 |
Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
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).
|
Chapter 1
Genesis of the Academical Village, 1814-1817
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |