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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 |  |
Irish Stonecutter
Fortunately, another stonecutter arrived on the scene who did not have to travel from Italy or
Philadelphia or have to be paid the high Washington prices. Irishman John Gorman had
worked in a Lynchburg area quarry for about eighteen months before Jefferson discovered
him and hired him to polish and lay some hearthstones at Poplar Forest.[256] Gorman
assured Jefferson that the deep blue Lynchburg marble could not bear the chisel for delicate
work but recommended he try quarries in Pennsylvania.[257] As for Gorman, Jefferson
wrote, "he is himself of the first class of stone cutters for every thing which is not sculpture
being able to prepare an Ionic capitel all but the last finishing." Impressed with Gorman's
practical knowledge of how long it took to carve different types of bases and capitals,
Jefferson calculated that it would take the two Italian sculptors three years to carve the
Corinthian and Ionic capitals and another three stonecutters two more years to carve the
university's tuscan bases and capitals. The Raggis, Jefferson concluded, "should be
employed therefore in nothing else, and all the bases should be done by other hands."[258]
All in all, Jefferson thought, Gorman was "well informed, industrious very skilful, sober &
good humored, and [I] think he will be a valuable acquisition."[259] Gorman more than met
Jefferson's expectations by executing stonework at the gymnasia and "all the stone caps,
bases, sills, wall copings, and newel blocks for the Rotunda, all of the ten Pavilions, and
Hotels A, C, D, E, and F," and some of the dormitories, in addition to setting stove stones,
gate blocks, and steps.[260]
Gorman was not scheduled to move to the university until September, however; hence, over
the course of the spring and summer 1819, little progress was made on the marble work,[261]
and the entire fall was taken up (as regards stonework) with trying to find an alternate source
of good quality stone. As it turned out, Consul Thomas Appleton had the best idea in
September when he offered to supply marble from Italy, but by the time the letter reached
Monticello in December, Jefferson still did not recognize the wisdom of his offer.[262] In
October Brockenbrough sent one of the Raggis to Bremo to examine John Hartwell Cocke's
free stone and also mentioned the possibility of buying "James river free stone from
Grayhams Quarry" for $10 the ton. The exasperated proctor even volunteered that with
respect to the Corinthian capitals, if permitted to do as he wanted, "I would get some good
yellow poplar & have them carved—they would last a long time covered as they would be
by the projecting Cornice, the necking I would have of stone to seperate the wood from the
stucco—the top of the Capitol could be covered with copper by the way of Keeping the
water out of it—This I have never ventured to hint to Mr Jefferson knowing he would be
opposed to it."[263] Brockenbrough also wrote to Thomas B. Conway in Richmond in search
of stone, and that industrious man offered to ship blocks up to "verry large they will measure
73 feet each Quarry measure" for $12½ per ton.[264]
256. See Christopher Anthony to Brockenbrough, 27 July 1819, in ViU:PP. Christopher
Anthony (d. 1835), a prominent Lynchburg Quaker, suffered a financial reverse in the Panic
of 1819 but recovered during the 1820s. His daughter, Margaret Couch Anthony Cabell (b.
1814), wrote the first history of Lynchburg, Sketches and Recollections of Lynchburg,
published in 1857 (see Chambers, Lynchburg: An Architectural History, 21, 78, 107).
257. Jeremiah Sullivan and Thomas Pettigrue recommended "Patomac Marble both in slab
and block" of the "best quality" when writing Jefferson on 9 August (ViU:TJ).
258. TJ to Brockenbrough, 29 July 1819, ViU:PP. In late June Brockenbrough requested a
drawing (from Palladio's first book) of the bases and capitals for the Tuscan and Doric
columns in an attempt to ascertain the expense involved in cutting each but the outcome of
his experiment is unknown. See James Dinsmore to TJ, 1 July, in ViU:TJ, and Dinsmore to
Brockenbrough, 2 July 1819, in ViU:PP.
259. TJ to Brockenbrough, 17 August, ViU:PP. John Gorman's Agreement for Stonecutting,
1819, is in ViU:PP; see also appendix F.
260. Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County History,
46:40; see also Lay, "Jefferson's Master Builders," University of Virginia Alumni News, 80
(October 1991), 16-19. John Gorman (1786-1827) bought a triangular building lot to the
east of the university (situated on the corner of modern 14th Street and University Avenue)
from James Dinsmore in 1825 and was living there with his wife and daughter Mary Ann at
the time of his death (Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle
County History, 46:34, 40). Gorman received $2,822.21 between 30 September 1819 and 30
November 1822 for work performed at the university, which also included setting stove
stones, gate blocks, and steps, in addition to stonework at the gymnasia and some of the
dormitories (ViU:PP, Ledger 1).
261. Alexander Garrett and George W. Spooner, Jr., visited the quarry in July and August
but found little work going on. In a letter to Brockenbrough of 30 July Garrett mentioned
that he had visited the quarry twice and found the stonemasons "absent" each time (ViU:PP).
Spooner was more blunt in his assessment of the quarry work. On 9 August he observed to
the proctor that the "twoo Ittalians are going on quite laisurely they have cut three Bases and
one Corrinthian Cap the twoo from Philadelphia I went out to the Quarries to see, they
appear to go on quite slow owing to the difficulty in Quarryg this verry hard Rock"
(ViU:PP). And on 13 August Spooner informed Brockenbrough that the "Itallians are going
on the same gate earning about fifty cents a day as for the youngest of them I verry seldom
see him" (ViU:PP). Spooner said the quarry needed a "man acquainted with blowing" rock
and moved the hands onto Meriwether's property about three-fourths of a mile beyond the
present quarry.
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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 | |