 | Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Thomas Jefferson's Instructions
for Bricklaying & Carpentry for the Rotunda
Not a single Samel brick to be used nor more than 2 bats in ten bricks the bond to be header
& Stretcher through the whole thickness and in every course of bricks to be solidly grouted
the cement sand & lime sand[868] the Wall to be ½ a brick thicker than in the drawings to be
added inside--the outer bricks uniform in colour and of the colour of Pavilions 2 and 4--the
brickwork to be contracted for to the top of the Corinthian cornice only at first--the
carpenters to have a right to examine the correctness of the work as it goes on and to notify
the Proctor in time for correction if anything be going on wrong
The plank used by the Carpenters to be completely seasoned--the ribs of the roof to be
completely semicircular of 4 thicknesses breaking joints--
the curved plate of 4 thicknesses also of 3 Inch thick breaking joints and iron bolted
The first undertaking to be only of the walls, roof Corinthian entablature, windows, doors,
floors & staircases the carpenters work at the Printed prices and Where not specified among
them to be settled before hand
AD (copy), in ASB's writing, ViU:PP, 1p [2044] with ASB docket "Copy Mr Jefferson
instructns for Brick Laying & Carpenters W."; ADft, in TJ's writing, ViU:TJ [2042]; printed,
O'Neal, Jefferson's Buildings at the University of Virginia: The Rotunda, 22. The date is
taken from the Thurlow-Berkeley Calendar and the document's placement in ViU:PP.
O'Neal labels these instructions as a "fragment of a copy" of the advertisement that Jefferson
sent to Brockenbrough on 11 October 1822 (see above, and ibid.). Brockenbrough's docket
indicates otherwise, however.
| Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |