University of Virginia Library

Chapter 5
The Building Campaign of 1820

Bitter Weather

Despite Jefferson's hyperbole about Virginia's "genial climate," the new year opened with a
bitter arctic blast. "On the morning of the 1st Jany (Saturday last) the Thermometer hung out
in the open air, stood at 9 below Zero, a little before Sunrise-At 9. oclock being removed
into the passage where it usually hangs, it stood at 2 degrees below 0 after breakfast, 1
degree above 0 . . . Ice 7 Inches thick on the River."[368] These winter conditions brought
work on the buildings at the university to a near standstill. Huddled by the Monticello
fireplaces trying to keep warm, Jefferson's concern during the month was focused more on
raising the money necessary to continue construction and "relieve the actual distresses of
our workmen" than on the progress those workmen were making. Private subscriptions
came in "slow & grudgingly" when at all, Jefferson complained to state Senator Joseph
Carrington Cabell.[369] He directed Alexander Garrett to draw $13,000 to distribute "among
the claiments," whose demands, the bursar informed Jefferson's partner on the committee of
superintendence, "already exceeds the second annual donation by the state."[370]

Land Deed

Before he left for Richmond to secure the funds, Garrett found the time to draw up a land
deed for a forty-eight and three quarter acres tract of land, surveyed by Albemarle County
Surveyor William Woods, that John M. and Frances T. Perry were selling to the university
for $7,231.80. Bordered in part by the Wheelers and Three Notch'd roads and adjacent to the
forty-three and three quarter acres parcel that the Perrys had sold to the Central College, the
second tract greatly increased the holdings of the university but its purchase contributed to
the severe financial drain faced by the institution. Upon his return from Richmond, Garrett
made an estimate of the university's financial situation, based on figures provided by the
proctor, and concluded that an additional $97,098.25 was needed to complete the university
—$38,898.25 to finish the buildings already commenced, and $58,200.00 to erect the
buildings not yet started. Some $80,000 of that amount still was wanting, and the private
subscribers to the Central College were expected to provide a maximum of only
$8,800.02.[371] In order to counter "the deplorable state of our funds," which also included
approximately $15,000 in debts owed to university contractors, an appeal was maded to
Senator Cabell to raise the money in the Virginia General Assembly so that the undertakers
would not have to discharge their journeymen for the lack of funds to pay them.[372]

Financial Woes

While Jefferson awaited the result of Cabell's efforts from his mansion outside
Charlottesville, he expressed his uneasiness about the state of affairs to Madison. "The
finances of the University are in a most painful state," he wrote. "the donation of 1820. is
recieved & paid away, and we still owe 15,000 for work already done."[373] Meanwhile, the
best Cabell could do was to win support for a bill authorizing the university to borrow
money to finish its buildings. The recent embezzlement by the state treasurer of $120,000
ruled out an outright gift of $80,000.[374] Jefferson, nevertheless, was relieved when Cabell
wrote to inform him of the passage of a compromise bill on 24 February granting the
institution power to borrow $60,000 against the credit of its own funds, adding that the
"University is popular in the Senate, and unpopular in the House of Delegates" (see
appendix H).[375]

The Work Continues

Back at the construction site, John Neilson "brought up some workmen" to begin his part of
the joinery work on Pavilion V in mid-February while George W. Spooner, Jr., continued to
work on the same building.[376] Ware and his Philadelphia workmen presumably were
weathering the cold as best they could, working outside on the east lawn when possible, for
Ambrose Flanagan delivered the Philadelphians $106.57 worth of plank on 10 February.[377]
Oldham, Dinsmore, and Perry still had interior work to shield them from the weather. For
instance, the Corinthian pavilion reserved for Thomas Cooper on the west lawn (number III)
was ready for the plasterer in early March 1820.[378] The walls and ceilings had to be
plastered before the doors and windows could be hung, which the housejoiner assured
Jefferson could be done in a fortnight, and then the whole interior had to be painted.
Jefferson optimistically predicted that the building would be ready for occupancy by the first
of May, although he calculated another month might be necessary so that "the plaistering
may become drier, as to allow for little miscalculations of workmen."[379] In mid-March,
James Glasgow and Joseph Antrim sent in separate proposals for plasterwork. Glasgow
offered "to Do all the Plastering Ruff Casting & Stuco Work that may be Wanting to be
Done,"[380] and both men referenced the price book of the Master Plasterers Company of
Philadelphia's and agreed to let the work be measured by the Philadelphia mode of
measurement. Brockenbrough signed a contract with Antrim on 22 March,[381] and in
mid-May John H. Craven delivered Antrim 1,625 pounds of hay to mix with the plaster and
some plank for his work on the pavilion.[382]

As for painting, John Bevan of "Kilmarnock Lancaster county" "assumed the liberty of
soliciting work" in that line of business from Jefferson back in September 1819, but his
proposal apparently came too early to be given serious consideration.[383] Benjamin Collins
of Philadelphia in December 1819 sent in a bid offering to glaze the window sashes and do
plain painting by the yard.[384] Collins and the proctor apparently worked out some kind of
agreement in which Collins would supply glass and the paint supplies and Englishman John
Vowles (who was later the principal painter and glazer at the Rotunda and the Anatomical
Hall) would actually oversee its application at the university, although Vowles at about this
time submitted his own bid, for plain and "Mahogany, or any kind of Fancy Work,"
addressed to "Mr. John Carr proctor U. Va."[385] Collins later sold the contract to Edward
Lowber of Philadelphia, the actual supplier of the materials, although Lowber quickly came
to regret making the bargain.[386] In any event, painters were active on the site by the
beginning of May when the proctor procured a pint of oil from them for Jefferson, possibly
to use in making the hotel drawings he was then engaged in.[387]

The Visitors Meet

When the spring meeting of the Board of Visitors rolled around, the board spent its time
discussing the pending loan from the Literary Fund, and the only action it took regarding
construction of the buildings was to vote to apply the monies from the loan to the debts
owed the workmen, and to direct any balance "towards the erection of buildings of
accommodation on the eastern back street."[388] On the day of the visitors' session at the
university, Robert McCullock, who with his brother James operated one of more than three
dozen sawmills in Albemarle County's Fredericksville Parish, delivered 3,286 feet of lumber
to James Oldham (receiving $57.56 for his compensation), indicating at least some small
life at the site.[389] After the members separated, Jefferson directed the proctor to make an
estimate "of the whole expence of compleating such buildings, distinguishing the expence of
each," to be enclosed later in the fall report to the president and directors of the Literary
Fund. Brockenbrough estimated that $10,000 was needed immediately to pay the
institution's debts and another $18,000 was needed to complete the 7 pavilions and 31
dormitories in progress. To "compleat the Area," meaning the upper square, or lawn, the
final 3 pavilions would require $18,000 and the 24 dormitories, $9,600. For the "East back
street," to be commenced in the current year, Brockenbrough estimated 3 hotels could be
built for $9,000 and 25 dormitories for an additional $10,000. That meant $74,600 was
wanting to bring the accounts to date and to carry on the work projected for 1820. All that
would remain after that was "2. Hotels & Proctor's house & 25. dormits. compleatg. W. back
street" that were expected to be started in 1821 at a projected cost of $19,000.[390] The
$93,600 total, not far off from the bursar's February estimate, would "accomplish the
buildings of the whole establishment (the Library excepted)" by the end of 1821.[391]

Spring Brings New Life

About a month following the visitors' meeting the construction at the university site was
once again being carried on at a respectable speed. The proctor pressed his architect to send
the hotel plans down from the mountaintop so that the carpenters could ascertain the size
and amount of timber that needed to be cut. He had decided to assign Hotel A to James
Oldham, whom he thought could better manage the large flat roof that was planned for the
building. Spooner and Perry would receive the smaller hotels. The layout of the buildings on
the west range apparently had not been finalized, at least not in Brockenbrough's thinking,
for he informed Jefferson that "Hotel A if placed in a line with the North flank wall of Pav:
No 1. will have no dormitory attached to it as there is only 56 feet from the north flank to
the alley or cross street runing up to the back of the dormitories." To solve this difficulty the
rector was requested to visit the site before Brockenbrough set the laborers to digging the
foundations of the hotels. "I find if we cut in the bank the depth of Hotel A we shall have a
bank 7 feet high & then the cellar to dig out in order to save some labor I propose advancing
the buildings a few feet in the street & then throwing the street more to the East."[392]

Also in May, Brockenbrough attempted to revitalize efforts at the university to push forward
the stonework. He sought to hire a stonecutter, "by the day or piece work," who just finished
carving for General Cocke at Upper Bremo. He could pay for "plain work 25 cents pr
Superficial foot & 50 pr foot straight moulded work, & 75 cents for circular Moulded do pr
foot superficial," or $1.50 a day.[393] Luther M. George sent up "Som cut Stone" from
Milton, apparently shipped from Richmond by Thomas B. Conway, along with the word that
"a very Large one hear" weighing at least 2,800 pounds could be wagoned up when
wanted.[394] A few days later George sent word that his "Boatman Elijah has brough[t] up
an other of them Large Rock and have Sent it on by a waggoner."[395] (Elijah, who
apparently was George's slave, later worked for the university 41 days straight "inclusive
easter Monday & 2 other lost days deducted.")[396] Destined to become an Ionic cap, the
2,149 pound stone at Lewis Ferry cost the university $12 by the time it reached the
construction site. John H. Wood charged the university $13.14 for boating 3 small "ones of
wrought stone" to be used for bases and caps and one 2,389 pound rock from Richmond to
Milton at the end of the month.[397] In early June the proctor tried to talk Jefferson into
buying marble from Pennsylvania after Giacomo Raggi, who "complains much of this
stone," returned from Philadelphia with a sample more to his liking.[398] Jefferson would
hear nothing of the proposal, although in July he finally conceded that something must be
done. He wrote Consul Thomas Appleton in Leghorn to ask how much it would cost,
"considering the low price of labor, and of the material with you," to get the Corinthian
capitals ready made from Carrara.[399] It was February 1821 before Jefferson received
Appleton's reply, and only then did he discover that he had omitted to give Appleton the
number of capitals he wanted carved![400]

Jefferson visited the university on Tuesday, 6 June, but Brockenbrough, unfortunately "out
of place," was not able to get the rector's opinion on several important points immediately at
hand. One of the questions he wanted to ask, whether to place the "ornaments for the metops
layed down by Nicholson" in the "Frize of Pavilion No 2 E. Range," gives some indication
of Richard Ware's progress on that building.[401] The substitution of tin gutters for wooden
ones and the ordering of marble from Philadelphia both have been discussed previously, as
has the progress of the pipe borers in laying down waterpipes. Jefferson's answers to the
proctor's inquiries about substituting 10 x 12 glass for 12 x 12 in the hotel windows in order
to save money and whether the cornice and entablature of the pavilions would look better a
stone color rather than perfectly white have not survived but can be easily surmised. The
question of building a small house for each of the Italian stonecutters' wives worked itself
out when the women decided not to leave their native homes. Finally, the proctor had
concluded brickwork agreements for the new buildings at $10 per thousand for "common &
peace bricks" and $16 for the "front or rubed stretchers." Curtis Carter contracted for
Pavilion VI and Hotel A; John Perry and Abiah Thorn for Pavilion VIII and Hotel B;
William B. Phillips for Pavilion X and Hotel C; and the "dormitories divided amongst
them."[402] By the end of June John Neilson could report that the "brick-layers have begun
their seasons work and all seems getting forward."[403]

Over the course of the late spring and summer the university's suppliers continued to
provide various kinds of materials to the construction site. James Leitch's account for the
period shows that while the merchant continued to sell nails, he also became the institution's
main whiskey and Jamaica rum dealer.[404] The firm of Brockenbrough & Harvie helped out
its Richmond competitor, John Van Lew & Co., by taking over some of its accounts with the
university for the glass, tin, hardware, etc. that the latter had sold to the university between
August 1819 and mid-May 1820.[405] John Van Lew & Co., experiencing difficulties in
procuring boats, began to ship its tin, iron, herring, and assortment of hardware exclusively
by wagons; James Stone, Andrew Jamison, Hembro Pendleton, and Thomas Jackson all
drove wagons to the university during the spring and summer.[406] Thomas Perkins of
Boston, in response to a request from the university, sent Brockenbrough a quote for Boston
Crown Glass from the agents of the Boston Glass Manufactory, Pearson & Cloutman.[407] In
June William Bowen delivered 6,500 wooden shingles to James Oldham, at a cost of
$58.50.[408]

Jefferson Enthusiastic

On the day before Jefferson wrote to the president and directors of the Literary Fund to
request authorization to draw the remaining third of its $60,000 loan from the fund he wrote
a long personal letter to his son-in-law, John Wayles Eppes of Mill Brook, who had retired
from Congress a year earlier because of declining health.[409] In addition to describing the
general scheme and progress of the university to Eppes, Jefferson invited his ailing
son-in-law to bring his family for a visit to Monticello and the institution's site.

When writing to the sovereigns of Montpelier and Braintree two weeks later, Jefferson
echoed his enthusiasm for the progress taking place at the village that is so obvious in his
letter to Eppes, and unlike his constant complaints of a year previous. "Our buildings at the
University go on so rapidly and will exhibit such a state and prospect by the meeting of the
legislature," he hopefully suggested to Madison, "that no one seems to think it possible they
should fail to enable us to open the institution the ensuing year."[411] And to his former
political rival he wrote, "our university, 4. miles distant, gives me frequent exercise, and the
oftener as I direct it's architecture. it's plan is unique, and it is becoming an object of
curiosity for the traveller."[412]

Coffee in New York

As the end of the summer of 1820 neared, the English ornamental sculptor William John
Coffee wrote to Jefferson two times, first to give him the result of his inquiry into the cost of
fire engines and next to update him on the frieze ornaments he promised to make for Poplar
Forest and the university. Coffee visited Albemarle County earlier in the year and arrived
back at New York on 18 July, he said, "much fatigued with a Journey of 1,203 miles by
Land, that is from Monticello to Canada & from Canada to N. York Via—Albany." Once in
New York City, Coffee visited No. 293 Pearl Street, the home of Able W. Hardenbrook, a
maker of "fire Engins." Hardenbrook's prices per foot "For Hose or Leaders as they are
Called her[e]" were "$1—that is 8 Shillings this City money" for 3½ inches diameter, 50
cents for ½ inch, and $3 for "the Suckers or Suction Pipes." New York City fire engines used
3 to 400 feet of hose, Hardenbrook told Coffee, but the common length of leaders was about
100 feet.[413] Coffee wrote again a week later from Newark, New Jersey, to inform Jefferson
that the ornaments for "Bedford House" and "The University" were in "great fordwardness,"
claiming that "no time has been Lost Sines I have been at home or have I applyed a Single
hour to any other Employment so very Laboreous & difficult has been this undertaking."
The shipment of the ornaments to Virginia, however, would depend on the "unfortunate
State" of New York City, which had become, according to Coffee, so dangerous to the health
and life of its inhabitants that it was draining off "all that Can any way Convenintly leave
Such a Smite of disease and Corruption, I need not say to you that it will Continue its
Scourgeing March ontill the first part of november at which time we are Visited by the
Healthy nor'west winds and a Black frost. So much do I dislike this Stinking Pestilential
City, and so dread the prevailing fever that I thought it Proper to leave The City for this little
Town." Coffee also added that he had waited upon Peter Maverick (who worked in Newark)
and "gave him your Drawing," and he "Promised to Send you a Proofe Plate I hope by this
time he has don So."[414] This was the first step in the production of the famed Maverick
group of engravings, the first printed ground plan of the Academical Village (see appendix
O).[415]

Italian Artisan Disgruntled

While the sculptor in plaster and terra cotta was molding ornaments for frieze work and
running errands in the New York City area, his friend at Monticello was engaged in a minor
"difficulty" with one of the Italian sculptors. Attention has been called already to the Raggi
brothers' dissatisfaction with the Virginia stone. Back in October 1819 the "Senior
[Giamoco] Raggi" communicated the stonecutters' willingness to dissolve their contract
with the university, but the offer was ignored and the stonework commenced, albeit slowly,
for the next ten months.[416] At the beginning of September Michele Raggi renewed his
offer to void his current agreement with the university, this time presenting three new
options, that of carving the Corinthian capitals in Carrara marble at the European quarry
under contract at a "most desirable price"; carving the capitals at Carrara "as if under your
eyes for just the wages which we have now"; and lastly, because he could "no longer work
with these stones since they are thereby prejudicing [my] health," the university could
import stone from Philadelphia or Italy, and meanwhile he would renew his contract for five
years and travel to Europe at his own expense to get his wife.[417] The younger Raggi,
desperate to see his new bride and the child that had been born to them since he left Italy,
recently had sprained his wrist while working on the lesser quality stone so that he could not
v "work this month or two, in this state of body, and homesick, & love-sick mind, he will be
of no use to us." Thinking that Consul Thomas Appleton in Leghorn could arrange to
furnish capitals cheaper, Jefferson, in agreement with his partner on the committee of
superintendence, made a counter proposal to the stonecutter.[418] The university would
release Raggi with "wages to the day of discontinuing" only, and the Italian would pay the
expenses of his journey and voyage back to his homeland. The committee considered this a
fair compromise because the university had received only about one-half of the time for
work agreed to, although it had paid for the cutter's voyage to America.[419]

Michele Raggi chose to sever his ties to the university on 9 September according to the
terms offered him by the committee of superintendence but apparently had second thoughts
about it after arriving in Washington, for on 26 September he wrote Jefferson a scathing
letter outlining his grievances.

Being unable any longer to stand the bad food which your Director of the College was
sending me, and seeing that you were not putting yourself to any haste to procure the marble
blocks so that I might finish the time of my contract as I would have done if this stone of
yours had not ruined my stomach along with the sheep which the said Director sent me to
eat, for the mere sight of the said food turned my stomach. You know well that my contract
said I was to be lodged and nourished according to my profession, nor are you ignorant how
Artists are treated in Italy and France! Propriety, duty, and justice demand that I be satisfied
at least as to my trip since you have not gotten for me the material to work with not having
the means to give me the marble blocks as explained.[420]

Raggi then appealed for $300 dollars to cover his voyage "back to the bosom of my family
from which you took me" and told Jefferson that the ex-president's "reputation alone
brought me to America, and that it has ruined my expectations and my health, and that I am
going home with one arm perhaps useless to earn my bread." Disappointed that the
university did not commission him to carve the Corinthian capitals at Carrara, he offered to
execute the works out of Washington stone for $1,000 a year, the "least salary that the
lowest of countrymen has, and which I think I, too, deserve." He concluded by begging
Jefferson "not to throw me in the middle of a street" and closed by adding a postscript to
direct the money to the care of "the Widow Franzoni" requesting Jefferson to "answer me in
French."[421]

Jefferson responded to Raggi's complaints and accusations with a lengthy remonstrance that
placed blame squarely upon the young artisan's shoulders. Jefferson first narrated the history
and terms of the contract made in Leghorn with Appleton on behalf of the university and
reminded Raggi of the $200 advance to cover his "expences by sea and land to this place"
and of another $200 that was sent later to Leghorn to enable his wife to come to America.

The last remark seems a little disingenuous considering that Jefferson expected the sculptor
to remain unemployed for another two months because of his wrist injury and when it is
recalled that Jefferson already had written Thomas Appleton on 13 July requesting the
consul to inquire into the cost of carving the capitals at Carrara and crating them for
shipment across the Atlantic. Jefferson then recounted the settlement between Raggi and the
proctor, noting that exclusive of board and lodging the university had spent $919.68 for
Raggi's traveling and wages over a 15-month period and "for this you know, we have
nothing to shew but a single Ionic capitel, and an unfinished Corinthian." Although the
"misfortune was ours, and was increased by that of the sprain of your wrist disabling you
from work," Jefferson said, the university gave up the remaining portion of an agreement
that "might have lessened our loss, merely to indulge the feelings and uneasiness under
which we saw you." Raggi's complaints about his lodging and diet and his insinuation that
Jefferson and Brockenbrough were personally responsible for his misery incensed Jefferson
the most, however:

Jefferson, insisting that he and the proctor had fulfilled "all the claims of justice, of
indulgence, and of liberality" toward the artisan, told Raggi that the "desponding and
unhappy state" of his mind while at the university "proceeded from the constitutional and
moral affections resulting from your own temperament and the incidents acting on it, and
not from any thing depending on those in our employ." Jefferson declined Raggi's offer to
make the capitals at Washington and closed the matter to further discussion, directing future
correspondence to the proctor, "within whose duties it lies, and not within mine."[422]

Money Requested from Literary Fund

On the same fall day that Jefferson wrote to Michele Raggi to absolve himself and the
university from the stonecutter's ire, he sent a desperate plea for money for the university to
his son-in-law and governor, Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., who was also president of the
Literary Fund. The institution had exhausted the first two-thirds of the $60,000 loan it
obtained from the Literary Fund and on 13 August had requested the remaining $20,000
which the fund's board of directors refused to provide.[423] Alexander Garrett, the bursar,
with "demands now pressing hardly" on him, called on Jefferson on 7 October asking him to
"sollicit from your [Literary Fund] board an immediate attention to the supplementary loan
of 20,000. D."[424] The Board of Visitors at its fall meeting a few days before on 2-3
October had decided to include in its annual report to the president and directors of the
Literary Fund a financial statement drawn up between February and April 1820 that listed
the existing debts and projected costs of completing the buildings at $93,600.[425] Of course
that statement, covering the university's first year of operation (from the spring of 1819 to
the spring of 1820) did not accurately represent the university's financial situation in
October 1820 because another half-year had passed. Accordingly, the proctor made a
detailed statement of the university's expenditures covering the previous twelve months,
which Jefferson sent along with the report to the Literary Fund in December.[426] Although
there was no business concerning the buildings' construction to be discussed by the visitors
at their meeting, the account summarized the disbursements to the undertakers over the past
year. Despite the desperate state of the university's finances, shifting the debts owed to the
workmen to the Literary Fund allowed the building process to continue at the rate initially
planned, although it meant postponing the hiring of professors and the opening of the school
to students.

Financial Statement

Brockenbrough's "Statement of the application of the Funds" showed that between 1
October 1819 and 30 September 1820, John M. Perry earned more than any of the other
contractors by his association with the university.[427] First, he received the last payment for
the 48¾ acres of land that he sold to the Central College, $3,615.90. He earned $2,990.54
for the "brick work of Pavilion No 3 and seven dormitories, executed in 1819" and an
additional $8,598.75 for "carpenters work on pavilion No 4 West and 16 Dormitories,
including plastering & lumber, and the brick work of No 4 East with 8 dormitories & the
brick & wood work of Hotel B with 9 dormitories" ($15,205.19 total). James Dinsmore
received $5,314.15 for "carpenters & Joiners work of Pavilion No 2 West and Pavilion No 4
East and eight dormitories including lumber & other articles." Dinsmore & Perry received
$1,544.11 for "Carpenters & Joiners work and lumber for Pavilion No III West and six
dormitories." Altogether Perry and Dinsmore together received a total of $12,063.45 from
the university bursar.

After Perry, Richard Ware and his gang of Philadelphians earned the most at the
construction site during the period. For the "brick work of Pavilions No 1 and 2 East with
four dormitories" Ware was paid $3,891.72, and for "Carpenters & Joiners work & lumber
for Pavilions 1, 2, & 3 and 13 dormitories" he received $6,503.77, or a total of $10,395.49.
Carter & Phillips "for their brick work last year in Pavilions 1 & 5 West & 5 dormitories
&c" were paid $3,506.75. Phillips earned another $898.71 for "brick work this year in
pavilion No 5 East and Hotel C" and Carter received an additional $926.79 for "brick work
in Pavilion No 3 East & Hotel A." Together, Curtis Carter and William B. Phillips took in
$5,332.25.

James Oldham brought in $2,919.99 for "carpenters & joiners work on Pavilion No 1 West
with four dormitories and Hotel A with nine dormitories and lumber." Abiah Thorn earned
only $86.50, that for laying the "stone foundation to Columns to Pav: No 1." George W.
Spooner, Jr., apparently gaining from the proctor's mistake in awarding him extra work,
made $2,084.57 for "carpenters work on Pav: No 5 West and on Hotel C with 10 dormitories
& lumber." John Neilson, on the other hand, earned only $1,486.57 for "work and lumber
for Pav: No 5 West and pavilion No 5 East with 7 dormitories." For "brick work in Pavilion
No 5 west," Peter Myers was paid $11.56.

The former proctor of the Central College, Nelson Barksdale, received $800 "for lumber for
the buildings," $1,101 for "the hire of Negroes for 1819," and $65 for "a horse for the use of
the Institution," a total of $1,966. The Italian stonecutters Michele and Giacomo Raggi
received for "Wages as scu[l]ptors, board, washing &c." $1,294.24, and Giacomo Raggi another
$70 for "wages," bringing their earnings together to $1,364.24. Stonecutters Joseph
Cowden and James Campbell were paid $314.50, and John Gorman got $679.06. John
Cullen "& others for quarrying Stone for Boxes, Caps, Sills, steps &c" received $269.25,
and Thomas B. Conway $75 for "free Stone."

Joseph Antrim earned $681.69 for "plastering," and Edward Lowber was paid $598.25 for
his role in the "painting & Glazing." A. H. Brooks "for Covering pavilions 1 and 5 West and
1 and 2 East with Tin & tin pipes for No 2 W" was paid $798.47. Elijah Huffman got
$242.53 for "boring & laying water pipes," Lewis Bailey for "ditching for the pipes" $25.50,
and William Boin & others for do" $85.67. John Herron for "Wages as Overseer" earned
$106 and Jesse Lewis for "Smiths work" $160.88. Another $1,620.26 was spent "for
provisions for laborers & Overseer paid for hire of laborers, Waggonage and other
unavoidable expences." Charlottesville merchant James Leitch took in $1,332.73 for
"sundries furnished for the buildings in the year 1818 and 1819," and the Richmond
merchant firm of Brockenbrough & Harvie "for nails" was paid $282.96. The largest
Richmond firm supplying the university, John Van Lew & Co., was paid $1,360.76 for
supplying "Tin, hardware" and the smallest Richmond supplier, D. W. & C. Warwick
received for "Sundries" only $37. (The suppliers total added up to $3,013.45.) Finally,
Proctor Brockenbrough received $1,604.85 for his salary and Alexander Garrett $375 for his
services as bursar. All told, the disbursements amounted to $59,158.81.

In addition to recording monies already spent in construction at the university,
Brockenbrough's 30 September statement provided an estimate of the amount required to
finish the "buildings now on hand, and two more Hotels, a Proctors house and twenty eight
dormitories to complete the range on the Western Street." First, "Agreeable to our estimate
on the 1st Oct: 1819. we required to complete the buildings then contracted for the sum of"
$38,898.25. To complete the "3 other Pavilions now building," would require $18,000; the 3
Hotels or boarding houses do," $9,000; and the "45 Dormitories do," $18,000, making a
total of $45,000. "For 2 Other Hotels & proctors house on the West Street with 28
dormitories yet to be put up," $20,200 was expected to be needed. Add for the "Stone work
digging & removing earth and other unavoidable expences at least 25 pr cent," or
$26,024.56, and the grand total needed to finish construction climbed to $130,122.81.
However, $59,158.81 already paid to the "Several undertakers of the buildings and others as
pr the foregoing account since Oct: 1st 1819" could be subtracted from the $130,122.81,
leaving an estimated $70,964 needed to finish all the construction of the buildings. As for
income, the $20,000 balance from the $60,000 loan was yet left, and the 1821 yearly
annuity would be $15,000, although $2,400 had to be deducted from that to pay interest on
the outstanding $40,000. Thus the Balance required to complete the buildings (exclusive of
the library), Brockenbrough estimated, was $38,364.

Jefferson's Summary of Finances

Jefferson summarized the foregoing statement at the end of November for Senator Cabell to
use "in conversations, to rebut exaggerated estimates of what our institution is to cost, and
reproaches of deceptive estimates." According to the best estimates of the university bursar,
proctor, and rector, all the lands, buildings, and "other expenditures" for the University of
Virginia could be expected to cost $162,364, exclusive of the library and an observatory.
That included the original estimate of 10 pavilions for the professors' accommodation
($60,000), 6 hotels for dieting the students ($21,000), 104 dormitories ($36,400), 200 acres
of land with additional buildings ($10,000), and contingencies such as leveling the grounds
and streets, laying the water pipes, covering roofs with tin instead of shingles, and
"numerous other" contingencies ($10,000), plus the actual cost above the estimates of about
18 percent ($24,964). An observatory could be built, Jefferson thought, for $10,000 to
$12,000 and the "Library House" for $40,000 more, thus pushing up the estimate for the
entire group of buildings to $214,364.[428] Jefferson told Senator Cabell that "not an office
at Washington has cost less" than the $162,364 figure, and the "single building of the Court
house of Henrico has cost nearly that: and the massive walls of the millions of bricks of
Wm. & Mary could not be now built for a greater sum."[429] His letter to Cabell containing
the statement and defense of the probable costs of the buildings also contained an
impassioned argument for a whole scheme of public education for his beloved Virginia, but
Cabell and other university supporters in the General Assembly thought its promotion might
work against the university's best interest. "Our object is now," wrote Senator Cabell, "to
finish the buildings."[430]