 |
Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817
Jefferson designed each of the professors' pavilions to be a replica, as far as
possible, of some noble classic temple.
—Lewis Mumford[19]
Initial Conception
Thomas Jefferson's conception of a university for the state of Virginia evolved over a period
of decades. The genesis is found in his bill for the general diffusion of knowledge in 1778,
and his mature thinking can be found in the establishment of the University of Virginia in
the nineteenth century. Not content to make the Virginia university just "another" school or
college, Jefferson conceived the idea of designing and building his school unlike others of
his day. The idea is apparent as early as 1805, when he wrote Littleton Waller Tazewell that
the "Large houses are always ugly, inconvenient, exposed to the accident of fire, and bad in
case of infection. A plain small house for the school & lodging of each professor is best.
These connected by covered ways out of which the rooms of the students should open.
These may be built only as they shall be wanting. In fact a university should not be a house
but a village." [20] Jefferson gave this concept greater expression five years later when
writing to Judge Hugh White of Kentucky:
making one large and expensive building, as unfortunately erroneous. It is
infinitely better to erect a small and separate lodge for each separate
professorship with only a hall below for his class, and two chambers above for
himself; joining these lodges by barracks for a certain portion of the students,
opening into a covered way to give a dry communication between all the
schools. The whole of these arranged around an open square of grass and trees,
would make it, what it should be in fact, an academical village, instead of a
large and common den of noise, of filth and of fetid air. It would afford that
quiet retirement so friendly to study, and lessen the dangers of fire, infection
and tumult. Every professor would be the police officer of the students adjacent
to his own lodge, which should include those of his own class of preference,
and might be at the head of their table, as I suppose, it can be reconciled with
the necessary economy to dine them in smaller and separate parties, rather than
in a large and common mess. These separate buildings, too, might be erected
successively and occasionally as the number of professorships and students
should be increased, or the funds become competent.[21]
An early ground plan for a cluster of structures based on the pattern indicated to White was
drawn by Jefferson in the summer of 1814 for the Albemarle Academy, an educational
institution which existed on paper only and of which Jefferson was a trustee. The academy's
board of trustees received the drawing in August 1814 from a committee previously
appointed to "form some idea of the probable cost of improving a site in the vicinity of the
town" for erecting the proposed academy near Charlottesville.[22] Jefferson's simple drawing
illustrates his concept of a large open square containing a series of individual pavilions
connected by student dormitories on three of the square's four sides. Notations on the
drawing suggest the buildings would front an open square of 257 yards. Gardens placed at
the backs of the buildings brought the square's outside limits to 357 yards. The ground plan
is on the verso of Jefferson's early study for a "typical" pavilion, a drawing showing the
elevation and floor plans for a two-story pavilion measuring 34 feet wide by 26 feet deep
and connected by dormitories of 10 by 14 feet surmounted by a Chinese railing.[23] These
drawings, purportedly the earliest of his college- or university-related drawings, may be the
plans that Jefferson presented to the Board of Visitors of the Central College for its
consideration in May 1817.[24]
20. TJ to Littleton Waller Tazewell, 5 January 1805, ViU:TJ; see also Norma Lois
Peterson,Littleton Waller Tazewell, 37-39. Littleton Waller Tazewell (1774-1860), who was
born in Williamsburg, was prominent in public service for nearly four decades: Virginia
House of Delegates, 1798-1801, 1804-1806, 1816-1817; United States House of
Representatives, 1800-1801; United States Senate, 1824-1832; Virginia Constitutional
Convention, 1829/1830; governor of Virginia, 1834-1836; died in Norfolk. Tazewell is
buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk.
21. TJ to Hugh White, c. 1810, DLC:TJ; see also Mulligan, Virginia: A History and Guide,
132-33.
23. The drawings are in ViU:TJ. For a description of the drawings, which were one time
thought to date from 1817, see Sherwood and Lasala, "Education and Architecture: The
Evolution of the University of Virginia's Academical Village," in Wilson, Thomas
Jefferson's Academical Village, 12-13, and Lasla, "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the
University of Virginia," #00-01, and #00-02. Facsimiles of the drawings can be found in
ibid., and see also Nichols, Thomas Jefferson's Architectural Drawings, 26.
Typical Pavillion
Jefferson's specifications for the "typical pavilion," eventually built as Pavilion VII,
exemplifies his propensity for mathematical detail and provides a glimpse into how
Jefferson arrived at a cost estimate for constructing the college. Noting that the walls of the
pavilion were 116 feet "running measure," Jefferson calculated that the cellar, "2. bricks
thick, 10 f. high," required 20 bricks to a square foot, or 22,840 single bricks. The pavilion's
upper walls, "23. f. high 1½ brick thick. 18. bricks to a square foot," needed 48,024 bricks.
Add to those sums 4,752 bricks for the chimney and 1,134 for the 6 pilasters, and to build
the average pavilion would require 81,750 bricks. As for the pavilion's twenty adjacent
dormitories, "each Chamber has 36. f. wall, running measure. if 10. f. high & 1 brick thick,"
104,920 bricks were called for, counting those necessary for "one half of the chimney (one
chimney serving 2. chambers)," and 2 pilasters each. Another 6,508 bricks were needed for
the typical pavilion's "necessary Appendix, passage Etc. (61. f. runng measure, 9. f. high. 1.
brick thick)"; therefore 192,248 bricks were required to build a pavilion and its 20 adjacent
dormitories.
The Philadelphia model of making rough estimates for the costs of brick dwelling houses
finished in a plain way, Jefferson observed, set the "Carpenter's work equal to the cost of the
brick walls, and the Carpenter's materials and the ironmongery equal also to the cost of the
brickwalls but in the present case the carpenter's materials, (timber) will either be given or
cost very little, and the ironmongery will be little." At "10. D. the thousand," the brickwork
for 81,750 bricks came to $817.50. Carpenter's work cost another $817.50, and carpenter's
materials and ironmongery, at half that, came to $408.75. Jefferson's rough estimate, based
on this model, for the total cost of a single "typical pavilion" and its "Appendix" was
$2,179.70, and the 20 "chambers" or dormitory rooms was $2,623.60, a total of $4,831.45.
The estimate above is made on the supposition that each Professor, with his pupils (suppose
20) shall have a separate Pavilion of 26. by 34. f. outside, & 24. by 32. f. inside measure: in
which the ground-floor (of 12. f. pitch clear) is to be the schoolroom, and 2. rooms above
(10. 13. f. pitch clear) and a kitchen & cellar below (7. f. pitch clear) for the use of the
Professor. on each side of the Pavilion are to be 10. chambers, 10. by 12. f. in the clear & 8.
f. pitch clear a fireplace in each, for the students. the whole to communicate by a colonnade
of 8. f. width in the clear. the pilasters, of brick to be generally 5½ f. apart from center to
center.
The kitchen will be 24. by 14. on the back of the building adjacent to the chimney, with 2
windows looking back. the cellar 24. by 10. also, on the front side, with 2. windows looking
into the colonnade. the Pavilions fronting South should have their stair-case on the East;
those fronting East or West should have the stairs at the North end of the building, that the
windows may open to the plesanter views.
Back-yards, gardens, stables, horselots Etc. to be in the grounds adjacnt to the South, on the
whole.[25]
Jefferson made a number of changes after he began in earnest in 1817 to design the college,
such as the reduction in the number of "chambers," or dormitories, between the pavilions,
the introduction of the east and west ranges made up of dining hotels and more dormitories,
and the incorporation in the design of a principal large building on the square's north end.
Jefferson's specifications for the preliminary studies prepared for the Albemarle Academy
trustees in 1814 show, however, that the general architectural outline for his academical
community was fixed firmly in his mind well before the Virginia General Assembly
designated the Central College as one of the schools in its state system in late 1816.
25. The specifications for Pavilion VII, ca August 1814, are in ViU:TJ; see also Sherwood
and Lasala, "Education and Architecture: The Evolution of the University of Virginia's
Academical Village," in Wilson, Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village, 11-14. One-time
Monticello farm manager Edmund Bacon did not overstate the case when he recalled that
"Mr. Jefferson was very particular in the transaction of all his business. He kept an account
of everything. Nothing was too small for him to keep an account of" (Bear, Jefferson at
Monticello, 78).
College Bill
On 7 September 1814 Jefferson wrote his now famous letter to Peter Carr, the president of
the board of trustees for the Albemarle Academy. The letter opens with a reference to "a
plan adapted in the first instance to our slender funds, but susceptible of being enlarged
either by their own growth or by accession from other quarters."[26] Although the letter is a
detailed description of Jefferson's plans for his educational institution, it includes no
references to architecture or building, unless the quoted words are interpreted as an allusion
to the preliminary plans plan drawn in 1814. At about this time, Jefferson, in the name of the
Albemarle Academy trustees, drew up a petition to the General Assembly asking it to
designate Albemarle County as the site for a state college. Carr, who was Jefferson's nephew
and a "highly agreeable man," died in December 1814,[27] however, and the petition and
supporting papers disappeared without ever being presented to the lower house of the
Virginia General Assembly.[28] Contemplating that the successful introduction into the
legislature of the petition "would have enabled us to have here immediately the best
seminary of the US.," Jefferson turned to state Senator Joseph Carrington Cabell of
Warminster in Nelson County for help and sent him the drafts of his 1814 letter to Carr and
the bill for establishing a college in the county of Albemarle, drawn up in 1815, and which
the General Assembly passed into law on 14 February 1816.[29]
With the passage of the college bill secured, Jefferson once again began promoting his
architectural concept of an educational village. His justification for building a cluster of
small buildings became more sophisticated as he pointed to reasons of safety, health, and
economy in addition to aesthetic and educational values. "I would strongly recommend," he
wrote to Virginia Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas in April 1816,
professorship, arranged at proper distances around a square, to admit extension,
connected by a piazza, so that they may go dry from one school to another. This
village form is preferable to a single great building for many reasons,
particularly on account of fire, health, economy, peace and quiet. Such a plan
had been approved in the case of the Albemarle College, which was the subject
of the letter above mentioned; and should the idea be approved by the Board,
more may be said hereafter on the opportunity these small buildings will afford,
of exhibiting models in architecture of the purest forms of antiquity, furnishing
to the student examples of the precepts he will be taught in that art.[30]
Although the passage of the college bill set the whole business of founding a college on a
more stable footing and gave Jefferson evident pleasure, it was a whole year after the
writing of his letter to Governor Nicholas before the visitors of the college met for the first
time, and Jefferson's correspondence for that period is largely silent regarding his plans for
the establishment.
