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Chapter 3
The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 1
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
A Flood of Proposals
The publishing of the advertisement calling for workers at the University of Virginia, as
previously mentioned, was an incident of almost unparalleled importance in the institution's
young history. The promotion of the Central College to university status certainly lent the
establishment the legitimacy it needed to draw off workers from Philadelphia, the country's
premier city when it came to construction and the building trades. Furthermore, the fact that
workers willing to leave Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, or even Lynchburg, to come to
Jefferson's lonely hill-top site highlighted the fact that 1819 proved to be a particularly
depressed year in the nation's economic history. The craftsmen that inundated the mailboxes
of Jefferson and Nelson Barksdale with a welcome flood of business propositions in the last
half of March wasted little time in preparing their proposals although decisions about which
to accept were postponed until the Board of Visitors meeting on 29 March.
Stonecutter Levi Taylor of Baltimore had the honor of being the first to inquire about the
advertisement even though it had not mentioned his craft.[200] Next, four prominent
Philadelphians and architect Robert Mills wrote to recommend Richard Ware as "worthy to
be employed, and competent, as a carpenter, to assist in the contemplated Structure."[201]
Jefferson's son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., of Varina forwarded a letter from a
relative who recommended Daniel R. Calverly as a painter "surpassed by none in
Richmond" who had done a "great deal" of painting at Tuckahoe. Calverly trekked from
Richmond to Charlottesville to present his petition in person.[202] Christopher Branch wrote
from Manchester regarding the carpenter and joiner work but found himself at a loss how to
make an offer, not knowing "For Instance the Door & Window frames, Doors and Sash,
(plain & fancy,) If there should be fancy Sash wanting particularly Guilt."[203] Carpenter
Jacob H. Walker, writing from Smyrna, Delaware, proposed to "work ate teenty five per
cent" advance on "Mathea Caray house Carpents Book of prises," promising to send letters
of "Rcomendashen amedently" upon receiving "wourd what the prise of Bouard is By the
week."[204]
Patrick Gibson and Dr. John Brockenbrough, Jr., brother of soon-to-be proctor Arthur Spicer
Brockenbrough, each wrote from Virginia's capital to recommend David Hickey, the
"skillful workman" who recently finished the plaster work at Brockenbrough's mansion and
at Richmond's new courthouse.[205] Hickey waited until the summer to offer to "undertake
and Compleet the plastering and Stone worke of Mr. A. S. Brockenbrough new houses now
building and furnish all Meaterials Nesesary for Said worke at the following prices[:] three
Coat plastering 35 Cts. pr. yd. Opnings 25 Cts pr yd.[;] two Coat plastering 33 Cents pr. yd.
Opnings 16 Cts pr yd.[;] Lathing 17 Cents pr yd. Opnings 8 Cents p yd.[;] plain Cornice 45
Cents pr ft."[206]
John Parham, a "Master Carpenter" in Philadelphia for 17 years with 5 apprentices, wrote to
complain that Carey's 1812 Price Book "is not Known at all by the Measurers and
Carpenters of this City; and was never used as a rule for Measurement." Philadelphia
carpenters used two books, said Parham, who was a man of considerable property and a
competent draftsman, "One belonging to old, and the other to what is called the New
Carpenters Hall."[207] Chilion Ashmead saw the university's advertisement for workers in
the Baltimore paper and wrote to ask if the painting and glazing "Have all Reddy" been
contracted for and mentioning the "Presedent & Managers of the Balto Exchange Co and Mr
Latrobe A Gentlema[n] I Presume well none to you" as possible references.[208] Curtis
Carter and William B. Phillips, who together would land a contract for brickwork at the
university, sent in a proposal to make and lay 700,000 to 1,000,000 brick and complete it by
the first of November next:
| For all walls faised with oil stock Brick | $18/m |
| For all walls faised with sand Stock Brick | $13 do |
| all walls such as partitions brest of chimneys and Seller walls below the surface |
$12 do |
| The Bricks to be all harde the sand & lime to be the best the nabourhood affords and the worke to be exeucuted in a nice and workman like manner[209] |
|
Jefferson reserved 300,000 bricks for Carter & Phillips at the price of $11½ for "place-
brickwork" and $20 for "oil-stock work," which they accepted.[210]
201. James C. Fisher, Edward Burg, John Vaughan, and John Read to Barksdale, 17 March,
and Mills to TJ, 20 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
202. William Mann Randolph to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., 17 March, enclosed in
Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., to TJ, 23 March 1819, in ViU:TJ. His undated petition in
ViU:TJ shows that Calverly was competent to do mahogany, satin, oak maple, and marble
graining "or any other fancy work to be done as low as any other estimate," in addition
to glazing.
