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Chapter 4
The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 2
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
Design Change
During the spring and summer the building did move forward on a couple major fronts, but
not before the development of what in retrospect appears to have been one radical change in
Jefferson's design for the university. As the Central College Board of Visitors' last meeting
in late February broke up, Cabell fortunately compelled Jefferson to consider the propriety
of turning the backs of the buildings on the backstreets to the backs of the lawn buildings,
thus keeping the fronts of all the buildings from facing the rear of someone else's living
quarters.[266] But that fortunate turn of affairs did not temper David Watson's extreme
dissatisfaction with the design. Although his term as visitor had ended, Watson in the week
following the Central College visitors' final meeting felt compelled to vent his frustrations in
a letter to General Cocke, who would continue as a visitor and who shared Watson's
uneasiness about Jefferson's design.[267] When it finally dawned upon the members of the
board what disagreement they had in common about the design of the university it became
only a matter of time before some action followed. The minutes of the meeting of the new
Board of Visitors for the university in late March are silent about the university's design but
it likely that while together at least some of the visitors began to act in concert to alter the
plan.[268] Senator Cabell wrote General Cocke in mid-April to inform him that fellow visitor
James Breckenridge "entirely concurs with us as to the propriety of stopping the plan of
dormitories at the houses of instruction, & with respect to the size of the Lecturing Rooms,
& the flat roofs."
The visitors' main disagreement with Jefferson's plan centered around the buildings' sizes,
considered much too small, and Jefferson's desire to use flat roofs for the sake of
architectural purity. General Breckenridge, who applauded a proposed "change in respect to
the gardens," said that new visitor Chapman Johnson concurred with them on the main
points; and Cabell conjectured, "& I doubt not Genl. Taylor wd. also." Cabell and
Breckenridge decided to write Jefferson separately to state their objections and suggest that
the buildings be enlarged but left changes in the dormitories to be handled by their
collaborator on the committee of superintendence. "We should move in concert or we shall
perplex & disgust the old Sachem," Cabell schemed, ". . . I think we have matters in a pretty
fair way."[269]
Cabell wrote to the "old Sachem" two days later:
separated: some thought have occurred to me which I beg leave to communicate
to you with the freedom of a friend. The plan of pavilions and dormitories along
the area of the University will be beautiful & magnificent, and unlike any thing
which I have seen in Europe or America. The continuation of the same style of
architecture till the two sides of the Area shall have been filled up, will follow
as a matter of course. But permit me to suggest a doubt whether the plan of
Pavilions & dormitories should not be confined to the Area, and some other
style adopted for the Hotels & back ranges.[270]
and only one window each, coupled with an "eastern & western Aspect," would overheat
during the summer. Also, according to the prevailing opinion of the "best workmen in the
Country," flat roofs could not be made leakproof and thus would require "renewal" in only
six years.[271] Moreover, the "contiguous public passage" that the doors of the dormitories
opened into confined the students to an environment "less retired from noise and other
interruptions, than might be desired." As for the "Lecturing rooms" of the pavilions not yet
started, Cabell favored the adoption of a "more spacious plan." He was attracted to the
post-Revolutionary French "model of the Greek & Roman theatres & amphitheatres" but
realized that type of construction would deprive the professors and their families of the use
of the rooms otherwise than for lectures.[272] Cabell did approve of the decision by the
committee of superintendence, which General Cocke had informed him of, to annex the
gardens to the back yards of the pavilions. As he closed his letter Cabell excused the
suggestions he now ventured to make on the basis that he was "mainly governed by the wish
to remove every possible ground of objection to the further patronage of the Assembly." He
also cautioned that the visitors should guard against communicating to the public "any little
differences of opinion which now & then may occur among them, so as to prevent
unfounded inferences from being deduced." But to one another each visitor, Cabell added,
ought to "think & speak freely his impressions upon every point, and I am well persuaded
that a contrary course ought & would be regarded by you as uncandid & unfriendly."
266. Jefferson alluded to Cabell's complaint and the visitors' mounting discord in his letter
to James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and Chapman Johnson of 8-26
July 1819, located in ViU:TJ.
267. See Watson to John Hartwell Cocke, 8 March 1819, in ViU:JHC. While Watson's
complaints apparently did not lead directly to any changes at the university, they are fairly
indicative of the fact that as a group the other visitors lacked a full agreement with
Jefferson's overall plan. Watson's unflattering portrait of the university should not be
understimated, however, because although he was now no longer a visitor, he was a member
of the House of Delegates, where the battle for the university's purse strings eventually
would be waged, and he still could exert some influence. His letter to Cocke, who already
agreed with many of Watson's complaints, may have served as an impetus for Cocke to
finally take decisive action to alter the design more to his own liking.
268. See the Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 29 March 1819,
in PPAmP:UVA Minutes.
270. Cabell to TJ, 17 April 1819, ViU:TJ; see also Cabell, Early History of the University of
Virginia, 174-76. When publishing this letter in 1856, Nathaniel F. Cabell wrote that his
uncle "Mr. Cabell was wont to relate several pleasant anecdotes--better suited to a social
circle than to a permanent record here--relative to the dissent of the other Visitors, not only
from the plan of the buildings, but other novel and cherished ideas of the author; to the
respectful manner in which their counter-opinions were conveyed to the venerable rector,
and to the adroitness with which they were met. Their motives for general acquiescence are
well stated by his biographer, Mr. Tucker. Though every essential part of the establishment
required the sanction of the Board of Visitors, yet, on almost all occasions, they yielded to
his views, partly from the unaffected deference which most of the Board had for his
judgment and experience, and partly for the reason often urged by Mr. Madison, that as the
scheme was originally Mr. Jefferson's, and the chief responsibility for its success or failure
would fall on him, it was but fair to let him execute it in his own way. They doubted, also,
concerning one or more features of its organization, and certain principles on which it was
proposed to conduct its government. These they knew would be tested by time and trial, and
errors, when manifested, could be corrected by their successors" (ibid., 174).
271. Cabell's concerns about flat roofs echoes former visitor David Watson's statement that
"I fear too that the flat roofs will leak, for I scarcely ever knew a flat roof in Virginia that did
not" (Watson to Cocke, 8 March 1819, ViU:JHC).
272. "My idea of the Greek & Roman & French plan of oval rooms & seats rising one above
the other for an area, Col: [Wilson Cary] Nicholas thinks would be objectionable in
this--that they would render the rooms useless for the accomodaton of the Professors at
other hours than those of Lecturing. I had not foreseen this objection" (Cabell to Cocke, 15
April 1819, ViU:JCC).
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Chapter 4
The Building Campaign of 1819, Part 2
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |