University of Virginia Library

RESOLUTION OF THANKS TO THE LANGHORNE TRUST

The following resolution was adopted:

• WHEREAS, the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia has repeatedly over the past seventeen years given encouragement and support to research into the architectural history of the University's central original building, the Rotunda, looking toward the completion of the restoration work begun in 1939 under the late Stanislaw Makielski and the late Fiske Kimball; and
• WHEREAS, since 1966 the Buildings and Grounds Committee of the Board, the President of the University, and a Faculty Building Committee, acting under the authority of the Board, have completed, with professional assistance from the architectural firm of Ballou and Justice, the preliminary plans for the interior restoration of the Rotunda, providing for replacement of the rooms removed in 1896-98, so that the interior structure and proportions will be as they were designed and built by Thomas Jefferson, and as they existed from his death until the fire of 1895; and
• WHEREAS, at the meeting of April 7, 1972, the Board approved the architectural plans prepared by Messrs. Ballou and Justice, conditioned only upon the necessary procurement of funds for execution of the work, and at the same meeting authorized the President to make application to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for a grant of one half of the total estimated cost of $2,176,500 needed to complete the restoration so that with matching funds from non-Federal sources, the Rotunda, Thomas Jefferson's last and greatest architectural masterpiece, could be restored to its original design and functions by the nation's anniversary year, 1976, the primary objective recommended for that year by the University's Bicentennial Committee; and
• WHEREAS, a generous guarantee from the Trustees of the Cary D. Langhorne Trust to allocate for the restoration of the Rotunda the sum of $460,000, which, with additional income earmarked for the same purpose over the next seven years for a total ultimate commitment of $1,017,903, has resulted in a matching grant of $1,088,250 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the largest grant ever made by the Department for historic restoration, thus making it possible for the University to proceed with this long-planned restoration of design and function to its focal building;
• NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia extends to the Trustees of the Cary D. Langhorne Trust the gratitude of the University for their generosity and good offices;
• RESOLVED FURTHER that the Secretary of the Board deliver copies of this resolution to Mr. Alfred H. Taylor, Chairman of the Trustees, and to Mr. Thomas H. Reynolds, the former Chairman.