker named James) to Cooper. Cribbs advised burning
the bricks in a kiln rather than in clamps in order to improve their quality and to temper the
clay by the treading of oxen. As for Ware himself, it was said that he was absent from
Philadelphia taking the "benefit of the Insolvent Law in Delaware State."[237]

Ware wrote Jefferson a couple days later, however, informing him that he had found
bricklayers but that "geting A Brickmaker has detaind me . . . here Bricklayers & makers are
two distinct business & to get bricks made is the Onley difficulty in the way." Ware,
"afinishing a small job out of town" while at the same time "prepairing my tools," promised
to write back in about ten days.[238] Thus Jefferson relied on Ware to bring a crew of
carpenters and bricklayers from Philadelphia. By mid-May, however, Jefferson had received
word that Ware's embarrassing circumstances caused him to be arrested and jailed when it
became known that he was heading for Virginia. "what are we to do?" Jefferson asked the
new proctor, "in the first place keep this a profound secret until we can substitute contracts
to supply his place." The "two young men" who executed Pavilion II, brothers who were
journeymen of Matthew Brown, could aid Curtis Carter, Jefferson suggested, and Cooper
could "send us on housejoiners from Philadelphia . . . lest we should seem really to have
been jockeying our own workmen. before too that this thing be known you should have
written articles signed by all your workmen, for they will endeavor to fly the way when they
suspect that the Philadelphia competition is withdrawn.[239]

As it turned out, however, Jefferson's scare was for naught, for Ware, freed
from jail, arrived at Monticello less than two weeks later. He assured Jefferson
that he had "the most steady, faithful & skilful" workmen ready to sail from
Philadelphia to Richmond as soon as they heard from Ware. Jefferson then had to
turn around and write back to the proctor with a request to halt any efforts set
in motion to replace Ware as a contractor.[240] Informed by Ware that all
Philadelphia bricklayers "are regular stonemasons and always do the stone
foundations for themselves," Jefferson declared he was "really anxious to have
these people employed from the knolege I have of their superior activity over
those we are used." And, he added, "I shall expect your answer with
anxiety."[241]

Philadelphians Arrive

Ware returned to Philadelphia, arriving back on 10 June, and found his men "prepairing with
all expetction for to come to Virginia." In addition, since talking to Jefferson, he had
rounded up some stonecutters who would be "glad to be imployerd" at their trade for $1.50
per day.[242] Abiah Thorn, who in 1820 entered into a brickwork partnership with John M.
Perry, came to the university as a result of Ware's new inquiries in Philadelphia.[243] Ware
and his men, ready to leave Philadelphia several days ahead of the vessel that carried them
south,[244] made it to Richmond by Sunday 11 July.[245] Once at the university the
Philadelphians immediately set to work. At Brockenbrough's insistence Ware involved
himself in the stonework and quickly saw the need for an "Experienced Qurry man." By 22
July Ware's men had "made A few 1,000 Bricks my 2 tempers not able to work one not well
& nurseing of him,"[246] and by the 26th they had made 12,000, although Ware complained
that "for the want of rain the floor are in bad order & clay raw & grean."[247] By the 30th,
however, Ware had experienced his first insurrection, losing some of his "hands" because of
an alleged shortage of fresh beef. "I hope however he will regain them," said Alexander
Garrett, "they would be a great loss to the institution, as Ware carries on his work in a very
superior stile to any others at the University."[248]

Italian Stonecutters

The Philadelphia brickworkers' experience in stonework advanced the general progress of
stonework at the site, potentially one of the most troublesome aspects of Jefferson's
architectural plan. Also, they arrived just in time to give him some consolation regarding the
carving of the marble capitals, four columns each on two Corinthian pavilions, four Ionic
pavilions, and four Doric pavilions.[249] Although Michele and Giacomo Raggi had sailed
from Leghorn in March, at the end of May Jefferson was still in the dark about when they
might arrive.[250] Jefferson already had "begun to despair" of their ever arriving and had
written to Cardelli in Washington in search of one "as could carve an Ionic or Corinthian
capitel"; Cardelli replied that marble carvers there demanded $3 a day.[251] In late June
Dabney S. Carr sent word to Jefferson that the Italians had arrived in Baltimore after a
three-month voyage on the Brig Strong but could not gain passage on the steamboat for
Norfolk "owing to their not having performed Quarantine." Hence, against Jefferson's
previous express orders, they traveled to Charlottesville by stagecoach.[252] The sculptors
finally arrived at the university site on the last day of June, right before Jefferson was
scheduled to set off for Bedford. Jefferson wrote Proctor Brockenbrough in pressing tones
urging him to come immediately to the university:

I think your presence here immediately is indispensably necessary. these men are to be
lodged, boarded & set to work. this requires the Quarriers to get to work for raising the
stone, common stonecutters to prepare the blocks and other arrangements to get them under
way. the Philadelphia workmen will need your presence also for a short time to set them to
work, point out the place for their brickyard and other particulars better known to you than
myself. in the present unsettled state of things I cannot think of leaving the place for
Bedford until your arrival here, and the delay is very distressing to me. . . . I count on being
able to depart myself within 24. hours after your arrival here.[253]

The Italian stone sculptors had been at the university only a few days when they examined
the university's quarry and, in Jefferson's words to four fellow members of the Board of
Visitors, "pronounce it impossible to make of it an Ionic or Corinthian capitel." What was
worse, Jefferson added, "they can work only in these ornamental parts, & not at all in plain
work. I never was so nonplussed. they have cost us a great deal of money, & how to avoid
it's becoming a loss, & how to get our work done, is the difficulty. I shall consult with mr
Brockenbrough on it to-day, & depart [for Poplar Forest] tomorrow." The two men decided
to let the sculptors make trial on the leaves of a Corinthian capital; if that failed then they
could carve the plainer Ionic capitals out of the stone and find other stone for the Corinthian
capitals. Jefferson closed the letter to the visitors on a positive tone, "the Philadelphians had
arrived at the University & had set to work," he said.[254] Two weeks later Richard Ware
commented that the stonecutters had quarried two pieces of marble and was squaring it to 22
inches square by 10 inches thick. "The Italians look sower at those Stones," Ware
commented, but "in my Opinion it will look well when worked the grit is hard &
Sharp-verry hard-upon tools but it can be worked."[255]

Irish Stonecutter

Fortunately, another stonecutter arrived on the scene who did not have to travel from Italy or
Philadelphia or have to be paid the high Washington prices. Irishman John Gorman had
worked in a Lynchburg area quarry for about eighteen months before Jefferson discovered
him and hired him to polish and lay some hearthstones at Poplar Forest.[256] Gorman
assured Jefferson that the deep blue Lynchburg marble could not bear the chisel for delicate
work but recommended he try quarries in Pennsylvania.[257] As for Gorman, Jefferson
wrote, "he is himself of the first class of stone cutters for every thing which is not sculpture
being able to prepare an Ionic capitel all but the last finishing." Impressed with Gorman's
practical knowledge of how long it took to carve different types of bases and capitals,
Jefferson calculated that it would take the two Italian sculptors three years to carve the
Corinthian and Ionic capitals and another three stonecutters two more years to carve the
university's tuscan bases and capitals. The Raggis, Jefferson concluded, "should be
employed therefore in nothing else, and all the bases should be done by other hands."[258]
All in all, Jefferson thought, Gorman was "well informed, industrious very skilful, sober &
good humored, and [I] think he will be a valuable acquisition."[259] Gorman more than met
Jefferson's expectations by executing stonework at the gymnasia and "all the stone caps,
bases, sills, wall copings, and newel blocks for the Rotunda, all of the ten Pavilions, and
Hotels A, C, D, E, and F," and some of the dormitories, in addition to setting stove stones,
gate blocks, and steps.[260]

Gorman was not scheduled to move to the university until September, however; hence, over
the course of the spring and summer 1819, little progress was made on the marble work,[261]
and the entire fall was taken up (as regards stonework) with trying to find an alternate source
of good quality stone. As it turned out, Consul Thomas Appleton had the best idea in
September when he offered to supply marble from Italy, but by the time the letter reached
Monticello in December, Jefferson still did not recognize the wisdom of his offer.[262] In
October Brockenbrough sent one of the Raggis to Bremo to examine John Hartwell Cocke's
free stone and also mentioned the possibility of buying "James river free stone from
Grayhams Quarry" for $10 the ton. The exasperated proctor even volunteered that with
respect to the Corinthian capitals, if permitted to do as he wanted, "I would get some good
yellow poplar & have them carved—they would last a long time covered as they would be
by the projecting Cornice, the necking I would have of stone to seperate the wood from the
stucco—the top of the Capitol could be covered with copper by the way of Keeping the
water out of it—This I have never ventured to hint to Mr Jefferson knowing he would be
opposed to it."[263] Brockenbrough also wrote to Thomas B. Conway in Richmond in search
of stone, and that industrious man offered to ship blocks up to "verry large they will measure
73 feet each Quarry measure" for $12½ per ton.[264]

Chapter 4
The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 2

Design Change

During the spring and summer the building did move forward on a couple major fronts, but
not before the development of what in retrospect appears to have been one radical change in
Jefferson's design for the university. As the Central College Board of Visitors' last meeting
in late February broke up, Cabell fortunately compelled Jefferson to consider the propriety
of turning the backs of the buildings on the backstreets to the backs of the lawn buildings,
thus keeping the fronts of all the buildings from facing the rear of someone else's living
quarters.[266] But that fortunate turn of affairs did not temper David Watson's extreme
dissatisfaction with the design. Although his term as visitor had ended, Watson in the week
following the Central College visitors' final meeting felt compelled to vent his frustrations in
a letter to General Cocke, who would continue as a visitor and who shared Watson's
uneasiness about Jefferson's design.[267] When it finally dawned upon the members of the
board what disagreement they had in common about the design of the university it became
only a matter of time before some action followed. The minutes of the meeting of the new
Board of Visitors for the university in late March are silent about the university's design but
it likely that while together at least some of the visitors began to act in concert to alter the
plan.[268] Senator Cabell wrote General Cocke in mid-April to inform him that fellow visitor
James Breckenridge "entirely concurs with us as to the propriety of stopping the plan of
dormitories at the houses of instruction, & with respect to the size of the Lecturing Rooms,
& the flat roofs."

The visitors' main disagreement with Jefferson's plan centered around the buildings' sizes,
considered much too small, and Jefferson's desire to use flat roofs for the sake of
architectural purity. General Breckenridge, who applauded a proposed "change in respect to
the gardens," said that new visitor Chapman Johnson concurred with them on the main
points; and Cabell conjectured, "& I doubt not Genl. Taylor wd. also." Cabell and
Breckenridge decided to write Jefferson separately to state their objections and suggest that
the buildings be enlarged but left changes in the dormitories to be handled by their
collaborator on the committee of superintendence. "We should move in concert or we shall
perplex & disgust the old Sachem," Cabell schemed, ". . . I think we have matters in a pretty
fair way."[269]

Cabell wrote to the "old Sachem" two days later:

Cabell then poured out his objections to the design now pursued. Dormitories with flat roofs
and only one window each, coupled with an "eastern & western Aspect," would overheat
during the summer. Also, according to the prevailing opinion of the "best workmen in the
Country," flat roofs could not be made leakproof and thus would require "renewal" in only
six years.[271] Moreover, the "contiguous public passage" that the doors of the dormitories
opened into confined the students to an environment "less retired from noise and other
interruptions, than might be desired." As for the "Lecturing rooms" of the pavilions not yet
started, Cabell favored the adoption of a "more spacious plan." He was attracted to the
post-Revolutionary French "model of the Greek & Roman theatres & amphitheatres" but
realized that type of construction would deprive the professors and their families of the use
of the rooms otherwise than for lectures.[272] Cabell did approve of the decision by the
committee of superintendence, which General Cocke had informed him of, to annex the
gardens to the back yards of the pavilions. As he closed his letter Cabell excused the
suggestions he now ventured to make on the basis that he was "mainly governed by the wish
to remove every possible ground of objection to the further patronage of the Assembly." He
also cautioned that the visitors should guard against communicating to the public "any little
differences of opinion which now & then may occur among them, so as to prevent
unfounded inferences from being deduced." But to one another each visitor, Cabell added,
ought to "think & speak freely his impressions upon every point, and I am well persuaded
that a contrary course ought & would be regarded by you as uncandid & unfriendly."

Alternative Design

General John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo, Jefferson's partner on the committee of
superintendence, did freely express his impressions about the proposed design, after waiting
long enough for Cabell's letter to arrive at Monticello, which it did on 1 May. Like Cabell,
Cocke recognized the futility of trying to alter the design of the pavilions and dormitories
upon the "upper level" of the square.[273] "The beauty & convenience of this part of the plan
more than counterbalances some objections which present themselves to my mind," Cocke
conceded to Jefferson. Indeed, he thought, no change for the better could be enacted unless
the "low pitched roofs concealed by a railing (upon the plan I once suggested) shou'd be
found to be better & more œconomical coverings & to render the rooms more comfortable
by keeping the Sun at a greater distance from the ceilings." Cocke enclosed his own
architectural scheme for the back streets for Jefferson's perusal, insinuating that his plan
might be less expensive and allow for a "more retired situation" of the student apartments,
their "less exposes to the influence of the Sun, may recommend it for adoption—
notwithstanding the sacrifice it demands in Architectural beauty."[274] It combined a hotel
and sixteen dormitories under one roof, at once eliminating the difficulty of flat roofs and
providing more space for gardens, still considered too small by all the visitors. In typical
Jefferson fashion, Cocke even calculated the number of requiste bricks for his building
—239,700—as compared to 389,100 for Jefferson's individual dormitory rooms. "I am
aware," Cocke concluded, "that the elevation of the plan now suggested, the appearance of
the Chimneys and the roof will be offensive to your cultivated taste but perhaps you may
think of some stile of finishing with parapet walls at the ends & balustrades between the
Chimneys (as are awkwardly represented in the sketch) that will so far cover its deformity
as to render it admissible upon the score of œconomy & comfort."[275]

Cocke's plan, predictably, failed in its desired effect upon the rector. Jefferson could not
concede to Cocke's proposal to "unite the hotels and dormitories in massive buildings of 2.
or 3. stories high," thus wrecking his architectural unity. However, Cocke's letter, following
so closely on Cabell's earnest plea, did cause Jefferson to recognize the seriousness of the
visitors' opposition to his design as it now stood. And when Jefferson and Cocke met at the
construction site on 12 May to discuss the matter, accompanied by Alexander Garrett, the
committee of superintendence, in the bursar's words, ended their meeting by having to
"decline building the hotel as first contemplated and in lieu thereof build pavilions, and
Dormatories, on the opposite side of the lawn, that is to say directly opposite those already
built, this arose from the difference of opinion between them relative to the plan of the
hotel."[276] At their parting the two men wisely decided to "reserve the question" about
altering the plan of the hotels and domitories for the visitors at their next meeting.[277]

Efforts Redirected

The decision to postpone executing the row of buildings on the backstreet meant that
Jefferson had to make the architectural drawings for the buildings of the east lawn. Jefferson
informed Brockenbrough on 5 June that he had not begun to prepare the plans, "nor shall I
be at leisure to turn to that business till the week after the ensuing one."[278] In the
meantime, Jefferson told the proctor, the laborers could dig the foundations according to the
dimensions of pavilions "No. I. II. III. of the Western range . . . the trimming them to what
shall be the eact size of each will be trifling." The foundations for the dormitories too, of
both ranges, could be dug. But as altering the terms and manner of the contracts already
made with the workmen, "I leave it entirely to yourself."[279]

Jefferson waited until 8 July to inform the other four visitors that the committee of
superintendence substituted the building of three pavilions on the east lawn, with their
"appurtenant dormitories," in place of the hotels and dormitories originally scheduled to be
built. As for Cocke's plan of uniting hotels and dormitories under one shed, the rector
shrewdly diverted attention away from the reasons favoring it by declaring that the
"separation of the students in different and unconnected rooms, by two's and two's, seems a
fundamental of the plan. it was adopted by the first visitors of the Central college, stated by
them in their original report to the Governor as their patron, and by him laid before the
legislature; it was approved and reported by the Commissioners of Rockfish gap to the
legislature; of their opinion indeed we have no other evidence than their acting on it without
directing a change." Jefferson also reminded the visitors of Cabell's wish to alter the layout
of the buildings on the ground plan of the university by placing the gardens of the professors
adjacent to the rear of their pavilions:

Workmen's Progress

Changes in Jefferson's design, of course, would have long-term implications for the physical
layout and characteristics of the lawn and ranges but for the most part did not effect the
immediate practical considerations of the actual contractors involved. James Dinsmore and
John Perry, in addition to carrying on the building that they had contracted for with the
Central College, began taking on new responsibilities, and two other contractors, James
Oldham and Richard Ware, began work on their pavilions, hotels, and dormitories. The
foundation for Perry's new building was delayed until mid-August, when he was scheduled
to "commence as soon as they have succeeded in blowing a rock which has impeaded there
progress in diging his foundation."[281] Perry, however, besides working on the buildings he
contracted for earlier, kept busy supervising brickmaking and cutting lumber at his sawmill.
Dinsmore did spend time in mid-May laying off the grounds for the new pavilion and its
adjacent dormitories on the eastern side of the lawn following the previously discussed
meeting of the committee of superintendence on 11 May. He agreed to lay off the grounds
along the new plan for the eastern side of the square so that the proctor would not have to
return so soon from Richmond since the "hands now engaged diging out the foundation for
the 2. buildings on the West of the lawn, would be idle after those are compleated."[282] By
early June Dinsmore was back at work on Pavilion II, and the proctor, making a visit to the
Academical Village for a few days, submitted an alternate second floor plan for the building
that "saves the running of the 2nd staircase immediately before the front door."[283]
Jefferson acknowledged that the two staircases "is a very exceptionable thing. but the
changes proposed to avoid it appear to me to produce greater disadvantages."[284] Early
August found Dinsmore putting up the "Modellians on the Cornice of his Pavillian"[285] and
by mid-August he was calling for stone door sills, so George W. Spooner, Jr., finding it
impractical to procure them from the "presant Quarry without the assistance of a man
aquainted with blowing," went hunting for stone that could be more readily procured and
discovered a number of "well shapen Blocks that will answer the purpose" on William D.
Meriwether's land, about three-fourths of a mile "farther than the presant" quarry.[286]

The enterprising James Oldham, a most superior woodworker, immediately set to work on
Pavilion I and by the middle of June was anxiously seeking quality lumber from which to
fashion his window sashes. The building's ornamental "Ordre Dorique" entablature was
inspired by Charles Errard and Roland Fréart de Chambray's beautiful depiction of the Baths
of Diocletian in Parallele de l'Architecture Antique avec la Moderne (1650; Paris
1766).[287] On 21 June Oldham wrote to the master of Monticello with questions about the
pavilion and sent his old employer

Less than two months later George W. Spooner, Jr., informed the proctor that Oldham was
"Making his Frames & we shall be ready for his floor of Joists in the course of
tomorrow."[289] Oldham had only one helper, however, and a few days later Spooner urged
Brockenbrough to send some "hands" to Oldham as soon as possible, "as I am affraid the
bricklayers will be delayd on his building, for they are really ready for his Joists."[290]

Lumber Hauled

The pace of Dinsmore's, Oldham's, and Ware's work is best glimpsed by examining the
amount of materials delivered to the university for them. From 14 April to 29 May, John
Pollock, who ran his own small sawmill, hauled a dozen wagon loads of plank from
Gilmore's, Garth's, and Maury's sawmills to Dinsmore's buildings.[291] In addition he carted
two wagon loads of tin from the Milton Ferry on the Rivanna River to the university. The
typical charge for hauling a load of plank was $6.67, and Pollock earned a total of $76.20
for delivering the 14 wagon loads of material.[292] Pollock received $20 for 4 days worth of
"Hawling plank from Opie Lindsays" to Dinsmore later in the summer.[293] On 8 May
Pollock also began hauling for the Dinsmore & Perry partnership, which he continued to do
through 9 July. Nine wagon loads from Humphrey's and Flanagan's sawmills at $7.50 each
earned Pollock $67.50 from Dinsmore & Perry.[294] William D. Meriwether, one of the
directors of the Rivanna Company, delivered 2,424 feet of 1½ inch plank to "Pavillion No
111" on the West Lawn for Dinsmore & Perry in late summer, getting $72.72 in return for
his trouble.[295]

So much lumber was required at the university, in fact, that in mid-May Brockenbrough
requested Alexander Garrett to advertise locally for the material, which the bursar
immediately did, although he feared that no proposals would materialize.[296] After a month
William Wood finally offered to furnish well-seasoned plank and "any scantling, & of any
length you may want, upon as good terms as you can get it of others." The rub was that he
would not deliver any before October.[297] And in July a Mr. Gentry also handed in an offer
to "contract for a large quantity" but nothing apparently came of that proposal either.[298]
The situation so frustrated James Oldham that he

Oldham purchased the last-mentioned lumber, 7,462 running feet, on 17 July from Jonathan
Michie, for $146.57½.[300] Before the Virginia summer heat even began to fade Oldham
purchased another 14,957 feet of scantling from Meriwether, for use on Pavilion I and its
adjacent dormitories for $673.06, and a month later bought from Jesse Garth 1,898 feet
more for the same buildings, at a cost of $28.97½.[301]

Richard Ware received his share of lumber too, although it was August by the time Robert
Lindsay "Halled" the first wagon load. Lindsay, between 7 and 25 August, delivered at least
14 wagon loads of plank to the Philadelphian working on the east side of Jefferson's square
—nearly 13,000 feet—at a cost of $392.33.[302] George W. Spooner, Jr., complained to the
proctor that William D. Meriwether was furnishing lumber to Oldham at $4.50 delivered at
the university, exceeding "fifty Cents the Hundred the differance in price" that Ware paid to
Nelson Barksdale. Ware "can better explain the nature of his arrangment," said Spooner,
although Meriwether was willing to furnish the "timbers for a nother building on the same
terms all but the heart Inch & half plank."[303] A week later, however, the fickle Spooner had
changed his mind, saying that "I am since induced to think otherwise as the Heart Plank
agreed for, Mr Mere's will not engage to get which makes the other preferable."[304] John
Bishop, who served in the Albemarle County militia with James Dinsmore and Alexander
Garrett during the War of 1812,[305] hauled lumber to Ware for 12¼ days between 16
August and 6 September, receiving $61.25 in compensation.[306] In September Ware
authorized the proctor to give James Stone an advance of $10 for hauling timber from his
sawmill to Ware's buildings because "the beairer has left his Wagon Wheel many Miles from
here to be Repaired & can not get it without A little mony."[307] A couple days later Ware
wrote Brockenbrough again, requesting that a $40 order be drawn for George Milliway who
had hauled 8 days at $5 per day, "he Stats to me he can get the Money for the Same of A
friend of his in Charlottesville."[308] Richard Ware also had the privilege of purchasing the
last bit of plank for the entire year just a week before Christmas from former Proctor
Barksdale, some $1,383.51 worth of "Scantling & Hart plank delivered for Pavelian N. 1. N
2 and four Dormatarys betwen Pavelians & joist for Six dormatarys South of Pavelian No 2
E. Range."[309]

Local Merchants

As for other progress at the site, merchant accounts probably reveal who was making the
best show. The Central College had purchased all of its iron-mongery and many other goods
from hardware merchant James Leitch of Charlottesville. Leitch of course was content to
continue the arrangement with the newly designated University of Virginia. But in May
1819 local merchants, sensing quite correctly that there was real money to made off the
buildings that were beginning to rise on the former farm one mile to the west, expressed
dissatisfaction at Leitch's "exclusive privilege" of furnishing the "Iron mongary &c."[310]
John Winn & Co. delayed submitting a proposal because its proprietor, John Winn, who
along with Leitch had served on a committee appointed to view sites for the Albemarle
Academy in 1814,[311] was away on business in Richmond, but the company did eventually
get its share of business.[312] Area merchant firm Bramham & Jones agreed to furnish "such
Merchandise as may be wanting for the use of said buildings at ten per cent On the Costs,
and Charges of getting the Materials to Charlottesville."[313] The bursar advised the proctor
to contract in the capital city if it was "much better for the institution," but Richmond firms
did not play a significant role in furnishing material for the building of the university until
August, right before Brockenbrough's removal from Richmond to the university site.[314]

Richmond Firms

Brockenbrough & Harvie, the first Richmond enterprise that the proctor appealed to,
shipped the university seven casks of nails weighing 1,430 pounds on 7 August and another
seven casks on 16 August. Altogether the two shipments, which included 8, 10, 12, 16, 24,
and 30 penny nails as well as number 6, 10, and 12 brads, represented $225.14 worth of
nails plus the $1.25 per hundred shipping costs that wagoner James Guthrie collected for
transporting the material. Guthrie, by the way, carried some beds and a dozen chairs to the
construction site for the proctor, who was anticipating his family's move.[315] From its initial
August shipment through June 1821, Brockenbrough & Harvie shipped $1,011.02 worth of
assorted nails to the university's carpenters (although only one other shipment was made in
1819, $26.39 worth in October).[316]

John Van Lew & Co. was probably the biggest Richmond firm to supply the early University
of Virginia with materials. On 9 August Brockenbrough purchased 24 dozen brass sash
pulleys for $39 from the company after James Oldham requested for his buildings 8 dozen
"Window Pullyes and the Screws for them, theare is none at Leitches."[317] Additionally, the
proctor spent another $38.34 for 25 gross of assorted screws and over 30,000 sprigs ranging
from ½ to 2 inches in size.[318] John M. Perry needed "Some locks and common but hinges
& Screws" and "5 boxes Boston Crown Glass 10 x 12" for his buildings that could not be
found locally,[319] and the firm obligingly shipped the 515 pounds of material to
Charlottesville via wagoner Andrew Jamison, who earned $7.72 for the four day trip.[320]
The glass turned up "somewhat broken," however, and Van Lew suggested that it "perhaps
may have been roughly handled by the Waggoner," who also had delivered "And Irons &
Candlestick" for the proctor's own use.[321] John Pollock, the wagoner who spent the spring
and summer hauling plank from the sawmills to the construction site, also hauled iron from
Richmond that the university purchased from John Van Lew & Co.[322] By July 1820, when
the firm handed in its account with Richard Morris's statement that "We are very needy, We
shall be pleased to receive the amount as soon as convenient," John van Lew & Co. had
shipped $1,448.50 worth of hardware, tools, and other building materials to the university.
Items the account lists include nails, screws, brads, locks, pulleys, hinges, glass, glue, tin
plate, sheet lead, sheet iron, tar, sandpaper, rope, cord, a dozen plane irons, 6 files and a
rasp, 4 hammers, 2 bells, a ripper, a bellows, an anvil, a vice, and a plow, plus sacks of salt,
4 barrels of herring and one of shad, and a charge for placing an advertisement for a
quarryman.[323]

Out-of-State Sources

The only out-of-state firm that seems to have furnished materials directly to the university in
1819 was P. A. Sabbaton of New York City, who previously had supplied Brockenbrough
with the "Gate Post's for the Governor's Square" in Richmond. Brockenbrough wrote
Sabbaton seeking information about sash weights for James Dinsmore, who later sent a
memorandum to the proctor containing his own prices for having them made.[324] Sabbaton
wrote back to Brockenbrough on 4 June to inform him that weights "Such as are made use
of in Virginia, (with a pully in them) they will cost You 4½ cents" per pound, or "if you use
Such as are made use of here, that is made round about from 1 to 2 inches diameter, having
a hole in One end, or a wire to receive the cord, they can be afforded for 4 cents" a pound.
He instructed the proctor to include the "weight & Size of each, & the length they ought be"
when ordering, and recommended "an Article generally made use off here to prevent the
Chimney from Smoking, and preserve the fire Place, they last almost as long as the House,
and look very neat, 2 Jambs and a back come at 12 Dollars, we can make them at any time,
to any Size."[325] On Christmas eve Sabbaton made out a bill for two hundred window
weights that he had placed on board a ship for Bernard Peyton on 15 November.[326] The
eight and nine pound sash weights, at the 4¼ cents per pound rate for 1,764 pounds, cost
$79.38 (plus $1 for "Carting On board"). Sabbaton also offered "franklins much handsomer
that those I Saw at Mr. Peyton—for 20$ each—& I beleive are somewhat larger—There is
also a Grate & false Back to be put in occasionally to burn Coal, or even wood, but that
makes them come 2$ higher."[327]

Another out-of-state firm, the Boston Glass Manufactory on Essex Street in Boston, did
provide glass for the university through their Richmond agent, Smith & Riddle, a firm that
collapsed in May 1819 about the time that the university placed a large order with it for
glass. Jefferson wrote Charles F. Kupfer of the manufactory in mid-June with a request for
him to expedite the order, informing Kupfer that the university buildings "will require
between 4. and 5,000. sq. feet of glass all 12. by 18. I. during the present and next year, and
still largely afterwards. not so much this year as the next, having already recieve a
considerable part for this year from Smith & Riddle. this renders a reappointment of agents
for your manufactory at Richmond interesting."[328] The failure of Smith & Riddle, it turned
out, did not prohibit Andrew Smith from continuing to act as an agent for the Boston Glass
Manufactory, and Jefferson had to write back to Kupfer ten days later in order to prevent a
"double supply" of the famed glass.[329]

Back in Charlottesville, James Leitch, without enclosing a proposal, wrote Brockenbrough
in mid-May to inform the proctor that at his store in town he had "on hand Locks, Nails,
Screws, Spriggs, Window pulleys—Sash Cord, Glass, Hinges, Tin, Lead, paints &c.
purchased at request for the Central College Sufficient to complete the Buildings at present
putting up—I presume nothing further will be wanting untill I shall have the pleasure of a
personal interview with you at this place when I am in hopes to have it in my power to make
Such proposals as will be Satisfactory." Moreover, Leitch reminded the proctor of the
impending arrival of 2 rolls of sheet lead and 20 boxes of tin at "John & Saml. Parkhills—&
Six Boxes 12 x 18 Glass at Smith & Riddles," materials that would then be forwarded to
Charlottesville for the construction site.[330] Leitch, in spite of his fears, continued as a
major supplier for the university and in the next eleven months alone he handled $3,267.24
worth of goods for the builders. The materials included glass, putty, sandpaper, sprigs,
screws, nails, locks, hinges, shovels and spades, a wire sifter, tin, lead, iron, steel, blasting
powder, saltpetre, candles, writing paper, wafers, quills, whiskey, salt, and some unknown
items purchased by the contractors.[331]

Miscellanies

A few other loose ends respecting the building had to be tied beginning in the spring and
summer of 1819. Thomas Cooper promised that Philadelphia could produce a tin man for
the university as early as January 1819 but one still had not been found at the end of
July,[332] by which time A. H. Brooks long since had crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains
from Staunton: in early July he was "progressing with the tin Covering & expects to finish
next week."[333] By the fall the word was out that "you are covering your houses with tin,"
and John Van Lew & Co. offered to furnish the university with that article out of its "large
supply."[334] John Perry's undated estimate for the cost of covering "one range of
dormitories done with wood-99 feet long" was probably made before or shortly following
the 26 February resolution by the visitors of the Central College to cover the roofs with tin,
before A. H. Brooks was consulted.[335] Perry projected the cost for framing and covering
the 38 squares of roofing area with 22 inch wooden shingles, "includeing guttering Joint"
and running 1,008 feet of "Shingleing ridges," to be $905, or $295.93 less than covering the
same area with sheet iron for $1,200.88.[336] Preliminary discussions about gutters began in
May, apparently before Perry made that memorandum.[337] It was another year, however,
before Brockenbrough questioned the rector about whether to substitute tin gutters for
wooden ones on the dormitories and flat-roofed pavilions. "It takes 26 Feet of gutter to go
over the dormitory & that at about 25 cents pr foot for Materials & workmanship will cost
$6.50 for each gutter," said the proctor. Tin gutters, he calculated, could be made for $5.34
each since a $15 "box of tin will make 8 gutters . . . will be say $2. for the tin necessary for
each gutter, the workmanship for puting in the same 1$ more pr gutter all other work
preparing, will not be more than $2.34."[338]

Wooden Pipes

The resolution to bring water to the university by wooden pipes from the "neighboring
highlands" was passed at the same visitors' meeting that resolved to cover the roofs with tin
rather than wooden shingles.[339] By late June the decision whether to contract out the pipe
boring or do it with university workmen still had not been made, so Jefferson left it to the
proctor.[340] The matter rested till August, when George W. Spooner, Jr., directed the
"Overseear of the Labouers to proceed with foure hands to get the logs for the conveyance
of the water."[341] Only three days later Spooner reported to the proctor that "We have
nearly all the logs out for conveying the water & shall commence Waggoning them
tomorrow."[342]

Two weeks later James Wade of Lynchburg, a "Very Industrious, punctual man; experienced
in the business," appeared at Jefferson's doorsteps at Poplar Forest wishing to become the
"undertaker of Laying the pipes for Conveying water to the university," as Samuel Jordan
Harrison's letter of introduction said.[343] Willing to undertake at the Philadelphia prices,
"whatever they are, altho' he does not know what they are," Wade considered white oak
(which he advised not to be cut until the last of September!) by far the "best & most durable
& prefers joining the logs by wrought iron boxes & iron hoops on their ends."[344] Wade
visited the construction site and upon his return home wrote to the proctor to offer for
consideration the propriety of having a reservoir that was projected for the mountain placed
in such a manner

A version of Wade's reasonable plan was adopted by the university a few years later (see
appendix T). When in the following spring the university was still without a pipe-layer, Elija
Huffman and Aaron Fray proposed to lay pipe for 6¼ cents "per foot running measure the
logs to be delivered in the most convenient place to suit ourselves, the diging & filling up
and the boxes to be furnished by the institution—the worked to be executed in a masterly
manner." Huffman is recorded as laying pipes for the institution until the end of the year
earning $242.53 by the end of September; whether Fray worked as his partner is
unknown.[346] By mid-June 1820 the proctor could report that "Our pipe borers are laying
down the logs they are down for 300 yards—I have conveyed it 300 yards in a covered ditch
at the end of which is a reservoir, 6 by 7 feet & 5 feet deep from whence I take water."[347]

Carter & Phillips

By about mid-summer Curtis Carter and William B. Phillips were well on their way to
fulfilling the brickwork contract that obligated them to make and lay 300,000 bricks before
the first of November. On 20 August Phillips wrote to the proctor to let him know that his
men had put up the walls of the first story of Pavilion I "& shall finish the dormantarys walls
tomorow," after which the "[1]st. tier of Sleepers" could be laid. Furthermore, he estimated
they would finish in 12 or 13 days "with all ease." "Please inform me which will be my next
Job," Phillips said, "so as an arrangement may be maid for me to begin, If I should wait for
work haveing all my hands together at Considerable expence, it will be A ruining Stroke if
we are not Keeped imployed."[348] A week later John Hartwell Cocke, Jr., (who attended
grammar school in the area) visited the brickyard to watch the artisans at work. The dispatch
with which the men carried on their work and which allowed them to finish ahead of
schedule is evident in the description the young boy sent to his father:

In the first three weeks of September, Carter & Phillips received 87 cords of wood (costing
$247.50) at their kiln so that their gang could burn clinkers in expectation of finishing their
project.[350]

Jefferson's View of the Progress

As the summer waned, Jefferson, in a letter to the proctor written at Poplar Forest, took
stock of where the building process stood. The west side of the lawn, it could be said, was
shaping up fine. The brick work for Pavilion I would be finished in days, and the skillful
hands of James Oldham could be counted on to fulfill his agreement for its wooden work.
Pavilion II was "done with." Dinsmore & Perry, united together (with Matthew Brown), had
engaged for the brick and wood work of Pavilion III. "No. 4. done with and No. 5. not
engaged." The hotels and dormitories on the back street, originally intended for the
Philadelphia workmen, would not be built this year because of the superintendence
committee's spring disagreement. But the Philadelphians, led by Richard Ware, were busy at
work building three pavilions on the east lawn and Jefferson had not wavered in his wish
that "this whole range may be executed by them." The dormitories no. 1 to 10 were reserved
for Carter & Phillips, which had nearly completed the first four, and the last six, sandwiched
in between Pavilions II and III, could be started whenever the brickmason's wanted. They
would require 60 or 70,000 bricks, and after that, "according to circumstances," Carter &
Phillips could have either Pavilion V on the west lawn or one of the remaining two on the
east side.[351]

Board of Visitors Meeting

Jefferson returned from Bedford in time to ascertain first hand the state of affairs at the
university in preparation for the Board of Visitors meeting on Monday 4 October. The
board's first action was to ratify the actions taken by the committee of superintendence six
months earlier. Next, it instructed the proctor to make an estimate of the amount of money
needed to build the last three pavilions and their dormitories. The board also authorized the
proctor to take the necessary measures to procure for the "two Italian artists" some "proper
Stone or marble" since all the local stone proved incapable of "being wrought into Capitels
for the Columns" of the pavilions. At the meeting the visitors effectively looked ahead
beyond the curtailment of the present building season to the ensuing one, for winter was
closing in fast and the contractors were set to sit it out as best they could. After a final
October surge, progress in building would be slow and at best steady for the next four or
five months.

At their meeting the visitors, as required by law, approved the draft of its annual report to
the president and directors of the Literary Fund, "embracing a full account of the
disbursements, the funds on hand, and a general statement of the condition of the Sd.
University." An inventory of the property formerly owned by the Central College appended
to the report showed that one pavilion and 15 dormitories "have been as nearly finished as is
deemed expedient until wanted for occupation," and one other pavilion was scheduled to be
completed during the winter. Five other pavilions "more or less advanced" and about 20
additional dormitories "in progress," the inventory showed, will "probably have their walls
completed and covered in during the present season, but will not be otherwise finished but in
the course of another . . . for two seasons being generally requisite for the accomplishment
of good buildings, the one for their walls and covering, the other for inner finishings."[352]
Six weeks later the interior work on the second-mentioned pavilion, "far the best of the
whole," had progressed so as to guarantee its completion in the coming winter but its garden
still was not inclosed, and "as it is to be done with brick, there may be a doubt whether the
season is not too far advanced to risk it."[353] (The pavilion was "finished except plaistering
and painting" at winter's end.)[354] On the first of December, when Jefferson finally sent the
report to the Literary Fund, he could add in his cover letter that "the walls of the 7. pavilions
and 37. dormitories then in progression, have been compleated; and their roofs are in
forwardness to be put up in due time. their inner and outer finishings will be the work of the
ensuing year."[355] Two of the Corinthian shafts were scheduled to be in place by then, along
and with 6 of the Doric on Pavilion IV and VIII or X of the Tuscan.[356]

Carpenters' Dispute

The visitors barely had departed from their October session when Brockenbrough
discovered that he had created some confusion by letting out part of the work that the
committee of superintendence intended for John Neilson to George W. Spooner, Jr., who had
served as the proctor's faithful agent at the university during the months that Brockenbrough
remained in Richmond. (Spooner, the principal carpenter at Hotels C and E and dormitories
14-23 and 24-28 on the east range, served as proctor himself in 1845-1846 and supervised
the construction of Robert Mill's Rotunda Annex in 1853.)[357] Brockenbrough had set
Spooner to work "making the window frames and a part of the work of the first floor" of
Pavilion IX before he learned that the committee had reserved the building for Neilson.
When the proctor realized the potential conflict, he set aside the unallotted portion of the
pavilion's work for Neilson, who was advised of the situation and immediately left Bremo
for the university site to "make the necessary arrangements for the job."[358] Spooner, it
turned out, already had collected the materials needed for both the cellar and first floor,
"except the first floor of Joists," and started to make not only the window frames but interior
doors.

When knowledge of Spooner's progress surfaced it put Nelson "in a very cerly mood" and
the proctor in an especially awkward predicament. "I am certainly desirous that Mr Nelson
should have the Pavilion," Brockenbrough informed Jefferson on 12 October, "but having
made this previous engagement . . . I feel myself bound to let him go with it that far." Since
Nelson "is not disposed to hear any thing I have to say on the subject," the proctor pressed
Jefferson to find a compromise, especially since Spooner's work would not interfere with the
part left for Nelson. "If you think I must discard this young man notwithstanding the
expence & trouble he has been at to provide materials & prepare the work, I will do so,"
Brockenbrough said, "otherwise I shall let him go with the part engaged to him."[359]
Jefferson, quite ill with "the dry hard belly ake attended with a great portion of wind,"[360]
and hence unable to intervene in the dispute, forwarded the proctor's request to the other
member of the committee of superintendence with the instruction that he "decide upon the
business of this letter himself."[361]

When confronted with the situation Cocke insisted that the contract with Spooner "should be
faithfully complied with," but at the same time he thought it might be modified in such a
manner consistent with Spooner's "expectations & interest, and will enable us to fulfil the
assurance which both Mr. J & myself have always given Mr. N—that he shou'd find
employment at the University as soon as his existing engagements wou'd admit of his
undertaking."[362] Cocke recently had employed both Neilson and Spooner in the building
of his Palladian mansion Bremo and presumably knew the temperament of each man well
enough to effect a reconciliation of interests. The compromise that Cocke suggested for the
workmen gave to Spooner the "Sash frames, & joists, of 2d. Story & the roof & Sheeting"
and to Neilson the "making the Sashes the external Cornice and the whole of the inside
work and the use of a part of the workshop now in the occupancy of Spooner at an equitable
rent.—This seems to me to be yeilding to Mr. Spooner as much as he will be giving up to
Mr. N."[363] Spooner's progress was such that the proposal had to be modified somewhat in
early November,[364] and it was December before the pavilion was ready for Nelson's part
of the work to begin.[365]

The Year Ends

As the traditional season for building in the handcraft era approached its climax in 1819,
Jefferson could look back upon it with satisfaction in spite of the year's setbacks
(particularly the inability of the stone carvers to keep pace because of the poor quality of
their material). By Christmas eve the approach of winter in the "more genial climate" of his
Virginia south, Jefferson observed to George Ticknor of Harvard, "is scarcely announced by
it's harbingers ice and snow." "Repeated and severed attacks of illness" since his visit to
Warm Springs after the meeting of the Rockfish Gap Commission in the fall of 1818 had not
often prevented his excursions to the university for "daily exercise." With glee Jefferson
could exclaim that the "hobby of his old" age was carried on with "much activity and hope,
and will form an unique and beautiful Academical Villa," in which every professor "will
have a distinct house, or pavilion, to himself," of the "best workmanship of street
architecture, intended as regular and classical models for the lectures on that subject. to each
is annexed a garden and other conveniencies."[366]

Chapter 5
The Building Campaign of 1820

Bitter Weather

Despite Jefferson's hyperbole about Virginia's "genial climate," the new year opened with a
bitter arctic blast. "On the morning of the 1st Jany (Saturday last) the Thermometer hung out
in the open air, stood at 9 below Zero, a little before Sunrise-At 9. oclock being removed
into the passage where it usually hangs, it stood at 2 degrees below 0 after breakfast, 1
degree above 0 . . . Ice 7 Inches thick on the River."[368] These winter conditions brought
work on the buildings at the university to a near standstill. Huddled by the Monticello
fireplaces trying to keep warm, Jefferson's concern during the month was focused more on
raising the money necessary to continue construction and "relieve the actual distresses of
our workmen" than on the progress those workmen were making. Private subscriptions
came in "slow & grudgingly" when at all, Jefferson complained to state Senator Joseph
Carrington Cabell.[369] He directed Alexander Garrett to draw $13,000 to distribute "among
the claiments," whose demands, the bursar informed Jefferson's partner on the committee of
superintendence, "already exceeds the second annual donation by the state."[370]

Land Deed

Before he left for Richmond to secure the funds, Garrett found the time to draw up a land
deed for a forty-eight and three quarter acres tract of land, surveyed by Albemarle County
Surveyor William Woods, that John M. and Frances T. Perry were selling to the university
for $7,231.80. Bordered in part by the Wheelers and Three Notch'd roads and adjacent to the
forty-three and three quarter acres parcel that the Perrys had sold to the Central College, the
second tract greatly increased the holdings of the university but its purchase contributed to
the severe financial drain faced by the institution. Upon his return from Richmond, Garrett
made an estimate of the university's financial situation, based on figures provided by the
proctor, and concluded that an additional $97,098.25 was needed to complete the university
—$38,898.25 to finish the buildings already commenced, and $58,200.00 to erect the
buildings not yet started. Some $80,000 of that amount still was wanting, and the private
subscribers to the Central College were expected to provide a maximum of only
$8,800.02.[371] In order to counter "the deplorable state of our funds," which also included
approximately $15,000 in debts owed to university contractors, an appeal was maded to
Senator Cabell to raise the money in the Virginia General Assembly so that the undertakers
would not have to discharge their journeymen for the lack of funds to pay them.[372]

Financial Woes

While Jefferson awaited the result of Cabell's efforts from his mansion outside
Charlottesville, he expressed his uneasiness about the state of affairs to Madison. "The
finances of the University are in a most painful state," he wrote. "the donation of 1820. is
recieved & paid away, and we still owe 15,000 for work already done."[373] Meanwhile, the
best Cabell could do was to win support for a bill authorizing the university to borrow
money to finish its buildings. The recent embezzlement by the state treasurer of $120,000
ruled out an outright gift of $80,000.[374] Jefferson, nevertheless, was relieved when Cabell
wrote to inform him of the passage of a compromise bill on 24 February granting the
institution power to borrow $60,000 against the credit of its own funds, adding that the
"University is popular in the Senate, and unpopular in the House of Delegates" (see
appendix H).[375]

The Work Continues

Back at the construction site, John Neilson "brought up some workmen" to begin his part of
the joinery work on Pavilion V in mid-February while George W. Spooner, Jr., continued to
work on the same building.[376] Ware and his Philadelphia workmen presumably were
weathering the cold as best they could, working outside on the east lawn when possible, for
Ambrose Flanagan delivered the Philadelphians $106.57 worth of plank on 10 February.[377]
Oldham, Dinsmore, and Perry still had interior work to shield them from the weather. For
instance, the Corinthian pavilion reserved for Thomas Cooper on the west lawn (number III)
was ready for the plasterer in early March 1820.[378] The walls and ceilings had to be
plastered before the doors and windows could be hung, which the housejoiner assured
Jefferson could be done in a fortnight, and then the whole interior had to be painted.
Jefferson optimistically predicted that the building would be ready for occupancy by the first
of May, although he calculated another month might be necessary so that "the plaistering
may become drier, as to allow for little miscalculations of workmen."[379] In mid-March,
James Glasgow and Joseph Antrim sent in separate proposals for plasterwork. Glasgow
offered "to Do all the Plastering Ruff Casting & Stuco Work that may be Wanting to be
Done,"[380] and both men referenced the price book of the Master Plasterers Company of
Philadelphia's and agreed to let the work be measured by the Philadelphia mode of
measurement. Brockenbrough signed a contract with Antrim on 22 March,[381] and in
mid-May John H. Craven delivered Antrim 1,625 pounds of hay to mix with the plaster and
some plank for his work on the pavilion.[382]

As for painting, John Bevan of "Kilmarnock Lancaster county" "assumed the liberty of
soliciting work" in that line of business from Jefferson back in September 1819, but his
proposal apparently came too early to be given serious consideration.[383] Benjamin Collins
of Philadelphia in December 1819 sent in a bid offering to glaze the window sashes and do
plain painting by the yard.[384] Collins and the proctor apparently worked out some kind of
agreement in which Collins would supply glass and the paint supplies and Englishman John
Vowles (who was later the principal painter and glazer at the Rotunda and the Anatomical
Hall) would actually oversee its application at the university, although Vowles at about this
time submitted his own bid, for plain and "Mahogany, or any kind of Fancy Work,"
addressed to "Mr. John Carr proctor U. Va."[385] Collins later sold the contract to Edward
Lowber of Philadelphia, the actual supplier of the materials, although Lowber quickly came
to regret making the bargain.[386] In any event, painters were active on the site by the
beginning of May when the proctor procured a pint of oil from them for Jefferson, possibly
to use in making the hotel drawings he was then engaged in.[387]

The Visitors Meet

When the spring meeting of the Board of Visitors rolled around, the board spent its time
discussing the pending loan from the Literary Fund, and the only action it took regarding
construction of the buildings was to vote to apply the monies from the loan to the debts
owed the workmen, and to direct any balance "towards the erection of buildings of
accommodation on the eastern back street."[388] On the day of the visitors' session at the
university, Robert McCullock, who with his brother James operated one of more than three
dozen sawmills in Albemarle County's Fredericksville Parish, delivered 3,286 feet of lumber
to James Oldham (receiving $57.56 for his compensation), indicating at least some small
life at the site.[389] After the members separated, Jefferson directed the proctor to make an
estimate "of the whole expence of compleating such buildings, distinguishing the expence of
each," to be enclosed later in the fall report to the president and directors of the Literary
Fund. Brockenbrough estimated that $10,000 was needed immediately to pay the
institution's debts and another $18,000 was needed to complete the 7 pavilions and 31
dormitories in progress. To "compleat the Area," meaning the upper square, or lawn, the
final 3 pavilions would require $18,000 and the 24 dormitories, $9,600. For the "East back
street," to be commenced in the current year, Brockenbrough estimated 3 hotels could be
built for $9,000 and 25 dormitories for an additional $10,000. That meant $74,600 was
wanting to bring the accounts to date and to carry on the work projected for 1820. All that
would remain after that was "2. Hotels & Proctor's house & 25. dormits. compleatg. W. back
street" that were expected to be started in 1821 at a projected cost of $19,000.[390] The
$93,600 total, not far off from the bursar's February estimate, would "accomplish the
buildings of the whole establishment (the Library excepted)" by the end of 1821.[391]

Spring Brings New Life

About a month following the visitors' meeting the construction at the university site was
once again being carried on at a respectable speed. The proctor pressed his architect to send
the hotel plans down from the mountaintop so that the carpenters could ascertain the size
and amount of timber that needed to be cut. He had decided to assign Hotel A to James
Oldham, whom he thought could better manage the large flat roof that was planned for the
building. Spooner and Perry would receive the smaller hotels. The layout of the buildings on
the west range apparently had not been finalized, at least not in Brockenbrough's thinking,
for he informed Jefferson that "Hotel A if placed in a line with the North flank wall of Pav:
No 1. will have no dormitory attached to it as there is only 56 feet from the north flank to
the alley or cross street runing up to the back of the dormitories." To solve this difficulty the
rector was requested to visit the site before Brockenbrough set the laborers to digging the
foundations of the hotels. "I find if we cut in the bank the depth of Hotel A we shall have a
bank 7 feet high & then the cellar to dig out in order to save some labor I propose advancing
the buildings a few feet in the street & then throwing the street more to the East."[392]

Also in May, Brockenbrough attempted to revitalize efforts at the university to push forward
the stonework. He sought to hire a stonecutter, "by the day or piece work," who just finished
carving for General Cocke at Upper Bremo. He could pay for "plain work 25 cents pr
Superficial foot & 50 pr foot straight moulded work, & 75 cents for circular Moulded do pr
foot superficial," or $1.50 a day.[393] Luther M. George sent up "Som cut Stone" from
Milton, apparently shipped from Richmond by Thomas B. Conway, along with the word that
"a very Large one hear" weighing at least 2,800 pounds could be wagoned up when
wanted.[394] A few days later George sent word that his "Boatman Elijah has brough[t] up
an other of them Large Rock and have Sent it on by a waggoner."[395] (Elijah, who
apparently was George's slave, later worked for the university 41 days straight "inclusive
easter Monday & 2 other lost days deducted.")[396] Destined to become an Ionic cap, the
2,149 pound stone at Lewis Ferry cost the university $12 by the time it reached the
construction site. John H. Wood charged the university $13.14 for boating 3 small "ones of
wrought stone" to be used for bases and caps and one 2,389 pound rock from Richmond to
Milton at the end of the month.[397] In early June the proctor tried to talk Jefferson into
buying marble from Pennsylvania after Giacomo Raggi, who "complains much of this
stone," returned from Philadelphia with a sample more to his liking.[398] Jefferson would
hear nothing of the proposal, although in July he finally conceded that something must be
done. He wrote Consul Thomas Appleton in Leghorn to ask how much it would cost,
"considering the low price of labor, and of the material with you," to get the Corinthian
capitals ready made from Carrara.[399] It was February 1821 before Jefferson received
Appleton's reply, and only then did he discover that he had omitted to give Appleton the
number of capitals he wanted carved![400]

Jefferson visited the university on Tuesday, 6 June, but Brockenbrough, unfortunately "out
of place," was not able to get the rector's opinion on several important points immediately at
hand. One of the questions he wanted to ask, whether to place the "ornaments for the metops
layed down by Nicholson" in the "Frize of Pavilion No 2 E. Range," gives some indication
of Richard Ware's progress on that building.[401] The substitution of tin gutters for wooden
ones and the ordering of marble from Philadelphia both have been discussed previously, as
has the progress of the pipe borers in laying down waterpipes. Jefferson's answers to the
proctor's inquiries about substituting 10 x 12 glass for 12 x 12 in the hotel windows in order
to save money and whether the cornice and entablature of the pavilions would look better a
stone color rather than perfectly white have not survived but can be easily surmised. The
question of building a small house for each of the Italian stonecutters' wives worked itself
out when the women decided not to leave their native homes. Finally, the proctor had
concluded brickwork agreements for the new buildings at $10 per thousand for "common &
peace bricks" and $16 for the "front or rubed stretchers." Curtis Carter contracted for
Pavilion VI and Hotel A; John Perry and Abiah Thorn for Pavilion VIII and Hotel B;
William B. Phillips for Pavilion X and Hotel C; and the "dormitories divided amongst
them."[402] By the end of June John Neilson could report that the "brick-layers have begun
their seasons work and all seems getting forward."[403]

Over the course of the late spring and summer the university's suppliers continued to
provide various kinds of materials to the construction site. James Leitch's account for the
period shows that while the merchant continued to sell nails, he also became the institution's
main whiskey and Jamaica rum dealer.[404] The firm of Brockenbrough & Harvie helped out
its Richmond competitor, John Van Lew & Co., by taking over some of its accounts with the
university for the glass, tin, hardware, etc. that the latter had sold to the university between
August 1819 and mid-May 1820.[405] John Van Lew & Co., experiencing difficulties in
procuring boats, began to ship its tin, iron, herring, and assortment of hardware exclusively
by wagons; James Stone, Andrew Jamison, Hembro Pendleton, and Thomas Jackson all
drove wagons to the university during the spring and summer.[406] Thomas Perkins of
Boston, in response to a request from the university, sent Brockenbrough a quote for Boston
Crown Glass from the agents of the Boston Glass Manufactory, Pearson & Cloutman.[407] In
June William Bowen delivered 6,500 wooden shingles to James Oldham, at a cost of
$58.50.[408]

Jefferson Enthusiastic

On the day before Jefferson wrote to the president and directors of the Literary Fund to
request authorization to draw the remaining third of its $60,000 loan from the fund he wrote
a long personal letter to his son-in-law, John Wayles Eppes of Mill Brook, who had retired
from Congress a year earlier because of declining health.[409] In addition to describing the
general scheme and progress of the university to Eppes, Jefferson invited his ailing
son-in-law to bring his family for a visit to Monticello and the institution's site.

When writing to the sovereigns of Montpelier and Braintree two weeks later, Jefferson
echoed his enthusiasm for the progress taking place at the village that is so obvious in his
letter to Eppes, and unlike his constant complaints of a year previous. "Our buildings at the
University go on so rapidly and will exhibit such a state and prospect by the meeting of the
legislature," he hopefully suggested to Madison, "that no one seems to think it possible they
should fail to enable us to open the institution the ensuing year."[411] And to his former
political rival he wrote, "our university, 4. miles distant, gives me frequent exercise, and the
oftener as I direct it's architecture. it's plan is unique, and it is becoming an object of
curiosity for the traveller."[412]

Coffee in New York

As the end of the summer of 1820 neared, the English ornamental sculptor William John
Coffee wrote to Jefferson two times, first to give him the result of his inquiry into the cost of
fire engines and next to update him on the frieze ornaments he promised to make for Poplar
Forest and the university. Coffee visited Albemarle County earlier in the year and arrived
back at New York on 18 July, he said, "much fatigued with a Journey of 1,203 miles by
Land, that is from Monticello to Canada & from Canada to N. York Via—Albany." Once in
New York City, Coffee visited No. 293 Pearl Street, the home of Able W. Hardenbrook, a
maker of "fire Engins." Hardenbrook's prices per foot "For Hose or Leaders as they are
Called her[e]" were "$1—that is 8 Shillings this City money" for 3½ inches diameter, 50
cents for ½ inch, and $3 for "the Suckers or Suction Pipes." New York City fire engines used
3 to 400 feet of hose, Hardenbrook told Coffee, but the common length of leaders was about
100 feet.[413] Coffee wrote again a week later from Newark, New Jersey, to inform Jefferson
that the ornaments for "Bedford House" and "The University" were in "great fordwardness,"
claiming that "no time has been Lost Sines I have been at home or have I applyed a Single
hour to any other Employment so very Laboreous & difficult has been this undertaking."
The shipment of the ornaments to Virginia, however, would depend on the "unfortunate
State" of New York City, which had become, according to Coffee, so dangerous to the health
and life of its inhabitants that it was draining off "all that Can any way Convenintly leave
Such a Smite of disease and Corruption, I need not say to you that it will Continue its
Scourgeing March ontill the first part of november at which time we are Visited by the
Healthy nor'west winds and a Black frost. So much do I dislike this Stinking Pestilential
City, and so dread the prevailing fever that I thought it Proper to leave The City for this little
Town." Coffee also added that he had waited upon Peter Maverick (who worked in Newark)
and "gave him your Drawing," and he "Promised to Send you a Proofe Plate I hope by this
time he has don So."[414] This was the first step in the production of the famed Maverick
group of engravings, the first printed ground plan of the Academical Village (see appendix
O).[415]

Italian Artisan Disgruntled

While the sculptor in plaster and terra cotta was molding ornaments for frieze work and
running errands in the New York City area, his friend at Monticello was engaged in a minor
"difficulty" with one of the Italian sculptors. Attention has been called already to the Raggi
brothers' dissatisfaction with the Virginia stone. Back in October 1819 the "Senior
[Giamoco] Raggi" communicated the stonecutters' willingness to dissolve their contract
with the university, but the offer was ignored and the stonework commenced, albeit slowly,
for the next ten months.[416] At the beginning of September Michele Raggi renewed his
offer to void his current agreement with the university, this time presenting three new
options, that of carving the Corinthian capitals in Carrara marble at the European quarry
under contract at a "most desirable price"; carving the capitals at Carrara "as if under your
eyes for just the wages which we have now"; and lastly, because he could "no longer work
with these stones since they are thereby prejudicing [my] health," the university could
import stone from Philadelphia or Italy, and meanwhile he would renew his contract for five
years and travel to Europe at his own expense to get his wife.[417] The younger Raggi,
desperate to see his new bride and the child that had been born to them since he left Italy,
recently had sprained his wrist while working on the lesser quality stone so that he could not
v "work this month or two, in this state of body, and homesick, & love-sick mind, he will be
of no use to us." Thinking that Consul Thomas Appleton in Leghorn could arrange to
furnish capitals cheaper, Jefferson, in agreement with his partner on the committee of
superintendence, made a counter proposal to the stonecutter.[418] The university would
release Raggi with "wages to the day of discontinuing" only, and the Italian would pay the
expenses of his journey and voyage back to his homeland. The committee considered this a
fair compromise because the university had received only about one-half of the time for
work agreed to, although it had paid for the cutter's voyage to America.[419]

Michele Raggi chose to sever his ties to the university on 9 September according to the
terms offered him by the committee of superintendence but apparently had second thoughts
about it after arriving in Washington, for on 26 September he wrote Jefferson a scathing
letter outlining his grievances.

Being unable any longer to stand the bad food which your Director of the College was
sending me, and seeing that you were not putting yourself to any haste to procure the marble
blocks so that I might finish the time of my contract as I would have done if this stone of
yours had not ruined my stomach along with the sheep which the said Director sent me to
eat, for the mere sight of the said food turned my stomach. You know well that my contract
said I was to be lodged and nourished according to my profession, nor are you ignorant how
Artists are treated in Italy and France! Propriety, duty, and justice demand that I be satisfied
at least as to my trip since you have not gotten for me the material to work with not having
the means to give me the marble blocks as explained.[420]

Raggi then appealed for $300 dollars to cover his voyage "back to the bosom of my family
from which you took me" and told Jefferson that the ex-president's "reputation alone
brought me to America, and that it has ruined my expectations and my health, and that I am
going home with one arm perhaps useless to earn my bread." Disappointed that the
university did not commission him to carve the Corinthian capitals at Carrara, he offered to
execute the works out of Washington stone for $1,000 a year, the "least salary that the
lowest of countrymen has, and which I think I, too, deserve." He concluded by begging
Jefferson "not to throw me in the middle of a street" and closed by adding a postscript to
direct the money to the care of "the Widow Franzoni" requesting Jefferson to "answer me in
French."[421]

Jefferson responded to Raggi's complaints and accusations with a lengthy remonstrance that
placed blame squarely upon the young artisan's shoulders. Jefferson first narrated the history
and terms of the contract made in Leghorn with Appleton on behalf of the university and
reminded Raggi of the $200 advance to cover his "expences by sea and land to this place"
and of another $200 that was sent later to Leghorn to enable his wife to come to America.

The last remark seems a little disingenuous considering that Jefferson expected the sculptor
to remain unemployed for another two months because of his wrist injury and when it is
recalled that Jefferson already had written Thomas Appleton on 13 July requesting the
consul to inquire into the cost of carving the capitals at Carrara and crating them for
shipment across the Atlantic. Jefferson then recounted the settlement between Raggi and the
proctor, noting that exclusive of board and lodging the university had spent $919.68 for
Raggi's traveling and wages over a 15-month period and "for this you know, we have
nothing to shew but a single Ionic capitel, and an unfinished Corinthian." Although the
"misfortune was ours, and was increased by that of the sprain of your wrist disabling you
from work," Jefferson said, the university gave up the remaining portion of an agreement
that "might have lessened our loss, merely to indulge the feelings and uneasiness under
which we saw you." Raggi's complaints about his lodging and diet and his insinuation that
Jefferson and Brockenbrough were personally responsible for his misery incensed Jefferson
the most, however:

Jefferson, insisting that he and the proctor had fulfilled "all the claims of justice, of
indulgence, and of liberality" toward the artisan, told Raggi that the "desponding and
unhappy state" of his mind while at the university "proceeded from the constitutional and
moral affections resulting from your own temperament and the incidents acting on it, and
not from any thing depending on those in our employ." Jefferson declined Raggi's offer to
make the capitals at Washington and closed the matter to further discussion, directing future
correspondence to the proctor, "within whose duties it lies, and not within mine."[422]

Money Requested from Literary Fund

On the same fall day that Jefferson wrote to Michele Raggi to absolve himself and the
university from the stonecutter's ire, he sent a desperate plea for money for the university to
his son-in-law and governor, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., who was also president of the
Literary Fund. The institution had exhausted the first two-thirds of the $60,000 loan it
obtained from the Literary Fund and on 13 August had requested the remaining $20,000
which the fund's board of directors refused to provide.[423] Alexander Garrett, the bursar,
with "demands now pressing hardly" on him, called on Jefferson on 7 October asking him to
"sollicit from your [Literary Fund] board an immediate attention to the supplementary loan
of 20,000. D."[424] The Board of Visitors at its fall meeting a few days before on 2-3
October had decided to include in its annual report to the president and directors of the
Literary Fund a financial statement drawn up between February and April 1820 that listed
the existing debts and projected costs of completing the buildings at $93,600.[425] Of course
that statement, covering the university's first year of operation (from the spring of 1819 to
the spring of 1820) did not accurately represent the university's financial situation in
October 1820 because another half-year had passed. Accordingly, the proctor made a
detailed statement of the university's expenditures covering the previous twelve months,
which Jefferson sent along with the report to the Literary Fund in December.[426] Although
there was no business concerning the buildings' construction to be discussed by the visitors
at their meeting, the account summarized the disbursements to the undertakers over the past
year. Despite the desperate state of the university's finances, shifting the debts owed to the
workmen to the Literary Fund allowed the building process to continue at the rate initially
planned, although it meant postponing the hiring of professors and the opening of the school
to students.

Financial Statement

Brockenbrough's "Statement of the application of the Funds" showed that between 1
October 1819 and 30 September 1820, John M. Perry earned more than any of the other
contractors by his association with the university.[427] First, he received the last payment for
the 48¾ acres of land that he sold to the Central College, $3,615.90. He earned $2,990.54
for the "brick work of Pavilion No 3 and seven dormitories, executed in 1819" and an
additional $8,598.75 for "carpenters work on pavilion No 4 West and 16 Dormitories,
including plastering & lumber, and the brick work of No 4 East with 8 dormitories & the
brick & wood work of Hotel B with 9 dormitories" ($15,205.19 total). James Dinsmore
received $5,314.15 for "carpenters & Joiners work of Pavilion No 2 West and Pavilion No 4
East and eight dormitories including lumber & other articles." Dinsmore & Perry received
$1,544.11 for "Carpenters & Joiners work and lumber for Pavilion No III West and six
dormitories." Altogether Perry and Dinsmore together received a total of $12,063.45 from
the university bursar.

After Perry, Richard Ware and his gang of Philadelphians earned the most at the
construction site during the period. For the "brick work of Pavilions No 1 and 2 East with
four dormitories" Ware was paid $3,891.72, and for "Carpenters & Joiners work & lumber
for Pavilions 1, 2, & 3 and 13 dormitories" he received $6,503.77, or a total of $10,395.49.
Carter & Phillips "for their brick work last year in Pavilions 1 & 5 West & 5 dormitories
&c" were paid $3,506.75. Phillips earned another $898.71 for "brick work this year in
pavilion No 5 East and Hotel C" and Carter received an additional $926.79 for "brick work
in Pavilion No 3 East & Hotel A." Together, Curtis Carter and William B. Phillips took in
$5,332.25.

James Oldham brought in $2,919.99 for "carpenters & joiners work on Pavilion No 1 West
with four dormitories and Hotel A with nine dormitories and lumber." Abiah Thorn earned
only $86.50, that for laying the "stone foundation to Columns to Pav: No 1." George W.
Spooner, Jr., apparently gaining from the proctor's mistake in awarding him extra work,
made $2,084.57 for "carpenters work on Pav: No 5 West and on Hotel C with 10 dormitories
& lumber." John Neilson, on the other hand, earned only $1,486.57 for "work and lumber
for Pav: No 5 West and pavilion No 5 East with 7 dormitories." For "brick work in Pavilion
No 5 west," Peter Myers was paid $11.56.

The former proctor of the Central College, Nelson Barksdale, received $800 "for lumber for
the buildings," $1,101 for "the hire of Negroes for 1819," and $65 for "a horse for the use of
the Institution," a total of $1,966. The Italian stonecutters Michele and Giacomo Raggi
received for "Wages as scu[l]ptors, board, washing &c." $1,294.24, and Giacomo Raggi another
$70 for "wages," bringing their earnings together to $1,364.24. Stonecutters Joseph
Cowden and James Campbell were paid $314.50, and John Gorman got $679.06. John
Cullen "& others for quarrying Stone for Boxes, Caps, Sills, steps &c" received $269.25,
and Thomas B. Conway $75 for "free Stone."

Joseph Antrim earned $681.69 for "plastering," and Edward Lowber was paid $598.25 for
his role in the "painting & Glazing." A. H. Brooks "for Covering pavilions 1 and 5 West and
1 and 2 East with Tin & tin pipes for No 2 W" was paid $798.47. Elijah Huffman got
$242.53 for "boring & laying water pipes," Lewis Bailey for "ditching for the pipes" $25.50,
and William Boin & others for do" $85.67. John Herron for "Wages as Overseer" earned
$106 and Jesse Lewis for "Smiths work" $160.88. Another $1,620.26 was spent "for
provisions for laborers & Overseer paid for hire of laborers, Waggonage and other
unavoidable expences." Charlottesville merchant James Leitch took in $1,332.73 for
"sundries furnished for the buildings in the year 1818 and 1819," and the Richmond
merchant firm of Brockenbrough & Harvie "for nails" was paid $282.96. The largest
Richmond firm supplying the university, John Van Lew & Co., was paid $1,360.76 for
supplying "Tin, hardware" and the smallest Richmond supplier, D. W. & C. Warwick
received for "Sundries" only $37. (The suppliers total added up to $3,013.45.) Finally,
Proctor Brockenbrough received $1,604.85 for his salary and Alexander Garrett $375 for his
services as bursar. All told, the disbursements amounted to $59,158.81.

In addition to recording monies already spent in construction at the university,
Brockenbrough's 30 September statement provided an estimate of the amount required to
finish the "buildings now on hand, and two more Hotels, a Proctors house and twenty eight
dormitories to complete the range on the Western Street." First, "Agreeable to our estimate
on the 1st Oct: 1819. we required to complete the buildings then contracted for the sum of"
$38,898.25. To complete the "3 other Pavilions now building," would require $18,000; the 3
Hotels or boarding houses do," $9,000; and the "45 Dormitories do," $18,000, making a
total of $45,000. "For 2 Other Hotels & proctors house on the West Street with 28
dormitories yet to be put up," $20,200 was expected to be needed. Add for the "Stone work
digging & removing earth and other unavoidable expences at least 25 pr cent," or
$26,024.56, and the grand total needed to finish construction climbed to $130,122.81.
However, $59,158.81 already paid to the "Several undertakers of the buildings and others as
pr the foregoing account since Oct: 1st 1819" could be subtracted from the $130,122.81,
leaving an estimated $70,964 needed to finish all the construction of the buildings. As for
income, the $20,000 balance from the $60,000 loan was yet left, and the 1821 yearly
annuity would be $15,000, although $2,400 had to be deducted from that to pay interest on
the outstanding $40,000. Thus the Balance required to complete the buildings (exclusive of
the library), Brockenbrough estimated, was $38,364.

Jefferson's Summary of Finances

Jefferson summarized the foregoing statement at the end of November for Senator Cabell to
use "in conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of what our institution is to cost, and
reproaches of deceptive estimates." According to the best estimates of the university bursar,
proctor, and rector, all the lands, buildings, and "other expenditures" for the University of
Virginia could be expected to cost $162,364, exclusive of the library and an observatory.
That included the original estimate of 10 pavilions for the professors' accommodation
($60,000), 6 hotels for dieting the students ($21,000), 104 dormitories ($36,400), 200 acres
of land with additional buildings ($10,000), and contingencies such as leveling the grounds
and streets, laying the water pipes, covering roofs with tin instead of shingles, and
"numerous other" contingencies ($10,000), plus the actual cost above the estimates of about
18 percent ($24,964). An observatory could be built, Jefferson thought, for $10,000 to
$12,000 and the "Library House" for $40,000 more, thus pushing up the estimate for the
entire group of buildings to $214,364.[428] Jefferson told Senator Cabell that "not an office
at Washington has cost less" than the $162,364 figure, and the "single building of the Court
house of Henrico has cost nearly that: and the massive walls of the millions of bricks of
Wm. & Mary could not be now built for a greater sum."[429] His letter to Cabell containing
the statement and defense of the probable costs of the buildings also contained an
impassioned argument for a whole scheme of public education for his beloved Virginia, but
Cabell and other university supporters in the General Assembly thought its promotion might
work against the university's best interest. "Our object is now," wrote Senator Cabell, "to
finish the buildings."[430]

Chapter 6
The Building Campaign of 1821

Work Stalled

Progress toward the attainment of that end (to finish the buildings) was virtually nil over the
next several months. Besides renewing the agreements for the hiring of slaves, the only
other observable activity taking place at the construction site before March was the sale of
Curtis Carter's brickwork contract on 4 January. Contractor John M. Perry purchased the
business for $520 and the promise to have the brickwork "finnished in a nise and
workmanlike manner" as soon as the season would "permit him to doo the Same." In return
Perry received all the bricks and "likewise the house and Stable with all the oak I have on
hand" from Carter plus the right to the same compensation from the university for
performing the work.[431] As for the rector and proctor, they spent the rest of the winter
scampering for money with which to continue to operate. In late January 1821
Brockenbrough informed Cabell that the workmen "are progressing here as fast as the
severity of the weather and the low state of our funds will admit."[432] By then, three
contractors had demanded substantial sums from the institution—William B. Phillips,
Edward Lowber, and John Perry—the third failing to have his request honored.[433] The
proctor hoped Cabell could influence the legislature to double the institution's annual
appropriation and authorize the university to obtain additional loans because "without it we
shall not be able to do much in the building way."[434] Cabell's answer was not very
reassuring. "It is painful to me to tell you," he wrote Brockenbrough, "that clouds of
difficulty roll over our horizon & darken our prospects. Yet I hope that we shall be able to
procure the funds requisite to finish the buildings."[435]

Cabell Wants to Retire

More worrisome for Jefferson for the moment than even the present financial plight of the
university was Cabell's recent decision not to sit for reelection to the Virginia Senate
because of his poor health. Cabell had warned Jefferson on 4 January to "be prepared for a
failure this session" in gaining additional support for the university and two weeks later the
senator wrote again to inform his friend that "we shall be able to effect nothing for the
University during the present session. . . . But I do not despair, and all that I can do shall be
done. I am turning my attention to a future and better Assembly. . . . it would be well if you
and Mr. Madison would aid in getting some efficient friends into the next Assembly."[436]
Jefferson would understand that last clause only after receiving a third new year's letter from
Cabell written a week later "to touch upon a subject that has engaged my thoughts for a long
time past"—that of withdrawing from public life at the end of his present term of service.
"Such is the weakness of my breast," Cabell complained, "that to ride from Court-house to
Court-house, making speeches to large crowds, exposed to the rigors of the season, might
carry me to the grave, or bring on me further and more distressing symptoms of pulmonary
affection." He reassured Jefferson that his feelings and opinions regarding the institution had
not undergone any change and that he did not secretly wish to stand for the United States
Congress or "any other public station." "I have been here thirteen winters," he declared
simply. "My object now is domestic, rural and literary leisure."[437]

On the same day that Cabell replied to Brockenbrough's plea for legislative action for the
university, Jefferson himself penned a caustic and gloomy response to Cabell's January
letters, of which he said, "they fill me with gloom as to the dispositions of our legislature
towards the University. I percieve that I am not to live to see it opened." The
shortsightedness of the General Assembly in failing to increase its annual appropriation for
education, in Jefferson's opinion, would force the university to resort to another loan. That
being the case, $60,000 must be sought, enough to build the library and reserve $2,000 a
year "for care of the buildings, improvement of the grounds, & unavoidable contingencies."
"My individual opinion," said Jefferson, "is that we had better not open the institution until
the buildings, Library & all, are finished, and our funds cleared of incumbrance." That latter
stipulation would delay the opening for 13 years, he estimated, disagreeable for sure to the
"common mind" which could be satisfied with running the school "with half funds only."
However, the delay could benefit the university by preventing it from becoming another of
the "paltry academies we now have," one that instead could compete with Harvard and
Princeton for the minds of the educated youths of Virginia who in the north were "learning
the lessons of anti-Missourianism" and returning home, "no doubt, deeply impressed with
the sacred principles of our Holy alliance of Restrictionists."[438] As painful as it would be
not to live to see the university in operation, Jefferson nevertheless reserved most of his
brooding for Cabell's personal consideration.

Upon receiving Jefferson's reproachful letter, Cabell immediately succumbed to the author.
"It is not in my nature to resist such an appeal," he replied. "I this day handed into the office
of the Enquirer, a notification that I should again be a candidate. We will pass on to matters
of more importance."[440]

Work Still Slow

The incoming March winds of 1821 unfortunately were not strong enough to stir much of an
increase in the activity at the building site. Jasper Myers' inconsequential delivery of a few
casks, a bundle of copper, and a half dozen shovels on 4 March for John Van Lew & Co.
preceded two other small shipments of nails, lead, and iron that the firm sent later in the
month by wagoners Henry Wall and George Cline.[441] John Pollock spent three days in
March "Hawling Stocks" to James Oldham, a chore he repeated in June and July.[442] In the
third week of March, at the university's request, D. W. & C. Warwick shipped a wagon
containing 25 boxes of tin by William Estes, who once at the university hired himself to
haul 660 feet of 1-inch plank to John Gorman.[443] And finally, at the end of the month
Edward Lowber shipped 28 boxes of window glass to Charlottesville, complaining at the
very time of shipment about the $450 he had to invest in it, "as well as all articles of
colours," on short credit.[444]

Workmen Submit New Proposals

Now that springtime had arrived in Virginia once again, the university began advertising for
undertakers to submit proposals to complete the western range of hotels and dormitories,
scheduled to be started during the upcoming season. The first to respond was William
Dawson & Co. of Baltimore which noticed the university's advertisement calling for
proposals from brickworkers in the Morning Chronicle and Daily Advertiser on 24 March.
Dawson sent a paper describing Roman Cement with an offer to sell it to the institution at a
cost of $9 per 350 pound cask.[445] The next day local sawmill owner M. W. Maury bid for
the carpentry and joinery work of a hotel and its adjacent dormitories at the prices
"heretofore Allowd for work of the same description done . . . or by M. Careys book of
prices printed at Philidelphia in 1812," and, Maury concluded, "I would furnish my own
lumber if requir'd as low as it can be obtain'd."[446] Also on 25 March, Thomas Pickering
wrote to "avail myself" of the opportunity to "undertake the Carpentry of buildings in the
general at the reduced price of twenty percent below the prices Current of
Philadelphia—My general unacquaintance with the inhabitance of this Vicinity would
render it inconvenient for me to furnish materials."[447] On the following day John Carter of
Richmond offered to work "Either as a brick maker or to make and Lay bricks," preferring
to make and deliver 4 to 600,000 bricks (common brick for $5.75 and rubbed stretchers for
$10 the thousand), "and find all at the Same that the work was done for Last Year."[448]

Philadelphian Richard Ware submitted his bid for wood work on 27 March, saying, "I will
be glad to do the Carpenters work of aney part of the Western range of Hotells &
dormoterys that the honorable committee may favour me with I expect to finish my presnt
job this next fall earley."[449] The next day George W. Spooner, Jr., wrote in, observing that
the advertisement divided the hotels and dormitories of the western range into "five partes,
am disposed to undertake one of those portions viz the execution of the Wood Worke, as I
shall have finished my presant engagements on Hotell B and dormitories on or ab[o]ut the
1st of July next."[450] Brockenbrough informed Spooner on 2 April that he could have a
piece of the work at a price reduced from the previous year, and Spooner accepted his
proposal the following day, noting that "we must necessarily be obliged to reduce the wages
of oure Workmen which are already so low that they are hardly sufficient to induce good
workmen to leave Sities and come here for employment."[451]

William B. Phillips, "feeling dispose to Solicit your patronage Again," said on 29 March
that he could make and lay 450 to 500,000 bricks during the coming season at the same
prices and conditions as before.[452] On 30 March Thomas R. Blackburn asked to be given
one-fifth of the western range's carpentry work at 10% off the Philadelphia Price Book,[453]
and Malcom F. Crawford said he would "under take to finish one fifth of youre work at the
preasent prisces and execute it in a most Expoditious and workemanlike manner. I
Comprehend that this tuscan work cannot be done for less than the preasant prisces, unless a
man dose injustices too himself or his Employer."[454] (Crawford and Lyman Peck entered
into a contract on 10 August for the carpentery and joinery work of 25 dormitories on the
west range).[455] James Dinsmore and John Perry sent in separate proposals on 30 March
proposing to build a hotel and set of dormitories at the same prices they were then working
at and promising to be ready to begin as soon as the brickwork required it.[456] Perry and
Abiah B. Thorn jointly proposed to do brickwork at the "Same price and Measurement that
we had last year" and if allowed to build the "Rotundor—we shall not "hezitate to challenge
the best specimin of Bricks at the university.[457]

Another bid for carpentry was written on 30 March by Joseph Pitt, one of Richard Ware's
carpenters who thought he could work at 10% below Mathew Carey's 1812 book.[458]
Dabney Cosby said he could make and lay 2 to 500,000 bricks, or 600,000 with "as good a
Brickmaker from the north as can be had to aid me," and deduct 50% for openings. "I will
further add," wrote Cosby, "should it be deemed to proceed to the erection of the pantheon
this season, and I consider'd trustworthy It would be a scource of much pride and
gratification to me, to see it executed in a stile, which for neatness and strength, should
equal it in importance, and granduer of design."[459] Cosby revised his proposal two days
later, changing the number of bricks he proposed to make and lay to 800,000 to 1,200,000
over two years.[460] James Starke promised to execute the carpentry work for ten
dormitories on the "west Back Range" in a "similar stile to the East Range The Lumber to
be Furnished at the place Which I will do the worke three per Cent Lower than the usual
prices."[461]

The rector received the few lines written by James W. Widderfield to inform him that "for
nearly four years as A Jurnaman and haveing know fullfill my Contract with Mr John M
Perry and wishing to do something for my self and family it meating the approbation of Mr
Dinsmore & Mr Nelson and being advise by my friends to write to you stateing that I wish
to have A part of the Carpenter work to be let this year."[462] Widderfield anxiously wrote
again two days later, telling the proctor that he would undertake the work at the "price
Which may be Offered by any other undertaker of respectibility and whom you may place
confidence in as a workman."[463] Housejoiner James Oldham sent his vague proposal for a
"portion of the Worke that is yet to be done, at the Standard Price" to the Board of
Visitors.[464] Oldham's was the last proposal received for the season except for Andrew
Smith's mid-month offer from Richmond to furnish Boston crown glass and Roman
cement.[465]

Spring Meeting of the Visitors

April meant that already it was once again time for the Board of Visitors' annual meeting.
General Cocke could not attend but he did write offering to make the trip despite severe pain
from an illness (exposure to the "late severe weather" gave him a cold which settled in his
face) in case the more distant members failed to attend.[466] As luck would have it,
Madison, Johnson, and Breckenridge did make it, so Cocke was spared the trial of making
the 30-mile trip from Bremo to Monticello; Cabell and Taylor stayed away, however.[467] At
the meeting the bare quorum decided on three important matters, all relating directly to the
construction at the university. First, the board resolved to purchase from Consul Thomas
Appleton in Leghorn the Corinthian and Ionic capitals wanting for the pavilions. Next, the
visitors instructed the committee of superintendence to negotiate with the president and
directors of the Literary Fund for the additional $60,000 loan that the General Assembly had
approved at its last session.[468] And last and more important, the board resolved to begin
building the library, "provided the funds of the University be adequate to the completion of
the buildings already begun and to the building the western ranges of Hotels and
dormitories, and be also adequate to the completion of the Library so far as to render the
building secure and fit for use." The committee of superintendence was instructed not to
enter into any contracts for the library until it had examined the university's accounts and
ascertained that "without interfering with the finishing of all the Pavilions, Hotels and
dormitories begun and to be begun, they have funds Sufficient to put the library in the
condition above described."[469]

Library Considered

Chapman Johnson and James Breckenridge, two of the three members of the General
Assembly who served on the Board of Visitors, wrote General Cocke on 5 April to explain
the stipulation the visitors placed on the committee of superintendence when passing the
resolution to go forward with the library (see appendix K). Simply put, Johnson and
Breckenridge were dissatisfied with the estimates presented by the rector and proctor to
finish the buildings. The estimates "dealt in generals," they said, and lacked the "details
necessary to give confidence in their accuracy," especially when considered against the fact
that as of yet no single building had been finished. Even though Jefferson and Madison "felt
great confidence in the correctness of the estimates, and . . . were willing to act immediately
upon their faith," the two senators could not ascertain the "true state of our funds" and thus
forced the board to consider postponing all contracts for the library until its fall meeting.
The senators' concern arose from their knowledge that the legislature "clearly" believed that
the university would not seek any more aid in erecting the buildings, and that any future
requests would be detrimental as well as fruitless. In the end the majority of the board,
"acting under the old prudential maxim ibis in medio tutissimus,"[470] concurred in a
resolution authorizing the committee of superintendence to proceed with the library only
after minutely examining the accounts and "fully" satisfying itself that the funds were
adequate to finish the buildings already begun and on the western range, and to "put up the
[library] walls cover it in, & render it secure and fit for use—in which security and fitness
for use, are contemplated at least doors, windows, floors, and stair cases."

At Jefferson's insistence, Johnson and Breckenridge visited the proctor after the meeting to
impress upon Brockenbrough the necessities of preparing the accounts for examination,
settling with the workmen for work already finished, and making accurate estimates for the
work still uncompleted. "Our conversations with him lead us to fear, that he had not been
very particular in that department of his duty which relates to the accounts," and the senators
own "rough calculations," they said, made them fear that after finishing the "four ranges of
buildings, making the garden walls, privies &c. . . . scarcely a dollar [would be] left for the
library." The two visitors, considering it their duty to communicate to Cocke what they had
done, and what "we think most desirable to be done on the occasion," expressed their intent
not to face the legislature again "with contracts unfilled, with foundations not built upon,
with naked walls or useless walls, demanding to be protected or threatening to perish, or be
a monument of our want of foresight and our unprofitable expenditure of public money."
The General Assembly would manifest an ill temper towards the university if any material
blunder was made in engaging the work; it would be better to lose a season in building the
library than encounter the serious risk of "entering into contracts for it, which we may be
unable to fulfil."[471]

Jefferson was much more optimistic. The $60,000 loan, he informed his grandson Frances
Wayles Eppes a few days later, "enables us to finish all our building of accomodation this
year, and to begin The Library, which will take 3. years to be compleated."[472] He told John
Vaughan of Philadelphia that the buildings for accommodation of the professors and
students "will indeed be compleated in no great time." Moreover, he presumed that the
legislature would cancel the university's $120,000 debt when those buildings were
completed, leaving the university's funds free to open the institution, "but that is too
uncertain to act on with confidence."[473] On 9 April Jefferson sent Cocke a copy of the
Board of Visitors' proceedings, saying that he had spoken to the bursar about ordering the
capitals for the pavilions from Leghorn and that Brockenbrough already was engaged in
settling his accounts "in such form as will give us the necessary information, and let us see
exactly the ground on which we stand. . . . he does not know whether this will take him a
fortnight, or a month, or 6. months. but as soon as it is accomplished I will write to you,
because our immediate meeting will be necessary—it is wished that the walls of the Library
of a million of bricks may be got up this season."[474] A week later Jefferson placed the
order for 10 Ionic and 6 Corinthian capitals and 2 Corinthian half-capitals for the pavilions
and informed Consul Thomas Appleton that the university "shall have occasion the next
year for 10. Corinthian capitels . . . to be copied from those of the Rotunda or Pantheon of
Rome, as represented in Palladio. be so good as to inform me what will be their exact cost."
He added that Michele Raggi "wishes to be employed at Carrara on our capitals; but this
must be as you please. if it should suit you, I shall be glad of it, because he is a good man
and a good workman, but very hypocondriac."[475] (Appleton replied to Jefferson on 7 July,
writing that the capitals for the Rotunda would cost about $7,600, plus shipping.)[476] By
mid-May the buildings were now "giving on with great spirit," Jefferson informed John
Patterson (who had subscribed to the Central College for $500), the library "will be begun,
soon . . . come and see our university and chuse a lot in time for yourself to live on."[477]

Money Still Scarce

The accounts for the rest of the spring and into the summer of 1821 indicate that the
building activity at the university picked up with the knowledge that the school would soon
receive an additional $60,000 loan (although it would be late summer before the money was
actually in hand). All that can be gleamed from the workmen's papers is that George W.
Spooner, Jr., purchased from John M. Perry's sawmill $102.46 worth of lumber (4,618
running feet) that he used on "Hotel B West" and on his eastern range dormitories for
scantling, ceiling joist, dormitory flooring, window sills, and "Strips of Hart,"[478] and that
James Dinsmore bought 2,050 feet of "pannel" and shingling plank costing $37.25 from
"Colnl James Monroe" for use on "Pavillion No 4 East & its Dormetorys."[479] But the
merchants' accounts reveal a more lively situation. In the next three months, John Van Lew
& Co. kept wagoners Jacob Fauver, Robert Cason, Jacob Harner, David Baylor, William
Deitrick, John Craddock, and Samuel Wilson busy by supplying nails, screws, sprigs,
hinges, sash pulleys, sand paper, lead, glue, shovels, and spades to the university.[480] Carter
B. Page provided screws and Russian hemp for window sashes and other purposes,[481] and
Brockenbrough & Harvie sent another 28 boxes of window glass and a cask of whiting in
addition to nails and brads.[482] Edward Anderson shipped "Two Hhds best Nova Scotia
ground plaister from Richmond by wagoner John H. Woods on 24 April.[483] Jacob Croft
delivered the 25 boxes of tin remaining from the previous fall for D. W. & C. Warwick.[484]
Blackford, Arthur & Co. hired John Glenn and Samuel Hollyman to haul from Isabella
Furnace 14 "Small Franklin Stoves" for Pavilions I, II, IV, and V, and 338 sash weights
intended for Pavilions II, IV, and VI, and dormitories 1 to 13 east and 5 to 10 west, and "22
& 26" and "27 & 28."[485] Edward Lowber supplied more paint to the institution,[486]
although Andrew Smith's offer to supply Boston Crown Glass edged out the need for
Lowber's English glass.[487] Smith also sold the university on the quality of Roman Cement,
"unrivall'd for Brilliancey and Strength," although he initially experienced some problems
obtaining the English-made material from his supplier in Baltimore (see appendix T).[488]
Bernard Peyton managed the university's bill of exchanges at the Farmers Bank and the
Bank of Virginia and arranged for tar to be shipped from Richmond.[489]

The promise of money would only carry the building process so far, however. On 7 July the
proctor wrote to Alexander Garrett to relay a message from plasterer Joseph Antrim, who
was "out of hair and can't get any without the money the plastering will be obliged to stop
for the want of it, can you in any way raise as much as he may want for that purpose & let
him have it, I will give you a draft for it on sight."[490] (Animal hair, hemp, or thread were
mixed in plaster as a binding material.) The bursar scrounged up $25 the next day so that
Antrim could continue his work but the university construction could not continue operating
long on such a policy. On 21 July Jefferson wrote to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., to inform
him that "our Proctor is now engaged in bringing up the settlement of disbursements &
debts" and to ask for the first half of the $60,000 loan.[491] About the time that the Board of
Visitors made a bond to the Literary Fund for the loan,[492] D. W. & C. Warwick's wagoners
delivered 30 boxes of tin plates to the university, along with the firm's bill for $1,129.88
"which we hope to receive as the Loan you spoke of from the Lity fund is at last
completed."[493] By the same wagon John Van Lew & Co. sent up some sprigs, butt hinges,
and sheet lead, with the note that "we are verry much pressed for money at this time."[494]
Money problems aside, though, by mid-August Jefferson could brag to Richard Rush in
England that "Our University is fast advancing in it's buildings, & will exhibit a body of
chaste architecture which Greece, in her classical days, would have viewed with
approbation."[495]

Settlements with the Workmen

The two months prior to the fall meeting of the Board of Visitors coincided with the waning
of the traditional building season as the visitors delayed their annual meeting until the end of
November in order to give the proctor time to settle his accounts with the contractors. Since
several undertakers performed the work on each separate building (i.e., brickwork, wooden
work, plastering, roofing, etc.), a myriad of loose ends were left dangling for the workmen
to take care of before the proctor could settle the accounts for a particular building. On 25
August Brockenbrough notified the workmen that "No farther advances will be made except
on buildings actually completed—Bills made and Settled—a draft for whatever may be due
on Such buildings will then be given on Bursar."[496] This unwanted stimulus certainly
helped motivate the undertakers to finish their never-ending odd jobs although it brought
worker morale at the site to its lowest ebb since construction began. The local delivery of a
few wagonloads of plank, cord-wood, and rock indicate that James Dinsmore (Pavilion IV
and one adjacent dormitory) and John M. Perry (Hotel B and its dormitories) were the
undertakers most concerned with carrying on their work,[497] and the shipment from
Richmond of sash weights, painting supplies, hardware, and tin reveals the priorities placed
on completing the installation of the windows and finishing the painting and roofing (see
appendix M).[498]

Brockenbrough was still "makeing some progress in the settlement with the workmen" when
the summer turned into another fall;[499] by the end of September 1821 he had settled for 6
pavilions, 1 hotel, and 35 dormitories, and he hoped by the next Board of Visitors meeting
in October to be nearly settled with the "whole of the 4. rows."[500] In fact, in early October
Bursar Alexander Garrett could report truthfully that the "buildings now make a respectable
appearance, great progress in the finishing way haveing been made the past summer."[501]
"Mr. Jefferson," Garrett continued, "finding (from the settlements made of part of the work
done) that the funds will be inadequite to the entire accomplishment of his wishes, yet does
not despare . . . him and the President have been puting their heads together on the subject,
and have projected new schemes . . . this hint is sufficient for you."[502] Although he
conceded that it was too late in the season to begin building the library, Jefferson thought
that the board at its upcoming annual meeting in November had it in its power to begin
building its hull "with perfect safety."[503] Indeed, Jefferson drafted "A view of the whole
expences, & of the Funds of the University" so that his fellow board members could
compare estimated and actual costs with the sources of income and see for themselves how
matters stood.[504] By the end of October, Brockenbrough's "further advance in the
settlements" brought the totals to 7 pavilions, 3 hotels, and 65 dormitories, and Jefferson
declared himself "decidedly of opinion we should undertake" to begin the library.[505]
(Brockenbrough, who experienced difficulty in settling with Joseph Antrim for
plastering,[506] could not settle with housejoiner James Oldham for the woodwork of
Pavilion I on west lawn and Hotel A on west range, and their disagreement eventually led
Oldham to bring a lawsuit against the university.)[507]

Cabell Changes View of Finances

A week before the visitors' meeting Senator Joseph Cabell sent his Monticello adviser a
letter indicating that he finally had learned Jefferson's lesson regarding how to proceed with
the university construction in light of its funding and oversight by the Virginia General
Assembly. "If I had a vote on the question of finishing the buildings," Cabell began, "I
should vote for it, as a measure correct in itself, and prudent with reference to the present
state of the public mind. If there be not money enough to finish them I would go on as near
to the object as possible." Cabell's shift in thinking about the university's cautious
relationship with the legislature was not mirrored by the two other visitors in the state
senate, Chapman Johnson and James Breckenridge, who at the spring 1821 meeting of the
Board of Visitors had declared that they would not proceed with the building of the library
without the firm assurance of its completion when once begun.[508] "But I am at this time
inclined to think I would ask nothing of the present Assembly," Cabell continued, "I would
go on & compleat the buildings, and at another session make the great effort to emancipate
the funds. Last Spring I rather inclined to the opinion expressed by many friends in
Richmond, that we should commence no building, which we could not finish. But I now
think otherwise. I see no essential good to result from stopping short of our object . . . Such
are my views."[509] Cabell reiterated and elaborated these views in another letter of the same
date written to his close friend at Bremo, John Hartwell Cocke, which not only shows
Cabell's own evolution on the subject but succinctly represents the views that Jefferson held
all along about his scheme to build the university.

On the day preceding his reception of Cabell's revelatory letter, Jefferson wrote to his
former secretary William Short to answer his inquiry about the university and to invite his
old neighbor to return to the area for a visit. "You enquire also about our University,"
Jefferson began.

Jefferson's new estimate of the time and money yet needed to finish the buildings of
accommodation closely paralleled that given by the proctor in an official report to the rector
and Board of Visitors on 26 November, just days prior to the visitors' annual fall meeting.
"You will find the balance required to complete the present buildings, exceeds the former
estimates," Brockenbrough reported as he handed in the results of his half-year attempt to
settle his accounts. "If this was a novel case in building, I should feel much chagrined at it;
but as we have numerous precedents before us in all great public works, and indeed in all
large private buildings . . . I am the better satisfied, as it cannot be expected, that I should be
freer from error in estimates than others."[512] Brockenbrough's new estimate for
constructing all the buildings exclusive of the library was $261,205.49, well beyond the
estimate of exactly one year previous, it may be recalled, of $162,364. (The new estimate of
money needed to finish the buildings was $53,494.79, up from $38,898.25.) Thus by the
time Jefferson penned the above description of the university for William Short, both he and
the proctor already had decided (against their best efforts to the contrary) to postpone
building the Rotunda for another season. As a disgusted John Hartwell Cocke later told
Senator Cabell:

The visitors therefore, at their meeting at the end of November, could not take the much
anticipated step of beginning the construction of the library but in fact spent most of their
time crafting a statement for the president and directors of the Literary Fund that offered a
defense of the progress and costs incurred thus far. "It is confidently believed," the visitors
reported, "that . . . no considerable System of building, within the U.S. has been done on
cheaper terms, nor more correctly, faithfully, or solidly executed, according to the nature of
the materials used."[514]

Chapter 7
The Building Campaign of 1822

Building Stops

The visitors' decision to continue delaying the start of the library coupled with the end of the
building season all but extinguished construction at the site for the foreseeable future.[515]
Jefferson realized toward the end of January 1822 that the university's undertakers might
flee the site for new horizons if the remainder of the $60,000 loan was not dispersed soon by
the Literary Fund.[516] (In fact brickworker Dabney Cosby of Staunton did just that,
returning to the Shenandoah Valley to work.)[517] It was not till the last day of the month of
January that Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., sent him word that the board of directors of the
Literary Fund finally had met and approved the additional sum.[518] Jefferson's instruction to
the proctor upon executing the bond was to "authorise any draught within that amount that
the bursar chuses: and my opinion would be to draw for and pay every settled debt we owe
in the world at once. our affairs would then stand on simpler ground." Unable to travel to the
university with visiting artist William John Coffee because of the "weather & roads,"
Jefferson also hinted that some of the new funds could be applied to making "cornices in all
the rooms of the Western hotels. if Architraves & frizes would cost more than plaister, these
may be omitted." Coffee, he added, could "do the ornaments of the frizes in some of the best
rooms."[519]

Success and Failure

The almost complete cessation of building through the winter and the ensuing spring,
punctured only by a few deliveries (mostly small) of plank and a half dozen wagon trips
from the out-of-town merchants,[520] did not affect the efforts of Senator Cabell and his
friends in the General Assembly to set the university's precarious financial situation on a
sound basis. During the first week of February both branches of the Virginia legislature
overwhelmingly passed another loan bill authorizing the university to borrow another
$60,000 with the understanding and expectation that an application would be made at the
next legislative session for a "remission of the loans, or rather for an assumption of the debts
of the University by the state."[521] Emboldened by that victory, Cabell (suffering again
from one of his periodic bouts of illness) brought forward another bill which would grant
the university a suspension of the payment of interest on its debts for five years.[522] An
amendment in the House of Delegates to restrict the Board of Visitors from "erecting the
Centre Building" failed in late February, killing the whole resolution (and foreshadowing
what would happen to a more ambitious plan exactly one year later). The bill's failure
caused the politically asture Cabell to observe that "Every day convinces me more & more,
that the buildings ought to be finished, and that the opposition is general, & not to the
Rotunda, or any other particular part."[523]

The neglect by the Virginia legislature to appropriate money to complete the university's
buildings drew a bitter response from Jefferson, which he confided to his old friend Thomas
Cooper. He informed Cooper that even though all the buildings for accommodation would
be "ready for habitation" by the ensuing summer, the building for the "Library, exhibition
rooms Etc." still awaited funds for it's erection. Moreover, he continued,

There was little to be done for now, however, although in mid-March William J. Coffee did
agree with the proctor to furnish the composition ornaments for the entablatures of the
drawing rooms of all the pavilions and the lead ornaments for the fronts of the porticos of
Pavilions I and II.[525] When the Board of Visitors' spring meeting came around at the end
of March 1822 only three members showed (Jefferson, Cabell, and Cocke), and Jefferson
candidly admitted to James Madison that his and the other visitors' absence "was not
material as there was not a single thing requisite to act on. we have to finish the 4. rows and
appendages this summer which will be done and then to rest on our oars." Furthermore, said
Jefferson, the university had become embroiled now in the question of the removal of the
seat of the state government. "Staunton & Richmond are both friendly to us as an
University," he judged, "but the latter fears that our Rotunda will induce the legislature to
quit them, & Staunton fears it will stop them here." That in part explained fellow visitor
Chapman Johnson's reluctance to build the library; in fact in the late session of the General
Assembly Johnson himself brought forward "an express Proviso that no money should be
applied to that building." Another of the "zealous friends to the University, in a Philijyric
against the Rotunda declared he would never vote another Dollar to the University but on
condition that it should not be applied to that building." Nevertheless, Jefferson suggested
they stay their course with diligence. "our opinion, and a very sound one has been from the
beginning never to open the institution until the buildings shall be compleat . . . our course is
a plain one, to pursue what is best, and the public will come right and approve us in the
end." And, he concluded, "the establishment is now at that stage at which it will force itself
on. we must manage our dissenting brother softly; he is of too much weight to be given
up."[526]

Privies

In this way matters stood uninterrupted until the summer except for some small work on the
"two public Privies" destined to be used by the students which the proctor initially wanted to
place in a "valley to the east of the Eastern Street, some distance to the south of the Hotels
the other in a valley to the west of the Western Street a little to the North of the Hotels."
Jefferson already had approved of the locations for the privies but Brockenbrough now
thought that the latter one was "thrown too much in view of the public road." That objection
"might be prevented in time by planting trees &c," however. Even though he intended to
delay the privies' brickwork until Cocke's planned visit to the site in June, Brockenbrough
wanted to contract with Lyman Peck and Malcom F. Crawford for the interior partitions, to
be constructed of wooden "Plank & about 6 or 7 feet high with a small door to each
apartment." As for a number of "small scale" privies planned to be located in the gardens,
the proctor did not think it "worthwhile" to begin them in the present year because he
considered it "highly probable" that when the pavilions became inhabited it would be
necessary to make "other little conveniencies, and which may perhaps enable us to put those
little articles in a more private situation."[527] (Peter Maverick's 1822 engraving of the
ground plan of the university shows privies on the serpentine brick walls that formed the
northern and southern boundaries of each of the gardens lying between the lawn and the
ranges, a total of twenty).[528]

Incidentals

Other incidentals began to occupy the time of the workmen remaining at the university site.
Before leaving for a three-week visit to Poplar Forest on 13 May,[529] Jefferson calculated
the number of bricks needed for the shafts of 6 Doric columns (5,000) and a cistern (4,000)
and "wrote to J. Perry to provide them." (William B. Phillips' two laborers, Jerry and Isaac,
laid 3,025 bricks for the cistern on 30 and 31 August.)[530] William J. Coffee, back in New
York City making ornaments for the hotels' drawing rooms and the fronts of Pavilions I and
II, realized in late June that he had "taken this Work Much too Low I now think by $200 for
have been obliged to model Every distinct ornament for the Purpose the Last of thease
models I have now in hand I then have to repeat Each of them for the Quantity . . . must
Leave my under Value to your Judgment and the Honor of the Proctor."[531] The contract for
laying the stone foundations for the "serpentine garden walls and an Area wall around one
of the Hotels" was given to James Campbell in early July, who worked for "55 cents per
perch which is 24½ cubic feet." (The proctor also found Campbell a "laborer to attend to
take mortar &c" and placed the stone conveniently to the work.)[532] Surviving records for
the remainder of 1822 shed little light on any construction work that took place at the
university for the rest of the year other than laying some flooring in Pavilions IV and V and
"Hotel BB west," the "Making & puting up" of "Tin Gutters & [drain]pipes" at Pavilions VII
and X, some miscellaneous terrace work, and painting.[533]

Progress Report

At its fall meeting in early October 1822 the Board of Visitors approved a progress report of
the construction taking place at the university for enclosure in its annual statement to the
president and board of directors of the Literary Fund. The work had been performed, the
report reminded the directors, in compliance with the plan submitted to the General
Assembly by the Rockfish Gap Commission in 1818, and all the proposed buildings, "except
one," have been completed, it further asserted,

Although the above account accurately delineated the university's progress in the
construction of its buildings when it was written, the visitors had ample reason to distrust
the estimate of the cost of the Rotunda by the time the report was transmitted to the Literary
Fund two days before Christmas.[535] The board at its October meeting resolved to instruct
the proctor to "enter into conferences with such skillful and responsible undertakers as he
would approve" for the purpose of procuring "declarations of the smallest sums for which
they will undertake the different portions of the work" of the Rotunda. The responses that
Brockenbrough received from the workmen were not very satisfactory to him or to the
committee of superintendence, and on the same day that Jefferson sent the visitors' annual
report to Literary Fund President Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., Senator Cabell wrote to
Jefferson from Richmond to inform him that university contractor James Dinsmore had
written to William Fitzhugh Gordon, the Albemarle County representative in the House of
Delegates, "stating that the undertakers had ascertained that they could not afford to build
the Library for less than $70,000. At my instance, Mr. Gordon threw the letter in the fire.
My object was to prevent it from being made an improper use of, in the event of its being
seen by our enemies." Cabell also had spoken confidentially about the matter to "one or two
friends" in the General Assembly who agreed with him that if the cost of the Rotunda
should rise above $50,000, "& more especially if it should reach $70,000," that it "would
probably blow up all our plans. Perhaps a conditional contract for $60,000, might not do
harm, as it would bar the door to all doubt about the price of the House. But if $70,000,
should be asked for, I fear we shall be totally overthrown."[536] In the long run the cost of
building the Rotunda exceeded Jefferson's optimistic estimate and the middle figure came
closest to the actual expenditures; the latter figure proved to be less inflated than the board
must have wished.

Maria Cosway

During the remainder of the year Jefferson and others wrote a series of descriptions of the
present state of the university and its buildings. On 19 October Jefferson told William Short
that "our University still wants the key-stone of it's arch the Rotunda; but even in it's present
state it is worth a visit, as a specimen of classical architecture which would be remarked in
Europe."[537] (He also informed Short of the General Assembly's belligerent refusal to fund
the building of the library.) A few days later Jefferson wrote to his old "dear friend" whom
he met in 1786 during his stay in Paris, Maria Cosway, now widowed and retired from her
great house on Stratford Place in London to her convent in Lodi, Italy.[538] Jefferson
approved of his old intimate's decision to change her place of abode from "the eternal clouds
and rains of England, to the genial sun & bright skies of Lodi," and noted the irony of their
mutual pursuits in old age.

The sympathies of our earlier days harmonise, it seems in age also. you retire to your
College of Lodi, and nourish the natural benevolence of your excellent heart by
communicating your own virtues to the young of your sex who may hereafter load with
blessings the memory of her to whom they will owe so much. I am laying the foundation of
an University in my native state, which I hope will repay the liberalities of it's legislature by
improving the virtue and science of their country, already blest with a soil and climate
emulating those of your favorite Lodi. I have been myself the Architect of the plan of it's
buildings, and of it's system of instruction. four years have been employed in the former,
and I assure you it would be thought a handsome & Classical thing in Italy. I have preferred
the plan of an Academical village rather than that of a single, massive structure. the
diversified forms which this admitted in the different Pavilions, and varieties of the finest
samples of architecture, has made of it a model of beauty original and unique. it is within
view too of Monticello, So it's most splendid object, and a constant gratification to my sight.
we have still one building to erect, which will be on the principle of your Pantheon a
Rotunda like that, but of half it's diameter and height only. I wish indeed you could recall
some of your by-past years, and seal it with your approbation.[539]

Although she outlived Jefferson by nearly 12 years, Cosway preferred the confines of her
own community for the rest of her life and thus never visited Jefferson's university (see
appendix I).

Jefferson wrote to Albert Gallatin in Paris on 29 October with a request for him to judge
whether his letter to Cosway could be conveyed "more safely thro' the public mail, or by any
of the diplomatic couriers, liable to the curiosity & carelessness of public offices." He also
informed Gallatin of the status of the university, writing that "Our University of Virginia my
present hobby, has been at a stand for a twelve month past, for want of funds. our last
legislature refused every thing. the late elections give better hopes of the next. the institution
is so far advanced that it will force itself through. so little is now wanting that the first
liberal legislature will give it it's last lift. the buildings are in a style of purely classical
architecture, and, altho' not yet finished, are become an object of visit to all strangers."[540]
Jefferson wrote similarly to Henry A. S. Dearborne on the last day of October, saying that
"Our Virginia University is now my sole occupation. it is within sight of Monticello, and the
buildings nearly finished; and we shall endeavor, by the best Professors either side of the
Atlantic can furnish to make it worthy of the public notice."[541]

Opening Postponed

Representative William Cabell Rives, formerly of Nelson County and now of Albemarle
County, wrote to Jefferson on 19 December to voice his support for postponing the
institution's opening until the library was constructed and to update the rector on the
university's standing in the House of Delegates. "I enter myself entirely into your views,"
wrote Rives, ". . . & have endeavoured to impress on all of my acquaintances here the
exceeding impolicy of putting an institution, from which so much has been expected at
home & abroad, into operation, in a half-formed & unfinished state. . . . If the objections
which are now felt to the additional building should not yield to the influence of more liberal
sentiments, we may find ourselves under the necessity of temporising a little, in order to
acquire, at once, the means of erecting it."[542]

The "means" had grown another $10,000 by now, as Jefferson told Robert Walsh, Jr., two
days later. "Our univty. in which I know you are so good as to take an interest, is under
check at present. all the buildings for the accomdn of the Professors & students are
compleat. one only for a Library & other general purposes remains to be erected. it is
expected to cost about 60. M D. which sum our last legislature refused us. we have better
hopes of the undstdg & liberality of that now sitting. the buildings are in a classical and
chaste style of architecture, and the system altho' novel will when compleated I think meet
approbn."[543] Also before Christmas, Jefferson told his son-in-law that the initial $46,847
estimate to build the library "did not include two considerable appendages necessary to
connect it with the other buildings. An estimate including these, now recently made by the
principal undertakers and executors of the other buildings raises its amount to about one
third more. . . . Some finishings of small amount, to the garden walls and pavements also are
still wanting." The collection of the arrearages of private subscriptions to the Central
College would help alleviate the deficit somewhat, Jefferson was quick to add.[544]

After Christmas Jefferson informed Senator Cabell that at the present time securing money
to build the library was more desirable than having the debts of the university forgiven.

Before he read the above letter, however, Cabell wrote Jefferson a letter indicating that he
already had arrived at the same conclusion after conferring with the university's most ardent
supporters in the General Assembly. "The almost unanimous opinion of us all," he wrote,
"is, that we should ask for another loan to finish the buildings, and to leave the debt
untouched for the present. We propose to move for one object at a time, in order not to unite
the enemies of both measures against one bill. Should we succeed in getting the loan, we
may afterwards try to get rid of the debt. . . . I am now in more dread of Mr. Johnson's
coming to town & advocating the doctrine of curtailing the buildings, than I am of any other
danger. But as the popular prejudice on that subject has abated, I hope he would go with
us."[546] After the first of the year Chapman Johnson in fact did vote with the university
faction in the senate to authorize the university to borrow more money.

By the end of 1822 the focus of building at the Academical Village had shifted completely
away from finishing the four rows of buildings on the lawn and ranges to financing and
constructing the grand central building that would seal off the north end of the square. The
progress of the work since the laying of the cornerstone of the first pavilion five years before
in October 1817 was a remarkable achievement considering the myriad obstacles faced by
the Board of Visitors and the workmen; its semi-completion was anticlimactic considering
the length of time it took to wind up the trivial matters, and since attention now was directed
to the library yet to be begun. Even without the Rotunda the scenes at the university grounds
were enough to fill Philip St. George Cocke with awe. Writing from Thornton Rodgers'
grammar school in Albemarle County to inform his father of his recent visit to the site and
to Charlottesville, he said, "I have not recieved a letter from you since I wrote to you abot a
faughtnight ago. I have been to Charlottsvile[.] I went there last monday, with Mr Rodgers
and I went to see the universaty also, It is the greates building that I ever saw. Charlottsvill
two is very mutch improved since I was there with you about two years ago."[547]

Chapter 8
The Building Campaign of 1823

Another Loan Pursued

After the new year the supporters of the university in the General Assembly accelerated
their efforts to gain passage of a bill authorizing the university to borrow an additional
$60,000 dollars. Jefferson accordingly prepared the visitors for a special meeting in the
event the bill passed into law so that the workmen could be engaged "before they undertake
other work for the ensuing season."[549] Madison replied a week later that he surely would
not fail to join the visitors upon "receiving the expected notice from Mr. Cabell, if the
weather & my health will permit: but I am persuaded it will be a supernumerary attendance,
if the money be obtained, and the sole question be on its application to the new Edifice."[550]
"The object of the meeting," Jefferson told Cabell, "will be to authorise the commencement
of the building, and to talk over some ulterior measures, which however cannot be finally
concluded till April."[551] Senator Cabell agreed with Madison that the entire board would
confirm the loan without hesitancy,[552] and so Jefferson, elated that "the University is
advanced to that point, from which it must & will carry itself through; and it will strengthen
daily," decided to put off engaging the workmen till the April meeting of the Board of
Visitors.[553] In early February, Cabell wrote to inform Jefferson, with "the most heartfelt
pleasure . . . that there is now no doubt of the success of our Loan Bill." At the same time it
became apparent to Cabell that adding an amendment to release the university from the
debts owed to the Literary Fund would only hinder the loan bill, so he wisely left that matter
for the next session of the legislature.[554] A week later the senator told Jefferson that "We
have done much; but much, very much, remains to be done. In the course of the ensuing
year, we must avail ourselves of the press. This Assembly has gone as far as the public mind
will now bear. It is necessary to bring up the people to the level of the age."[555]

The impact of the loan bill's passage on Jefferson was immediately obvious. "The late good
news of a further loan to the University of 60,000$ was recieved with heart felt pleasure by
Mr. J.," Alexander Garrett told John Hartwell Cocke. "his manner, conversation, and
countenance, all depict the joy of a father on the birth of a first and long-wished for son; the
day after recieveing the news he rode to the University (for the first time he had been on
horse back since breaking his wrist)[.] I met with him on his return, when he remarked, that
he had recieved from Mr. Cabell the welcome news of a further loan to the U. of 60,000$
and he hoped the workmen would prepare immediately for the rotundo; so you see the big
house is still his first object."[556] "Mr Jefferson seems in high spirits in consequence of the
mony granted by the Asembly," John Neilson told Cocke on 22 February, "he said he should
write to the Visitors for them to sanction his measures, and fall to work imediately. I beleive
he would be anxious that Dinsmore and my self would undertake the carpenter work but I
avoided the subject being resolved to be guided entirely by your judgement. He is full of
brickmaking ideas at present, he said they had or would engage Mr Thorn (a brick-layer
who came here in partnership with Mr [Richard] Ware) as superintendent of the brick-
yard[,] Mr Jefferson being better pleased with the colour of his brick in No 2 and 4 than he
is with other that was made here."[557]

Work Resumes

Two days later Jefferson called on his partner on the committee of superintendence "to join
me in setting the thing agoing," but Cocke could not leave his plantation, so Jefferson
proceeded, "according to the best of my judgment, with the aid of mr Brokenbrough, and
with all the caution the case admits."[558] In fact the proctor soon contracted with Abiah B.
Thorn and Nathaniel Chamberlain for the brickwork of the library (see appendix K). The
proctor agreed to "furnish the bricks, lime, Sand and scaffolding at the expence of the
University of Va all of which is to be delivered at convenient distances from the building,"
and Thorn & Chamberlain agreed "not to put in the wall any samel bricks, nor to use more
than one bat to five whole bricks, the bricks to be layed in what is called flemish bond that is
header & Strecher alternately, the walls to be solidly grouted from bottom to Top and in
every course if deemed necessary by the Proctor with cement of a fourth lime and three
fourth good pure sand, for the out side work the mortar to be made of a third lime and two
thirds good sharp sand—The out side bricks to be of the best rubed stretchers and equal in
quality and regular colour to the fronts of the Pavilions No 2 and 4 the Walls in all cases are
to be run perfectly plum and true." Thorn further agreed to "superintend the making and
burning the bricks" at the rate of $50 per month.[559] Brockenbrough also contracted with
bricklayer William B. Phillips to lay "400,000 hard bricks to be taken from the Kiln."[560]

Shortly after Brockenbrough contracted for the Rotunda's brickwork, he met with John
Neilson and James Dinsmore, proving correct Neilson's assessment that Jefferson desired to
give him and Dinsmore a major portion of the work at the library. Dinsmore & Neilson
contracted with the proctor for the carpentry work of the Rotunda at "average" Philadelphia
prices, agreeing to make "All the Window frames & sashes, the two principal floors, the out
side doors including the outside finishing, the staircases, all the centers for the brick work,
the framing of the roof and sheeting, The portico framing and sheeting the Corinthian
entablature all round complete—the Base & Cornice of the Attic, the steping on the roof, the
wood bricks and bond timbers &c that may be required hereafter for the finishing of the
inside work . . . The materials for the above named work to be furnished at the expence of the
University."[561] Jefferson was pleased with Brockenbrough's efforts and notified the
Board of Visitors of the contracts with the workmen on 12 March, informing the board
members that the proctor had engaged the "only two bricklayers and two carpenters capable
of executing [the work] with solidity and correctness . . . Thorn & Chamberlain for the
brickwork, and Dinsmore & Nelson for the roof and carpenter's work on terms which I think
will make our money go the farthest possible, for good work; and his engagement is only for
the hull compleat. that done, we can pay for it, see the state of our funds and engage a
portion of the inside work so as to stop where our funds may fail, should they fail before it's
entire completion. there it may rest ever so long, be used, and not delay the opening of the
institution, the work will occupy three years. all this will be more fully explained at our
meeting and will I hope recieve your approbation."[562]

Internal Disagreement

Just as the future of the Rotunda finally seemed to begin to shape up an internal threat arose.
Senator Cabell, afraid that he might miss the upcoming spring meeting of the Board of
Visitors, wrote Jefferson on 24 March to warn him that "it is highly probable that our friend
Genl. Cocke may propose at the meeting to adopt a course of proceeding somewhat different
from the one you seem to have adopted in regard to the Library. He has written to me, that
he should propose, first, to pay off all existing debts, and, then to adapt the plan of the
Library to the residue of the funds. Perhaps contracts which you have authorized may divert
him from this course." Cabell planned to go to Bremo on the 29th to try to sway Cocke to
support the prudent (in Cabell's view) plan of building the library's hull and depend on a
later session of the legislature to relieve the institution of the debts it had incurred during the
building process.[563] Upon receipt of Cabell's letter Jefferson drafted a "general view of the
finances" to show the visitors that the immediate debts of the university ($13,500) did not
cut too deeply into the funds made available by the new loan, thanks in part to the annual
annuity.[564] At its meeting the Board of Visitors authorized Cabell and Cocke to "settle and
repeat to the board" the accounts of both the bursar and proctor,[565] and after the meeting
Jefferson prepared a second statement of the finances to reassure Cocke (who missed the
meeting) that "the 4. rows & all expences of land Etc. will be compleated without taking a
dollar from the last loan, which it is the opinion of mr Br[ockenbrough] Dinsmore Etc. will
be quite sufficient to compleat the Rotunda. still we think it prudent to contract only for a
part at a time, so as never to go beyond our funds."[566] In the end Cocke was convinced of
the propriety of carrying on the work on the Rotunda as originally planned.

Allegations of Misconduct

At the meeting the Board of Visitors had to deal with one other issue, an anonymous letter
sent to House of Delegates Representative Thomas Griffin alleging various "charges of
misconduct" against Brockenbrough the university proctor, signed a "Farmer" and in fact
written by James Oldham.[567] Oldham drafted the letter back in late January after he and
Brockenbrough had a dispute over the use of Mathew Carey's Philadelphia Price Book of
1812 as the standard of settlement for the housejoiner's work on Pavilion I and Hotel A,
Oldham claiming that his contract was with Jefferson and not the proctor.[568] The letter
made absolutely no impact in Richmond because of the delegates' aversion to the
anonymous nature of the attack,[569] and there the matter rested until the visitors' April
meeting, when Brockenbrough, whose "feelings have been much wounded by those
calumnious charges," asked the board to "do me the justice to make some public
declaration" in his favor.[570] The board instructed the executive committee to call on
Oldham for evidence to support his charges but by now the two men could not even agree
on setting up arbitration about the matter.[571] Oldham in November 1823 filed a lawsuit
against the University of Virginia and the case dragged on with both sides exchanging
accusations and taking depositions until the Staunton Chancery Court settled it in the early
1830s.[572]

Library Begun

The work on the Rotunda began even before the Board of Visitors' meeting of 7 April. "We
had a pleasant meeting," Cabell informed General Cocke's wife the next day, "and the
Rotunda goes on, and Mr. Jefferson is delighted. The buildings appear more & more
beautiful every time I see them."[573] Cabell and fellow visitor and legislator George Loyall
met together after the meeting to plot some changes to the "plan & interior distribution of
the Library House. The two especially wanted to have at least one of the Rotunda's two
large oval rooms "fitted up with seats runing around the rooms parallel to the walls & rising
one above another, so that the Lecturer's eye & voice would distinctly reach the eye & ear of
every student present." Rather than directly attempting to "interfere too much with Mr.
Jefferson's architectural views," the schemers requested James Madison to approach the
rector about "this modern plan."[574] Jefferson rejected the plan as unnecessary, pointing out
that the rooms in the pavilions were designed to serve as "ordinary lecturing rooms" and that
the oval rooms were not designed to accommodate large numbers of students on a regular
basis. "no human voice can be habitually exerted to the extent of such an audience,"
Jefferson asserted. "we cannot expect our Professors to bawl daily to multitudes as our
strong orators do once a year. they must break the numbers into two or more parts
accomodated to voice and hearing, & repeat the lecture to them separately."[575] Madison
noted that plenty of "time & opportunity" remained for readjusting the "manner of finishing
the interior of the Rotunda rooms," if need be.[576]

Cabell and Loyall were not the only ones trying to alter components of Jefferson's plan for
the Rotunda. James Dinsmore consulted Jefferson on 21 April about changing the design of
the building's main exterior entablature as well as those for its windows. After carefully
examining "all the antient Corinthians in my possession," Jefferson demurred, observing
that Palladio, "as usual, has given the finest members of them all in the happiest
combination." Palladio also supplied the "handsomest entablatures for windows that I can
find any where."[577] Some small necessary alterations during the period were approved,
however, in order to adapt the exterior and interior designs to the actual building process and
in order to produce effects more pleasing to the eyes.[578] Even as he feverishly worked to
finish the architectural drawings for his Academical Village's capstone, Jefferson could soon
note with satisfaction that the Rotunda was "rising nobly" from the ground.[579]

Carrara Marble

By Independence Day 1823 word reached Monticello that the Italian marble capitals
intended for the pavilions were en route to Richmond from New York, where they had
arrived on board the Draco on 10 June. Several of the capitals were "so enormously heavy"
that Bernard Peyton, the university's commission agent in Richmond, scarcely knew what to
do with them upon their arrival. "They are too heavy to be transported by Drags, from
Rocketts to the Basin," he informed the proctor, "& the Locks are not in order to admit the
passage of Boats from the Basin to Tide water, & again, I fear they are too heavy for Boats,
particularly those of the North river, & when the water is low."[580] Jefferson immediately
wrote to Thomas Appleton in Leghorn to apprize him of the impending arrival of the stones
at the Albemarle site ("expected to have been here a 12 month sooner") and to notify the
consul to expect another order of capitals, for the Rotunda, "for which we shall be ready in
3. months from this time."[581] If Jefferson, now a dozen weeks past his 80th birthday,
contemplated the possibility that he might not live to see the capitals for the Rotunda he did
not let on to Appleton, who was 20 years to the day his junior. "On observing the
coincidence of our birth days I congratulate you on your attainment of your 3. score years
on the same day which filled up my 4 score, when however the psalmist tells us that 'their
strength are but labour and sorrow.' yet my health is so sound that I count on seeing the
completion of my university when I shall be ready to 'go hence & be no more seen' singing
with old Simeon 'nunc demittas Domine.'"[582] Nearly two years passed, however, before
Appleton could write to say that the last of the marble stones had been shipped from
Leghorn for America,[583] and John Gorman set the capitals in place (for $100) only weeks
before Jefferson's death in July 1826.[584]

It was August before Peyton could engage boats to ship the 18 boxes of marble to Scott's
Landing, from which they were carted to the university to "make the final finish of all our
buildings of accomodation."[585] On 20 September Brockenbrough reported to Jefferson that
the capitals had been set in place without incident but complained that the carvers had
compromised the stones' elegance by omitting and failing to complete some of the more
delicate details of their designs.[586] "All the Corinthian Capitels want the listel and cavetto
which constitutes a part of the Astragal on the top of the shaft of the Column," the proctor
fretted. Those omissions complicated the subjoining of the capitals to the brick columns.
Additionally, the upper part of the leaves of the Corinthian capitals were not "finished off as
it should have been," and the "carving of the bead under the Ovolo" was omitted altogether
from the Ionic capitals, detracting from the beauty of both. Despite the departure from
Palladio's designs and the inferior workmanship, Jefferson told Thomas Appleton that the
capitals were "well approved on the whole."[587]

Engravings

In mid-July, with the columns of the buildings of accommodation still gaping for their
capitals, Jefferson wrote to John Trumbull concerning engravings of the painter's
Declaration of Independence and Resignation of General Washington—a copy of the first
one intended for his old friend at Montpelier. "Independant of the motives of friendship to
which we shall owe your kind visit," wrote the octogenarian as he invited the celebrated
artist to Monticello, "I can promise you a gratification well worth the trouble of your
journey, in a visit to our University. I can assure you that, as a specimen of architecture
strictly classical, you will find it unrivalled in this country, and possessing the merit of pure
originality in the design. it is by such as yourself therefore that I wish it to be seen and
judged. the building however which is to be it's greatest ornament, and in fact the key-stone
which is to give Unity to all that is already done, will only have it's walls compleated the
present year, and will not recieve it's roof until the next: but this your experienced eye will
supply. it's Perspective would furnish a subject worthy of your pencil and of the burin of Mr.
Durand. it would be a very popular print." Asher B. Durand, whose engraving of Trumbull's
Declaration of Independence made the engraver's reputation (and proved a financial disaster
for the painter), never produced an engraving of the university although he later made one of
Monticello.[588]

Jefferson Ill

The old sage of Monticello, who had recently bragged to Consul Appleton of his sound
health, actually was so desperately ill that by late July he could not even write a note to
Brockenbrough to request a meeting at Monticello on university business.[589] Senator
Cabell, hearing at home in Nelson County that "Jefferson's health is so feeble," felt
concerned at having troubled Jefferson with letters about the new jail planned for Nelson
County.[590] Brockenbrough sent a short note to Cabell to update him of Jefferson's
condition on 27 July, writing that "he was something better than he had been," and adding
that the "Rotunda progresses well The walls are partly up to the upper floor."[591] It was
nearly mid-August before Jefferson ventured writing again,[592] and by the third week of
August joiner John Neilson could report to General Cocke from the university that "the
work of the Pantheon goes on rapidly. Mr Jefferson is got well he was here yesterday."[593]
When he paid that visit to the site, Jefferson informed E. S. Davis of Abbeville, South
Carolina, the library's walls had risen to two-thirds of "their intended height, and thus will
attain their full height in the course of another month. but the roof being weighty & from it's
spherical form pressing outwardly in every direction we shall not venture it on our walls
while green. it will not be put on therefore till the next summer, and the interior will require
perhaps still another year."[594] On 8 September Jefferson invited his old friend William
Short, who was returning from a lengthy tour of Canada to Philadelphia, to spend the next
spring season in Albemarle County, when "we shall then have more for you to see and
approve. by that time our Rotunda (the walls of which will be finished this month) will have
recieved it's roof, and will shew itself externally to some advantage. It's columns only will
be wanting, as they must await their Capitels from Italy." Furthermore, Jefferson challenged
his old friend, "in your substitution of Monticello instead of your annual visit to Black rock,
I will engage you equal health, and a more genial and pleasant climate. but instead of the
flitting, flurting and gay assemblage of that place, you must be contented with plain and
sober family and neighborly society." [595]

Visitors Meet

At the Board of Visitors' annual fall meeting on Monday 6 October 1823 the board only
needed to decide on a couple of matters, besides drafting its annual report to the president
and directors of the Literary Fund.[596] The visitors ratified a contract that the proctor
entered into in September with stonecarver Giacomo Raggi for furnishing the 10 bases and 2
half-bases of the columns for the Rotunda out of Carrara marble (at $65 each whole base)
and recommended to the executive committee that it also procure the capitals for the
building from Carrara, "if practicable on terms not higher than those offered by Thomas
Appleton."[597] The visitors also directed the committee to look into the feasibility of
arranging to have the marble paving squares for the Rotunda's portico made in Italy as well.
When writing to inquire about the 1,400 one-foot squares a couple days after the meeting,
Jefferson also asked Appleton to provide an estimate for the cost of carving from wood the
40 Palladian Composite capitals intended for the dome room of the Rotunda's interior.[598]
Appleton replied in February 1824 that the "polish'd and accurately Squar'd, ready to be laid
Down" squares would cost $22.50 the hundred in Leghorn but tried to convince Jefferson to
carve the interior Composite capitals out of marble, citing a price of $100 each.[599]
Jefferson ordered the squares in May 1824 but sought the interior capitals elsewhere.[600]

Chapter 9
The Building Campaign of 1824

Report to the Literary Fund

The 1823 report to the Literary Fund approved by the Board of Visitors stated that the final
"finishings" for the buildings of accommodation had been completed in the year since its
last report, making the "whole of these buildings now in perfect readiness for putting the
institution into opperation." More importantly, perhaps, the visitors could also report that the
"larger building, for a Library and other purposes was commenced and has been carried on
with activity, insomuch that its Walls are now ready to receive there roof; but that being of
hemispherical form, & pressing outwardly in every direction, it has been thought not
advisable to place it on the walls, in there present green State; but rather to give them time
to settle and dry until the ensuing season . . . whether the interior work of the building will
be finished within the ensuing year is doubtful."[601] A year-end calculation by old sachem
estimated that $17,642.13 had been spent building the hull of the Rotunda, not counting an
additional $3,671.11½ in unpaid debts.[602] With another winter in sight and the brickwork
still green, however, little else could be expected to be accomplished in building the
Rotunda before the spring of 1824.[603] The proctor, in fact, wanted to cut back on the
15-member slave labor force hired by the university because it had already made 8 to
900,000 bricks for the building in addition to performing other rough labor.[604]
(Brockenbrough previously had estimated that 1 molder with the help of 2 men and 2 boys
could make 60,000 bricks per month, and hence the 15 hands could make 180,000 per
month.)[605] Jefferson thought that the "great deal of work to be done yet on the grounds"
would require just as many hands for the next as the current year, however, and the force
remained the same size.[606]

Actually, the claim by the visitors in the report to the Literary Fund that the buildings of
accommodation were finished was overstated somewhat. As the site geared up for the spring
resumption of construction work, the proctor indicated that gutters and drainpipes as well as
"some little painting" and "some paving & stone walls to back yards" still remained to be
completed. Work on the smokehouses planned for each of the pavilions and hotels, as well
as the Venetian shutters for all the buildings and the "wire lattice work" for the cellar
windows, had not started yet. The benches and desks for the lecture rooms also had to be
made, and Brockenbrough estimated the cost for work remaining to be done on the
buildings, not counting the Venetian blinds and lattice work, to be at least $3,000.[607] In the
spring of 1824, wagons from Augusta County began to find their way across the Blue Ridge
Mountains, bringing loads of lime for the brickmakers, and boats and wagons containing
nails, screws, glass, lead, sandpaper, rope, copper, tin, and iron traveled westward from
Richmond so that the contractors could complete the unfinished work on the four rows of
buildings and their dependencies as well as continue their work on the Rotunda.[608]

Rotunda Gallery

In late March Brockenbrough informed Jefferson that Dinsmore & Neilson, without
consulting himself or even bothering with a contract for the job, had purchased scantling
and framed the "upper gallery floor" of the library and were set to raise it the next day.
Before the work proceeded any further the proctor wanted Jefferson to consider some
alterations of the interior design of the Rotunda that had struck his mind on "seeing the hight
of the gallery" and which he thought would be an improvement.

Jefferson "maturely" considered the change before rejecting it a day later as offering "no
advantage" over the original plan. Besides the 4,000 square feet area intended for "presses
below the entablature of the columns," Jefferson explained to the proctor, "we can have
another tier of presses above the entablature, of one half more of the space. again instead of
the noble perystyle of the original bearing a proper proportion to the height of vault above, it
proposes a diminutive one of 10. f. height with a vault of 40. f. above. the original peristyle
by it's height & projection from the wall has the advantage of hiding a portion of the vault of
which too much would otherwise be seen. the panneled plaistering makes no difficultie
because it will be divided by cross styles into compartments, and thus adapted to the view."
"Messrs. Nelson & Dinsmore," Jefferson added, "should be warned that if they do any thing
more than what was proposed to be first done, there will be no funds to pay for it."[610]

Gymnasium

One alteration, or evolution, of the original design did take place, however, apparently back
in the second half of 1823 when Jefferson experienced his severe illness. As Martha
Jefferson Randolph described it to her daughter Virginia's husband Nicholas P. W. Trist in an
early April letter, the plan for the Rotunda now included a "Gymnasium under cover, under
which the young men may exercise in bad weather protected equally from the sun & the rain
and the manual exercise will be a regular branch of their education. this last improvement,
the Gymnasium, occurred to my Father during a fever that confined him upon the sopha. he
immediately sent for Mr Brockenbrough and gave him every direction onto the plan when
he was actually so weak that he could not sit up to draw it him self. if you recollect the place
you may remember that the North end of the lawn is closed by a large rotunda with 2 wide
terrace, extending on each side to the ranges of buildings, the Pavillions & dormitories.
under these terrace, arched on both sides and containing a space of 80 feet in length & 30
wide is the gymnasium." Housejoiner and architect John Neilson actually drew the north
elevation for the structure, which was incorporated in the construction during the spring.[611]

A Quorum Meets

When the 1824 spring meeting of the Board of Visitors began on Monday 5 April there was
nothing for the quorum of Jefferson, Madison, Cocke, and Johnson to act upon in regard to
the buildings so the board proceeded to take "such preparatory measures" as could be taken
in regard to bringing the university into "opperation with as little delay as practicable," by
discussing the "accounts and estimates now rendered by the Bursar and the Proctor," and by
appointing Virginia attorney Francis Walker Gilmer agent for a mission to procure
professors from Europe.[612] Those accounts might have included Brockenbrough's estimate
of the cost of the Rotunda derived from the contracts already entered into towards its
completion. Those figures included $10,761.72 for brickwork materials and labor, $10,165
for the Carrara marble bases and capitals and their transportation from Leghorn to America,
$1,455 for stone window and door sills, back steps, and terraces, $6,165 for "Materials
principally Lumber & iron," $2,000 for "Tin & Copper for the roof of Dome & Portico," and
$500 for "Glass & Glazing including the sky light." The total came to $31,046.72, and
Brockenbrough estimated that another $10,000 could cover the "Nails, hard ware, painting
& Workmans bills."[613] Considering the cost incurred so far in erecting the hull of the
Rotunda and the proctor's vague projections for additional costs, it is hard to conceive that
anyone on the board still believed that the interior of the building could be finished without
exceeding Jefferson's original 1822 estimate for the building of less than $50,000. If any of
the visitors complained it failed to get lodged into the record, however. On 6 April the board
was prevented from regathering by a "constant and heavy rain" but on the 7th the visitors,
now joined by Cabell, reconvened to discuss the curricula for the various schools and the
purchasing of "Such Books and Apparatus as may be deemed most useful for the
commencement of the Several Schools in the University."[614]

The board planned to open the university to students on 1 February 1825, "taking the
intermediate time to procure professors" from Europe, Jefferson informed Nicholas P. W.
Trist shortly after the visitors' meeting, and to put the Rotunda, "the only unfinished
building," into a state for use. (Jefferson also told Trist that "Charlottesville is building
fast.")[615] This long-awaited decision was made possible by another long-anticipated piece
of good luck that finally had fallen the university's way during the preceding winter. Senator
Cabell reluctantly turned over his guardianship of the university's political affairs in the
General Assembly to General Breckinridge in late November, expecting to remain away
from Richmond until near the end of the legislative session,[616] but unexpectedly (and
fortunately) he was able to return "hastily over stormy rivers, and frozen roads, to re-join the
band of steadfast patriots engaged in the holy cause of the University" at his old apartment
in Richmond's Eagle Hotel less than two weeks later. When he took his seat in the Virginia
senate on 3 December Cabell was made aware immediately that Governor James Pleasants,
Jr., "a man of great prudence and discretion," was promoting the claims of the university in
the legislature in "his happiest manner," and that the popular sentiment was "decidedly" in
favor of removing the university's entire debt.[617] Cabell worked tirelessly during the
session to get bills passed in the General Assembly remitting the $180,000 debts incurred in
the construction of the buildings of the university and granting a gift of $50,000 for the
purchase of books and other "apparatus." By late January 1824 he had been confined to his
room for two weeks, and his bed for a week, by an "excruciating rheumatic affection of my
head, contracted by sleeping near a damp wall."[618] The first victory came through before
the month ended, however, when the senate unanimously passed a bill sent up by the House
of Delegates for the remission of the university's debts,[619] and the bonus came on the last
day of the legislative session in March.[620] In fact, Cabell's absence from the Board of
Visitors' meeting until the third day was because of his attendance in Washington to lobby
President Monroe and the "general government" of the United States to settle the interest on
the debt it had previously discharged to the state of Virginia for the latter's "liberal spirit
towards the government of the Union" during the War of 1812, and from which the money
to pay for the remission of the university's debts must come.[621]

Covering the Rotunda

If the weather permitted the members of the Board of Visitors to inspect the Rotunda at their
April meeting they probably were quite astonished to see that Dinsmore & Neilson had
framed the building's upper gallery floor and was preparing to raise its roof so early in the
season.[622] Brockenbrough had written to D. W. & C. Warwick on 19 March trying to find
out how cheaply the firm could provide copper or zinc plate for covering the dome and
portico but before he could receive a reply he presented the board with the heretofore
mentioned estimate of $2,000.[623] The proctor also solicited his brother Dr. John
Brockenbrough, Jr., to make inquiries about the price of the metals and to recruit someone in
Richmond to lay the sheeting. John Brockenbrough induced Warwick to sell copper to the
university for 26 cents per pound instead of the going rate of 35 cents, "provided the
quantity be considerable," and arranged for Frenchman Anthony Bargamin, who asked 10
cents the pound to put it on, to travel to the site to negotiate a contract with the proctor. "You
cannot have a better covering than he will make you in this way," Brockenbrough told his
brother. And instead of gutters, he added, "it will be better, I think, to extend the copper over
the parapet walls. Zinc might be somewhat cheaper, provided it could be procured
sufficiently thin, but we Know nothing of it's durability."[624]

Bargamin, who with his brother George was prominent in the capitol's business life, had
covered the dome of Richmond's city hall.[625] He "does not converse very intelligibly in
english," the proctor informed Jefferson when writing to notify him of Bargamin's
impending arrival by stage at Charlottesville, "if convenient I Should be glad if you will
come up on Thursday morning to see him on the subject. the job requires a man well skilled
in the working of metal."[626] Jefferson, it turned out, was once again too ill to travel to the
university. He replied to Brockenbrough that "My last ride to the University and return
without getting off of my horse, with the heat of the day so overcome me with fatigue that I
could scarcely reach home, and still leaves me so sore and languid that I have not been on
my horse since, nor shall I be able yet for some days. if therefore any consultation is
necessary with me I must ask the favor of yourself and mr Berjamin to take a ride here at
your convenience."[627] The Frenchman briefly visited the site a couple of weeks before the
actual construction began on the vault's large wooden ribbed frame, the plan of which was
taken, as Monticello's dome had been, from Philibert Delorme's Nouvelles Inventions pour
bien bastir et a petits Fraiz (1576). "I once owned the book," Jefferson recalled in the third
week of May when writing to General Joseph G. Swift to borrow a copy of the volume, "and
understood the principles of his invention, but my recollection is not particular enough in
every thing, our workmen are strangers to it, and I fear we may go wrong. if we could be
accommodated with this single volume it would be of singular service to us."[628] Over the
next few weeks, while the carpenters set up the wooden frame, the tin plate and copper
sheathing necessary to cover the arch began to come to Bargamin's hand at Richmond from
New York City, and then was forwarded on to the university.[629] Bargamin tried to leave
the Virginia capitol in mid-June but was delayed, so on 21 June he sent a workman to the
university to "proceed to the preparative Untile my Arival."[630] Bargamin reached the site
before the beginning of July, however, and no doubt the changes in the Rotunda's
appearance that had taken place by capping the structure during the six-weeks interval
greatly stirred his excitement for the task that lay before him, for by the end of the summer
he had completely finished covering the dome. The roof proved "perfectly tight" when
tested by the September rains but began leaking after workmen perforated the tin with
screws when fastening the supports to the steps that were raised around the dome's base.[631]

Brickwork at the Rotunda

Meanwhile, other building projects besides roof construction were carried into effect at the
Rotunda. In early May Brockenbrough informed Jefferson that the "Portico of the Rotunda
& Platform of the back Steps" would take at least 1,350 square feet of marble flagging,
1,150 for the portico, 160 for the platform, and 40 for breakage,[632] and Jefferson placed an
order for 1,400 marble squares two weeks later from Thomas Appleton in Leghorn.
Jefferson informed Appleton that he was anxious to receive the marble bases and capitals
that he had ordered the previous fall so that the workmen could "get up our columns this
season . . . that the columns may have time to settle before their Capitels are put on
them."[633] Brockenbrough then sought from Dinsmore & Neilson an estimate of the
amount of lead needed for (in Dinsmore's words) the "leaves of the Modellions &c 300 ft
superficial @ 5 lbs to the foot," which the proctor then ordered, along with two casks of
nails and two coils of rope, from Brockenbrough & Harvie in Richmond.[634] In May the
proctor also tried to arrange the brickmaking for the upcoming two building seasons. He
requested John Hartwell Cocke to lend his slave brickmaker, Charles, to the university for
three months in order to make 2 or 300,000 bricks for the "next year [1825] if they should
be wanting for any buildings about the University."[635] A few days later, however, Cocke
sent the proctor word that "my engagements with Charles will not admit of my sparing him
this Season."[636] Brockenbrough then contracted with John M. Perry to make about
300,000 "hard well shaped bricks such a portion of which shall be Column bricks as many
as may be required for the Rotunda shaped agreeable to a mould to be furnished and such a
portion of paving bricks as may be wanting for the Rotunda & Gymnasia, and which shall
be smoth well shaped bricks." Perry also agreed to "take the wood purchased of Jesse Lewis
& what ever other wood the proctor may have on hand for the burning of Bricks at One
Dollar per cord on the ground where cut or two Dollars delivered at the kiln near the
University; the said Perry is to pay at the rate of [blank] cents per thousand for the clay that
was dug by the labourers of the University." Brockenbrough, acting for the University,
promised to pay Perry $4.50 per thousand bricks and to let Perry have "the use of the yard,
shelters, clamps &c attached to the Brick yard for the making of the Said bricks but no other
bricks are to be made or carried from said yard or grounds for any other purposed. the Said
Shelters, yards, clamps &c to be returned in good order."[637]

Attic Cisterns

The bricklayers' work on the Rotunda progressed so rapidly during the spring of 1824 that
by early June the proctor could inform Jefferson that the firm of Thorn & Chamberlain was
about to begin laying the bricks of the building's "attic." Brockenbrough suggested that
reservoirs "nearly the depth of the Attic and as large in diameter as the space will admit of"
be placed in the two north corners of the attic so that in case of fire water could be thrown
by "pipes or hose" to any part of the building beneath the dome. Water for those reservoirs
could be collected at a reservoir on the university-owned mountain where Jefferson hoped to
build an observatory and piped from there to the Rotunda and other principle buildings. The
mountain reservoir, Brockenbrough contemplated, should be built of brick or rock and
plastered with Roman cement, in size about 16 feet in diameter and perhaps the same depth,
and situated about 50 or 60 feet above the level of the ground at the buildings so that the
weight of the water could "propell itself with as much power as an engine would supply it."
The proctor, well aware that all buildings of his era were particularly vulnerable to fire,
asserted that a gravity-fed water supply system was both cheaper and more efficient than
buying a fire engine.[638] The system he proposed to replace "the present defective
arrangement for the supply of that article [water]" to the university offered other benefits as
well: the university's existing cisterns could be filled occasionally from the pipes and water
might be taken from some stop cocks for "culinary purposes."

The proctor's suggestion to build reservoirs in the attic of the Rotunda was not adopted but
Brockenbrough rightly judged that the mountain to the west could help to solve the problem
of the university's inadequate water supply. Previous efforts to provide water had been
confined to the local area of the university and seemed meager in comparison to the more
ambitious plan which Brockenbrough now proposed. "at present besides the two cisterns we
have one pump in operation, two wells walled up ready for pump, one other well not
entirely finished on west street, I propose puting another between Pavilions 4 & 6—to the
south we have a fine Spring about two hundred yards from the buildings." Before going to
any "great expence" in pursuing his scheme, however, Brockenbrough recommended that
the university should purchase "the right of using the water from the Mountain of Capt
[John] Perry or a Slipe of land including the spring the latter would be preferable as thereby
we should connect the two tracts of Land and give us a road to the Mountain." The proctor
concluded by giving Jefferson his opinion that the university should execute his plan before
the coming winter, as the "ensurance on the buildings would amount to a much greater sum
and one or the other would be prudent."[639] Jefferson agreed that consolidating the
university's two separate tracts of land by gaining the 132-acre interjacent tract with the
"very bold spring" would be in the university's long-term interest but withheld pressing
Perry about the matter lest the carpenter ask an unreasonable price. Perry felt obliged to sell
the land in the spring of 1825 and the university purchased it for $50 an acre.[640]

Piper Tract

During the summer and fall of 1824 Perry also was involved in the university's negotiation
and purchase (for about $450) of a four-acre tract of land lying immediately to the north of
the Rotunda on the Three Notch'd Road. The tiny tract was clipped off a larger tract owned
by Daniel A. Piper, who had installed the gutters and drain pipes at Pavilions I, IV, VI, VII,
and repaired the pipes at Pavilion III, and his wife Mary A. Frances, who had sold an
adjacent tract to the university the preceding April.[641] The Three Notch'd Road, which ran
from Charlottesville to Rockfish Gap and which served as the outer boundary for the April
purchase, passed by the university in a more or less northwest to southeast direction. The
new agreement with the Pipers permitted Jefferson to re-establish the bed of the public road
along the new outlying boundary line, causing it to pass parallel to the northern side of the
university (see appendix G).[642]

The Proctor is Busy

While the executive committee contemplated land deals and waterworks and the contractors
vaulted the main building and made bricks for columns, the proctor supervised the final
thrusts (as lay within his power) aimed at bringing to completion the initial phases of
construction at the university. In mid-July 1824 stonemason John Gorman began laying the
foundation stones for the "back steps" (and their retaining walls) on the north front of the
Rotunda after Brockenbrough's laborers excavated and otherwise prepared the earth on that
steep slope. Brockenbrough sent Jefferson alternate plans for either concealing the "ruff
work" on the sides of the steps or "facing and coping" them with stone but the plans
apparently have not survived.[643] Before the summer was over James and Samuel
Campbell, stonemasons employed by Gorman at the university, finished the stonework on
the "walls" of the eastern range hotels.[644] Little stonework was left at the university after
the completion of those jobs except setting the marble bases and capitals when they arrived
from Italy in 1825 and 1826.

In early August Brockenbrough ordered sash pulleys and keys for iron rim locks from
Robert Johnston & Son in Richmond.[645] The firm could not locate the keys but Peter
Johnston found the pulleys when visiting New York on business in September, and wagoner
Thomas Draffin delivered them (127 pounds in a barrel) to the university on 10
November.[646] Also in August, Brockenbrough sent word to Andrew Smith, the Boston
Glass Manufactory's agent in Richmond, that the university was prepared to purchase a large
quantity of its best Boston crown glass for the window lights of the Rotunda.[647] Wagoner
Jacob Mohler delivered the first shipment to the university in early December, along with
six kegs of paint and "one half barrel whiting weighing 975 lbs. total."[648] The amount of
glass shipped to the university for the Rotunda eventually exceeded 1,000 sheets (packed in
more than 40 cases), and it was late fall 1825 before the New England firm placed its final
shipment on board a vessel to embark for the southward.[649]

With the end of the 1824 building season rapidly approaching, and the construction work
advancing steadily, the proctor busied himself with preparations for the Board of Visitors'
1824 fall meeting. A statement of the university's finances that he made for the visitors on
the eve of their meeting shows that Brockenbrough contemplated the execution of a handful
of minor tasks while the work on the Rotunda was proceeding. He wanted to finish painting
Pavilion X and the hotels on the western range and estimated the cost of that work at $300.
The small "Slipe of Land opposite the Rotunda" that the university was negotiating for with
Daniel and Mary Piper could be enclosed with a brick wall, he thought, for about $450. He
considered $300 sufficient "to set up 8 lecture rooms with benches desk &c," and he
calculated that $250 could take care of the "Stone walls on east Street & other jobs fixing
pumps &c."[650] Brockenbrough also prepared a balance sheet of the university's
expenditures to show the visitors what the cost of building the university had mounted to so
far. The grand total of $305,664.83 can be broken down generally as follows: $109,637.33
for pavilions, $77,430.56 for dormitories, $32,006.85 for hotels, $25,224.90 for the Rotunda
—altogether $244,299.64—plus $61,365.19 for an assortment of other expenses, including
real estate ($8,991.55), salaries for the proctor, bursar, clerks, and professors ($3,497.23),
labor ($2,936.63), privies ($2,818.63), water works ($1,180.49), and smokehouses
($499.05).[651]

Visitors Draft Regulations

The Board of Visitors' meeting on 4 October was attended by six of its seven members
—Jefferson, Madison, Cabell, Cocke, Breckenridge, and Loyal—Johnson excusing himself
on the grounds that he was "quite unable to make the ride" on such an "inconvenient
journey."[652] The board's first order of business that Monday was to ratify the university's
agreements to purchase from the Pipers the two small tracts of land to the Rotunda's
north.[653] After passing other resolutions relative to the institution's finances, the visitors set
to work formulating the "regulations necessary to constituting governing and conducting the
institution," a process the board began at its previous spring meeting. The regulations
drafted by the board included decrees for managing the usage of the finished buildings at the
university. "The room provided for a School room in every Pavilion shall be used for the
School of its occupant professor," the board resolved, "and shall be furnished by the
University with necessary benches & tables." And furthermore:

Even the last of these regulations carries Jefferson's strong imprint. Isaac Jefferson, a
Monticello slave who traveled to Philadelphia with his master in 1790 when Jefferson
became George Washington's secretary of state, said of Jefferson: "My Old Master was neat
a hand as ever you see to make keys and locks and small chains, iron and brass. He kept all
kind of blacksmith and carpenter tools in a great case with shelves to it in his library, an
upstairs room."[655] Isaac's observation concerning Jefferson's tools is confirmed in part by
James Dinsmore's "Memdm of Carpenters tools belonging to Mr. Jefferson" that the
housejoiner made when leaving Jefferson's employment at Monticello in 1809 (see appendix
C).[656]

Lafayette Entertained

The board's work required the visitors to reconvene for another session on the following
day. After resolving to authorize the proctor to lease the hotels after mid-November, the
board began drafting its annual report to the Literary Fund.[657] The report, which mostly
centered around finances, curricula, and professors, stated that in the course of the present
season the Rotunda "has received its roof, and will be put into a condition for preservation
and use, altho its interior cannot be compleated."[658] The incomplete state of the Rotunda's
interior did not prohibit Jefferson and other area residents from planning to entertain the
Marquis de Lafayette at a public dinner later that month, however,[659] and Jefferson later
claimed that upon reflection the building, "in the unfinished state in which it then was, was
as open and uninclosed, and as insusceptible of injury, as the field in which it stood."[660]
One visitor to the university at this time, however, nineteen-year-old Henry Marshall, who
was walking from Philadelphia to his home in South Carolina and who later served in the
first Confederate Congress, apparently thought otherwise. Marshall was so taken with what
he saw that he described the Rotunda as "decidedly the most elegantly proportioned building
I ever saw. It is the only public building I have seen in this country that is high enough. the
professors houses are elegant specimens of architecture. On the whole I think they are the
most tastiful & elegant buildings in the U.S. I had no idea of their extend & splendor."[661]

