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

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]

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]

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).

University of Virginia Library

Squares Laid Off