THIRD PERIOD
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919; The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, Volume I | ||
X. Cost of Buildings
What was the outlay required for the erection of the elaborate fabric of the University? The answer to this question is an important one, not only from an economical and historical point of view in general, but also because it demonstrates in another way the breadth and dignity of the work which Jefferson performed for his native State in founding and building that institution. It would be possible, from the contents of the proctor's vouchers belonging to the period of construction, to offer tables that would embrace every detail of the entire cost; but the prices of a few of the essential and fundamental materials used by the contractors will be sufficient for our present purpose.
The chief price list at that time was known as the Philadelphia Price Book, and we shall find that it governed many of the charges in the building of the University, although, in some cases, with modifications called for by local conditions. Take, for instance, the bids of the carpenters and joiners in 1819. "From my knowledge of the manner in which the work is to be done," writes James Dinsmore in May of that year, "and of the difficulty of procuring good workingmen, and also in the difference in [the price of] the materials between here and Philadelphia, I shall not consider myself justified in undertaking by the book (Philadelphia Price Book) as the standard, at a less advance than the difference of the currency between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Should it be more agreeable to the Visitors, I would undertake it at five per cent less, provided they get an experienced
Philadelphia measurer to measure the work after it is executed. At these rates, I should wish to undertake the carpenter's and joiner's work of the Ionic pavilion, with the range of dormitories attached to it." It seems that Dinsmore and Perry, after this letter was written, consented to reduce the amount of their bid because there had been a fall in wages since it was first submitted; and they asserted their willingness now to conform to the Philadelphia Price Book provided that a Virginia dollar should be accepted as equal in value to a Pennsylvania dollar. Perry, testifying, in 1830, in the suit of James Oldham, said that he recalled "that it was distinctly understood that the last work let at the University was to be done at ten per cent. below the first work undertaken. I recollect I applied to Mr. Jefferson, and urged it, that, as we were fixed then to do the work, I did not think it right that we should be required to work for less than we had done. His reply was, that work had fallen everywhere and that no more would be given."
The men who had the principal share in building the University, lacked, with hardly an exception, even a moderate amount of capital; when they did buy their own material, payment was usually effected by advances on their accounts with the proctor; the purchase, in each case, was really made by him, and a deduction for it was entered against the balance due the contractor on his books. But this fact rather increases than diminishes our ability to find out the most significant charges.
Down to a period as late as 1819, the former habit of stating all prices in the terms of the old Colonial currency of pounds and shillings was very often followed. Thus we find that the edge plank used in the construction of the pavilions was valued at so many shillings the one hundred feet; but when the quantity was very large, the
In the beginning William Leitch, of Charlottesville, acquired the sole right to supply all the ironmongery for the buildings; but as this monopoly brought down the criticism of the trade, and raised up enemies for the new institution, the contract, with his consent, was cancelled. As this material was afterwards procured from Richmond, the prices were very much swelled by the charges for hauling.
The most onerous single feature in the construction of the University was the importation of the capitals and bases from Italy. Writing to Cabell in September, 1821, Jefferson calculated that the seventeen capitals for pavilions II, III, V and VIII had cost $1,784.00; and that
The wages of ordinary stonecutters, in 1820, was twenty-five cents for each superficial foot. It was, however, fifty cents per foot in straight moulded work, and seventy-five cents in circular. Alexander Spinks, the quarrier, received a wage of thirty dollars a month, and as the charge for board was ten dollars only for the same length of time, he still retained a satisfactory margin of profit. In January, 1820, John Gorman was working at the rate of seventy-five cents the superficial foot in chiseling the Tuscan bases and capitals. For the Doric bases and capitals, on the other hand, he was paid at the rate of eight dollars apiece; for the moulded doorsills, four dollars and eighteen cents; and for the plain, two dollars and fifty cents; and for setting the sills, two dollars respectively.
The work of sheeting the roofs with tin during the years 1820, 1821, and 1822, was done by the hand of A. H. Brooks. His scale seems to have been six dollars and thirty cents for each square. Jefferson soon became dissatisfied with him because of this high charge, for such he considered it to be. "The tinning," he wrote Mr. Yancey, of Buckingham, "can be done as well for one dollar as he can do it. We were led to it from a belief that it could not be done without the very expensive and
This letter brings into light, not only Jefferson's unremitting vigilance in superintending the work of building at the University, down to the minutest particulars, but also his shrewd discernment and his mechanical ingenuity. Brooks seems to have been retained in spite of the discredit cast upon his machine by this object lesson, for, in 1826, he was employed in laying on such sheets of tin as the Rotunda needed, at the rate of five dollars and fifty cents the square, -which was only about one dollar less than he had charged for the like covering on the other buildings.[49]
The cost of all the materials used in the construction was very much increased by the high charge for wagonage and boatage. We have seen that packages from a distance, however ponderous, -and there was no one thing of its size heavier than a marble capital or base, were conveyed either in the overland vehicles, or in the river batteaux that put Charlottesville and Richmond into commercial intercourse by water. The rates for local hauling were moderate in comparison, but formed a serious expense on account of the quantity of lumber and
One of the continuous expenses which had to be met
The amounts required for the purchase of separate articles would fail to give even an approximate idea of the total expenditures for erecting the several buildings of the University. There are figures available to show what was the aggregate outlay which each of these edifices entailed. In 1820, Jefferson, writing to Cabell, enclosed for his examination the following estimates: ten pavilions were to cost six thousand dollars each; six hotels, three thousand, five hundred dollars each; one hundred and four dormitories, three hundred and fifty dollars each. Independently of the Rotunda it was his belief that the entire group could be constructed for $162,364.00. In 1821, he stated that the average expenditure for the pavilions which had been finished was
An impression that the outlay for constructing the University was far larger than was justifiable was very wide-spread in 1822; Cabell conceded that the charge of extravagance was now on the lips of even the "intelligent circle of society"; but he did not think that there was any substantial foundation for it. Writing to Jefferson in March, he said, "The admissions of our own friends, and the known opinion of a part of the Board of Visitors, have mainly contributed to give currency and weight to the prejudice prevailing on this subject." He insisted that, instead of prodigality, there had been strict economy in the expenditures; but it is probable that the opposing opinion of Cocke, who was not so much under Jefferson's
The following tables show the actual cost of the pavilions, hotels and dormitories, which were in existence when the University was thrown open.
Pavilions | Hotels | Dormitories |
I. $ 9992.05 | Hotel A $4,499.21 | $78,509.58 |
II. 10,863.57 | Hotel B 6,278.29 | |
III. 16,528.47 | Hotel C 4,525.38 | |
IV. 11,173.30 | Hotel D 6,245.39 | |
V. 11,723.41 | Hotel E 4,638.71 | |
VI. 9,793.40 | Hotel F 6,013.68 | |
VII. 9,399.73 | ||
VIII. 10,786.86 | ||
IX. 8,785.04 | ||
X. 11,758.06 |
The balance sheet of the proctor for 1828 disclosed that, up to that year, the residential buildings of the University had called for an expenditure of $236,678.29, and the Rotunda, of $57,749.33. The figures for the latter edifice clearly exhibited Jefferson's proneness to undercalculate the cost of construction, for he had agreed with the proctor in thinking that $46,847.00 would be sufficient for its erection. John Neilson, -who was pronounced by Cocke to be one of the few men employed in the work at the University who was competent to make an estimate, -had predicted that the outlay necessary for the Rotunda would not fall short of fifty-five thousand dollars; and this anticipation turned out to be almost precisely correct. In 1830, the entire property belonging to the institution was valued at $333,095.12, in which account the lands were assessed at $9,465.75 and the books and apparatus at $36,308.07.
THIRD PERIOD
THE BUILDING OF THE UNIVERSITY History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919; The Lengthened Shadow of One Man, Volume I | ||