26. TJ to Peter Carr, 7 September 1814, ViU:TJ. A polygraph copy of the letter is in
DLC:TJ; see also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 384-90, Niles Register,
10:34-35, and Lipscomb and Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 19:211-21. The letter
appeared in the Richmond Enquirer the following year after Cabell wrote to TJ seeking
permission to publish it (see Cabell to TJ, 24 January 1816, in ViU:TJ, and TJ to Cabell, 2
February 1816, in ViU:JCC; see also ibid., 50-51, 52-56). In late February 1816 Cabell
informed TJ that he had at last retrieved the original letter from the newspaper's editor (see
Cabell to TJ, 26 February 1816, in ViU:TJ, and ibid., 60-61).
28. David Watson, a member of the university's first Board of Visitors, "determined from
some cause or other that they should not be presented" to the legislature (see Cabell to TJ, 5
March 1815, in ViU:TJ; see also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 38-41).
29. See TJ to Cabell, 5 January 1815, Cabell to TJ, 5 March 1815, TJ's Bill for Establishing
a College in the County of Albemarle, 1815, and Cabell to TJ, 14 February 1816, in ViU:TJ;
see also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 35-38, 38-41, 391-93 (appendix
D), and 56. Joseph Carrington Cabell (1778-1856) of Amherst (later Nelson) County, the
brother of Virginia governor and judge William H. Cabell, served in the Virginia Senate
from 1810 to 1829 and in the House of Delegates from 1831 to 1835. He single-handedly
won legislative support in the General Assembly on behalf of the university, and for part of
his thirty-seven years as a Board of Visitor member he served as university rector. Cabell
also zealously promoted internal improvements in the state and served as president of the
James River and Kanawha Canal Company, and his family estate at Warminster on the
James River was the seat of one of central Virginia's busiest communities in the first half of
the nineteenthth century. For more on Cabell's role in founding the university, see Cabell,
Early History of the University of Virginia, Patton, Jefferson, Cabell, and the University of
Virginia, Bruce, History of the University of Virginia (vol. 1), and Tanner, "Joseph C. Cabell,
1778-1856."
30. TJ to Wilson Cary Nicholas, 2 April 1816, DLC:TJ; see also Lipscomb and Bergh,
Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 14:446-56. Wilson Cary Nicholas (1761-1820), who was born
in Williamsburg, spent three decades in public service: Virginia House of Delegates,
1784-1786, 1788, 1789, 1794-1800; Virginia Convention, 1788; United States Senate,
1800-1804; United States House of Representatives, 1807-1809; and governor of Virginia,
1814-1816. Nicholas died at Tufton, Milton, and is buried at Monticello.
The Site is Chosen
In March 1817 Jefferson sent a circular letter to the other visitors of the Central College
—James Madison, James Monroe, John Hartwell Cocke, Joseph Carrington Cabell, and
David Watson—requesting their "attendance as a visitor of our proposed college on Tuesday
the 8th. of April, being the day after our election. you will of course, I am in hopes come
here the day or evening before, that we may have some previous consultation on the subject.
. . . Colo. Monroe I suppose will not be in the neighborhood."[31] Madison, detained in
Washington until 6 April, could not attend either, and, in fact, only two members joined
Jefferson at the April meeting. The law specified for a new date to be set whenever the
board failed to make a quorum, so the 5th of May was next chosen.[32] The reason for the
sudden interest in holding a meeting, aside from the fact that the law establishing the college
mandated at least two meetings a year,[33] was the fact that an attractive tract of land was
being offered for sale by John M. Perry, a house carpenter whom Jefferson employed to do
rough carpenter work when he was remodelling Monticello after his retirement from the
presidency.[34] The tract, located about one mile west of the village of Charlottesville, was
Jefferson's second choice for a building site but nevertheless well-suited to meet his
architectural requirements. The visitors ratified a provisional agreement to purchase the land
at the May meeting after "having themselves proceeded to the said grounds, examined them,
& considered the terms of the Said provisional purchase." The visitors also voted to erect a
pavilion according to the plan previously accepted by the trustees of the Albemarle
Academy and ordered the institution's new proctor, Alexander "Sandy" Garrett,
building of one, of stone or brick below ground, and of brick above, of
substantial work, of regular architecture, well executed, and to be completed, if
possible, during the ensuing summer and winter; that the lots for the Said
pavilions be delineated on the ground of the breadth of [blank] feet with two
parallel sides of indefinite length, and that the pavilion first to be erected be
placed on one of the lines so delineated, with its floor in such degree of
elevation from the ground as may correspond with the regular inclined plain to
which it may admit of being reduced hereafter.
And it is further resolved that so far as the funds may admit, the Proctor be requested to
proceed to the erection of dormitories for the Students, adjacent to the said pavilion, not
exceeding ten on each side, of brick, and of regular architecture according to the same plan
proposed.[35]
31. TJ to the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 10 March, 1817, in ViU:TJ.
Ironically, all but Madison, who attended the College of New Jersey (Princeton University),
were alumni of the College of William and Mary (see A Provisional List of Alumni,
Grammar School Students, Members of the Faculty, and Members of the Board of Visitors of
the College of William and Mary in Virginia, from 1693 to 1888, 9, 10, 13, 23, 39).
32. See John Hartwell Cocke to TJ, 26 March, in CSmH:TJ, Madison to TJ, 10 April, in
ViU:TJ, and TJ to Monroe, 13 April 1817, in DLC:TJ.
33. The act establishing the college required the board of visitors to meet on the days of the
commencement of the spring and fall terms of the Albemarle circuit court, and made
provision for occasional meetings as may be called from time to time by any three members,
giving effectual and timely notice to the others.
34. John M. Perry, who was born in the late 1770s and who died in Missouri in
the late 1830s, was a major contractor for both carpentry and brickmasonry work
at the university. The owner of considerable property, including thirty-seven
slaves by 1820, Perry received over $30,000 for his work at the university, more
than any other contractor. See Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy,"
Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:40-43, 45, 48.
35. Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 5 May 1817, PPAmP: UVA
Minutes; see also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 393-96, and
Cunningham, In Pursuit of Reason, 338. Only three members of the Board of Visitors,
Madison, Monroe, and Cocke, joined TJ at the May meeting. At the meeting Garrett was
appointed treasurer for the college, a post he held after relinquishing the proctorship in July
1817. Valentine W. Southall was appointed the board's secretary, and Jefferson and Cocke
were appointed "a committee on the part of the Visitors with authority jointly or severally to
advise and sanction all plans and the application of monies for executing them which may
be within the purview and functions of the Proctor for the time being." The symbolic
importance of the visitors' first meeting was not lost on Jefferson's contemporaries, as
evidenced by a news release printed in the Richmond Enquirer on 13 May: "On the 5th of
this month, three men were seen together at Charlottesville (county of Albemarle), each of
whom alone is calculated to attract the eager gaze of their Fellow Citizens‐We mean,
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. . . . They have been friends for
years, and are as sincere friends at this moment. . . . The appearance of three such men
together at a village where the citizens of the county had met to attend their court, is an
event, which for its singularity, deserves the notice of a passing paragraph" (quoted in
Malone's discussion of the visitors' meeting in Jefferson and His Times: The Sage of
Monticello, 254-57, and reprinted in the Washington, D.C., Daily National Intelligencer, 23
May 1817).
Bacon's Reminiscences
Jefferson's one-time overseer Edmund Bacon asserted when interviewed in Kentucky in
1862 that the visitors "advertised for proposals for a site" and that three local men, Nicholas
Lewis, John H. Craven, and John M. Perry, offered to sell land to the college (see appendix
W). The "Commissioners," according to Bacon, had a meeting at Monticello (apparently the
Board of Visitors' meeting of 5 May) and then traveled to each of the sites to judge between
them.
After they had made this examination, Mr. Jefferson sent me to each of them, to request
them to send by me their price, which was to be sealed up. . . . Lewis and Craven each asked
$17 per acre, and Perry $12. That was a mighty big price in those days. I went to Craven and
Lewis first. When I went to Perry, he inquired of me if I knew what price the others had
asked. I told him I did, but I did not think it would be right for me to tell him. They had both
talked the matter over with me, and told me what they were a-going to ask. But I told Perry
that if he asked about $10 or $12 per acre, I though he would be mightly apt to succeed.
They took Perry's forty acres, at $12 per acre. It was a poor old turned-out field, though it
was finely situated. Mr. Jefferson wrote the deed himself, and I carried it to Mr. Perry, and
he signed it.[36]
Bacon's role in negotiating the purchase has not been substantiated although Jefferson wrote
that "on examining the sites for our college we found not one comparable to Perry's."[37]
Jefferson's grandson George Wythe Randolph declared in 1856, however, that his
grandfather's favorite choice for a building site was not the one finally settled upon but one
on a high ridge to the northeast of Perry's property. Randolph claimed that Alexander
Garrett had often repeated that the property's owner, John Kelly, a local man who reputedly
hated Jefferson's political principles, stated that he would see Jefferson "at the devil" before
he would sell him the land. Jefferson reportedly considered Kelly a fool for his stance but
said "that if they could not get the best site, they would have to content themselves with the
best site they could get."[38]
36. Bear, Jefferson at Monticello, 31-32. Edmund Bacon (1785-1866), who was in
Jefferson's employment from 29 September 1806 to 15 October 1822, migrated west in
search of cheap lands in the winter of 1822-1823 after postponing the move for several
years. After living in Kentucky for only a year Bacon's wife died and he considered
returning to Virginia; he appealed to Jefferson from Christian County on 22 August 1824 to
find him a farm "of good quality" or "any other situation which I am capable of. manageing
perhaps some sort of business connected with the University might be a tempory station
untill I could make further arrangements. I could bring two good waggons and teams with
me" (MHi:TJ). Jefferson offered to assist Bacon but in the end Bacon remained in Kentucky
(see TJ to Bacon, 9 October 1824, in CSmH:TJ). For a summary of Bacon's life and
relationship with Jefferson, see Martin, "Thomas Jefferson and Edmund Bacon," Magazine
of Albemarle County History, 50:1-27. John H. Craven owned an area sawmill (see DNA:
Records of the Bureau of Census, Manufactures of Fredericksville Parish, Albemarle
County, 1820).
38. George Wythe Randolph to J. L. Cabell, 27 February 1856, ViU: Cabell Papers, and
Malone, Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, 255.
Dinsmore and Neilson
Buoyed by the prospects of at long last purchasing land for the college, Jefferson
meanwhile, in mid-April, had contacted two master housejoiners who crafted much of the
fine woodwork during the remodelling of Monticello, James Dinsmore and John Neilson, to
offer them employment.[39] "We are about to establish a College near Charlottesville on the
lands formerly Colo. Monroe's, a mile above the town," Jefferson informed Dinsmore. "We
do not propose to erect a single grand building, but to form a square of perhaps 200 yards,
and to arrange around that pavilions of about 24. by 36. f. one for every professorship & his
school. they are to be of various forms, models of chaste architecture, as examples for the
school of architecture to be formed on." Although the projected dimensions of the square
had been reduced considerably from the size indicated in Jefferson's August 1814 drawing,
and he had added the reference to "models of chaste architecture" that he returned to time
and again, the plan remained faithful to Jefferson's original intentions not to include a large
building, and of spacing pavilions on all but the open sides of the square.
others year after year, as our funds increase. . . . I suppose the superintendance
of the buildings will rest chiefly on myself as most convenient. so far as it does
I should wish to commit it to yourself and mr Nelson, and while little is called
for this year which might disturb your present engagements, it will open a great
field of future employment for you. will you undertake it? if you will, be so
good as to let me hear from you as soon as you can, and I would rather wish it
to be before the 6th. of May. there is a person here who wishes to offer you two
very fine boys, his sons, as apprentices; but on this nothing need be said until
you determine to come.[40]
Dinsmore, working in Petersburg with Neilson, wrote a reply to Jefferson nine days later,
thanking his former employer for the "Continued attention to my Interests," and accepting
Jefferson's proposal "with pleasure . . . as I prefer that Neighbourhood to any I have yet
lived in tho in a pecuniary point of view this is the preferable place—we expect to finish our
present engagements here in about two months but if it is Necessary I Should have no
objection to make a trip up there at any time Called on—it is probable Mr Neilson will also
move up the Country when we finish here—"[41]
39. For the extensive building and architectural legacy that James Dinsmore (c. 1771-1830)
and John Neilson (c. 1775-1827) left in the Virginia Piedmont, see Lay, "Charlottesville's
Architectural Legacy," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:32-40, Lay, "Dinsmore
and Neilson: Jefferson's Master Builders," Colonnade, 6 (Spring 1991), 9-13, Cote, "The
Architectural Workmen of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia," 21-28, 71-72, 84-90, 93, and Lay,
"Jefferson's Master Builders," University of Virginia Alumni News, 80 (October 1991),
16-19. Both men were born in Northern Ireland and began working for Jefferson shortly
after becoming naturalized citizens in Philadelphia, Dinsmore in 1798 and Neilson in 1804.
Dinsmore executed the carpentry work at Pavilions III and V and, with John M. Perry,
Pavilion VIII; Neilson the same at Pavilion IX; and the partnership of Dinsmore & Neilson
performed the carpentry work at both the Rotunda and the Anatomical Hall (ViU:PP,
Ledgers 1 and 2). Both men met untimely deaths not long after completing their work at the
university; and material relating to their estates and families can be found in the ViU:
George Carr Papers.
41. Dinsmore to Thomas Jefferson, 22 April 1817, ViU:TJ. Jefferson's overseer Edmund
Bacon recalled in 1862 that James Dinsmore lived with Jefferson "a good many years" and
"was the most ingenious hand to work with wood I ever knew. He could make anything. He
made a great deal of nice mahogany furniture, helped make the carriage, worked on the
University, and could do any kind of fine work that was wanted" (Bear, Jefferson at
Monticello, 70).
William Thornton Consulted
Following the visitors' actions at its May meeting, Jefferson stepped up his efforts to design
the buildings that would comprise his architectural masterpiece. He first wrote to William
Thornton, the architect of the Capitol in Washington, to inform him that "we are
commencing here the establishment of a college, and instead of building a magnificent
house which would exhaust all of our funds, we propose to lay off a square of about 7. or
800. feet on the outside of which we shall arrange separate pavilions, one for each professor
and his scholars. each pavilion will have a schoolroom below, and 2 rooms for the Professor
above and between pavilion and pavilion a range of dormitories for the boys, one story high,
giving to each a room 10. f. wide & 14. f. deep. the pavilions about 36. wide in front and 24.
f. in depth." Although the dimensions as described to Thornton differed slightly from his
earlier drawings and descriptions, Jefferson described his scheme generally along the same
lines as heretofore, but much more elaborately, and asked his friend and former employee to
contribute to the design:
of the height of the lower story of the pavilions, under which they may go dry
from school to school. the colonnade will be of square brick pilasters (at first)
with a Tuscan entablature. now what we wish is that these pavilions as they will
show themselves above the dormitories, should be models of taste & good
architecture, & of a variety of appearance, no two alike, so as to serve as
specimens for the Architectural Lectures. will you set your imagination to work
& sketch some designs for us, no matter how loosely with the pen, without the
trouble of referring to scale or rule; for we want nothing but the outline of the
architecture, as the internal must be arranged according to local convenience. a
few sketches, such as need not take you a moment, will greatly oblige us. the
visitors of the college are President Monroe, mr Madison, 3 others whom you
do not know & myself. we have to struggle against two important wants,
money, and men for professors capable of fulfilling our views. they may come
in time for all Europe seems to be breaking up. in the mean time help us
to provide snug and handsome Lodges for them.[42]
Eager to please, Thornton responded quickly, expressing his "great pleasure to find Virginia
disposed to erect an extensive College which must produce great effects by Example. I was
also pleased to see an Acct. of the meeting of such distinguished Characters as the three
Presidents of the United States on so praiseworthy an Occasion. How different to the
meeting of the three Emperors on the Continent of Europe, after a bloody Battle! In asking
my sketches you flatter me highly but I fear all I can do will fall very far short of what you
expect." Thornton also enclosed two facade studies that show "an arcade on the bottom story
and columns above," drawings which influenced Jefferson's design of Pavilion VII.[43] The
drawings, coupled with a suggestion in the letter which they were enclosed in to substitute
columns for square piers, greatly altered the design of Jefferson's scheme, and Thornton's
detailed letter deserves to be quoted at length:
to contain the different Orders of Architecture, that they might serve hereafter
as models.—I admire every thing that would tend to give chaste Ideas of
elegance & grandeur. Accustomed to pure Architecture, the mind would relish
in time no other, & therefore the more pure the better.—I have drawn a Pavilion
for the Centre, with Corinthian Columns, & a Pediment. I would advise only the
three orders: for I consider the Composite as only a mixture of the Corinthian &
Ionic; & the Tuscan as only a very clumsy Doric.—Your general Arrangement I
admire, but would take the liberty of advising that the two buildings next the
angles be joined together, & be placed in the angles.
order.—I thought it necessary to draw it, because you have only to connect the
sketches already given, into the Ionic, to have the effect.—I would only have
one Pediment, and that in the center. If at any time it would be thought
necessary to extend these Buildings, they may very easily have additions at
each side, without extending the Colonnade, and the Entablature would serve as
a back ground or base to the projecting central parts of each.—It is of great
importance in Buildings, the extent of which must be foreseen, to provide for
such additions as may correspond, & finally tend rather to beautify and perfect,
than to disfigure or deform the whole: and this plan of yours I think admirably
calculated for almost indefinite extension.—The Entablature of the Doric
Pavilion may be enriched and that to the Dormitories may be plain. I have
drawn Columns in front of the Dormitories, & also square Pillars, but the
Columns are not only handsomer but cheaper, being also more easily built, and
less subject to accidental as well as wilful injury.—I have omitted the plinths, as
they not only tend to shorten the Columns but increase the expense, interrupt
the walk, and add not much to the beauty.—I would make the Dormitories with
Shed roofs, that should commence at the top of the parapet. this would carry all
the water to the outside, which would take away all appearance of a roof, &
thereby add greatly to the beauty of the Buildg. I advise that it be built of Brick
in the roughest manner, & plastered over in imitation of freestone. Columns can
be made in this way most beautifully, as I have seen them done at Mr. Lewis's,
near Mount Vernon, where they have stood above 12 years, & I did not find a
single crack or fissure. The Bricks are made expressly for columnar work, and
where they were to be plastered, the Brick-work was perfectly saturated with
water which prevented the plaster from drying too rapidly.—The mortar was
not laid on fresh. It was composed of two thirds sharp well washed fine white
sand, & one third well slaked lime. I would mix these with Smith's Forge-water.
I would also dissolve some vitrial of Iron in the water for the ashlar Plaister not
only to increase the binding quality of the mortar, but also to give a fine yellow
colour—which on Experiment you will find beautiful and cheap.—All the
plaistering should be tinctured in the same manner for the plain ashlar work, or
yellow sand may be used with the lime, or yellow ochre which will give the
same appearance; and the Columns and Entablature being white will produce a
beautiful and delicate contrast.—I prefer a pale yellow to white for the general
ground Colour of a building, as it assimilates beautifully with the Trees, and
general Tint of nature; while white looks cold & glaring, and destroys the
keeping.—The Caps & Bases of the Columns ought to be of freestone; or they
may be of artificial stone. This is to be had very cheap from Coade's
Manufactory, in the Borough of London; or they may be made of pipe clay,
with a little fine white sand, & a solution of alkaline salt, which will give a neat,
but fine [Surface], when well burnt in a Potter's Kiln. I have tried this, & made
very good artificial Stone.—By this mode the Caps of the Columns may be
made as durable as Stone, and cheaper than wood.—Pateras Modillions &c may
be made in the same manner, if thought necessary hereafter, to enrich any
particular part.—I admire the general disposition and plan of this Establishment
and, to obtain in perfection what is wanted, I would advise that the Site be
chosen in the woods, and clear out whatever is not wanted, clumping the most
beautiful and thriving of the forest Trees, handsome Groves, and leaving
straggling ones occasionally, by wch Nature may be so artfully imitated, as to
produce a perfect Picture and above all things let such a place be selected as
though it be a high & healthy Table Ground, will afford by a Tube from a higher
Source a grand Fountain in the centre of the College Square.—This will be not
only highly ornamental, but it will supply Water in case of Fire.—If a rivulet
could also be brought near, by digging a Conduit, it might furnish a large basin
or Pond, which could be made of any required depth & size. This would do for
the Students to swim and dive in, during Summer, and to skait on during
Winter. There ought also to be a botanic Garden, as well as a culinary
one.—There ought to be extra Grounds for the great Exercises, such as running,
riding, Archery, shooting with Pistols, rifles, Cannons, the military Exercises on
horseback & foot.—In the Roman Catholic Academy, in George Town, Ga.,
they have erected a Ball Alley, but I would allow no Child's play. Let all the
Exercises be such as would tend to make great and useful men, and the military
Exercises, fencing with the broad and small sword, boxing with mufflers,
playing the single Stick, jumping, wrestling, throwing the Javelin and whatever
tends to render men most athletic, at the same time that it tends to perfect them
in what may eventually be of use, ought only to be permitted as sports in their
leisure hours. Thus would I make men of active Bodies, as well as of
extraordinary Minds.—[44]
Jefferson fortunately saw the propriety of adopting Thornton's suggestion to use columns in
front of the dormitories situated on the lawn, though he retained the rectanglier piers for the
columns of the east and west ranges, and the change produced a wonderful effect in contrast.
42. TJ to Thornton, 9 May 1817, ViU:TJ. Facsimiles of this letter can be found in Wilson,
Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village, 16, and in Stearns and Yerkes, William Thornton: A
Renaissance Man in the Federal City, 46-47. For Thornton's role in designing the capitol,
see Scott, Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation, 36-37, 50-52, 68-71,
and Jeanne F. Butler, "Competition 1792: Designing a Nation's Capitol," Capitol Studies, 4
(1976), 63-70. TJ sent a similar letter to Benjamin Henry Latrobe of 12 June.
43. Lasla, "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia," #00-06. The pavilion
facade drawings, which have been separated from the letter they were enclosed, are in
ViU:TJ. For a discussion of TJ's adaptation of the top sketch for his final design for Pavilion
VII, see Lasala's description of #00-06, and for descriptions of Jefferson's studies for
Pavilion VII, see Lasla, #07-01 through #07-05.
44. Thornton to TJ, 27 May 1817, DLC:TJ. On 9 January 1821 Thornton complained to TJ
that "I have never been honoured with a line from you since your favor of the 9th. of May
1817. which I answered on the 27th. relative to the College about to be established in your
Vicinity.—I am in hopes my Letter reached you, not so much from any advantage it could
possibly offer you, as to shew my desire to fulfil to the utmost of my ability every wish with
which you have honored me.—I am in hopes that your long silence may arise more from
your retirement from active life, than from any disinclination to preserve my name in the list
of your friendship: for it has been almost the only consolation of my life that I have been
honored with the friendship of the good & great" (DLC:TJ).
Latrobe is Enlisted
William Thornton was not the only architect offering advice to Jefferson in the early stages
of building. On 12 June Jefferson sent a letter to Benjamin Henry Latrobe that was nearly
identical to the one he sent to Thornton in May. Latrobe did not reply until late June but
when he did it was readily apparent that he had far exceeded Jefferson's request to make a
"few sketches such as shall take you not more than a minute apiece, mere impressions of a
first trait of imagination."[45] Latrobe insisted that he had "found so much pleasure in
studying the plan of your College, that the drawings have grown into a large bulk that can
conveniently be sent by the Mail. . . . I have put the whole upon one very large sheet, which
I am very unwilling to double."[46] Jefferson eagerly awaited Latrobe's designs, and wrote
him in the first week of July:
not mean to give you this, but since you have been so kind as to take it, it shall
turn to good account. . . . I am anxious to receive your draught as soon as
possible, because we must immediately lay the 1st stone, as the 1st pavilion
must be finished this fall and we have few workmen. . . . I think your drawings
had better come in the form of a roll by the mail. Any necessary doubling of the
paper may be easily obliterated by the screw press which I possess.[47]
Latrobe suggested one variation from Jefferson's plan that coincided with a change in the
design that Jefferson himself had contemplated only since writing Latrobe in June, that of
closing off the north end of the square with "some principal building." This alteration in
Jefferson's conception of his architectural scheme, and its subsequent change in the
appearance of the square, Jefferson later told Latrobe, was necessary because of "the law of
the ground."[48] Instead of building pavilions on the closed side of the square that resembled
those of the open east and west sides, Latrobe suggested closing the square's north end with
a grand central building, something architecturally magnificent. Jefferson agreed and wasted
no time in sensing the beauty of Latrobe's suggestion to construct a spherical building
modeled after the "noblest surviving example" of ancient art, the Pantheon in Rome.[49]
Jefferson reduced the diameter of the Roman Pantheon by half, to 77 feet, causing its area to
drop to one-quarter and its total volume to one-eighth of the original. Inside it contained a
curious design, three oval shaped rooms and an irregular central hall inside a circle with
curving staircases leading up to a single large library room covered with a high domed
ceiling.[50] The gently terraced square that resulted from the "law of the ground" has on
either side between the pavilions an increasing number of dormitories as one moves south,
creating an illusion of perspective as one stands on either end. From the closed north end the
pavilions appear to be spaced evenly apart and from the south end looking northward one's
attention is forced toward the grand central building. The building proved functional if
novel; elegant and spacious, well proportioned, handsome, unique.[51]
45. TJ to Latrobe, 12 June 1817, DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and
Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:901-3.
48. Operations at and for the College, 18 July 1817, ViU:TJ, and TJ to Latrobe, 3 August
1817, DLC:TJ; see also ibid., 900-901, 916, and Malone, Jefferson and His Times: The Sage
of Monticello, 257-61. In his letter of 3 August Jefferson informed Latrobe that he would
leave the north end of the square open in case the "state should establish there the University
they contemplate, they may fill it up with something of the grand kind."
50. When depicting an enlarged version of the Pantheon for the United States Capitol in the
early 1790s, Jefferson placed the "Passages and Stairs" in a central hall surrounded by four
oval rooms. See Scott, Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation, 48-49.
51. See Patton, Jefferson, Cabell and the University of Virginia, 187. Wilson gives the
dimensions of the spacing of the pavilions (as provided by James Murray Howard, the
University of Virginia Architect for the Historic Buildings and Grounds): "The first four
numbers—I-III on the west, and II-IV on the east—are 53 feet and 64 feet apart respectively.
Number V on the west is 89 feet from III, and number VI on the east is 90.5 feet from IV.
The next on the west, VII, is 104 feet, then IX is 122 feet, and for the east, numbers VIII and
X, nearly the same dimensions hold. The small differences result from the different widths
of the pavilions" ("Jefferson's Lawn: Perceptions, Interpretations, Meanings," in Wilson,
Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village, 90). Wilson also asserts that the illusion of
perspective was not by design but resulted from the "constraints of the site and the need to
provide more pavilions for the professors" (ibid., 71).
The Land Deal
While Jefferson was awaiting Latrobe's answer to his letter, Alexander Garrett closed the
land deal with John M. Perry. Perry sold the college two tracts of Albemarle County land,
for $1,421.25, "the one containing forty three acres & three fourths about a mile above
Charlottesville on the public road to Staunton, the other about five eighths of a mile from the
former, containing one hundred & fifty three acres, comprehending the top and part of a
mountain."[52] As part of the land settlement, the college agreed to contract with Perry for
one of the pavilions scheduled to be built on his former property, "as Perry persisted
positively in refusing a deed but on condition of doing the wooden work of the building now
proposed."[53] Perry, for his part, promised to do "all the Carpenter's and House joiner's
work of the said pavilion as shall be prescribed to him," and agreed to
that the meterials shall be of sound and durable quality, the Carpenters work
shall be done solidly, neatly and well fitted, and the house joinery in the best
manner, and strictly according to such forms and orders of Architecture as the
said Proctor or his successors shall prescribe; that all the work necessary to be
put up or in as the brick layer proceeds, shall allways be ready by the time the
brick layer is ready for it, and all the residue to be done by him shall be
compleated and put up within five months after the brick layer shall have so far
and the walls as that they shall be capable of recieveing it; and the said John M
Perry doth further agree and covenant, that if any part of the Carpenters work or
house joinery shall not be done in the most perfect good manner or not strictly
according to the forms and orders of Architecture which shall be prescribed to
him as aforesaid, the said Proctor or his successors shall have a right to have the
same altered or taken down and rebuilt according to the forms prescribed, by
any person he shall employ at the expence of the said John, and the parties to
these presents further agree, that if any part of the work shall be objected to as
insufficient or incomformable to what is herein before stipulated that its
sufficiency or non conformity shall be finally decided on by three competent
persons one chosen by each party and the two persons chosen are hereby
empower'd to choose a third equally competent And the said John doth further
agree that if the work shall not be done at the respective times stipulated that
the said Proctor or his successors shall be free to have it done by such person as
he shall employ at the expence of the said John and be entitled to damages for
all wrongful delay to be paid by the said John—
Proctor Alexander Garret, on behalf of the Central College, agreed
have cost him, or which they shall be worth if furnished by himself, shall be
paid him, and for all Carpenter's work or house-joinery done, he shall be paid
the prices which were paid by James Madison late President of the United
States to James Dinsmore for similar work done at Montplier, which payments
shall be made to him as follows towit Five hundred dollars in hand, five
hundred dollars more when the roof shall be raised, and the balance when it
shall be compleated, In Witness whereof the parties hereto subscribe their
names the day & year first within written.[54]
Although Jefferson was satisfied that "on examining the sites for our college we found not
one comparable to Perry's,"[55] the difficulty with the carpenter "retarded the progress of the
Proctor in executeing the plans and designs of the Visitors."[56] Perry's insistence upon
doing the the wood work of the proposed pavilion meant that James Dinsmore could not be
awarded the first contract as Jefferson had wished, and when Jefferson informed his former
housejoiner of this, he noted that "as this leaves us perfectly free as to all the other buildings
we concluded with him [Perry]." Jefferson also told Dinsmore that he planned to meet
Irishman Hugh Chisholm in Lynchburg "a few days hence to engage a bricklayer, master of
the business there."[57] By the middle of July in a small brick kiln near a large spring on the
west side of the square (or lawn as it came to be known) bricks were being made for the new
pavilion.[58]
52. John M. and Frances T. Perry, Land Indenture to Alexander Garrett, 23 June 1817,
ViU:TJ. See also Alexander Garrett, Micajah and William Woods, Commission and
Certificate of Examination for Frances T. Perry, 7 July 1817, in ViU:TJ. Perry apparently
used part of the proceeds from the land sale to pay off a debt of $1,066.81 to John Winn (see
Perry to Alexander Garrett, 23 June 1817, in ViU:PP). Perry received the balance of the
money due him from Garrett on 16 September 1817, for which receipts are in ViU:PP.