Construction at the university clearly was nearing completion even as workers continued
painting and installing window panes throughout the month of November.[662] True, on the
first day of winter the "whole scaffolding" surrounding the Rotunda still could be seen left
standing by the workmen as they awaited William J. Coffee's shipment of small frieze
ornaments.[663] (Coffee shipped the ornaments to the university in late December.)[664] The
agreeably mild fall weather allowed workers "to accomplish the repairs and improvements
on, and about the Buildings; such as plastering leveling the yards and Gardens conducting or
draining of the water &c; which labour cannot be done so well after winter."[665] Chiles
Brand's labor account with the university shows that during December 1824 he earned $4.50
for "White washing 9 rooms at night @ 50¢" in addition to the $21.25 he was paid for 17
days of labor work that month.[666] Wagoner William Crenshaw in mid-January 1825
delivered to the university 19 boxes of window glass costing $338.56 for the Rotunda that
was sent from the Boston Glass Manufactory's new Richmond agent, Thomas May.[667] The
winter set in, however, before A. Zigler "the pump man" could finish installing the water
pipes, delaying the completion of his work until the following March.[668]

Chapter 10
The Building Campaign of 1825

Funds Still Needed

Shortly after the first of the year the proctor estimated that $25,000 was needed to finish the
Rotunda,[669] not counting the $5,000 owed for work already performed at the building,[670]
and Jefferson figured that another $5,000 would be required to erect the Anatomical
Hall.[671] Knowing that the university lacked those funds Jefferson recommended leaving
the Rotunda in its unfinished state "for the present" rather than risk "renewing the
displeasure" of the Virginia legislature by hinting of additional aid.[672] In early March
Dinsmore & Neilson calculated the "Probable expence of finishing the wood work of the
library Room and finding the materals" to be $3,000, "exclusive of the Columns," which
would demand another $2,000. Supposing another $1,000 for "Plast & Paintg," the firm
reckoned that it would cost $6,000 to finish the Rotunda's dome room.[673] With the
approach of spring when Jefferson was engaged "in preparing a general view of the state of
our finances on the 1st. day of January last," he wrote Brockenbrough: "I have had so many
terrible rides to the University lately that I must now ask the favor of you to take one to this
place to confer with me."[674] The resulting financial statement, dated 15 March and sent to
the members of the Board of Visitors exactly one month later, accounts for $29,713 and
shows that on the first day of 1825 over half of the university's funds were allocated for
items other than construction costs, such as "Ordinary current expences" and professors'
salaries. In fact, the only future building expense included in the statement is the $6,000
estimate for finishing the "Library room" that Dinsmore & Neilson had submitted to the
proctor a few days earlier.[675]

Professors Expected

The surviving records reveal little of the other remaining tasks that surely must have need to
be completed over the winter as the university awaited the arrival of the professors and the
opening of the school to its first class of students.[676] When the first week of the new year
passed without bringing the last of the foreign professors to the university Jefferson became
almost frantic that his cherished institution would not open as scheduled. He confided to
Joseph Carrington Cabell: "We are dreadfully non-plussed here by the non-arrival of our
three Professors. we apprehend that the idea of our opening on the 1st. of Feb. prevails so
much abroad . . . that Students will assemble on that day, without awaiting the further notice
promised. to send them back will be discouraging, and to open an University without
Mathematics or Natural philosophy would bring on us ridicule and disgrace. we therefore
publish an advertisement stating that, on the arrival of these Professors, notice will be given
of the day of opening the institution."[677] Professors Bonnycastle, Key, and Dunglison,
along with the wives of the latter two, had embarked on the Competitor at London in
October 1824 but unfavorable winds had kept their vessel from sailing out of the English
Channel for six weeks, and it was February before the vessel dropped anchor in
Norfolk.[678] A week later the party was greeted in Richmond by enthusiastic university
supporters, but before the professors and their wives could begin the trek to their final
destination severe winter weather forced them to sit still for several more days.[679]

University Opens

When word of the professors' long-anticipated arrival in Virginia reached Charlottesville,
Brockenbrough issued a proclamation that the University of Virginia would open on 7
March 1825.[680] Before that date, however, Jefferson concluded that the lateness of the
season necessitated the issue of another notice informing potential students that for the
present year they could enter the university at any time.[681] Although Jefferson was eager
to open the university, the buildings still lacked, among other things, sufficient mattresses
and lamp oil.[682] Nevertheless, thirty or forty students had arrived at the university on the
day of its official opening, and by 12 April Jefferson could boast to his future grandson-
in-law Joseph Coolidge, Jr., of Massachusetts that the number had risen to sixty-five. "I wish
they may not get beyond 100. this year," Jefferson wrote, "as I think it will be easier to get
into an established course of order and discipline with that than with a greater number. our
English Professors give us perfect satisfn. the choice has been most judiciously made."[683]

Brickwork at the Rotunda

In March, Thorn & Chamberlain resumed brickwork at the Rotunda, where a sizeable
amount of brickwork apparently remained to be completed, in the early spring.[684] On 13
April, Jefferson's eighty-second birthday, Brockenbrough wrote to John Hartwell Cocke to
complain about two slaves that Cocke had sent from Bremo to the university to help in the
brickmaking.[685] The young men, Brockenbrough said, "are so small—I fear they will not
be able to stand the work of the season—My intention is only to work one table—the
Moulder whom I have employed is an Irishman and will work by the Thousand,
consequently will be (every day) a great days work (say three thousand bricks per day) I
shall keep the boys for a few days on trial (to day they are much fatigued with the walk of
yesterday—I wish very much tho' that you will send me two larger boys say Frank and
another of the largest size we had of you before . . . It is probable Capt Perry will take the
two boys if you wish, and will send me two other I will hire them to him."[686] When
drafting a year-end report that reviewed the expenses of maintaining the institution's fifteen-
member hired labor force and overseer for one year, the proctor estimated that in 1825 the
laborers had made between 800,000 and 900,000 bricks for the Rotunda, "in addition to the
other labour we have performed."[687]

Macadamized Roads

The construction work that took place at the university during the rest of the spring and
summer, and into the fall of 1825, must be viewed through scanty records. Although the
process of building was winding down, Jefferson was as eager as ever to turn his inventive
mind toward a novel approach, and accordingly he directed his attention towards the
feasibility of laying macadamized roads for the streets and alleys that criss-crossed his
Academical Village. For some time he had "heard and read a great deal" about the
road-making method of John Loudon McAdam, the Scottish road surveyor and merchant of
New York. McAdam's method had become popular in England because it proved "much
superior to the former roads, and much cheaper." Therefore Jefferson cheerfully escorted a
"Mr. Owens" on a tour of the university grounds on 15 March to discuss the proper way to
lay the broken stones. From Owens, who had been at the "head of great works, and well
skilled," Jefferson heard that:

The tests on the cross walks apparently produced favorable results, but soon after the
university's hired labor force began to pave the eastern street, it deviated from Mr. Owens'
directions. The difficulty stemmed from the proctor's inability to procure satisfactory sledge
hammers for the laborers to do the job.[689] Jefferson learned of the trouble and requested
Brockenbrough to correct the operation before matters went further astray. "Two or three
persons have mentioned to me their opinion that the way in which the laborers are
proceeding with the road of the Eastern street is not conformable in material circumstances
with McAdam's method," Jefferson informed the proctor. "I think you had better hold them
strictly to that; for if we differ from what has been proved good by experience, and should
fail, we should be justly blamed as wasting the public money on projects of our own, and
have to do the work over again." Jefferson went on to restate his own ideas of how the work
ought to be done:

The process of macadamizing the streets, which required a "wagon & a pair of Horses
only," was not finished until about six weeks after Jefferson's death in 1826.[691]

Clock and Bell

Next, Jefferson turned his still fertile mind to the ingenious clock and bell mechanism that
he wished to have installed in the tympanum of the portico on the Rotunda's south front (see
appendix Q). Understanding that the "art of bellmaking is carried to greater perfection in
Boston than elsewhere in the US.," Jefferson on 12 April wrote to Joseph Coolidge, Jr.,
asking for assistance in finding a skilled bell and clock maker. "we want a bell which can
generally be heard at the distance of 2 miles," he said, "because this will ensure it's being
always heard in Charlottesville. as we wish it to be sfft for this, so we wish it not more so,
because it will add to it's weight, price and difficulty of managemt."[692] The page of
specifications for the clock and bell that Jefferson enclosed in his letter to Coolidge shows
that the octogenarian still retained his lifelong fascination with machinery and, at least
where the university was concerned, was still willing to give his full attention and remaining
vigor to such inventions:

It was nearly the fall of the year before Jefferson received Coolidge's letter of 5 August
saying that he could engage Simon Willard of Roxbury, Massachusetts, to build "as good a
clock as can be found in america" for $800, "the movement to be of purest brass, and of cast
steel. . . . the dial would be made at the University, where it could more exactly be
proportioned to the tympanum of the pediment." For a small compensation the maker
himself promised to travel to Virginia to ensure its "being well set up."[694] Willard
estimated that it would take about two months to make the clock but the university's
financial plight prohibited the placing of the order until exactly one month before Jefferson's
death in 1826.[695] A temporary system thus was devised to be set up "before a window of
the book room" in one of the pavilions on the west lawn in early 1826: its "face so near the
window as that it's time may be read thro' the window from the outside," directed Jefferson,
and the bell fastened to the ridge of its roof. It was left to the proctor to "contrive how the
cord may be protected from the trickish ringings of the students."[696] Willard's clock was
destroyed in the fire that ravaged the Rotunda in 1895 but its companion, the bell, survived
because it had been replaced in 1886 by one cast by McShane & Company of Baltimore
after a "group of high-spirited students" removed it from its mounting, "turned it upside
down and filled it full of water. Left through an unusually cold night, the water froze,
expanded and cracked the bell. The formerly clear tones became harsh and discordant."[697]

Chemical Laboratory

A month to the day after he sent his grand-son-in-law the specifications for the Rotunda's
clock and bell, Jefferson received a letter from Professor John Patton Emmet regarding his
experimental chemistry classes in Pavilion I. "I speak feelingly," Emmet explained, "When I
say that even a Small furnace, when in operation, makes my room oppressively hot, &
myself even more so, for from its necessary position, I am compelled, almost to Sit upon it.
You have determined that the room originally intended for me, should be fitted for a
museum, and with great propriety, for a chemical Laboratory would ruin any room in the
Rotunda." Emmet ventured to correct what he considered a deplorable situation by
submitting to Jefferson his sketch of a "lecturing room & Laboratory," separating into two
rooms the lecture hall and the laboratory "Apparatus" for conducting experiments. After
making an appeal in favor of the students' best interest and of the usefulness of the "great
Character of Chemistry" for society, the professor, with what must be described as faultless
Jeffersonian logic, asserted that his design ("drawn up without any reference to a Scale")
could "accommodate a full Class; being persuaded that if the measure be at all worthy of
your Consideration, it is the best economy to build it ample." Moreover, Emmet indicated
that a store room, "always useful in holding Supplies," could be built over the laboratory
room.[698]

What Jefferson thought of Emmet's plan is unknown but the university's precarious financial
situation did not permit the undertaking of any unexpected major structures at this time. By
June it was decided to allow the professor to set up his laboratory in the small room of the
Rotunda's basement (or ground floor) but the doctor quickly complained that the "want of
room & light" thwarted his purpose and demanded the two large oval rooms of the same
floor.[699] Jefferson consented even though it meant relocating the proposed museum to one
of the upper oval rooms.[700] The laboratory's Rotunda location was still incomplete at
year's end, however, when Emmet, visiting his home in New York City, wrote
Brockenbrough that he was anxious that the state of the room "should be looked to—the
tin-man promised most seriously to have the stove-pipe made & put up—as well as the
dampers, grate-doors &c—In raising the Stove pipes—let him secure the hanging shelf with
Sheet iron—he may then fasten the pipe to the Shelf."[701] Incidentally, Professor Emmet's
house, Pavilion I on the west lawn, still awaited completion at that time, apparently owing to
James Oldham's disagreement with the proctor and the carpenter's lawsuit against the
university. "My dear Sir," Emmet also pleaded with the proctor, "I must here, while there is
time, beg you to set my House in some order—I confidently expect, from your own promise,
to find the garret stair-case finished & the Kitchen & cellar room plaistered."

The Dome Room

The correspondence in June 1825 between Jefferson and Brockenbrough regarding the
placement of Dr. Emmet's chemical laboratory also helps show the approximate progress of
the carpenters in completing the dome room (see appendix K). "In finishing the Library
room of the Rotunda," the proctor asked the rector, "in what way do you propose securing it
at the head of The stairs? whether by a partition around the well hole of the Stairs and a door
in the front of landing or a lobby extending to the rear of the columns next the stairs."[702]
Jefferson, who was again ill and thinking that "it may be weeks yet before I shall be able to
visit the University, even in a carriage," declared that he wished to erect a balustrade around
the wells of the staircases and enclosed for the workmen a "very beautiful form of a
balluster" suitable for both the balustrade and the staircases.[703] The proctor considered a
balustrade insufficient to protect the library from "any & every person" who might enter the
building but Jefferson, who did not live to see either the balustrade or the library room's
bookcases in place, fortunately did not deviate from his intention.[704]

The dome room at this time not only still lacked its balustrade (as did the staircases) and
bookcases, the room's columns also lacked their wooden composite capitals. The Richmond
artisan who contracted to carve the capitals, Philip Sturtevant, wrote to Brockenbrough on
18 June, saying that "I Have Ben More fortunate in Getting timber than I Expected that Is
White Pine from the State of Main for the Most important Part of My work that is the
Capitals . . . I Have Drawn the Capital and Shall Commence Cutting up my Stuff
tomorow."[705] Sturtevant, who also informed the proctor at this time that he would accept
$4 for each of eleven sets of wooden blinds that he had crafted and sent to the university,
wrote after finishing the capitals: "I never worked so Hard in all My Life Before I Worked
Nights till 12 and 1 Oclock Even in July and August [1826] untill I Got them done But I
think the work will Show for it Self."[706] Photographs of the dome room as it existed before
the Rotunda fire of 1895 attest to Sturtevant's skill as a woodcarver.[707]

Other work at the Rotunda progressed slowly, when at all. In July university plasterer
Joseph Antrim visited ornamentalist William J. Coffee in New York City to deliver drawings
of the decorative modillions and rosettes planned for the cornice of at least one room in the
building (that intended for the museum) and for the entablature of the portico.
Brockenbrough and Coffee exchanged several letters regarding what the latter called
"Compositions Ornaments for a corinthian Cornish." Dissatisfied with his earnings for the
composition work that he sent to the university at the end of the previous year, Coffee
informed the proctor that he did not wish to work in putty, "which is quite out of use and
never Employed," but only in lead and "my Composition."[708] Coffee instead proposed to
make 170 modillion leaves, a like number of rosettes, and 128 feet of frieze ornament in his
"baked earth" composition for $350, a fee the proctor called "extravagantly high."[709] By
September the proctor had convinced the artist to cut his price in half, but the two men
apparently discontinued their communication during the next month without settling an
agreement for the ornaments.[710] Not that it mattered much, for the unfinished state of the
plasterwork in the dome room would have prohibited the fastening of the ornaments in
place. (The joiners' dilatoriness in finishing their work apparently hindered the
plasterers.)[711]

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]

Wooden Blinds

The proctor also began looking for a craftsman capable of making the hundreds of sets of
wooden shutters planned for the windows and doors of the buildings, and in August Joseph
Pitt, Malcom F. Crawford, and John W. Simpson handed in separate bids to make them.
(Philip Sturtevant, who had already made eleven sets of wooden blinds for the university but
was carving the wooden capitals for the Rotunda's dome room, did not offer a
proposal.)[715] Pitt offered to furnish the university "Blinds Complete" for $8.75 "on
windows of 12 Lights-glass 12 by 16 and in the Same Proportion for Larger or
Smaller."[716] Crawford said he would "put Venition Shutters to all of the doors & Windows
. . . Ironed and Painted in the best Manner, to W[i]t. all the Twelve Light Windows, Twelve
by Eightteen Glass @ Eight Dollars & fifty Cents pr. Window—and all the other Windows
& doors at the same rate-in proportion to that Size."[717] Simpson said he was "disposed to
undertake the making of the Vernission Blinds, which I understand is to let, for Eight dollas
62½ Cts. pair and the meterials of the best quality & If requested will give security for the
performance."[718] Crawford's bid was accepted and he was still engaged in installing
shutters in the fall of 1827.[719] Shutters for all the windows of the pavilions and dormitories
were later estimated to cost $2,500.[720] Interestingly, in August 1825 Benjamin Blackford
was still shipping large numbers of "Large Sash Weights" from the Isabella Furnace to the
university, apparently for the windows of the Rotunda.[721]

Anatomical Hall

In September 1825 Brockenbrough estimated that another $15,000 would be needed to
finish the Rotunda, "exclusive of the Circular room."[722] When the Board of Visitors
assembled for its scheduled fall meeting during the first week of October it had nothing
concerning the buildings on the table for consideration except a section in the draft of its
annual report to the president and directors of the Literary Fund.[723] "It has been
indispensable," the report stated, "to finish the circular room, destined for the reception of
the books; because once deposited in there places, the removing them for any finishing
which might be left to be done hereafter, would be inadmissible. That has therefore been
carried on actively, and we trust will be ready in time for the reception of the books." The
visitors also reported that it had been indispensible to begin the work at several "other
apartments" in the Rotunda-"two for a Chemical Laboratory, one for a museum of Natural
History, and one for Examinations, for Accessory Schools, and other associated purposes.
An additonal building too for Anatomical dissections, and other kindred uses, was become
necessary. We are endeavoring to put these into a bare state for use, altho with some
jeopardy as to the competence of the funds."[724]

While Dinsmore & Neilson continued to perform the carpentry work in the dome room,
William B. Phillips began laying bricks at the Anatomical Hall.[725] In mid-winter Jefferson
instructed the proctor to reserve all his funds for the "book room" of the Rotunda and for the
Anatomical Hall. "till the latter is in a condition for use," Jefferson said, "there can never be
a dissection of a single subject, nor until the bookroom and cases be completely done can
we open another box of books."[726] Furthermore, Jefferson complained a couple of days
after he celebrated his eighty-third and last birthday in April 1826, "We are not satisfied with
the slowness with which the buildings have been conducted the last year, and particularly
with respect to the Library, and the Anatomical theatre. these ought to have been done
before this.[727] Professor Charles Bonnycastle, frustrated that "No preperations are yet
making for plastering" the elliptical lecturing room assigned for his use in the Rotunda "or, I
beleive, for any thing else," found "nothing that I can see but the interest of Messors Nelson
& Di[n]smore to oppose me."[728] In fact, it was a month after Jefferson's death before
Joseph Antrim submitted his proposal to "put stucco cornices and do the plastering that
remains undone inside of the rotunda . . . Said subscriber will also Plaster the Anatomical
hall on same terms except the materials which must be acertained, say one half of the
amount of Plastering & materials."[729] The roof of the Anatomical Hall was not finished by
August 1826 when Brockenbrough complained to the surviving member of the committee of
superintendence: "I do not recollect how the roof is finished agreeable to Mr Js: design, but
D & Neilson is geting timber for an expencive chines raling around the top, this, if left me
whether the original design or not, I think I should stop, a plain plinth like Pavilion No 8
over the Cornice is quite sufficient."[730] Shortly after this, professor Robley Dunglison
asked the proctor to require John Neilson to stop working on the building's "lower floor
which may not be wanted for a considerable period" and finish the "upper Room . . . which
is appropriated for a Lecture Room."[731] The incomplete state of the Anatomical Hall,
however, had not prevented the university from spending $85.25 for two skeletons that it
obtained from Dr. Robert Greenhow of New York in the spring of 1825 for use in training
the medical students.[732]

Jefferson Still Active

As another building season was drawing to a close, Jefferson was aware that he probably
would not live to see the buildings at the university entirely finished. In his October reply to
a query about the French Revolution he described his declining health: "Eighty two years
old, my memory gone, my mind close following it 5. months confined to the house by a
painful complaint, which, permitting me neither to walk nor to sit, obliges me to be
constantly reclined, and to write in that posture, when I write at all . . . I never declined
business while I was equal to it. but I am now, and for ever past it. I am dead as to that [the
French Revolution] and my friends and the world must so consider me. . . . the little of the
powers of life which remains to me, I consecrate to our University. if divided between two
objects it would be worth nothing to either."[733] Although he never lost interest in the
university, Jefferson's contributions to its establishment waned in proportion to his
increasing debilitation during the last months of his life.

That Jefferson still troubled himself with smaller objects like the construction of wood yards
and smokehouses for the professors is evidence of his persisting concern for the institution,
however. "Wood yards, inclosed in paling," Jefferson said, could be placed in areas
convenient for the professors and their families, like in a "nook of ground adjacent to Dr.
Dunghilson's inclosure, on the outside, where the wood yard would not be in the way of any
thing. there are similar ones I believe at Mr. Tuckers, and Dr. Emmet's I see no objection to
the wood yards being placed there. the gentlemen in interior situations will be obliged to
have them in their inclosures, or in a corner on the outside."[734] Jefferson also informed the
proctor that "a smoke house is indispensable to a Virginia family," and instructed him to
erect several of the buildings:

The smokehouses, if they were built at this time, had not been paid for by the end of 1826
when Brockenbrough made a statement for the Board of Visitors estimating the cost for six
of the buildings to be about $100 each.[736]

Marble at Richmond

The only other matters pertaining to the construction process at the university during the fall
and ensuing winter were the difficulties that Bernard Peyton faced in Richmond as he tried
to find river captains willing to transport the Carrara marble bases and capitals up the James
River from Rocketts to Scottsville, and from Scottsville to Shadwell Mills on the Rivanna
River. The marble, which had been ordered in October 1823, arrived at Boston from
Leghorn in August 1825, 31 bases and 37 cases of paving squares on board the ship
Caroline, and 24 capitals on board the brig Tamworth. It was then transported from Boston
to New York City, where the bases were placed on board the sloop Eliza and the capitals on
the schooner General Jackson, for their voyage south.[737] Once at Richmond, however,
boat captains in the area steadfastly refused to take on board any of the pieces because of
their weight, estimated by Peyton at 3 to 5 tons each.[738] Neither would any of the
numerous Augusta County wagoners dragging between Richmond and the Shenandoah
Valley take on the marble, not being fixed for hauling blocks of such massive size. Even
after boat captains were found who were willing to freight the marble, low water in the fall
and ice in the winter prevented its shipment until spring 1826, and the last piece was not
shipped from Richmond until the third of May.[739] It should be noted that bricklayer
William B. Phillips could not begin building the portico's brick columns until after the
marble bases had been delivered and set in place by stoneworker John Gorman. Once
Phillips finished his work, Joseph Antrim plastered the columns, and John Gorman fixed the
capitals upon them.[740]

Chapter 11
The Final Years: 1826-1828

Drainage

When the Board of Visitors met shortly after Jefferson's eighty-third birthday the only
resolutions it passed pertaining to construction were those requiring the executive
committee "to provide for lighting the University if it can be effectually done at a reasonable
expense" and directing the proctor "to keep the drains in the grounds of the University
always free from obstruction, and to instruct such others as the Executive committee may
direct."[742] The subject of the first resolution is an example of one of the many incidentals
still awaiting completion at the site in the months before Jefferson's death, but the latter was
more necessary for the proper functioning of the site. Two days after the visitors' meeting
professor John Patton Emmet wrote the proctor: "As Mr Jefferson is Anxious that the
Botanic Garden should be Commenced immediatley I have to request that you will furnish
me with hands And one Cart or Waggon at least—The ground is at present so irregular that
the mere levelling & clearing away impediments such as the two brick Kilns &c will
steadily occupy as many as 5 or 6 hands—Drains must also be cut to clear the low ground &
the hills must be terraced—As all these operations will require great labour, the Sooner I get
the hands at work, the better."[743] The following week John Hartwell Cocke told Jefferson,
his aged partner on the committee of superintendence:

The matter of an efficient drainage system remained a problem in late summer when
Professor Dunglison wrote to the proctor to "beg of You to have proper drains constituted as
soon as possible to prevent Sickness in the dormitories which we formerly inspected."[745]

The Dome Leaks

The struggle to overcome an inadequate drainage system probably was exacerbated by the
spring rains of 1826, which not only brought water levels back up enough so that the marble
bases and capitals could be shipped from Richmond to the university but also revealed leaks
in the Rotunda's roof. After visiting the university on 4 May ("my ride yesterday has
worsted me so much that I cannot repeat it"), Jefferson determined to confer with John
Hartwell Cocke about the best way in which to "remedy" the problem, created he thought,
by the "ignorance" of Richmond tinworker Anthony Bargamin, whose permanent absence,
of course, made him an easy target for receiving blame. "my own opinion," Jefferson wrote,
"is in favor of another cover of tin laid on the old one without disturbing that. but Broke
must be employed. we ought not to trust to people of whose skill we know nothing. the
ignorance of the Frenchman is what costs us a new roof. As soon as this is done we must
cover the ill appearance of the plaistering by a whitewash, either of lime or Spanish
white."[746] A figure of $250 was charged against the university in late May for "Additonal
Covering for Dome of the Rotunda,"[747] and Daniel Warwick on 12 June shipped "10.
Boxes Tin plates IX @ $15" by wagoner Christian to the university for the building.[748] A.
H. Brooks wrote Brockenbrough from Staunton on 13 June to let the proctor know that "I
received a few lines from you requsting me to let you heare if I Could Come over to doo a
Job for you and what I would Charge for it, as to the price of Such work I Can Say nothing
becuase I never have done any work of the kind and Could not Say till I See what is to be
done. my tooles is nearly 200 miles from this place and I expect a Job at that place in a
Short time. but Sopose you have Some if So let me know by next mail by which time I
expect to heare from my tooles, I Should think the old Covering must Come off but would
be better able to Judg if I Could See it."[749]

Memorandum and Instructions

The unfinished state of the buildings clearly disappointed Jefferson, whose health was
failing fast. On 20 May he expressed to John Hartwell Cocke his extreme dissatisfaction
with the progress of the work: if it "were it not for my great confidence in the integrity of
those we employ, I should be unable to resist the suspicion of a willingness in them to make
the job last for life. I am at present suffering under a relapse so serious as to put it out my
power to go there as frequently as is requisite." He made a list of notes for "their joint efforts
and consultations as soon as your own affairs will permit your coming to us. altho' always
injured by the ride there I should be able to accompany you & endeavor to apply a spur to
those needing it."[750] The memorandum gives us an idea of the work still being done at the
university:

Death of Jefferson

None of the foregoing work would be finished before Jefferson's death, however. In
mid-February, six weeks before his painful ride to the university in early May, Jefferson had
complained of "a paroxysm of pain, rendering impossible all attention of the mind to any
thing but aggravated suffering."[755] In early March he wistfully invited Robert Mills to
return to Virginia: "I wish your travels should some day lead you this way, where from
Monto. as your head quarters, you could visit and revist our Univty. 4. miles distant only the
plan has the two advantages of exhibiting a specimen of every fine model of every order of
Architecture purely correct, and yet presenting a whole entirely new and unique."[756]
Throughout the spring his decline was rapid, and he died on 4 July 1826. University bursar
Alexander Garrett was at Monticello at the time, and he described the scene in a letter
written to his wife Evelina Bolling Garrett several hours after Jefferson's death:

Workmen Unruly

Immediately upon Jefferson's death the construction workers at the university began to exert
their independence in ways that they would not have dared as long as Jefferson lived. A few
days after Jefferson's death John Hartwell Cocke sent one of his slaves, Jesse, to deliver a
message to Brockenbrough concerning Jefferson's "faithful Servant" Burwell, "said to be a
good painter—I wish you to offer him any job in his line at the University, that he would
undertake."[759] Unfortunately Cocke, now the sole member of the committee of
superintendence, at the same time felt constrained to include an ultimatum in the letter
concerning another favorite of Jefferson, stonemason John Gorman: "If Gorman does not
keep sober & otherwise deport himself well, discharge him promptly—for I am sure, You &
Zeigler will do better without than with him while drunk or refractory."[760] Unruly behavior
among other workmen seemed to intensify with the summer's heat and at the end of August
John Patton Emmet, now the secretary of the faculty, sent John Hartwell Cocke a faculty
"Preamble and Resolution" respecting Jefferson's long-pampered master craftsmen, James
Dinsmore and John Neilson:

A few days later professor Robley Dunglison complained to the proctor about Neilson's
"want of all spirit of Accommodation" in finishing the upper lecture room at the Anatomical
Hall.[762] Cocke diplomatically reconciled the faculty members to the more crass ways of
the workmen, and the more rapid progress of the latter throughout the rest of the summer
helped placate the professors' wounded feelings.