206. David Hickey, Proposal for Plastering, 10 July 1819, ViU:TJ. Hickey inadvertently
dated his letter 1818. By "plastering and Stone worke" Hickey meant the process of
applying to the walls and ceilings the coats of lime, sand, and horse hair composition that
hardens into a firm smooth surface.
207. Parham to Barksdale, 23 March 1819, ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at the
University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:27-28.
209. Curtis Carter and William B. Phillips to TJ, 24 March 1819, ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal,
"Workmen at the University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:28.
Curtis Carter built a residence in Richmond at the northeast corner of Main and First streets
in 1814, later owned by Claudius Crozet; on the other end of the block on Main Street,
facing Second Street Carter's brother William Carter built a "brick-and-frame house" in
1812 (Scott, Old Richmond Neighborhoods, 197). Before coming to the university Carter
also built in Richmond a pair of brick houses at the southwest intersection of Marshall and
Munford streets (ibid., 228, 230), and from 1816 to 1818 laid the bricks for the
Brockenbrough mansion, later known as the White House of the Confederacy (see Lay,
"Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:43). At
the time of his death Carter owned lots in the Libby Hill neighborhood of Richmond's
Churchill section, which his heirs sold in 1850 (ibid., 27). Carter, the principal brickmason
at Pavilion VI and Hotel A, also laid the paving bricks for the cellar of Pavilion IV; between
11 May 1820 and 4 February 1822 Carter was paid $4,951.81½ (ViU:PP, Ledger 1). Carter
joined John M. Perry to do the brickwork for dormitories nos. 5 to 13 on the east lawn and
nos. 1 to 9 on the east range. Carter and William B. Phillips laid bricks at Pavilions I and IX
and dormitories nos. 1 to 4 and 27 to 28 on the west lawn. Carter & Phillips also built the
garden walls at Pavilion III; between 1 August 1819 and 25 November 1820 Carter &
Phillips was paid $4,945.95 for brickwork (ViU:PP, Ledger 1). Phillips worked alone as the
principal brickmason for Pavilion X and Hotel C, dormitories nos. 22 to 26 on east lawn and
nos. 24 to 28 on the east range, and an additional six dormitories on the west range. Phillips,
who also worked on some of the walls at Pavilions II and VII and did some unknown minor
work at Hotel A, contracted for the brickwork of the Anatomical Hall, for which he received
$1,998.73, and for the Rotunda (along with Thorn & Chamberlain), receving $7,106.98;
between 1 March 1820 and 25 November 1822 Phillips was paid $7,798.95½ (ViU:PP,
Ledgers 1 and 2). Phillips and brickmason Dabney Cosby of Staunton apparently worked
together on the west range dormitories.
210. TJ to Carter & Phillips, 9 April 1819, ViU:TJ. The detailed 3-page agreement between
Carter & Phillips and the university's proctor of 15 June 1819 is in ViU:PP. It required "front
Walls" to be "faced with Oil stock bricks, the others with sand stocks, the interior mass to be
place bricks, all to be laid with good bond, to be clinkers, and not a single sammel brick to
be used in any part of the work under a penalty of five cents for every such brick, nor more
than two bats for nine whole bricks, the inner mortar to be one third lime and two thirds
good clean gritty sand, without any mixture of earth, the outer mortar to be half lime and
half such sand, and the whole to be grouted with a mortar of the inner quality." William B.
Phillips brought letters of recommendation from N. Turner, Christopher Tompkins, and B.
Tate, written at Richmond between 31 August 1818 and 15 March 1819 and located in
ViU:TJ, showing that he served a seven-year apprenticeship and then as a foreman for
Turner, who wrote that "I do not know a better workman in that line."
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Chapter 3
The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 1
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |