University of Virginia Library

Report on Water

On the same day that Dinsmore offered his proposal for consideration, he and John Perry
(by now the two contractors with the most experience and knowledge at the university
construction site) submitted a report informing the Board of Visitors that they "haveing
leveled from the doric pavillion to the Springs on the mountain—find the two first to be 6.
feet above the water table—at the distance of 1,100 yards—one hundred yards further is
another Spring 26. feet above the water table of pavillion—and Still further—Say abut 60
yards there is another 75 feet above the sd. level—all of these are bold good Springs—the
furtherest Spring—1,260. yards from the pavillion—as near as we Could tell by Steping it
of[f]."[220] Although the distance was troublesome and the university would be plagued by
water supply problems for some years into the future, the fact that the springs were strong
was good news (see appendix T). As for John Perry, on the same day he submitted his own
proposal to make and lay 300,000 bricks at $14 per thousand and to execute the "appendant"
woodwork for a hotel and dormitories at 25 percent above the prices printed in Carey's
"philadelphia price book—that makeing the prices Virginia Currency"; he also offered to
furnish the lumber from his own sawmill.[221]