University of Virginia Library

Chapter 9
The Building Campaign of 1824

Report to the Literary Fund

The 1823 report to the Literary Fund approved by the Board of Visitors stated that the final
"finishings" for the buildings of accommodation had been completed in the year since its
last report, making the "whole of these buildings now in perfect readiness for putting the
institution into opperation." More importantly, perhaps, the visitors could also report that the
"larger building, for a Library and other purposes was commenced and has been carried on
with activity, insomuch that its Walls are now ready to receive there roof; but that being of
hemispherical form, & pressing outwardly in every direction, it has been thought not
advisable to place it on the walls, in there present green State; but rather to give them time
to settle and dry until the ensuing season . . . whether the interior work of the building will
be finished within the ensuing year is doubtful."[601] A year-end calculation by old sachem
estimated that $17,642.13 had been spent building the hull of the Rotunda, not counting an
additional $3,671.11½ in unpaid debts.[602] With another winter in sight and the brickwork
still green, however, little else could be expected to be accomplished in building the
Rotunda before the spring of 1824.[603] The proctor, in fact, wanted to cut back on the
15-member slave labor force hired by the university because it had already made 8 to
900,000 bricks for the building in addition to performing other rough labor.[604]
(Brockenbrough previously had estimated that 1 molder with the help of 2 men and 2 boys
could make 60,000 bricks per month, and hence the 15 hands could make 180,000 per
month.)[605] Jefferson thought that the "great deal of work to be done yet on the grounds"
would require just as many hands for the next as the current year, however, and the force
remained the same size.[606]

Actually, the claim by the visitors in the report to the Literary Fund that the buildings of
accommodation were finished was overstated somewhat. As the site geared up for the spring
resumption of construction work, the proctor indicated that gutters and drainpipes as well as
"some little painting" and "some paving & stone walls to back yards" still remained to be
completed. Work on the smokehouses planned for each of the pavilions and hotels, as well
as the Venetian shutters for all the buildings and the "wire lattice work" for the cellar
windows, had not started yet. The benches and desks for the lecture rooms also had to be
made, and Brockenbrough estimated the cost for work remaining to be done on the
buildings, not counting the Venetian blinds and lattice work, to be at least $3,000.[607] In the
spring of 1824, wagons from Augusta County began to find their way across the Blue Ridge
Mountains, bringing loads of lime for the brickmakers, and boats and wagons containing
nails, screws, glass, lead, sandpaper, rope, copper, tin, and iron traveled westward from
Richmond so that the contractors could complete the unfinished work on the four rows of
buildings and their dependencies as well as continue their work on the Rotunda.[608]

Rotunda Gallery

In late March Brockenbrough informed Jefferson that Dinsmore & Neilson, without
consulting himself or even bothering with a contract for the job, had purchased scantling
and framed the "upper gallery floor" of the library and were set to raise it the next day.
Before the work proceeded any further the proctor wanted Jefferson to consider some
alterations of the interior design of the Rotunda that had struck his mind on "seeing the hight
of the gallery" and which he thought would be an improvement.

Jefferson "maturely" considered the change before rejecting it a day later as offering "no
advantage" over the original plan. Besides the 4,000 square feet area intended for "presses
below the entablature of the columns," Jefferson explained to the proctor, "we can have
another tier of presses above the entablature, of one half more of the space. again instead of
the noble perystyle of the original bearing a proper proportion to the height of vault above, it
proposes a diminutive one of 10. f. height with a vault of 40. f. above. the original peristyle
by it's height & projection from the wall has the advantage of hiding a portion of the vault of
which too much would otherwise be seen. the panneled plaistering makes no difficultie
because it will be divided by cross styles into compartments, and thus adapted to the view."
"Messrs. Nelson & Dinsmore," Jefferson added, "should be warned that if they do any thing
more than what was proposed to be first done, there will be no funds to pay for it."[610]

Gymnasium

One alteration, or evolution, of the original design did take place, however, apparently back
in the second half of 1823 when Jefferson experienced his severe illness. As Martha
Jefferson Randolph described it to her daughter Virginia's husband Nicholas P. W. Trist in an
early April letter, the plan for the Rotunda now included a "Gymnasium under cover, under
which the young men may exercise in bad weather protected equally from the sun & the rain
and the manual exercise will be a regular branch of their education. this last improvement,
the Gymnasium, occurred to my Father during a fever that confined him upon the sopha. he
immediately sent for Mr Brockenbrough and gave him every direction onto the plan when
he was actually so weak that he could not sit up to draw it him self. if you recollect the place
you may remember that the North end of the lawn is closed by a large rotunda with 2 wide
terrace, extending on each side to the ranges of buildings, the Pavillions & dormitories.
under these terrace, arched on both sides and containing a space of 80 feet in length & 30
wide is the gymnasium." Housejoiner and architect John Neilson actually drew the north
elevation for the structure, which was incorporated in the construction during the spring.[611]

A Quorum Meets

When the 1824 spring meeting of the Board of Visitors began on Monday 5 April there was
nothing for the quorum of Jefferson, Madison, Cocke, and Johnson to act upon in regard to
the buildings so the board proceeded to take "such preparatory measures" as could be taken
in regard to bringing the university into "opperation with as little delay as practicable," by
discussing the "accounts and estimates now rendered by the Bursar and the Proctor," and by
appointing Virginia attorney Francis Walker Gilmer agent for a mission to procure
professors from Europe.[612] Those accounts might have included Brockenbrough's estimate
of the cost of the Rotunda derived from the contracts already entered into towards its
completion. Those figures included $10,761.72 for brickwork materials and labor, $10,165
for the Carrara marble bases and capitals and their transportation from Leghorn to America,
$1,455 for stone window and door sills, back steps, and terraces, $6,165 for "Materials
principally Lumber & iron," $2,000 for "Tin & Copper for the roof of Dome & Portico," and
$500 for "Glass & Glazing including the sky light." The total came to $31,046.72, and
Brockenbrough estimated that another $10,000 could cover the "Nails, hard ware, painting
& Workmans bills."[613] Considering the cost incurred so far in erecting the hull of the
Rotunda and the proctor's vague projections for additional costs, it is hard to conceive that
anyone on the board still believed that the interior of the building could be finished without
exceeding Jefferson's original 1822 estimate for the building of less than $50,000. If any of
the visitors complained it failed to get lodged into the record, however. On 6 April the board
was prevented from regathering by a "constant and heavy rain" but on the 7th the visitors,
now joined by Cabell, reconvened to discuss the curricula for the various schools and the
purchasing of "Such Books and Apparatus as may be deemed most useful for the
commencement of the Several Schools in the University."[614]

The board planned to open the university to students on 1 February 1825, "taking the
intermediate time to procure professors" from Europe, Jefferson informed Nicholas P. W.
Trist shortly after the visitors' meeting, and to put the Rotunda, "the only unfinished
building," into a state for use. (Jefferson also told Trist that "Charlottesville is building
fast.")[615] This long-awaited decision was made possible by another long-anticipated piece
of good luck that finally had fallen the university's way during the preceding winter. Senator
Cabell reluctantly turned over his guardianship of the university's political affairs in the
General Assembly to General Breckinridge in late November, expecting to remain away
from Richmond until near the end of the legislative session,[616] but unexpectedly (and
fortunately) he was able to return "hastily over stormy rivers, and frozen roads, to re-join the
band of steadfast patriots engaged in the holy cause of the University" at his old apartment
in Richmond's Eagle Hotel less than two weeks later. When he took his seat in the Virginia
senate on 3 December Cabell was made aware immediately that Governor James Pleasants,
Jr., "a man of great prudence and discretion," was promoting the claims of the university in
the legislature in "his happiest manner," and that the popular sentiment was "decidedly" in
favor of removing the university's entire debt.[617] Cabell worked tirelessly during the
session to get bills passed in the General Assembly remitting the $180,000 debts incurred in
the construction of the buildings of the university and granting a gift of $50,000 for the
purchase of books and other "apparatus." By late January 1824 he had been confined to his
room for two weeks, and his bed for a week, by an "excruciating rheumatic affection of my
head, contracted by sleeping near a damp wall."[618] The first victory came through before
the month ended, however, when the senate unanimously passed a bill sent up by the House
of Delegates for the remission of the university's debts,[619] and the bonus came on the last
day of the legislative session in March.[620] In fact, Cabell's absence from the Board of
Visitors' meeting until the third day was because of his attendance in Washington to lobby
President Monroe and the "general government" of the United States to settle the interest on
the debt it had previously discharged to the state of Virginia for the latter's "liberal spirit
towards the government of the Union" during the War of 1812, and from which the money
to pay for the remission of the university's debts must come.[621]

Covering the Rotunda

If the weather permitted the members of the Board of Visitors to inspect the Rotunda at their
April meeting they probably were quite astonished to see that Dinsmore & Neilson had
framed the building's upper gallery floor and was preparing to raise its roof so early in the
season.[622] Brockenbrough had written to D. W. & C. Warwick on 19 March trying to find
out how cheaply the firm could provide copper or zinc plate for covering the dome and
portico but before he could receive a reply he presented the board with the heretofore
mentioned estimate of $2,000.[623] The proctor also solicited his brother Dr. John
Brockenbrough, Jr., to make inquiries about the price of the metals and to recruit someone in
Richmond to lay the sheeting. John Brockenbrough induced Warwick to sell copper to the
university for 26 cents per pound instead of the going rate of 35 cents, "provided the
quantity be considerable," and arranged for Frenchman Anthony Bargamin, who asked 10
cents the pound to put it on, to travel to the site to negotiate a contract with the proctor. "You
cannot have a better covering than he will make you in this way," Brockenbrough told his
brother. And instead of gutters, he added, "it will be better, I think, to extend the copper over
the parapet walls. Zinc might be somewhat cheaper, provided it could be procured
sufficiently thin, but we Know nothing of it's durability."[624]

Bargamin, who with his brother George was prominent in the capitol's business life, had
covered the dome of Richmond's city hall.[625] He "does not converse very intelligibly in
english," the proctor informed Jefferson when writing to notify him of Bargamin's
impending arrival by stage at Charlottesville, "if convenient I Should be glad if you will
come up on Thursday morning to see him on the subject. the job requires a man well skilled
in the working of metal."[626] Jefferson, it turned out, was once again too ill to travel to the
university. He replied to Brockenbrough that "My last ride to the University and return
without getting off of my horse, with the heat of the day so overcome me with fatigue that I
could scarcely reach home, and still leaves me so sore and languid that I have not been on
my horse since, nor shall I be able yet for some days. if therefore any consultation is
necessary with me I must ask the favor of yourself and mr Berjamin to take a ride here at
your convenience."[627] The Frenchman briefly visited the site a couple of weeks before the
actual construction began on the vault's large wooden ribbed frame, the plan of which was
taken, as Monticello's dome had been, from Philibert Delorme's Nouvelles Inventions pour
bien bastir et a petits Fraiz (1576). "I once owned the book," Jefferson recalled in the third
week of May when writing to General Joseph G. Swift to borrow a copy of the volume, "and
understood the principles of his invention, but my recollection is not particular enough in
every thing, our workmen are strangers to it, and I fear we may go wrong. if we could be
accommodated with this single volume it would be of singular service to us."[628] Over the
next few weeks, while the carpenters set up the wooden frame, the tin plate and copper
sheathing necessary to cover the arch began to come to Bargamin's hand at Richmond from
New York City, and then was forwarded on to the university.[629] Bargamin tried to leave
the Virginia capitol in mid-June but was delayed, so on 21 June he sent a workman to the
university to "proceed to the preparative Untile my Arival."[630] Bargamin reached the site
before the beginning of July, however, and no doubt the changes in the Rotunda's
appearance that had taken place by capping the structure during the six-weeks interval
greatly stirred his excitement for the task that lay before him, for by the end of the summer
he had completely finished covering the dome. The roof proved "perfectly tight" when
tested by the September rains but began leaking after workmen perforated the tin with
screws when fastening the supports to the steps that were raised around the dome's base.[631]

Brickwork at the Rotunda

Meanwhile, other building projects besides roof construction were carried into effect at the
Rotunda. In early May Brockenbrough informed Jefferson that the "Portico of the Rotunda
& Platform of the back Steps" would take at least 1,350 square feet of marble flagging,
1,150 for the portico, 160 for the platform, and 40 for breakage,[632] and Jefferson placed an
order for 1,400 marble squares two weeks later from Thomas Appleton in Leghorn.
Jefferson informed Appleton that he was anxious to receive the marble bases and capitals
that he had ordered the previous fall so that the workmen could "get up our columns this
season . . . that the columns may have time to settle before their Capitels are put on
them."[633] Brockenbrough then sought from Dinsmore & Neilson an estimate of the
amount of lead needed for (in Dinsmore's words) the "leaves of the Modellions &c 300 ft
superficial @ 5 lbs to the foot," which the proctor then ordered, along with two casks of
nails and two coils of rope, from Brockenbrough & Harvie in Richmond.[634] In May the
proctor also tried to arrange the brickmaking for the upcoming two building seasons. He
requested John Hartwell Cocke to lend his slave brickmaker, Charles, to the university for
three months in order to make 2 or 300,000 bricks for the "next year [1825] if they should
be wanting for any buildings about the University."[635] A few days later, however, Cocke
sent the proctor word that "my engagements with Charles will not admit of my sparing him
this Season."[636] Brockenbrough then contracted with John M. Perry to make about
300,000 "hard well shaped bricks such a portion of which shall be Column bricks as many
as may be required for the Rotunda shaped agreeable to a mould to be furnished and such a
portion of paving bricks as may be wanting for the Rotunda & Gymnasia, and which shall
be smoth well shaped bricks." Perry also agreed to "take the wood purchased of Jesse Lewis
& what ever other wood the proctor may have on hand for the burning of Bricks at One
Dollar per cord on the ground where cut or two Dollars delivered at the kiln near the
University; the said Perry is to pay at the rate of [blank] cents per thousand for the clay that
was dug by the labourers of the University." Brockenbrough, acting for the University,
promised to pay Perry $4.50 per thousand bricks and to let Perry have "the use of the yard,
shelters, clamps &c attached to the Brick yard for the making of the Said bricks but no other
bricks are to be made or carried from said yard or grounds for any other purposed. the Said
Shelters, yards, clamps &c to be returned in good order."[637]

Attic Cisterns

The bricklayers' work on the Rotunda progressed so rapidly during the spring of 1824 that
by early June the proctor could inform Jefferson that the firm of Thorn & Chamberlain was
about to begin laying the bricks of the building's "attic." Brockenbrough suggested that
reservoirs "nearly the depth of the Attic and as large in diameter as the space will admit of"
be placed in the two north corners of the attic so that in case of fire water could be thrown
by "pipes or hose" to any part of the building beneath the dome. Water for those reservoirs
could be collected at a reservoir on the university-owned mountain where Jefferson hoped to
build an observatory and piped from there to the Rotunda and other principle buildings. The
mountain reservoir, Brockenbrough contemplated, should be built of brick or rock and
plastered with Roman cement, in size about 16 feet in diameter and perhaps the same depth,
and situated about 50 or 60 feet above the level of the ground at the buildings so that the
weight of the water could "propell itself with as much power as an engine would supply it."
The proctor, well aware that all buildings of his era were particularly vulnerable to fire,
asserted that a gravity-fed water supply system was both cheaper and more efficient than
buying a fire engine.[638] The system he proposed to replace "the present defective
arrangement for the supply of that article [water]" to the university offered other benefits as
well: the university's existing cisterns could be filled occasionally from the pipes and water
might be taken from some stop cocks for "culinary purposes."

The proctor's suggestion to build reservoirs in the attic of the Rotunda was not adopted but
Brockenbrough rightly judged that the mountain to the west could help to solve the problem
of the university's inadequate water supply. Previous efforts to provide water had been
confined to the local area of the university and seemed meager in comparison to the more
ambitious plan which Brockenbrough now proposed. "at present besides the two cisterns we
have one pump in operation, two wells walled up ready for pump, one other well not
entirely finished on west street, I propose puting another between Pavilions 4 & 6—to the
south we have a fine Spring about two hundred yards from the buildings." Before going to
any "great expence" in pursuing his scheme, however, Brockenbrough recommended that
the university should purchase "the right of using the water from the Mountain of Capt
[John] Perry or a Slipe of land including the spring the latter would be preferable as thereby
we should connect the two tracts of Land and give us a road to the Mountain." The proctor
concluded by giving Jefferson his opinion that the university should execute his plan before
the coming winter, as the "ensurance on the buildings would amount to a much greater sum
and one or the other would be prudent."[639] Jefferson agreed that consolidating the
university's two separate tracts of land by gaining the 132-acre interjacent tract with the
"very bold spring" would be in the university's long-term interest but withheld pressing
Perry about the matter lest the carpenter ask an unreasonable price. Perry felt obliged to sell
the land in the spring of 1825 and the university purchased it for $50 an acre.[640]

Piper Tract

During the summer and fall of 1824 Perry also was involved in the university's negotiation
and purchase (for about $450) of a four-acre tract of land lying immediately to the north of
the Rotunda on the Three Notch'd Road. The tiny tract was clipped off a larger tract owned
by Daniel A. Piper, who had installed the gutters and drain pipes at Pavilions I, IV, VI, VII,
and repaired the pipes at Pavilion III, and his wife Mary A. Frances, who had sold an
adjacent tract to the university the preceding April.[641] The Three Notch'd Road, which ran
from Charlottesville to Rockfish Gap and which served as the outer boundary for the April
purchase, passed by the university in a more or less northwest to southeast direction. The
new agreement with the Pipers permitted Jefferson to re-establish the bed of the public road
along the new outlying boundary line, causing it to pass parallel to the northern side of the
university (see appendix G).[642]

The Proctor is Busy

While the executive committee contemplated land deals and waterworks and the contractors
vaulted the main building and made bricks for columns, the proctor supervised the final
thrusts (as lay within his power) aimed at bringing to completion the initial phases of
construction at the university. In mid-July 1824 stonemason John Gorman began laying the
foundation stones for the "back steps" (and their retaining walls) on the north front of the
Rotunda after Brockenbrough's laborers excavated and otherwise prepared the earth on that
steep slope. Brockenbrough sent Jefferson alternate plans for either concealing the "ruff
work" on the sides of the steps or "facing and coping" them with stone but the plans
apparently have not survived.[643] Before the summer was over James and Samuel
Campbell, stonemasons employed by Gorman at the university, finished the stonework on
the "walls" of the eastern range hotels.[644] Little stonework was left at the university after
the completion of those jobs except setting the marble bases and capitals when they arrived
from Italy in 1825 and 1826.

In early August Brockenbrough ordered sash pulleys and keys for iron rim locks from
Robert Johnston & Son in Richmond.[645] The firm could not locate the keys but Peter
Johnston found the pulleys when visiting New York on business in September, and wagoner
Thomas Draffin delivered them (127 pounds in a barrel) to the university on 10
November.[646] Also in August, Brockenbrough sent word to Andrew Smith, the Boston
Glass Manufactory's agent in Richmond, that the university was prepared to purchase a large
quantity of its best Boston crown glass for the window lights of the Rotunda.[647] Wagoner
Jacob Mohler delivered the first shipment to the university in early December, along with
six kegs of paint and "one half barrel whiting weighing 975 lbs. total."[648] The amount of
glass shipped to the university for the Rotunda eventually exceeded 1,000 sheets (packed in
more than 40 cases), and it was late fall 1825 before the New England firm placed its final
shipment on board a vessel to embark for the southward.[649]

With the end of the 1824 building season rapidly approaching, and the construction work
advancing steadily, the proctor busied himself with preparations for the Board of Visitors'
1824 fall meeting. A statement of the university's finances that he made for the visitors on
the eve of their meeting shows that Brockenbrough contemplated the execution of a handful
of minor tasks while the work on the Rotunda was proceeding. He wanted to finish painting
Pavilion X and the hotels on the western range and estimated the cost of that work at $300.
The small "Slipe of Land opposite the Rotunda" that the university was negotiating for with
Daniel and Mary Piper could be enclosed with a brick wall, he thought, for about $450. He
considered $300 sufficient "to set up 8 lecture rooms with benches desk &c," and he
calculated that $250 could take care of the "Stone walls on east Street & other jobs fixing
pumps &c."[650] Brockenbrough also prepared a balance sheet of the university's
expenditures to show the visitors what the cost of building the university had mounted to so
far. The grand total of $305,664.83 can be broken down generally as follows: $109,637.33
for pavilions, $77,430.56 for dormitories, $32,006.85 for hotels, $25,224.90 for the Rotunda
—altogether $244,299.64—plus $61,365.19 for an assortment of other expenses, including
real estate ($8,991.55), salaries for the proctor, bursar, clerks, and professors ($3,497.23),
labor ($2,936.63), privies ($2,818.63), water works ($1,180.49), and smokehouses
($499.05).[651]

Visitors Draft Regulations

The Board of Visitors' meeting on 4 October was attended by six of its seven members
—Jefferson, Madison, Cabell, Cocke, Breckenridge, and Loyal—Johnson excusing himself
on the grounds that he was "quite unable to make the ride" on such an "inconvenient
journey."[652] The board's first order of business that Monday was to ratify the university's
agreements to purchase from the Pipers the two small tracts of land to the Rotunda's
north.[653] After passing other resolutions relative to the institution's finances, the visitors set
to work formulating the "regulations necessary to constituting governing and conducting the
institution," a process the board began at its previous spring meeting. The regulations
drafted by the board included decrees for managing the usage of the finished buildings at the
university. "The room provided for a School room in every Pavilion shall be used for the
School of its occupant professor," the board resolved, "and shall be furnished by the
University with necessary benches & tables." And furthermore:

Even the last of these regulations carries Jefferson's strong imprint. Isaac Jefferson, a
Monticello slave who traveled to Philadelphia with his master in 1790 when Jefferson
became George Washington's secretary of state, said of Jefferson: "My Old Master was neat
a hand as ever you see to make keys and locks and small chains, iron and brass. He kept all
kind of blacksmith and carpenter tools in a great case with shelves to it in his library, an
upstairs room."[655] Isaac's observation concerning Jefferson's tools is confirmed in part by
James Dinsmore's "Memdm of Carpenters tools belonging to Mr. Jefferson" that the
housejoiner made when leaving Jefferson's employment at Monticello in 1809 (see appendix
C).[656]

Lafayette Entertained

The board's work required the visitors to reconvene for another session on the following
day. After resolving to authorize the proctor to lease the hotels after mid-November, the
board began drafting its annual report to the Literary Fund.[657] The report, which mostly
centered around finances, curricula, and professors, stated that in the course of the present
season the Rotunda "has received its roof, and will be put into a condition for preservation
and use, altho its interior cannot be compleated."[658] The incomplete state of the Rotunda's
interior did not prohibit Jefferson and other area residents from planning to entertain the
Marquis de Lafayette at a public dinner later that month, however,[659] and Jefferson later
claimed that upon reflection the building, "in the unfinished state in which it then was, was
as open and uninclosed, and as insusceptible of injury, as the field in which it stood."[660]
One visitor to the university at this time, however, nineteen-year-old Henry Marshall, who
was walking from Philadelphia to his home in South Carolina and who later served in the
first Confederate Congress, apparently thought otherwise. Marshall was so taken with what
he saw that he described the Rotunda as "decidedly the most elegantly proportioned building
I ever saw. It is the only public building I have seen in this country that is high enough. the
professors houses are elegant specimens of architecture. On the whole I think they are the
most tastiful & elegant buildings in the U.S. I had no idea of their extend & splendor."[661]

Construction at the university clearly was nearing completion even as workers continued
painting and installing window panes throughout the month of November.[662] True, on the
first day of winter the "whole scaffolding" surrounding the Rotunda still could be seen left
standing by the workmen as they awaited William J. Coffee's shipment of small frieze
ornaments.[663] (Coffee shipped the ornaments to the university in late December.)[664] The
agreeably mild fall weather allowed workers "to accomplish the repairs and improvements
on, and about the Buildings; such as plastering leveling the yards and Gardens conducting or
draining of the water &c; which labour cannot be done so well after winter."[665] Chiles
Brand's labor account with the university shows that during December 1824 he earned $4.50
for "White washing 9 rooms at night @ 50¢" in addition to the $21.25 he was paid for 17
days of labor work that month.[666] Wagoner William Crenshaw in mid-January 1825
delivered to the university 19 boxes of window glass costing $338.56 for the Rotunda that
was sent from the Boston Glass Manufactory's new Richmond agent, Thomas May.[667] The
winter set in, however, before A. Zigler "the pump man" could finish installing the water
pipes, delaying the completion of his work until the following March.[668]