University of Virginia Library

IV. New Buildings

The continuous rise in the attendance created a recurring
need for more dormitories and dining-rooms.
Anterior to 1842, as we have seen, there had been several
outboarding houses, which, with the Faculty's approval,
solicited and received the patronage of the students.
After that year, the call for respectable establishments of
this kind, situated beyond the precincts, became more urgent.
An increase in the number of matriculates from
one hundred and twenty-eight, during the session of
1842–3, to four hundred and twenty-five, during the session
of 1852–3, and six hundred and forty-five, during
the session of 1856–7, would have taxed the resources of
the University had not these boarding houses been close
at hand and spacious enough to take in the overflow. In
1845, F.D. Fitch was licensed to open a house of this
character, and, in 1846, Charles Johnson. Mrs. Carr,
who resided on Carr's Hill, almost within a stone's throw
of the Rotunda, was able to count as many as fifty young
men seated daily at each meal in her comfortable diningroom.
All the State scholars assembled at these hours
under the roof of the Monroe mansion, in charge of
Major Broadus. Colonel Woodley, the proctor in 1845,
was granted the right to admit as many as eight students
to his table, on condition that they should be the sons of
his friends, and had been recommended by them to his
care. Subsequently, he was permitted to receive an additional
four. After the death of Dr. Emmet, his widow
at Morea eked out her income by accepting boarders; and
her example was followed by Mrs. McKennie, the very

kind and capable wife of the University bookseller of that
name.

So cramped did the accommodations for the students
finally become, that many of them asked for permission
to engage their rooms and meals in the taverns of Charlottesville;
but the ordinance forbidding this had not
been repealed, and the Faculty decided that they had no
right to overlook the fact of its existence. The rule was
first relaxed in favor of C. D. Haworth, who, being a
chronic dyspeptic, found it impossible to get in the University
hotels and outboarding houses the particular kind
of food which he required. In the end, the ordinance
was revoked, and all students who had failed to secure a
room and board in the University, or just beyond its
precincts, were left at liberty to seek them in the hotels
of Charlottesville. But it was necessary that they should
obtain the parental consent before they could lawfully
do this. During the years that immediately preceded the
session of 1860–1, the regulations confined the area of
this outer residence to the quarter of the town that lay
on the western side of the Midway Hotel.

In spite of the relief afforded by these practical measures,
the accommodations for the students continued to
be straightened. In 1848, twelve dormitories, as already
stated, were erected on Monroe Hill for the use of the
State scholars; but even this addition brought but small
relief. At the meeting of the Board, the following year,
the executive committee were requested to submit, in the
course of the ensuing June, a plan that would provide for,
among other buildings, another new row of bedrooms.
A detailed plan was drafted, and then adopted, and the
proctor was promptly empowered to contract for three
hundred thousand bricks in anticipation of the construction
that was soon to begin. No further step, however,

seems to have been taken to erect at once even the lodgings
that were most acutely needed. In 1854, one hundred
dollars was appropriated to convert the brick observatory
standing at the foot of Monroe Hill into apartments
for students; and, at the same time, the professors
were asked to give up the use of the dormitories situated
next to their pavilions. Three years later, the executive
committee were instructed to build on the west side of
the precincts such a number of rooms as would accommodate
fifty young men, and on the east side,—beyond
the line of the Central Railway,—enough to accommodate
sixty more. A boarding-house, with a dining-room
capable of seating one hundred persons, was also to be
erected. The sum of twenty thousand dollars was reserved
to defray the cost of these different structures.

This extensive and comprehensive project apparently
fell to the ground. Its nearest approach to realization
consisted of the enlargement, at a later period, of the two
dining-rooms of the East and West Ranges to a point
where they would allow space for not less than one hundred
chairs at table. W. A. Pratt was, in 1858, appointed
the superintendent of the buildings and grounds
in order to give relief to the proctor, whose office duties
had been steadily augmented by the ever growing number
of students. Pratt drew up an elaborate plan for
the creation of two parks,—one on the eastern slope
looking towards Charlottesville; the other on the western
level, to extend from the Lynchburg road to the Staunton
highway. The surface was to be scientifically graded
and planted in trees and shrubs of rare varieties. The
scheme was carried out only on the eastern side of the
precincts; and there but partially.

But neither parks nor enlarged hotels removed the harassing
dilemma which arose from the unhalting increase

in the number of students. It was lodgings that were
still most needed; and, in 1859, the Board invited the
wealthy alumni to erect dormitories on sites to be chosen
within the precincts. The following were the terms on
which these houses were to be constructed: (1) the builders
should be entitled to rents for a period to be thereafter
agreed upon; (2) if the young men failed to apply
for the rooms, the Board should have the right to take
possession of them, and assign them to students, who
were to pay the usual rent, which was to be turned over
to the proprietors; (3) at any time, the Visitors could
appropriate to the University the houses, on paying
back the sums which they had cost, subject to deduction
for repairs. These terms did not prove seductive, and no
dormitories were built. By 1859, the Dawson Farm had
been disposed of, and the Board decided that the proceeds
of the sale should be expended in the erection of a
row of brick cottages on the western side of the grounds.
These cottages were expected to provide space for the
accommodation of at least fifty students. Six houses
were constructed; and to these, a seventh was afterwards
added.

But the problem which the University's authorities
were trying to solve satisfactorily was not limited to new
dormitories. As the number of students increased, the
need of a more voluminous water supply arose. In 1843,
the professor of natural philosophy was directed by the
Board to ascertain whether a line of iron pipes could be
laid from the spring on the Maury farm to the Lawn.
If he ever drafted a report in response to these instructions,
it was not followed up. Two years afterwards, the
executive committee was asked to find out the cost of
building such a pipe line from Observatory Mountain to
the University precincts. Should they conclude that it

was feasible to do this, they were to have the power to
arrange for its construction; but if they should decide that
it was impracticable, they were to take steps to collect
in cisterns all the rain that should fall on the roofs of
the dormitories and pavilions. Whichever course was ultimately
adopted, the supply remained inadequate, for,
in 1849, fifty-five hundred dollars was appropriated by
the board to increase the quantity. The water was
needed, not only for satisfying domestic purposes, but
also for extinguishing fires. The insufficiency became so
inconvenient and so dangerous by 1850, that the executive
committee were again authorized to build new cisterns
on the grounds; and, in the following year, three
additional ones were ordered to be constructed; but these
small reservoirs, owing to the frequent recurrence of dry
weather, and the constant draughts on their contents,
left the situation still of a critical character. For the second
time, the executive committee were instructed to procure
estimates for bringing a larger volume of water
down from the region lying to the west of the University.
In the meanwhile, the rector was empowered to apply to
the General Assembly for permission to borrow twenty
thousand dollars to defray the united costs of repairing
the roofs and increasing the quantity of the water supply.
An appropriation of twenty-five thousand dollars
was made by the Legislature at the session of 1853–4
for these combined purposes. Mr. Stevenson, the rector,
requested Mr. Gill, the chief engineer of the Central Railway,
to draw up the estimates for the water works; Gill,
being too busy to do this, recommended Mr. Eardman,
of Philadelphia; and through Professor George Tucker,
at this time a resident of that city, the services of this distinguished
engineer were secured. Eardman sent in his
report in June, 1854. He calculated that the cost of
the new works would amount to $21,229.21, without including
a reserve fund of $21,122.90 for contingencies.
It was not until several months had passed that bids were
advertised for; and when these were received, they were
found, in every instance, to run beyond the appropriation.
In the meanwhile, the owner of the most important spring
had refused to sell, except on conditions which the executive
committee decided they had not the delegated
power to accept.

One year later,—no practical step having been taken
in the interval,—Charles Ellet was employed to devise
a plan for obtaining a sufficient supply of water, to be
accompanied by an estimate of cost. He enjoyed a national
reputation as a civil engineer, and his report was
promptly adopted by the Board. The executive committee
was again directed to give out the contracts for the
prosecution of the work. The right to take possession
of the springs necessary to complete the supply had already
been granted by the General Assembly. In accord
with Ellet's recommendation, iron pipes were laid down,
which connected a reservoir at the back of the Rotunda
with numerous fountain-heads situated in the high valleys
of the foothills towards the west. The water,—
which was first received in the reservoir,—was, by a
steam pump, forced up into two tanks located within the
cavity of the bricks that supported the bottom of the
dome in the rear. Each of these tanks had a capacity of
seven thousand gallons; and they were elevated at least
seventy feet above the surface of the Lawn. The pressure
was sufficient to drive water from them to any roof
within the central grounds of the University, except the
top of the dome itself. The tanks proved to be defective.
The leaking water at first seriously injured the exterior
walls of the Rotunda, and then slowly dampened

the partitions of the rooms and basement. There was,
at one time, a heavy overflow, owing to a shortened provision
for waste pipes. Many of the books in the library
were, on this occasion, thoroughly soaked, the ceiling
was defaced, and the plastering of the lecture-halls below
was loosened.

In the spring of 1861, a live coal was dropped unobserved
in the loft of the Rotunda by plumbers who had
been repairing that part of the structure; a fire broke out;
and but for the energy of the students in suppressing the
flames, the entire building would have been burnt to the
ground. W. H. Chapman was publicly commended for
the conspicuously brave and effective share which he had
in this exciting episode.

As early as 1852, the executive committee were authorized
to contract for the introduction of gas into the
University area; but they must have found the estimates
unsatisfactory, for no step apparently was taken at that
time. In the summer of the following year, there was a
proposal by a gas firm to send an expert to examine the
grounds, and choose the site for a gas-house; but it was
not until 1857 that this means of illumination seems to
have been finally introduced; and then through the agency
of the Charlottesville and University Gas Company;
which also agreed to supply the necessary fixtures.