The Visitors Meet without Jefferson

On 7 October 1826 the Board of Visitors prepared its annual report to the president and
directors of the Literary Fund of the recent progress of the work and what remained to be
done:

Although the books were placed in their cases in the season following the meeting of the
visitors, faculty secretary William Wertenbaker on 15 January 1828 sent a faculty resolution
of the day previous to the proctor asking him to inform the executive committee that "the
Books in the Library especially those in the Gallery are now materially suffering from
damp, and that it is impossible for any person to remain in the Library with comfort during
the Winter season . . . do also suggest to the Executive Committee to have the lecture rooms
furnished with Stoves, the fire places having been found insufficient for warming and drying
the apartments, hence they are exceedingly disagreeable and unwholesome especially in the
morning."[764]

Repairs Necessary

Over the next few months, progress toward the final completion of the construction at the
university nearly halted, owing in part to another Virginia winter and in part to the fact that
maintenance of the finished work competed with the priorities of completing that remaining
to be done. Brockenbrough's letter to Dinsmore & Neilson, written in the spring of 1827, is
a good example of how the workmen were called upon to perform repairs on one building
while still engaged in the unfinished work at another. "I am anxious," wrote the proctor, "to
have the roof of the Gimnasium put on a proper state to carry off the Water—the longer it
remains in its present state the greater the damage and as I look to you to make it good the
sooner you attend to it the better—the crackd gutters too in the roof of the Anatomical Hall
must be attended to & if necessary other gutters put in their places[765]—no payments for
those items can be made untill they are put in the order they should be."[766]

Variety of Small Jobs

With the coming of spring the pace of work once again picked up, however. The proctor,
aiming to "finish the little stone work about the Rotunda exclusive of the Front steps,"
negotiated with John Hartwell Cocke for the hire of one of the latter's "good Stone cutters,"
at that time working for Alexander Garrett in Charlottesville, and for some men to quarry
the stone for the portico steps in case the Board of Visitors sought a contemplated $25,000
loan.[767] Brockenbrough also presented Cocke with "Another matter for consideration and
advise," the placement of a privy for the students residing in the "North Eastern Dormitories
near Pav: 2." The proctor complained that "there was one put on the alley (just within Dr
Blaettermans garden) leading down by Richesons Hotel but Dr B would not let it be
used—at present they are put to much inconvenience." Brockenbrough preferred to
dismantle the existing privy and reerect it "at the lower end of garden wall just upon the
outside . . . so constructed that no inconvenience can be felt by its location in the dormitories
below—I propose constructing so that it may be thoroughly cleansed every day."[768] Cocke
left the difficulty to the proctor's "own discretion," and Brockenbrough presumably followed
his own inclinations.[769]

Also in the spring of 1827, the proctor received word from Jefferson's grandson-in-law,
Joseph Coolidge, Jr., informing him that the clock and dial plate intended for the Rotunda at
long last was finished but still needed to be tested, packed, and shipped to Richmond, where
its maker Simon Willard would go to oversee its removal from the vessel.[770] Coolidge
wrote the proctor again on the last day of March saying that the clock and dial had been
placed on board the schooner Magnolia and that Willard was scheduled to leave on 3
April.[771] Bernard Peyton notified the proctor on 21 April that the Magnolia was in the
James River at Richmond,[772] and four days later Peyton wrote saying that wagoner John
Keyser would deliver to the university all the "boxes Containing Clocks &c &c & two (iron
bound) buckets"[773] except for the dial plate which, because of its size, "shall go by first
Trusty Boat, to Milton or Shadwell Mills."[774] Months would pass before the proctor asked
Coolidge to procure the accompanying bell for the mechanism, however,[775] and it was
November before the bell was shipped from Boston to Richmond onboard the Levant. The
maker, "Mr Holbrook, of Medway," assured Coolidge that its metal "cast is good, and the
tine excellent," and warranted the bell for "one year from delivery."[776]

Work on other jobs continued throughout the summer. By August, large "circular tables"
designed for the library had been built and set up, and the Rotunda's interior "iron work"
was nearly finished. Brockenbrough predicted that the building's unfinished plaster work
would be completed before the end of the summer vacation (July to September); and the
Anatomical Hall, the proctor also suggested, would be "in readiness" soon. The "Brick
making business" had stalled, however, "for the want of boys" to make them.[777] (Several
thousands of bricks were necessary for the building of cisterns.)[778] The arrival of slate
required to finish some small job was delayed too.[779] About this time Professor Charles
Bonnycastle designed a water fountain 16 feet in diameter for the lawn, a 5-feet-deep "brick
basin neatly covered with Packer's Cement, & with a stone curb . . . From the height of the
headspring the water would be thrown many feet high."[780]

Exterior Railings

With the fall season approaching, Board of Visitors secretary Nicholas P. W. Trist informed
Brockenbrough that he had overlooked reporting to him resolutions passed by the visitors
earlier in the summer that directed the proctor to "cause a neat iron railing to be placed on
the right & left of the Rotunda & adjacent to the same, so as to exclude access for the
purpose of walking over the gymnasia."[781] "With regard to the iron railing," Trist wrote, "I
would suggest the propriety of conferring with the executive committee, before you place it.
Dr Emmet, wishes such a portion only of the gymnasium terrace cut off, as would Shorten
the walk by the width of his portico."[782] On 7 October the proctor inquired of John
Hartwell Cocke whether the railings were "intended to be of wrought or cast iron? and how
near to the Portico?"[783] After Brockenbrough mentioned the subject again in another letter,
Cocke replied that the railings were designed "to prevent too near an approach to the
Pavilions contiguous to the terraces of the Rotunda—so as to intrude upon the privacy of the
Professors families inhabiting them—if Cast iron railing is cheapest, that ought to be
preferr'd as to its position I do not recollect whether it was decided to place it nearest to the
Rotunda or the Pavilions—but this difficulty will be solved probably by the record in Mr.
Trists possession."[784] The question of where to place the railings remained unresolved
until November, when, after Brockenbrough brought up the subject once again,[785] Cocke
directed him to place them on the Rotunda terrace "as near to the Pavilions as will be
consistent with the object for which they are to be erected viz. to secure the privacy of these
Buildings."[786]

Discontentment of Professor Emmet

On an early fall day of 1827, the proctor received what must have been a meddlesome letter
from Professor John Patton Emmet concerning the unfinished state of Pavilion I and the
workmen's indifferent attitude toward finishing the work at the house:

The poor proctor, forced to attend to the work himself, tried to rob the finished cornice of
Pavilion VII of its ornaments in a desperate attempt to pacify Emmet. When he attempted to
take down the ornaments, however, the proctor discovered that it could not be done without
"breaking them all to pieces as they are not only nailed but stuck on with putty or White
lead." Rather than disfiguring the cornice at Pavilion I by taking down the ornaments
already fastened in place—as Emmet suggested—Brockenbrough decided to paint those
ornaments and to have enough cast in lead to finish out the cornice. "tomorrow I shall
procure lead if to [be] had in Charlottesville, to try & get them cast—The other part of your
drawing room, that is injured by the cracking of the Wall I directed Brand to repair
yesterday, I know of no other finishing that your house wants except the painting of the
Portico ceiling which will be done when Mr Vowles can procure paints."[788] These efforts
placated Emmet only until the following summer, however, when he took it upon himself to
engage a bricklayer to begin adding a room to the pavilion without informing the
proctor.[789]

Water Works and Fire Protection

One matter of consequence remaining to be finished at the university was the introduction to
the site of the "water works &c &c"—a water supply system consisting of cisterns, springs,
"dry wells," pipes, and engines (see appendix T).[790] At the beginning of June
Brockenbrough boasted that the water pipes had been laid to the "neighbourhood of my
stable within a few yards—all the logs we have will be down in two or three days";[791] five
weeks later the proctor's workers had prepared another "14 or 1,500 feet of logs" for A.
Zigler "the pump man" to install. Brockenbrough's own plan, he informed John Hartwell
Cocke, was to place a large cistern "at or near" the proctor's house at a spot considered the
"most advantageous situation for it, the situation is higher, by having it 12 or 14 ft deep one
half above the present level with a mound around it every drop of water might be drawn
from it by the pipes where it might be wanted, whereas if you place it in the Lawn even 10
or 12 feet deep it can only be drawn out by a pump." By keeping the cistern and its
connecting pipes "constantly full," Brockenbrough asserted, smaller "cisterns or reservoirs"
and pumps would have ready access to water. Fire engines could be linked to the source
(i.e., the cistern) in minutes by hoses connected to uprights with "brass swivel" screws
strategically located along the water supply route.[792] Cocke recognized the sensibleness of
Brockenbrough's scheme but rejected it on the basis that it did not conform to a plan
previously approved by the Board of Visitors, "decided so fully upon having the large
Cistern on the Lawn, at the place I pointed out to you . . . It was at the same time decided
that it should be cover'd and not elevated above the surface, with a pump Stock in the
center." Cocke concurred with the proctor that the pipes should be "so brought over the hill
near your House as to admit of a Cistern there also should it be approved upon future
consideration."[793]

This was not the end of the water matter, however. In the same letter, Brockenbrough told
Cocke that he had written to Philadelphia to inquire of "Mr Sellers about a fire Engine." In a
reply to the proctor of 11 August 1827, the firm of Sellers & Pennock recommended the
"Hydraulion of 16 Man Power as preferable to any other form of Engine within our
knowledge it being the most simple Eficient and Economical Araingment of the forcing
pump now in use, having a Reel capable of carrying from 800 to 1,000 feet of hose, and
costing but 450 Dollars It will deliver as much water with as good an efect as the Double
Chamber Engine which Costs 650 to 700 Dollars." The firm annexed a list of prices and a
circular engraving and description of "that Class Hyraulion, with the manner of opperation"
(see appendix), and informed Brockenbrough that it was building "One large Hyraulion for
the City of Richmond, and two do. for Alexandria in Virginia with 3 to 4,000. feet of hose
&c &c—also One 16 man power Hyl. for Washington City . . . owing to the engagements
now on hand it is doubtfull wether we could execute an order before the Coming
Winter."[794] The proctor estimated that a suitable fire apparatus for the university would
cost $570, $450 for the engine and $120 for 200 feet of hose,[795] and placed an order for
the hydraulion.[796] Coleman Sellers traveled south to Virginia in January 1828 in
anticipation of the arrival of the hydraulion and its hose in Richmond, where he waited more
than a month for the schooner Naomi, apparently detained by heavy fogs.[797] The fire
engine and apparatus finally arrived at the university in March 1828.[798] Upon its arrival,
Brockenbrough, after making a "trial of it," informed John Hartwell Cocke that he thought
the system "will answer our purposes extremely well, if you can only get a sufficient supply
of Water—I plac'd it by the cistern at Mr Longs, and carried the hose on the terras half way
between my office & Mr Tuckers from that it projected water to the top of Mr Tuckers house
& over the Office . . . I found one pump entirely inadequate to The supply of it, I shall fix a
trap door to the cistern that buckets may be used in aid of the pump." Brockenbrough also
renewed his plea to locate a cistern on the higher ground near his house, and this time his
opinions were reinforced "by a practical & experianced man (C. Sellars)." "the first and
most important consideration is a sufficient supply of Water, I have formed my opinion upon
that subject, and I yield to The superior wisdom of the visitors reluctantly."[799]

Steps for the Rotunda

Although the emphasis of the work soon would shift entirely toward maintenance and minor
innovations, the proctor still had his hands full overseeing uncompleted construction tasks at
the site. Anxious to complete the "Steps of the Portico" at the Rotunda, he wrote to
Philadelphia in search of a contractor, who, it turned out, wanted "rather more" than the
proctor was willing to give; Brockenbrough then sought workmen in Richmond.[800] The
firm of William Mountjoy & Co., "having so much to do we Could not leave here with any
sort of Convenience," offered to furnish the stone ("greatly superior quality, to the
Albemarle stone"), cut the "moulded or plain Square steps" in Richmond "agreeably to yr
directions," and to "deliver them on the spot & put them up in the best manner for the price
hereafter to be agreed on."[801] The proctor rejected this offer too, and the Rotunda steps
remained unfinished for several more years.[802]

Smoking Chimneys

The Rotunda's chimneys were causing problems too, to such an extent that "the Rooms on
the Western side of the Edifice" were rendered useless.[803] Some of the visitors took a look
at the tops of the chimneys while at the university for the board's 1827 fall meeting, but,
according to Brockenbrough, the visitors "came to no decisive determination what should be
done to prevent their smoking."[804] John Hartwell Cocke recalled the visitors' decision
differently, however, saying that the board had decided to "make the Experiment of a Sheet
iron Funnel" after Dr. Emmet mentioned "a late improvement in the Construction of these
Funnels."[805] Brockenbrough still was trying to fix the smoking chimneys a full year later,
when he reminded the Board of Visitors of the problem.[806] The visitors then asked
Professor Bonnycastle to draw up a plan to solve the problem (see appendix S), and Cocke
asked the proctor to consider the viability of Bonnycastle's plan "& make an Estimate of the
cost—with the view to trying it—should the result of your calculation recommend it—If we
can prevent the smoking—I should like to deferr the disfiguring the Building by running up
Chimnie Shafts—and take the risk of guarding against fire, by keeping them clear of
Soot."[807] Meanwhile, Benjamin Blackford of Isabella Furnace furnished "2 Largest Oval
Stoves" and 1 Large Phila. Ditto" to the university.[808]

New Buildings Contemplated

The professors also made demands of Brockenbrough. Charles Bonnycastle, anxious to
move into Thomas H. Key's pavilion, wanted the interior of the building painted
throughout.[809] Bonnycastle also designed a small building for his "astronomical purposes
an octagon of 14 ft in diameter," estimated by the proctor to require 5 to 6,000 bricks and to
cost $100 to $150, or perhaps less, if built of bricks that had already been made at the
university.[810] William Leitch and Samuel Campbell built the observatory the next
spring,[811] with the help of plasterers and painters, Lewis S. Carter and John Kennedy.[812]
It contained a 97-square-feet "spherical roof" made out of sheet iron, "cheaper," the proctor
said, "than I could have it done in wood & tin cover."[813] John Patton Emmet handed in a
plan for a more substantial building, a "Chemical Lecture room & Laboratory 40 by 60
feet." The proctor did not even bother to calculate the cost of the second structure,
"presuming it will not be put up untill after a Meeting of the Visitors."[814] Some alterations
were made to Emmet's existing laboratory the next year, however, which "tolerably well
pleased" him.[815]

Emphasis Shifts to Maintenance

Aside from the tasks such as those related to the lingering details of finishing the Rotunda
and the waterworks and satisfying professors, the proctor saw more and more of his time
and efforts spent on maintenance and repairs at the site. Two examples will suffice. First, a
defect in the skylight of the Rotunda was discovered during the winter of 1827-1828 and
counsel was sought from Philadelphian Coleman Sellers, who suggested taking off "all the
glass, and have them well cleaned, and Rubed with whiting so as to Remove any grease that
might get on by handling &c then take white lead putty, (made with drying Oil and Tapan)
and bed each Glass well into it—so as to Cement their edges together—or Rather the
surfaces when they over lap each other."[816] As well founded as Sellers' advice was, it
proved only a temporarily solution to a perennially vexing problem. Finally, in July 1828 the
Board of Visitors authorized the executive committee to tear off part of the "exterior
covering from the lower range of dormitories" and appropriated $225 for the purpose.[817]
John Hartwell Cocke informed Brockenbrough that the board wanted "to make the
Experiment of exposing the rooflets in part on one of blocks of one of the lower Ranges,
with the view to ascertain by Comparison, the practical effect of the external plank Covering
on the rooflets:—You will therefore proceed forthwith, to take off about half the upper plank
covering from one of blocks of Dormitories in Either of the Lower Ranges—Such of the
plank as is found to be sound may be used for the Repairs order'd in the residue of this
Covering & will consequently diminish the Expence of this item."[818] The proctor, after a
two week excurision to Warm Springs, told Cocke that he would proceed to carry out the
experiment on "one of the blocks of Dormitories on the East Street and use the plank for the
repairs else where—The gutters I think had best be covered by laying a narrow board length
ways, to Keep them clear in case of a Sudden Thaw, but not so close as to prevent the rain
Water from passing freely in."[819] Cocke considered the proctor's plan to lay a plank over
the gutters of the uncovered roofs of the dormitories "essential where the gutters are lined
with metal—and even where there is no metal, it may be useful in the way you mention, in
case of a sudden thaw."[820]

Epilogue
"The last act of usefulness I can render"

In a wonderful collection of family letters housed at the Library of Congress in our nations
capitol, 19th-century author and socialite Margaret Bayard Smith described her first visit to
the University of Virginia in an 1828 letter to her sisters, Anna Bayard Boyd of New York
City, and Jane Bayard Kirkpatrick of Brunswick, New Jersey:

This interesting scene at the University of Virginia described by Mrs. Smith took place just
two years after Thomas Jefferson died. For the last ten years of his life Jefferson had been
consumed with establishing what he called "the hobby of my old age."[823] "Our University,"
he declared in 1820, "is the last of my mortal cares, and the last service I can render my
country."[824] In his final year he wrote, "I am closing the last scenes of my life by fashioning
and fostering an establishment for the instruction of those who are to come after us. I hope
its influence on their virtue, freedom, fame, and happiness will be salutary and
permanent."[825] If Jefferson could have seen beyond 1826 into the future he more than likely
would have been pleased with the success of "the hobby" of his last years. To a great degree
the university's permanence that Jefferson so longed for was secured by his wisdom in
executing the design and construction of the physical structures of his Academical Village.
We remember Jefferson most for his lofty political ideals and remarkable intellectual
vigorand range but when we look at these old historic buildings we see him in another, more
tangible light. In her delightful manner of writing, Margaret Bayard Smith finished her
description of the university in another letter ten days later:

Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village has inspired over the last 170 years many such
observations, of which Mrs. Smith's is but one of the earliest. The feelings of delight and
elevation which she felt during her visit is exactly what Jefferson himself had in mind when
he conceived and designed the buildings and grounds of the University of Virginia. He knew
that the New World lagged far behind the Old, with its rich traditions and longer history, but
he sincerely thought the future belonged to America and that the applied arts could be
cultivated and enhanced and, in time, even surpass the achievements of Europe. Tradition
might be a great asset in keeping order and maintaining continuity in society, and it might be
an excellent source to appeal to in certain circumstances, but no one knew better than
Thomas Jefferson the opposing tendency of tradition to inhibit and prevent the progress of
man and the improvement of his environment. He consciously designed the physical part of
his Academical Village with the intention of producing awe in its viewers; he hoped his
designs would remind and call attention to the grandeur and dignity of the ancient classical
world to which he and the other founding fathers had turned to so often in creating a new
nation. But Jefferson was no mere romantic: his fondness for things Roman and his looking
backwards contained a strong utilitarian element. He always looked favorably upon the past,
gazed warily at the present, and expectantly into the future. He harbored no desire to
recreate in America a new England or a new France, or even a new Rome for that matter;
the colonial period had ended and for the new nation that was being born Jefferson wanted
new buildings in which to "enshrine its activities."[827] In designing the builidings for the
University of Virginia he sought to provide its prospective students not only with a pleasant
and practical environment for study but an example of correct architecture to enhance that
instruction. More important, however, Jefferson hoped the "delightful, elevating" work of art
spoken of by Margaret Bayard Smith would inspire those young men to contemplate and
reflect upon the nobleness of the human intellect and spirit which lay behind it and thus
move them forward and upwards in building the new republic.

And what are we to make of Jefferson's scheme? It was a noble experiment in the grand
style. Only someone with Jefferson's statue, with his calibre of intellect, his stately brand of
optimism, could ever hope to pull it off. In a sense, Jefferson's whole life had been leading
up to the founding of the University of Virginia; it was the capstone to a remarkable and
distinguished career. His had been a life with a string of notable successes, beginning with
the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. He served as Virginia's wartime governor,
the United State's first Minister to France, and as the nations's vice-president before
becoming president of the United States in the peaceful Revolution of 1800. As president he
carved out a permanent niche in the annals of the young republic in 1803 when doubled the
size of the country by making the Lousiana Purchase. But not content with retirement after
nearly forty years of public service, Jefferson spent his last decade in a working frenzy to
bring to birth the infant university and to secure its future as it began to stand upon its own
wobbly legs and take its first steps. An important and integral part of its success was the
atmosphere created by the buildings Jefferson designed. Writing about the grounds that then
appeared, John S. Patton remarked, "With their connecting dormitories and Tuscan arcades
they presented, even in the rough state of their surroundings, a dignity and beauty which
favorably impressed all beholders."[828] George Ticknor of Harvard assured his historian
friend William Prescott that the Academical Village was "a mass of buildings more beautiful
than anything architectural in New England and more appropriate to an university than can
be found, perhaps, in the world."[829] Roger G. Kennedy, more recently, described Jefferson's
creation in this way:

The temples and colonnades around the Lawn at the University of Virginia compose the
most satisfying assemblage of beautiful structures in the Western Hemisphere and, to my
eye, the highest expression of American humanism. . . . This is a holy place . . . as befits the
sanctuary of humane reason. . . . The area of the Lawn is a sacred space; each of the temples
placed about it—each lodge, each pavilion—shadows its own smaller sacred space. Mr.
Jefferson and Mr. Madison meant for attending the University of Virginia to be felt as a
serious undertaking. That is one of the reasons Jefferson wept when discussing the antics of
riotous students who did not seem to understand that what had been created for them here
was sacred space.[830]

Perhaps it would be appropriate to repeat Margaret Bayard Smith's words that "the whole
impression on my mind was delightful, elevating, for the objects both of nature and art by
which I was surrounded are equally sublime and beautiful."

In closing, I borrow again from the famous architect, Fiske Kimball, who described Mr.
Jefferson's Academical Village this way: