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

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:

the elevations of pavilions will be most acceptable. I inclose you a very ragged
sketch of the one now in hand. I am well aware of all the importance of aspect,
and have always laid it down as rule that in drawing the plan of a house it's
aspect is first to be known, that you may decide whether to give it most front or
flank, and also on which side to throw passages & staircases, in order to have
the South, whether front or flank unembarrassed for windows. the range of our
ground was a law of nature to which we were bound to conform. it is S. 20 W.
we therefore make our pavilions one room only in front, and 1. or 2. in flank as
the family of the professor may require. in his apartments, or the best of them,
his windows will open to the South. the lecturing room below has the same
advantage, by substituting an open passage adjacent instead of a dormitory. the
dormitories admit of no relief but Venetian blinds to their window & door, and
to the last the shade of the covered way. this will be the less felt too, as the
pupils will be in the schoolrooms most of the day.[65]

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]

[61]

61. Latrobe to TJ, 24 July, DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and Miscellaneous
Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:914-17. Facsimiles of the letter can be found in
O'Neal, Pictorial History of the University of Virginia, 13, and O'Neal, Jefferson's Buildings
at the University of Virginia: The Rotunda, 18. For a description of the drawing, see Lasala,
"Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia," #00-08.

[62]

62. See TJ to Latrobe, 3 August 1817, in DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and
Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:917.

[63]

63. Latrobe to TJ, 12 August 1817, DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and
Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:928-34.

[64]

64. Jefferson retreated to Poplar Forest, "one of his most consummate architectural works,"
for up to four times a year from 1806 to 1823, when he deeded it to his grandson, Francis
Wayles Eppes. See McDonald, "Poplar Forest: A Masterpiece Rediscovered," Virginia
Cavalcade, 42 (1993), 112-21.

[65]

65. TJ to Latrobe, 24 August 1817, DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and
Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:933.

[66]

66. Nelson Barksdale served as proctor at the Central College and at the University of
Virginia until Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough was hired to fill the position in the spring of
1819. Barksdale supplied plank, scantling, and sawing for university carpenters working at
Pavilions VI, VIII, and X, Hotels D and F, the Rotunda, and some of the dormitories on the
west range (ViU:PP, Ledgers 1 and 2).

[67]

67. Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 28 July 1817, PPAmP: UVA
Minutes.

[68]

68. "I have engaged a young man of the name of Johnson," wrote Latrobe on 25 July, "to
undertake your Stone Cutting, should the terms be approved. He is not only capable to cut a
Doric Capital, or a Base, but to execute the common Architectural decorations, as foliage &
Rosettes, with great neatness & dispatch, for, in the scarcity of Carvers, I have, for some
time past, put him under Andrei, & have lately employed him to carve the rosettes in the
Caissons of the cornice of the H. of Rep. which he has done quite to my satisfaction. He also
possesses that quality, so essential to the workmen, you employ, good temper, & is besides
(which is not always compatible with good temper) quite sober. His terms are 2.50 a day,
finding himself. This is what our journeymen earn here, in Summer. If he is to have the
charge of more men, he will expect his wages to be encreased, and he expects constant
employment while engaged, & well, & that his actual expenses to the spot, & back again
(should he return to Washington) shall be paid. He is ready to depart at a few days notice. I
observe in the newspaper a letter from a gentleman in Virginia dated July 20th, mentioned
his visit to Monticello, & that you were then at your Bedford Estate. If so I cannot expect an
early answer to this letter or to my last, but I shall keep Johnson for you whenever I do hear
from you" (DLC: Latrobe Papers; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and Miscellaneous
Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:910).

University of Virginia Library

Correspondence with Latrobe