53. TJ to James Dinsmore, 25 June 1817, ViU:TJ. Alexander Garrett wrote James Madison
on 24 June to inform him of Perry's obstinacy in requiring a building contract as part of the
settlement of the land sale: "After you left this, a difficulty occured in obtaining the title to
the lands purchased for the Central College, that difficulty was not removed untill yesterday,
when a title was obtained" (DLC:JM). When writing to Joseph Carrington Cabell on 8 July,
Garrett used the same phrase, adding that "this difficulty retarded the progress of the Proctor
in executeing the plans and designs of the Visitors" (ViU:JCC).
57. TJ to Dinsmore, 25 June 1817, ViU:TJ. Hugh Chisholm, who was born in the 1770s,
began working for Jefferson as a bricklayer at Monticello in 1796. He worked not only as a
brickmason but as a carpenter and plasterer at Montpelier, James Madison's Orange County
home, and at Poplar Forest, Jefferson's Bedford County home. See Lay, "Charlottesville's
Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:43, Cote, "The
Architectural Workmen of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia," 28, 63, and Lay, "Jefferson's
Master Builders," University of Virginia Alumni News, 80 (October 1991), 16-19. In 1812
Chisholm, for $28, laid the 7,000 bricks of the Tuscan-styled Palladian temple linking the
mansion house at Monticello with the vegetable garden, and later he laid the brick walls at
Poplar Forest, Jefferson's octagonal country home at Bedford (see Elizabeth Langhorne,
Monticello: A Family Story, 161, 202). Following his work as the principal brickmason for
Pavilion VII, for which he received $1,780, Chisholm worked as a plasterer on Pavilions I,
III, V, IX; he received $1,804.50 between 19 March 1819 and 18 November 1821 (ViU:PP,
Ledger 1).
58. See TJ to Benjamin H. Latrobe, 16 July 1817, DLC:TJ, and TJ to John Hartwell Cocke,
19 July 1817, ViU:JHC; see also Van Horne, Correspndence and Miscellaneous Papers of
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:907-10.
Squares Laid Off
On 18 July 1817 work began on the site itself. Jefferson fortunately had conceived of the
idea of building a central building on the closed end of the square just in time to incorporate
it in his working plans. According to his specifications book, "Operations at & for the
College," Jefferson in laying out the site divided it into a dozen smaller and thus easier to
manage rectangles of 100 by 127½ feet. "The place at which the theodolite was fixed being
the center of the Northern square, and the point destined for some principal building in the
level of the square . . . each square is to be level within itself, with a pavilion at each
end."[59] Jefferson himself, though past his 74th birthday, surveyed the area and laid off the
squares with the aid of two servants. He triumphantly wrote to fellow Visitor John Hartwell
Cocke the following day that "our squares are laid off, the brick yard begun, and the
levelling will be begun in the course of the week."[60]
59. Operations at and for the College, 18 July 1817, ViU:TJ; see also Malone, Jefferson and
His Time: The Sage of Monticello, 6:257-61, and Cunningham, In Pursuit of Reason,
338-39.
60. TJ to John Hartwell Cocke, 19 July 1817, ViU:JHC. On 4 August Jefferson informed
William Branch Giles that "the buildings are begun, those for one professorship, embracing
several branches of learning, are expected to be compleated by the next spring, and a
professor will be engaged to commence instruction at that time, and we hope to be able to
erect in the ensuing summer two or three others professorships, which will take in the mass
of the useful sciences. the plan of this institution has nothing local in view. it is calculated
for the wants, and the use of the whole state, and it's centrality of situation to the population
of the state, salubrity of climate, and abundance and cheapness of the necessaries of life,
present it certainly with advantage to the attention of parents and guardians throughout the
state, & especially to those who have not in their immediate vicinity a satisfactory
establishment for general science. whatever we do will have a permanent basis, established
on a deposit of funds of perpetual revenue adequate to it's maintenance" (WiHi: Simon
Gratz Autograph Collection).
Correspondence with Latrobe
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:
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. 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. 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. Latrobe to TJ, 12 August 1817, DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and
Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:928-34.
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. TJ to Latrobe, 24 August 1817, DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and
Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:933.
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).
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).
Propaganda Campaign
In late August, while still at Poplar Forest, Jefferson began a propaganda campaign to garner
favorable publicity for the nascent college. He sent Thomas Ritchie a "letter" written for
publication in the Richmond Enquirer. ("I read but a single newspaper, Ritchie's Enquirer,
the best that is published or ever has been published in America," Jefferson later said).[69]
The author (Jefferson), purporting to have recently passed through Charlottesville on his
way to the Warm Springs, comments on the "healthiness of the country, it's fertility, it's
central position with respect to the population of the state, and other advantages." The board
of visitors, the fictitious traveler writes, appointed by the "ex offico Patron of the
institution," the governor of the commonwealth, "have had two or three meetings, have
purchased a site a mile above the town of Charlottesville, high, healthy, & with good water,
have agreed on the outlines of their plan as a College of general science, & are now
proceeding on it's execution." The supposedly unknown tourist, obviously impressed with
the college, described the proposed buildings:
which would at once exhaust their funds; but to make it rather an Academical
village. a small box, or Pavilion, is to be erected for each school and it's
professor separately, with chambers, or dormitories for the students, all united
by a covered colonnade, and arranged on each side of a lawn of 200. feet wide.
besides the security which this arrangement gives against fire and infection, it
has the great convenience of admitting building after building to be erected
successively as their funds come in, and as their professorships are subdivided.
one of these pavilions is now in progress, and will be ready, by the 1st. of April
next . . . a small mountain adjacent is included in their purchase, &
contemplated as a site for an astronomical observatory, and a very remarkable
one it will certainly be the whole purchase is of 200. a[cre]s. which, besides the
Observatory and building grounds, will afford a garden for the school of botany,
& an experimental farm for that of Agriculture. should I on my return learn any
thing further, and interesting, I will communicate it to you.[70]
70. TJ's undated draft of the article for the Richmond Enquirer, and the polygraph copy of
the letter it was enclosed in, TJ to Ritchie, 28 August 1817, are in DLC:TJ.
Brickmaking
While still at Poplar Forest, Jefferson received two letters from Hugh Chisholm, the
bricklayer working at the college, which have not been found, apparently indicating the
progress of the brickmaking and offering Jefferson a partnership in the brick manufactory.
"Am glad to learn that the bricks are in such forwardness," Jefferson replied to Chisholm on
the last day of August. "I wish you would by every week's mail drop a line stating what the
progress then is. I am anxious to know that the cellars are dug and their walls commenced
laying. but be careful to inform me in time and exactly by what day you will have got the
walls up to the surface of the earth; because there mr [David] Knight must begin, and by that
day I will make it a point to be in Albemarle, and have him there." Declining Chisholm's
offer of a business relationship, Jefferson gave his opinion of the quality of building in his
native Albemarle County.
would be agreeable. however, in acting for myself I might indulge partialities, I
have no right to do so in a public concern. to have the work done in the best
manner, is the first object, and the second to have it done at a fair price for both
parties. I have offers from some of the best workmen in Lynchburg. the finest
plaisterer I have ever seen in this state is anxious to undertake with us. I
consider it as the interest of the College the town and neighborhood to
introduce a reform of the barbarous workmanship hitherto practised there, and
to raise us to a level with the rest of the country. on a trip to the Natural bridge,
I found such brickwork and stone-work as cannot be seen in Albemarle. I hope
we shall take a higher stand, and do justice to the high advantages that
particular portion of our state possesses.[71]
Freemasons Relay Request
Also on the last day of August 1817, Jefferson replied to another request he received while
at Poplar Forest, communicated to him by his granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph, from
the masonic societies of Charlottesville. A representative of the freemasons, probably the
college's treasurer, Alexander Garrett, had relayed a request to Jefferson's daughter and
son-in-law, Martha Jefferson and Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., to be allowed to lay the first
brick of the Central College. Jefferson answered that "I do not know that I have authority to
say either yea or nay to this proposition; but as far as I may be authorised, I consent to it
freely. The inhabitants of Charlottesville deserve too well of that institution to meet with any
difficulty in that request, and I see no possible objection on the part of the other visitors
which exposes me to risk in consenting it."[72] Thus the Widow's Son Masonic Lodge No.
60 and Charlottesville Lodge No. 90. conducted the cornerstone laying ceremony for the
first pavilion, the present-day Colonnade Club, on 6 October 1817.[73]
72. TJ to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 31 August 1817, quoted in Betts and Bear, Family
Letters of Thomas Jefferson, 418-19. Alexander Garrett married Evelina Bolling, the
granddaughter of TJ's sister Mary Jefferson Bolling, in 1808.
Cornerstone Ceremonies
The laying of the cornerstone took place amidst a flurry of preparation that culminated with
the walls of the building rising to the "surface of the ground" by Sunday 5 October, the day
before the periodical meeting of the visitors as well as that of the county and district courts
and the scheduled date for the ceremonial laying of the pavilion's cornerstone.[74]
Jefferson's overseer Edmund Bacon described the scenes of those early days in an interview
with Reverand Hamilton W. Pierson some thirty-five years later. After personally recruiting
"ten able-bodied hands to commence the work," Bacon said that he accompanied Jefferson
and James Dinsmore from Monticello to the site of the Central College to begin laying the
foundation of Pavilion VII. "As we passed through Charlottesville," Bacon recalled, "I went
to old Davy Isaacs' store and got a ball of twine, and Dinsmore found some shingles and
made some pegs, and we all went on to the old field together. Mr. Jefferson looked over the
ground for some time and then struck down a peg. He stuck the very first peg in that
building, and then directed me where to carry the line, and I stuck the second. He carried
one end of the line, and I the other, in laying off the foundation of the University. He had a
little rule in his pocket that he always carried with him, and with this he measured off the
ground and laid off the entire foundation, and then set the men at work. I have that rule
now." Bacon's assertion that Jefferson laid off the foundation with (in Pierson's words) a
"small twelve-inch rule, so made as to be but three inches long when folded up" is absurd.
Bacon claimed to have recovered the rule from the Rivianna River during low water some
time after it fell out of Jefferson's pocket while the two men were "crawling through some
bushes and vines" along the bank of the canal.[75]
"After the foundation was nearly completed," Bacon continued, "they had a great time
laying the cornerstone. The old field was covered with carriages and people. There was an
immense crowd there. Mr. Monroe laid the cornerstone. He was President at that time. He
held the instruments and pronounced it square. He only made a few remarks, and Chapman
Johnson and several others made speeches. Mr. Jefferson—poor old man!—I can see his
white head just as he stood there and looked on."[76] Jefferson, only briefly mentioning the
ceremony in passing in his correspondence, was more concerned in fact with guaranteeing
the quick arrival of Lynchburg bricklayer David Knight so that he could commence laying
the brick walls of the pavilion while the Virginia weather was still relatively hospitable.[77]
74. TJ to Samuel J. Harrison, 5 October 1817, in ViU:TJ. TJ informed Harrison that
following the cornerstone ceremony "we are then ready for mr [David] Knight and hope he
will come off the morning after he recieves this, as the front wall will be kept back for him. I
ask your friendly influence if necessary to urge his immediate departure."
76. Ibid., 33. Bear says that Jefferson's hair at this time was "not white but a soft, sandy
reddish color" (ibid., 130).
77. See TJ to David Knight, 5 October 1817, DLC:TJ. Knight contracted with TJ to "Work
faithfully, upon the Central College at the rate of five Dollars per Day & his Diet found,"
plus traveling expenses (David Knight's Agreement for Bricklaying, 11 October 1817, in
ViU:PP). Garrett rendered Knight's account for work on Pavilion VII on the verso of the
agreement, indicating that Knight earned $142.50 for 28½ days work and was allowed $28
for traveling expenses for 4 days. Knight, who also worked on three dormitories with
Matthew Brown, received payments of $30 and $140.50 cash on 25 October and 12
November 1817, for a total of $170.50 (see TJ to Nelson Barksdale, 11 November 1817, and
Ledger 1, in ViU:PP).
Masonic Ritual
The cornerstone ceremonies, attended by one sitting American president and two former
ones, in addition to a host of other dignitaries, would have been an unusual sight anywhere
in the country, but it must have seemed even more so on a former farm a mile from the tiny
village of Charlottesville. Alexander Garrett's detailed plans for the ceremonies indicates
that the freemasons planned to meet on the college grounds "in a room up stairs of the Stone
house precisely at 10 Oclock" to form the ceremonial procession.[78] The parade marshal
then called the brethren out two by two, in the following order: tylers (with swords drawn),
apprentices, fellows, masters, past masters, stewards, deacons, secretaries, treasurers,
wardens, visiting masters, substitutes, and the grand master and chaplain. Following the
members, three by three, were the Board of Visitors of the Central College, and the bearers
of corn, wine, and oil, themselves followed by the orator and his aid. Bringing up the rear
before the musical band joined the procession in single file was the principal architect, John
M. Perry, and following the band was another tyler leading a paired string of judges,
attorneys, and visiting gentlemen. The grand master opened the ceremony with a brief
greeting to the assembly: "Gent. Visitors of the Central College. You have been pleased to
grant to the masonic order here present, the high & important previlage of laying the corner
stone of this building. Will you if you please further indulge us with your aid & participation
on this interesting occasion."
Preceding the laying of the stone the grand master offered an opening prayer in behalf of the
Central College:
should be begun, bless this undertaking and enable us to carry it on with
success-protect this College, the object of which institution, is to instill into
the minds of Youth principles of sound knowledge. To inspire them with the
love of religion & virtue, and prepare them for filling the various situations in
society with credit to themselves and benefit to their country.
Following the prayer came the actual laying of the stone in its bed by the substitute and
principal architect, who then presented the "implements used by our ancient fraternity"—the
square, the plumb, and the level—to the grand master, who in turn presented the tools to the
members of the Board of Visitors, with the command to "each of you apply this square to
this stone & assertain its fitness." When the visitors had finished, the grand master himself
applied the three implements to the stone "in like manner," after which the substitute
presented the grand master with a mallet, who struck the stone 3 times, saying, "I pronounce
this stone well formed & trusty." Immediately upon saying this, the ban struck up "Hail
Columbia" for 5 minutes. When the music stopped, the corn, the wine, and the oil were
scattered over the throne and the grand master offered another prayer:
particularly the Guardians of this our infant institution with all the necessaries,
conveniencies and comforts of life: increase their love of knowledge and
liberty; Give them energy to prosecute their present undertakeing to the credit
of themselves, the advancement of our youth and the security of our liberties,
Assist in the erection and completion of this building. Protect the workmen
against every accident, and long preserve this structure from decay, and give to
us all in needed supply, the corn of nourishment the wine of refreshment, and
the oil of joy Amen.
The grand master then asked the chaplain for instruction for the occasion from the "1st. &
greatest light of masonry," which was given in the form of an Old Testament prophecy:
stone, a precious corner stone a sure foundation,—Judgment also will I lay to
the line, and righteousness to the plummet; for behold the Stone which I have
laid before Joshua, upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold I will engrave
the engraveing thereof saith the Lord of Host; bless Ye the Lord, all ye servants
of the Lord lift up you hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord; the Lord that
made heaven & earth bless the out of Zion.
The chaplain then offered another prayer before the grand master thanked the visitors of
the Central College, "The masonic societies haveing exercised your kind previlage granted them
by laying (with your aid) the corner stone of this structure, beg leave to offer you their best
wishes for its prosperity." The band struck up "Yankee Doodle" for a few minutes before the
orator, "an eminance," was introduced, who gave an oration relevant to the occasion. To
close the ceremony, the band played "Jeffersons march" while the procession reformed, and
"Madisons march" as the group paraded back to the stone house to close the lodge.
Following the ceremony the freemasons held a dinner for the board of visitors and other
"invited Gentlemen." Thus the auspicious official ceremonial beginning of the Central
College.
On the day following the cornerstone ceremony, a Tuesday, the full Board of Visitors of the
Central College met for its fall meeting, during which it expressed an official opinion that
the ground for the proposed buildings "should be previously reduced to a plane or to teraces
as it shall be found to admit with due regard to expense, that the Pavilions be correct in their
Architecture and execution, and that when the family of a Professor requires it, 2 additional
rooms shall be added for their accommodation." This opinion resulted in a resolution
authorizing the proctor "to hire Laborers for Leveling the grounds and performing necessary
services for the works or other purposes."[79]
78. The description of the cornerstone ceremony on 6 October 1817 is taken from Alexander
Garrett's undated Outline of Cornerstone Ceremonies, in ViU; see also Malone, Jefferson
and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, 265. The Richmond Enquirer published a brief
account of the ceremony in its 10 October 1817 issue: "We understand, that agreeably to
appointment the first stone of the Central College was laid, at Charlottesville, on Monday
last, (the 6th,) and that with all the ceremony and solemnity due to such an occasion. The
society of Free Masons, and a large company of citizens, attended. The scene was graced by
the presence of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, late Presidents of the United States,
and of James Monroe, the actual President" (quoted in Cabell, Early History of the
University of Virginia, xxv).
Latrobe's Drawings Received
Jefferson renewed his correspondence with Benjamin H. Latrobe on 12 October after
receiving Latrobe's letter respecting his "port folio for the drawing I had made," written on
the same day the cornerstone ceremony was held at the Central College. Latrobe, who had
not forwarded the coveted architectural drawings to Monticello until now, returned home to
Washington after being away from the city for some time to discover, to his horror, that "the
whole mass of papers in the same place, almost destroyed by the effects of the dreadful
storm of the [blank] Augt. which had driven the soot from the Chimney with Water, against
that part of my Office, without my discovering it. I was therefore under the necessity of
washing out, the dirt as well as I could,—altho it still bears marks of the accident,—and
redrawing every thing but the outline."[80] Besides the time needed to repair the damaged
documents, the pressure of business and the "most dreadful misfortune" of losing his eldest
son to the yellow fever in New Orleans prevented Latrobe from sending the drawings to
Jefferson before.[81] Jefferson was ecstatic at finally receiving "the beautiful set of
drawings" from Latrobe.
more pavilions the ensuing season, we shall certainly select their fronts from
these. they will be Ionic and Corinthian. the Doric now erecting would resemble
one of your's but that the lower order is of arches, & the upper only of columns,
instead of the column being of the height of both stories. some of your fronts
would require too great a width for us: because the aspects of our fronts being
East & West we are obliged to give the largest dimension to our flanks which
look North & South for reasons formerly explained between us.[82]
80. Latrobe to TJ, 6 October 1817, DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and
Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:955-56. "You will perceive that the
pavilions are only sketches," Latrobe continued, "but they have been perfectly studied, & I
can furnish drawings in detail of any of them which may please You. Of the long range I
have a copy, but not of the others: but the slightest reference to them will be sufficient to
enable me to send you the working drawings."
81. The death on 3 September of Henry Sellon Boneval Latrobe (1792-1817), who had
served as his father's assistant on the Capitol in Washington before "making a name for
himself as an architect and builder" on the New Orleans waterworks project, had a
devastating effect on Latrobe (see Hamlin, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 427, 449, 473, 477,
and Latrobe to his sister-in-law Martha Sellon, 15 November, in ibid., 600-602; see also
Latrobe to John Trumbull, 10 October, and Latrobe to James Monroe, 22 October, in
951-55, 956-57). Jefferson sent Latrobe his condolences when he replied to Latrobe on 12
October, "I sincerely console with you on your great and irreparable loss. experienced
myself in every form of grief, I know what your's is. but time & silence being it's only
medicine, I say no more, assuring you always of my sincere sympathy, esteem & respect"
(DLC:TJ; see also ibid., 955-56). For the obituary notice of Henry Sellon Boneval Latrobe,
see the Washington, D.C., Daily National Intelligencer, 1 October 1817, and ibid., 945-48.
82. Latrobe, says his biographer Talbot Hamlin, realized that the sketch of the university that
Jefferson sent him lacked focus and thus began thinking about the group of buildings "as a
whole—its large size, its opportunity for monumental composition. To him the pavilions
must above all be parts of the whole, and their design must be developed in accordance with
it. Especially he felt that the pavilions should be large in scale, to count at the great distances
involved. . . . He used a monumental order running from ground to roof and carried the
columns in front of the general line of the plan to count as strong rhythmic verticals in
contrast with the long horizontals of the colonnades in front of the students' rooms."
Jefferson adopted Latrobe's designs for Pavilions V, VIII, and X, modified some others, and,
most importantly, says Hamlin, realized the "advantages, practical and artistic and
symbolical," of focusing the entire scheme upon a central domed building (Hamlin,
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 468-70).
Bill for System of Public Education
The next couple weeks proved to be very busy for Jefferson. Besides being reappointed to
the Central College Board of Visitors by Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas,[83] Jefferson
drafted his Bill for Establishing a System of Public Education and sent it to Joseph
Carrington Cabell to push forward in the Virginia General Assembly. The bill is a
comprehensive plan for state education that called for the establishment of "schools at which
the children of all the citizens of this Commonwealth may recieve a primary grade of
education at the common expense," the establishment of "Colleges whereat the youth of the
Commonwealth may within convenient distances from their homes recieve a higher grade of
education," and the establishment "in a central and healthy part of the state an University
wherein all the branches of useful science may be taught."[84] The bill was written,
"however slow & painful the operation of working is become from a stiffening wrist, and
however deadly my aversion to the writing table," and upon its completion Jefferson
instructed Cabell to "take it and make of it what you can, if worth any thing. . . . I meddle no
more with it. there is a time to retire from labor, & that time is come with me. it is a duty as
well as the strongest of my desires to relinquish to younger hands the government of our
bark and resign myself, as I do willingly to their care." More concerned about the progress
of the work at hand, Jefferson went on to complain that
dilatoriness of the workmen gives me constant trouble. it has already brought
into doubt the completion this year of the building begun, which obliges me to
be with them every other day. I follow it up from a sense of the impression
which will be made on the legislature by the prospect of it's immediate
operation. the walls should be done by our next court, but they will not by a
great deal.[85]
83. See Nicholas' Appointment of Central College Board of Visitors, 18 October 1817, in
DLC:TJ. All members of the board were reappointed.
84. TJ's undated draft for his Bill for Establishing a System of Public Education, is in
ViU:TJ, and a contemporary printed copy is in ViU:JHC. Cabell wrote a note on the first
page of the draft that reads: "This Bill was written by Mr. Jefferson: and has been rejected
by a large majority in the House of Delegates, in favor of a bill providing for the poor only.
J.C.C."
Philadelphia Price Book and Workmen's Wages
One of the issues employing Jefferson's energies about this time was how to determine the
method of payment to the contractors. Jefferson decided to standardize prices along the lines
printed in Mathew Carey's 1812 Philadelphia Price Book. The problem lay in the fact that
neither Jefferson nor anyone he knew could lay their hands on a copy of the book, and to
complicate matters, a spurious edition was rumored to be floating about. On the first of
November Jefferson fired off two letters in search of the book, one to Latrobe and the other
to Thomas Carstairs, a "practical contractor" who worked with Jefferson, William Thornton,
Stephen Hallet, and James Hoban on the Capitol building in Washington in the 1790s.[86]
The letter to Carstairs, renewing an acquaintance "after a separation of near 20. years," must
have surprised the contractor, but Jefferson did not hesitate to ask Carstairs the favor of
finding, in addition to a copy of the book, "whatever percent" on the prices that is
"habitually now allowed there as the advance of prices since the date of that book." Latrobe
experienced trouble in locating the Philadelphia Price Book, promising to send instead the
"Pittsburg pricebook, compiled from that of Philadelphia," but Carstairs in January 1818
finally sent Jefferson a copy of the book, provided by Carey himself.[87] As for the prices,
Carstairs informed Jefferson, "I find the only material difference is the new book allows
about twenty per cent on floors & ten per cent on common stairs more than the book I have
sent you, our present working prices and for some years past, is from ten to twenty per cent
discount from the book prices or what is generaly termd the old price[.] The expence of a
measurer from Philad. would not cost much, if you should want one, three per cent is a
regular charge and pays there own expenses-I daresay would be agreed to."[88] Jefferson's
decision to base the workmen's wages on the 1812 Philadelphia Price Book came back to
haunt the University of Virginia later when it became involved in a prolonged lawsuit with
the principal contractor of Pavilion I, James Oldham, who earlier had built the interior doors
for Monticello (see appendix J).[89]
In addition to not having the Philadelphia Price Book, Jefferson told James Madison two
weeks later that "we are sadly at a loss for a Palladio. I had three different editions, but they
are at Washington, and nobody in this part of the country has one unless you have. if you
have you will greatly aid us by letting us have the use of it for a year to come." Moreover,
Jefferson complained to his old friend, "we fail in finishing our 1st. pavilion this season by
the sloth and discord of our workmen, who have given me much trouble. they have finished
the 1st. story and covered it against the winter. I set out to Bedford tomorrow, on a short
visit, and at Lynchbg shall engage undertakers for the whole of next summer's
brickwork."[90] Madison dutifully sent by stage the college his copy of Palladio's Four
Books of Architecture.[91]
86. TJ's letters to Latrobe and Carstairs are in DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence
and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 3:977. For Carstairs, see Dos
Passos, "Builders for a Golden Age," American Heritage, 76, and Butler, "Competition
1792: Designing a Nation's Capitol, Capitol Studies, 4 (1976), 73. The Philadelphia Price
Book, published by Mathew Carey as The House Carpenters' Book of Prices, and Rules for
Measuring and Valuing all their Different Kinds of Work (Philadelphia, 1812), was based on
a carpenter's rule book that was published originally in 1786 and revised and republished in
1801, 1812, and 1819. The Winterthur Museum owns an original copy of Carey's edition, a
photocopy of which is in The Library Company of Philadelphia. Cote discusses the
Philadelphia Price Book in "The Architectural Workmen of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia,"
64-65.
87. For Latrobe's attempts to get a copy of the Philadelphia Price Book, see Latrobe to TJ,
20 November, and 6 December, and William Thackara to Latrobe, 22 December 1817, all in
DLC:TJ; see also Van Horne, Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin
Henry Latrobe, 977. Latrobe finally sent a price book (possibly the Pittsburgh price book,
based on the Philadelphia Price Book) to Jefferson on 7 March 1818 (see Latrobe to TJ, and
7 March, and TJ to Latrobe, 19 May 1818, both in DLC:TJ; see also ibid., 975-77, 987-89).
Thackara, who did the "Plaisterer's work, so much & deservedly admired, of the Capitol,"
told Latrobe that "there is an express rule of the Carpenter's Company that the book is not to
be seen out of the pale of their Church." Thackara later came to Charlottesville to measure
work when James Oldham sued the University of Virginia in a dispute about his contract for
Pavilion I.
88. Carstairs to TJ, 26 January 1818, DLC:TJ. Jefferson had written Carstairs again on 16
January 1818 (DLC:TJ). For Carstairs and the United States Capitol building, see Jeanne F.
Butler, "Competition 1792: Designing a Nation's Capitol," in Capitol Studies, (1976), vol.
4., no. 1, 87.
89. Oldham to Brockenbrough, 20 June 1819, in ViU:PP. James Oldham (c. 1770s-1843),
who was apprenticed in Philadelphia, worked at Monticello from 1801 to 1808. He
manufactured over three dozen doors for Monticello in Richmond, where he had moved in
search of his fortune, and where he submitted plans for a powder magazine for the state
penitentiary. Oldham considered moving to St. Louis in 1818 but decided instead to return
to Charlottesville, where he contracted for the carpentry work for Pavilion I, Hotels A and
D, and thirteen dormitories. While working on these buildings Oldham argued with
university Proctor Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough and eventually he filed a lawsuit against
Brockenbrough and the university over misunderstandings surrounding the terms of his
contracts. Oldham, who owned a small brick house on the corner of 3d and I streets in
Richmond, purchased several tracts of land in Albemarle County after completing his
university work and later ran an ordinary west of Ivy on land that he purchased from
Benjamin Hardin's estate in 1828. See my "'To Exercise a Sound Discretion': The
University of Virginia and Its First Lawsuit," at http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/grizzard
/Archive/lawsuit/home.html (1996), Cote, "The Architectural Workmen of Thomas
Jefferson in Virginia," 26-29, 82-83, 101-9, and Lay, Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy,"
Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:28-95.
91. See Madison to TJ, 29 November 1817, in DLC:JM, and TJ to Madison, 30 December
1817, in ViU:JM.
Brickworkers Sought
With winter nearing, the building at the college slowed, but there was a need to line up
workers for the following year. Irishman Joseph Antrim, who later plastered the dining room
at Jefferson's octagonal country home Poplar Forest and who may have worked at
Monticello, offered a proposal in December "to Plaister the Central College," which was
accepted. "Mode of Measurement that of Richmond: which is all the openings to be
measured, Except the price of the Materials which will be deducted," Antrim suggested, "Or
if you Chuse Philad. Mode, the Mode of this place [Lynchburg] is to Make no deductions
for Opening & Nether for work Nor for Materials."[92] Antrim eventually executed the
interior plaster work at the Rotunda and all the pavilions, hotels, and dormitories, and
stuccoed the brick columns at the pavilions.[93] Awarding a contract for making the 300,000
to 400,000 bricks thought necessary for the ensuing year was a more serious consideration.
Jefferson's trip to Lynchburg in search of bricklayers brought him to Matthew Brown, an
area contractor well qualified and capable of making the required number of bricks.
Jefferson and Brown made a provisional verbal agreement based partly on Brown's 10
December proposal "For making & Laying Common Brick finding all the Materials &C,
15$ pr. thousand all hard, oil Brick 30$ Rubed & guaged work 10/6 pr. foot Superficial
measure Cornice & parepet walls 25 Cts pr. foot Runing measure Extra[.] the time mention
In which half of the work to be Done is too Short but the whole may be Completed In good
time In full or say by 1st. November 1818-which is safe for Brick work on account of
Frost."[94] This agreement was reached only after Jefferson failed to engage other
Lynchburg bricklayers, and it was not to the entire satisfaction of either Jefferson or Brown.
Brown's dissatisfaction with the provisional brickmaking contract grew out of Jefferson's
insistence that the current Lynchburg prices for brickwork govern the prices of the
agreement. "I have two objection to a Referance to the Lynchburg prices for Brickwork,"
Brown complained to Jefferson on 20 December, "1st as I have Some Influance as to the
price & wishh to avoid Suspician[.] 2ndly. Dislike the mode of doing business on that
account I Submit to It with Reluctance but am Satisfied the prices Should be no higher than
those of Lynchburg." Additionally, Jefferson wanted David Knight to be hired to lay the
brick facades of the buildings. Knight had proven his ability to do superior work during the
fall when working on Pavilion VII. "I would not be bound that Knight Shoud Do the front
work," Brown countered, "but would Say that the Franklin Hotell shoud be the model
Should your Brothern Concur with you In giving me the Job you'l be So good as to give me
the Earliest possible Information."[95] The four story Federal-style Franklin Hotel on the
west corner of Main and Eleventh streets in the Chestnut Grove area of Lynchburg, built by
Jefferson's Lynchburg friend Samuel Jordan Harrison, had just opened on the 1st of
November. Brown supplied the brick for the 68 by 50 feet slate-roofed structure, at the time
as "refined as anything yet seen in the Piedmont," and Jefferson is said to have chosen its
wines.[96]
The verbal agreement between Brown and Jefferson was to stand only long enough for
Jefferson to consult with the other visitors, and Jefferson lost no time in writing to Senator
Joseph Carrington Cabell to request him to advertise for brickworkers of the "1st. degree of
skill" in the Richmond area. "At what prices do they do the very best work?" Jefferson
wondered.
other half by the 1st. of October? our walls are generally 1½ brick thick. the
whole to be grouted; not a single sammel brick, and but 2. bats to be used for
every 9. whole bricks. the front wall to be oil-stock brick, the other outer walls
sand-stock mortar lime pure sand without any mixture of mould. the work to be
done as well as the very best in Richmond or Lynchburg. if you can make a
provisional bargain with an undertaker to be depended on, taking only time, for
the approbation of the visitors, this will give us choice between Brown & him.
but this must be immediate as I must answer Brown shortly. pray make a
business of it, turn out immediately, make such a bargain if you can and inform
me immediately that I may fix the one or the other as shall be best. . . . P.S. sand
is 2. miles off and lime 9. or 10. miles. it's price at the quarry 1/.[97]
Cabell was unable to find workmen willing to travel from Richmond to Charlottesville, but
Jefferson did not yet know this when he reported to James Madison on 30 December that "I
have not yet been able to engage our brickwork. the workmen of Lynchburg asked me 15. D.
a thousand, which I refused. I wrote to mr Cabell to see what engagements could be
obtained in Richmond. that & Lynchburg are our only resources, and I very much fear we
shall have to give 13. if not 14. D. it is this advance of price which has raised my estimate of
the pavilions & Dormitories to 7,000. D."[98] Sometime during the month Jefferson drew up
an advertisement for workmen, which he wanted published in the central Virginia
newspapers:
Charlottesville to contract for the making & laying there about 400,000. bricks,
the Undertaker finding every thing, & the work to be equal to the best
brickwork in Lynchburg; one half to be done by the 1st. of July, & the whole by
the 1st. of October. the lime quarries are about 10. miles & sand about 2. miles
distant from the place. payments will be accomodated to the Undertaker. written
proposals to be lodged in the Post office at Lynchbg, or sent to the subscriber at
Poplar Forest at any time before the 13th. inst."[99]
Concluding an agreement with the bricklayers for the upcoming year dominated Jefferson's
concerns for the college as 1817 drew to an end, and after the new year, when writing to ask
his colleagues on the Board of Visitors to consider for approval the draft of his report to the
new governor, James Patton Preston,[100] he informed them of his efforts to procure
bricklayers for the Central College and of his "provisional bargain with one of the best of
them, to give what shall be given in Lynchbg the ensuing season."[101] Cabell wrote back to
Jefferson on 5 January concerning his quest for workmen in Richmond, enclosing a letter
sent to him from Christopher Tompkins, the contractor for the governor's mansion, on the
previous day, "from which you will perceive that the rates here are very exorbitant, and that
you cannot do better than to close with Brown. There are some 6 or 8 skilful workmen in
Richmond; most of them have families; and all of them prefer working in town: each of
them contracts for one million or one million & a half of bricks every year, and has more
work offered than he can well attend to." Tompkins did manage to find one bricklayer for
Cabell, a "workman who is willing to come up and make bricks at $2 pr. m being found
every thing, is named Night, and is the brother of Night who worked on the College walls in
November. He is said to be a better workman. I regret that I am unable to send you a more
agreeable answer."[102]
Upon receiving Cabell's answer regarding Richmond brickmakers, Jefferson wrote Matthew
Brown in the middle of January to seal the bricklaying contract in accordance with the terms
of Brown's letter of 20 December, impressing on him the importance of his finishing
one-half the work by the beginning of July, and reiterating Jefferson's own desire that David
Knight would be engaged for the front-work.[103] When Brown contracted for the brickwork
at Pavilion III and sixteen dormitories on the west lawn the irritating matter of contracting
for bricklaying was taken care of for the present and there was nothing left for anyone to do
for the buildings of the Central College but sit back and wait out the rest of the Virginia
winter.[104]
93. Antrim's earnings included up to $588.53 for plaster and stucco work at the pavilions
and $21,177.18 for the Rotunda. See ViU:PP, Ledger 1, and Lay, "Charlottesville's
Architectural Legacy," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:28-95, and Lay,
"Jefferson's Master Builders," University of Virginia Alumni News, 16-19.
96. The Franklin Hotel underwent renovation in the early 1850s and from then until its
closing and demolition in 1885 it operated as the Norvell House. See Chambers, Lynchburg:
An Architectural History, 44-45, 269.
99. Advertisement for Bids for Work on Central College, December 1817, ViU:TJ. TJ later
wrote beneath this advertisement: "1818. Feb. 3. in this note I had omitted grouting. but in
my verbal agreemt. with mr Brown when I met him in Lynchbg, I stated it to him as an
article; and on his visit to me this day he agrees he understood he was to grout in the
presence of Clifton Harris."
100. The report to the governor is contained in TJ's letter to Preston of 6 January 1818,
located in ViU:TJ. In the long letter Jefferson gives Preston a succinct history of the
building to date when he writes that the visitors "adopted a scale, accomodated in the first
instance, to the present prospect of funds, but capable of being enlarged indefinitely to any
extent, to which more general efforts may hereafter advance them. they purchased at the
distance of a mile from Charlottesville, and for the sum of 1,518.75 Dollars 200. acres of
land, on which was an eligible site for the College; high, dry, open furnished with good
water, & nothing in it's vicinity which could threaten the health of the students. instead of
constructing a single & large edifice, which might have exhausted their funds and left
nothing or too little for other essential expences, they thought it better to erect a small and
separate building or pavilion, for each professor they should be able to employ, with an
apartment for his lectures, and others for his own accomodation, connecting these pavilions
by a range of Dormitories, capable each of lodging two students only, a provision equally
friendly to study as to morals & order. this plan offered the further advantages of greater
security against fire and infection; of extending the buildings in equal pace with the funds,
and of adding to them indefinitely hereafter, with the indefinite progress of contributions,
private or public: and it gave to the whole, in form and effect, the character of an
Academical village, workmen were immediately engaged to commence the first pavilion:
but the season being advanced, it will not be finished till the ensuing spring, when one or
two others will be begun, together with the contiguous ranges of dormitories, two or three
sets of 20 for each pavilion, & sufficient consequently for the accomodation of from 80 to
120 students. these we count on finishing in the course of the ensuing summer & autumn."
102. Cabell to TJ, 5 January, and Christopher Tompkins to Cabell, 4 January 1818, in
ViU:TJ. Tompkins lived in Richmond at the house he built in 1810 at 604 East Grace Street,
which was sold in the 1830s to city attorney William H. Macfarland. The Tompkins-
Macfarland House was an excellent example of many early 19th-century residences with its
entrance high above the ground and off to one side, a pair of roof dormers, a high gabled
roof and diaphragm wall, and a large hall running through its interior, flanked by two large
rooms on either side and a staircase in the back; the house was torn down in 1908 to make
room for a Y.M.C.A. building, itself since demolished (see Scott, Old Richmond
Neighborhoods, 146-49).
104. Brown, who worked with carpenter John M. Perry on these buildings, received $7,000
for brickwork between 7 April 1821 and 22 August 1821, $2,006.88 for Pavilion III and
$3,993.12 for the west lawn dormitories nos. 10 to 26, (ViU:PP, Ledger 1). Brown did not
begin laying bricks at Pavilion III until 18 June 1818, according to Perry, who wrote
Jefferson on that date: "The Brick layers got here yesterday and will begin to lay Some time
this evening. I Should be glad you Could make it Convenient to Come to the building to
day—the dormetories will be laid of to day—the Circle next the road is Staked of So that you
Can See how to fix on the level" (ViU:TJ).
|
Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |