 |
Chapter 2
The Building Campaign of 1818
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Search for More Bricklayers
As the year neared its end and the winter begin to set in, only the perennial matter of
contracting with brickmakers was left to be taken care of at the college. On 14 December
David Meade Randolph, Jr., of Presqui'ile plantation wrote to recommend an Englishman
"named Warrener, a bricklayer & plasterer by trade," who was qualified to "execute the
ornamental branches of his trade," and who was looking for employment in his line of work
and willing to "work one month on trial on any terms you please."[144] Jefferson was
unwilling to deliver such a large undertaking to the Englishman, who though thoroughly
skilled obviously lacked the necessary capital and other means to carry on the scale of work
required at the college. He replied to Randolph a week later that should the legislature adopt
the Central College for the site of the university, "advertisements will be immediately put
into the public papers for undertakers of the brickwork Carpentry & housejoinery, from
which every one will learn in that way & to whom they are to apply for employment. there
will be abundant work for them."[145]
Planning the manufacture and laying of hundreds of thousands of bricks for the coming year
was more important than the application of one unemployed (even if highly skilled)
bricklayer and plasterer. Apparently the college was experiencing some difficulty in
maintaining quality control over the brickwork, for a chimney built by Hugh Chisholm for
James Dinsmore on Pavilion II had to be taken down and rebuilt, according to a
measurement Dinsmore made for Central College Proctor Nelson Barksdale on 20
December. The new chimney for the Doric pavilion, composed of 4,878 bricks, cost a total
of $162.09—$57.11 for 3,807 common bricks, $29.98 for 1,071 oil stock bricks, and $75 for
labor.[146] On Christmas day Jefferson received a letter from Dabney Cosby, a successful
Staunton bricklayer who had followed his calling upwards of twenty years, who offered to
"Put up from 3 to 400,000 this Year And from 6 to 700,000 next Year and as long afterwards
as required . . . in the event I undertake the Clay May be exposed as Much as Possible to the
frost this Winter."[147] Cosby, among others, did land a contract after the state sanctioned the
Central College for its new state university, and in the future chimneys at the site did not
need to be taken down and rebuilt.[148]
More immediate, however, was Jefferson's problem of determining the price to be paid for
the brickwork already completed by Matthew Brown, to be settled according to the price for
similar work in Lynchburg and its neighborhood. As previously noted, Brown and John
Perry had joined forces back in the fall and Brown now left his more astute partner to settle
the payment.[149] Since Jefferson's ill health prevented him from making a winter
pilgrimage to his Bedford estate, he accordingly wrote Radford & Yancey of Lynchburg on
the last day of the year to solicit the firm's help, suggesting that he "always expected" to pay
Brown $13 the thousand—$8 for the bricks and $5 for the labor—and noting that the
"advances of money to him have been ready and liberal, and his full paiment will not be
delayed beyond April or May."[150] No record reply from Radford & Yancey has been
located.
144. Randolph to TJ, 14 December 1818, DLC:TJ. David Meade Randolph, Jr., was married
to Mary (Molly) Mann of Tuckahoe, the sister of Jefferson's son-in-law, Thomas Mann
Randolph, Jr. Jefferson fired Randolph, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and a staunch
Federalist, from his position as U.S. Marshal for Virginia four days after his inauguration as
president in 1801, and Randolph subsequently became involved in the James Calander
affair. Bankruptcy soon followed, and in 1808 Molly Randolph opened a successful
boarding house on Cary Street in Richmond. In 1824 Molly Randolph published the first
edition of her popular cookbook, The Virginia Housewife. See Daniels, Randolphs of
Virginia, 130, 149, 193, 196-202, 228, 247-48.
146. James Dinsmore, Chimney Brick Measure, 20 December 1818, ViU:PP. In January
1819 Alexander Garrett wrot Jefferson to inform him that Dinsmore had "heard with regret,
that you were dissatisfied with the contract made with, and beg'd me to assure you, that he
would take no advantage of any mistake you may have made in that contract; that he will be
entirely satisfied to work by the printed prices of the book now sent you, not even insisting
on the correction of those by Latrobe" (Garrett to TJ, 26 January 1819, ViU:TJ).
147. Cosby to TJ, 18 December 1818, ViU:TJ. Cosby came to Charlottesville with excellent
recommendations from some of the leading citizens of Staunton: Erasmus Stribling called
Cosby "one of our most respectable Citizens"; John Waugh expressed confidence in his
honor and integrity; Rockbridge County House of Delegates representative John Bowyer
recommended him in "high terms"; John Brown said he was a good workman and "sober,
attentive, and industrious"; and Judge Archibald Stuart recommended Cosby as "a man of
Industry, Energy & I believe Capacity & may be relyed on to execute whatever he
undertakes . . . for years past been more extensively employed in his line than any man in
This County" (Stribling to TJ, 6 January, John Waugh to TJ, 7 January, Samuel Carr to TJ, 1
February, John Brown to TJ, 8 February, Archibald Stuart to TJ, 9 March 1819, all in
ViU:TJ).
148. Dabney Cosby (1779-1862) was born in Louisa County but moved to Staunton,
Virginia, and by 1820 had married Frances Davenport Tapp; of their fourteen children two
became successful architects. Cosby moved to Buckingham County in 1824 and to Prince
Edward County in 1830, where he remained until 1839 when he moved to Raleigh, North
Carolina, and his work includes Randolph-Macon College (1830), Venable Hall at
Hampden-Sydney College (1830), Tabb Street Presbyterian Church in Petersburg (1844),
the Virginia courthouses of Buckingham, Goochland, Sussex, Lunenburg, and Halifax
counties, and some thirty buildings in the Raleigh area. See Lay, "Charlottesville's
Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:50-51. After working
alone on the brickwork at Hotels D and E and eight west range dormitories, Cosby appears
to have cooperated with William B. Phillips in the brickwork for several of the west range
dormitories (ViU:PP, Ledger 1). Part of the period that Cosby worked at the university is
covered in his daybook, located in ViHi and discussed in Cote, "The Architectural Workmen
of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia," 91-100. Cosby's obituary notice, published in the Raleigh
Semi-Weekly Standard on 12 July 1862, says that Cosby "often spoke of his conversations
with that illustrious man [Jefferson], and the information he received from him in
architecture and the art of making brick."
|
Chapter 2
The Building Campaign of 1818
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |