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Chapter 9
The Building Campaign of 1824
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
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]
601. Board of Visitors, Annual Report to the Literary Fund, 6 October 1823, PPAmP:UVA
Minutes; see also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 477-79 (appendix M,
no. 5), and Malone, Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, 394.
603. Out-of-town wagons hauled only some trivial shipments to the university over the
course of the winter. See Brockenbrough & Harvie to Brockenbrough, 13 November, Loose
Receipt, 11 November, Benjamin Blackford to Brockenbrough, 22 December 1823, and
Robert Johnston to Brockenbrough, 16 January 1824, in ViU:PP.
605. See Brockenbrough's Estimate of Brickmaking Costs for the Rotunda, 1823, in ViU:PP.
Brockenbrough's Estimate of Bricks Required for the Rotunda, 1823, also in ViU:PP, shows
the specific sizes of various types of brickwork required for the Rotunda and the proctor's
calculations of the number of bricks required for each particular job of the foundational
work, the basement story, the principal story, the second story, the attic, and the terrace
walls, a total of 1,087,740 bricks. TJ's undated Instructions for Bricklaying and Carpentry
for the Rotunda, possibly made in October 1823, is also in ViU:PP; see also O'Neal,
Jefferson's Buildings at the University of Virginia: The Rotunda, 22.
608. For the delivery of lime to the university in 1824, see Henry Burkholder to
Brockenbrough, 19 April, and J. W. Stout to Brockenbrough, 21 April, and Lewis Wayland,
Loose Receipt, 4 August, Balance Sheet, 30 September 1824, and John Laurance, Loose
Receipt, 17 March 1826, in ViU:PP; for the shipping of building materials to the university,
see Thomas Brockenbrough to Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough, 25 March, D. W. & C.
Warwick to Brockenbrough, 25 March, 6 April, 7, 14, 21 June, Brockenbrough & Harvie,
Account, 26 March, John Van Lew & Co., 26 March, Thomas Nelson to Brockenbrough, 29
March, Brockenbrough & Harvie to Brockenbrough, 22, 29 April, 24 May, 10 June, John
Brockenbrough, Jr., to Brockenbrough, 3 May, TJ to Brockenbrough, 4 May, all in ViU:PP,
and Brockenbrough to TJ, 3 May 1824, in DLC:TJ. "As the trade of lime Apears at an end
for the present," John Laurance wrote to Brockenbrough on 19 January 1825, "perhaps We
may Again commence Upon A different Article, My Wife has from forty to fifty Wt. of
butter for Sale Which She Will engage fresh And good--it All having been Made Within A
Short time is Not Fancie Or ill tasted Also A quantity of Cheese that perhaps you Might
fancy . . . please let Me know Whether You Want either of her Articles of trade And the
price An[d] also the prospect for lime Selling this Spring" (ViU:PP). The loose receipts for
1825 in ViU:PP indicates that the delivery of lime was greatly reduced in the spring of 1825.
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Chapter 9
The Building Campaign of 1824
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |