University of Virginia Library

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]