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Chapter 2
The Building Campaign of 1818
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
The Commission's Report
The Rockfish Gap Commission's final report, written by Jefferson and signed by the
twenty-one commissioners present, was, says Jefferson scholar Noble Cunningham, "the
mature product of years of contemplation on the subject of education in a republic."
Although the report contains Jefferson's comprehensive plan for instruction and governance
at the University of Virginia, only one paragraph of this "remarkable document" is relevant
to the matter at hand,[127] "that of proposing a plan for its buildings." The commission was
of opinion that the plan
each side of a lawn of a proper breadth, & of indefinite extent, in one direction,
at least, in each of which should be a lecturing room with from two to four
apartments for the accommodation of a professor and his family: that these
pavilions should be united by a range of Dormitories, sufficient each for the
accommodation of two students only, this provision being deemed
advantageous to morals, to order, & to uninterrupted study; and that a passage
of some kind under cover from the weather should give a communication along
the whole range. It is supposed that such pavilions on average of the larger and
smaller will cost each about $5,000, each, dormitory about $350 each, and
Hotels of a single room for a Refectory, & two rooms for the tenant necessary
for dieting the students will cost about $3,500 each. . . . The advantages of this
plan are, greater security against fire & infection; tranquillity and comfort to the
Professors, and their families thus insulated; retirement to the students, and the
admission of enlargement to any degree to which the institution may extend in
future times. It is supposed probable that a building of somewhat more size in
the middle of the grounds may be called for in time, in which may be rooms for
religious worship under such impartial regulations as the visitors shall
prescribe, for public examinations, for a Library, for the schools of music,
drawing, and other associated purposes.[128]
The Rockfish Gap Commission's recommendation that the Central College adequately fit the
description of "some central and healthy part of the commonwealth" sufficient to situate a
state university assured the college's future selection by the legislature when it came time to
actually charter the University of Virginia. The inclusion in its report of the above general
scheme of building guaranteed that Jefferson's architectural wonder eventually would
receive state financial assistance (and hence stability), and the official sanction of the plan
by the commission set the precedent that would become important later when Senator
Cabell waged the necessary political battles in Richmond.
128. Rockfish Gap Commission Report, 4 August 1818, in Knight, A Documentary History
of Education in the South Before 1860, 163-64; see also "Extract from the Report of the
Commission for the University of Virginia, assembled at Rockfish Gap, in the County of
Augusta, August 1, 1818," in Cabell, Letter and Accompanying Documents Relative to
Literary Institutions of the State: Addressed to His Constituents (Richmond, 1825), in
ViU:JCC.
|
Chapter 2
The Building Campaign of 1818
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |