University of Virginia Library

X. Site of the College Selected

The space that has been used in describing the personalities of Jefferson, Cabell, and Cocke is fully warranted in the light of a fact that will become increasingly perceptible as our theme advances; namely, that the establishment of the University of Virginia was not dictated by an irresistible popular impulse, but was due primarily to the unwearied exertions of Jefferson and Cabell; and its actual construction to Jefferson, assisted throughout with ability and fidelity by the modest Cocke in the background. Unless we take in the public spirit that had previously animated these men, we cannot arrive at a perfectly accurate conception of all the influences in which the institution had its origin. We have now to relate the story of the practical work which was done in founding it, for, as we shall see, the incorporation of Central College was really the incorporation of the University; the history of the College is the history of the University in its chrysalis state, which must be studied if we are to understand correctly

the first phase of its existence. It is in this phase that we discern the embryo of the nobler structure to follow; the springs as it were of the stream which was so soon to begin to flow in full volume; the slender sapling that was so soon to grow into a fruitful tree.

Among those features inherited from the College which became highly characteristic of the University was its official organization, its system of administration, its plans for buildings, and its requirements for professors. The provisions of the Act of Incorporation of Central College show as plainly as the design for its construction how long the thought of a university had been simmering in Jefferson's consciousness, for when the real university was determined upon a few years afterwards, the only alterations made in those provisions were such as were called for by the widening of the scope of the original scheme. One of the first clauses in the charter of Central College reveals that it was this future university, and not the present college, that he had most vividly in mind: the Governor of Virginia was to be the patron of the new seat of learning; and there was to be a board of six visitors by his appointment. Jefferson himself informs us that this provision was inserted for the explicit purpose of "divesting the situation of the College of all local character and control, and placing it under the will of those who represented the Legislature." The visitors were to hold office for a term of three years; were to come together at least once in the course of each twelve months; were to possess the right to choose a treasurer and proctor; to select the professors, determine their salaries and fees, and prescribe their courses of instruction; to lay down rules for the discipline of the students, and adopt regulations for their lodging and board; to overlook in a general way the officers, agents, and servants in the performance

of their respective duties; and, finally, to draw up such by-laws as would be needed to conserve the general welfare of the institution, and protect and increase its estate.

The treasurer was to continue in office during the pleasure of the Board, and was only to pay out moneys in obedience to their specific or general instructions. The title to all the college property was to be invested in the proctor as trustee; suits were to be brought in his name; and he alone was to receive donations and subscriptions He was to be the custodian of the buildings and all other estate in the College's possession; the provider and dispenser of the food and fuel that would be required by the students; the immediate overseer of the agents and servants; and the personal medium through whom all the orders, laws, and regulations of the Board were to be carried out.

By the Act of Incorporation, Central College became the beneficiary of all the rights and claims of Albemarle Academy. The only certain income which it could expect to enjoy at an early date consisted of the subscriptions, which had been pledged, chiefly, it would seem, by the citizens of the surrounding region; and the money accruing from the sale of the glebe lands in Fredericksville and St. Anne's parishes. No steps had been taken as yet to swell these funds by means of the lottery which had been authorized. It was due to the emptiness of its coffers that, although the College was chartered in February, 1816, more than twelve months passed before the Board of Visitors assembled. If the proceeds of the plebe sales had been received from the commissioner of the county in the meanwhile, the amount was looked upon by them, previous to that meeting, as too small to justify them in buying a site and laying the foundation stone.

Apparently, it was not until April 8, 1817, that the Visitors endeavored to hold a sitting, end even on that occasion, only three were present; namely, Jefferson, Cabell and Cocke. As a quorum was wanting, no business was transacted beyond fixing upon May 5 as the date for the convening of the whole Board; but the real purpose of the three Visitors was perhaps to inspect a site for the College which had been offered to Jefferson, and which he, probably, thought should be secured, at least optionally, at once. This was done; and when the full Board met on the day appointed, one of their first acts was to ratify this provisional purchase. Jefferson's preference had been for the ground situated on the first ridge lying to the east of the present site of the University, property that belonged to John Kelly, a member of the former board of trustees of Albemarle Academy. Kelly is said to have been a Federalist in political creed; and for this reason, it is reported, the purpose for which the land was to be bought, and Jefferson's connection with it, were kept secret when the tender for it was made. It is quite probable, however, that he had a more personal motive for disliking the master of Monticello. We learn from the recollections of Alexander Garrett, that, when the first suggestion came up of converting Albemarle Academy into Central College, the trustees, presumably Kelly among them, proposed that the new institution should be named Jefferson College, and that Jefferson emphatically objected to this, and recommended "Central College" instead. If Kelly, as one of the trustees, was ready to honor his distinguished neighbor so signally at this time, there must have been some reason besides his Federalism why he, one year later, was so brusque in declining the tender for his property; and that reason, as we have already surmised, was his possible resentment at the summary

dropping of the old board of trustees. So soon as he found out that Jefferson was behind that offer, he turned his back on all further negotiation: " I will see him at the devil," he exclaimed, " before he shall have it at any price." When this rough and abrupt reply was carried to Jefferson, he quietly remarked, " The man is a fool, but if we cannot get the best site, we must be content with the best we can get."[25]

Perhaps, he would not have taken his disappointment so philosophically had he not felt that the land belonging to John M. Perry, lying to the west of Charlottesville also, but at a somewhat greater distance, afforded a fairly satisfactory substitute. This site was formed by a narrow ridge that sloped gently from north to south. It fell sharply away from the eastern edge of the small plateau at its top, and from the western edge spread downward here and there in a declivity quite as marked. Although this site was on very high ground, the view of the Blue Ridge must have always been screened more or less by the former Carr's Hill and the present Preston Heights. The Southwest Mountains, -which were then, as now, directly in the scope of the vision, -shut out the horizon too closely at hand to make the scene in that quarter as impressive as the grand spectacle of the Blue Ridge would have done in the other, had a site been obtainable which would have offered an unobstructed outlook on that splendid chain. In a country distinguished for its magnificent landscapes, the spot chosen for the Central College commanded not one entirely; not even from the future northern portico of the Rotunda.

This was the first drawback. The second lay in the

fact that the trend of the slope required that all the buildings, with the exception of those on the northern line, -the southern line was expected to remain open, should face east and west. The architect Latrobe pointed out the practical disadvantage of this arrangement before the first pavilion had been erected. "Everyone," he wrote Jefferson in August, 1817, "who has had the misfortune to reside in a house,-especially if it constituted a part of a range of houses, facing east and west, -has experienced both in summer and winter the evils of such an aspect. In the winter, the accumulation of snow on the east, and the severity of the cold on the west, together with the absence of the sun during three fourths of the day, and in the summer, the horizontal rays of the morning sun heating the east side and the evening sun burning the west side, of the house, render such a situation highly exceptional." To this critical but thoroughly practical suggestion, Jefferson replied by saying that "the lay of the ground was a law of nature to which they were bound to conform," but that the objection urged could be partially overcome; first, by placing but one family room in each pavilion in front, and one or two in flank, and leaving apertures for windows in the southern wall. The lecture-room below, he added, could be given "the same advantage by substituting an open passage adjacent instead of dormitory." He conceded, however, that "the dormitories admitted of no relief but Venetian blinds to their windows and doors." "There," he said, "the heat would be less felt because the young men would be in the school-rooms most of the day."

There was perhaps a third drawback, -one, however, that had so little practical importance that it does not seem to have come up for consideration in the selection of a site for the proposed group of buildings. If anyone

will take position at the foot of the last terrace of the Lawn towards the south, and follow the east and west lines of the pillars in front of the pavilions and dormitories, as far as the line of the Rotunda, the impression is a more or less blended one, since the pillars, in that perspective, appear to run together to such an extent as to form to the eye a continuous white mass. The nobility of the Rotunda alone relieves the too solid effect of the almost indistinguishable individual features of the pavilion and dormitory fronts. Had the academic village been erected in a circular form, after the model of the great square of St. Peter's at Rome, the result would probably have been more striking because then each pavilion and each column of the arcades would have stood out distinctly from their respective fellows, with the Rotunda rising in stately dignity at the northern opening of the architectural circumference. But neither the nature of the ground, nor the bent of Jefferson's taste, nor the practical character of his scheme, whether for the buildings or for the professorships, permitted this finer and more impressive disposition of the numerous structures he had in view. In his earliest plans, there was no arrangement for the East and West Ranges, for, in the beginning, he was contriving simply for Central College, which might or might not become the University of Virginia, with its far broader need of accommodation for an ever increasing number of teachers and pupils. Had he been designing for what was certainly to be the supreme State institution so soon as finished, with a large attendance of students and an ample endowment fund assured, it is remotely possible that the plan for the new seat of learning would have taken this nobler circular form at the start. But, as already stated, it would have been first necessary to choose a wider and more level site than the one selected for the site of a college with an obscured future.[26]

The first parcel of land, which covered an area of fortyseven acres, was, at the time of the purchase, an impoverished, disused field. The second parcel, amounting to one hundred and fifty-three acres, and situated about five-eighths of a mile from the first, contained a large quantity of valuable timber and stone for building, -the reason in part for its acquisition, since it was not needed as the site of any of the projected structures. It was also expected to form the watershed for the reservoir which was to supply the cisterns within the precincts.

The first parcel had been patented, in 1735, by Abraham Lewis, as a segment of a tract embracing eight hundred acres. In the course of the previous year, David Lewis and Joel Terrell, his brother-in-law, had acquired title to three thousand acres, which took in the whole of Lewis Mountain, situated on the western flank of the present University site. At an early date, George Nicholas, son of the colonial treasurer, Robert Carter Nicholas, had purchased a tract of two thousand acres, which included, among other sections of these first patents, that portion on which the University buildings now stand. In 1790, James Monroe bought the part to which the present Monroe Hill belongs. Twenty-four years afterwards, John M. Perry purchased of John Nicholas, then filling the office of county clerk, -the actual site of the University, and after holding it only three years, disposed of it to the Visitors of Central College. Perry was always addressed with the title of Captain, and had

sat on the bench of the county magistrates. He was a man whose business branched out in many directions, which would seem to indicate that he possessed at least the qualities of energy and industry, -he was the owner of large areas of ground, the proprietor of mills, and a professional contractor. It was this combination of interests, perhaps, that made him more inclined than John Kelly to accept the offer of the Visitors for his two parcels of land, for he not only thereby sold a respectable number of worn-out acres at a satisfactory price, but, in doing so, created for himself the prospect of securing profitable jobs in the course of the future building.. His residence at Montibello, in the immediate neighborhood, enabled him to give his personal attention without inconvenience. As we shall see, he, as well as his son-in-law, George W. Spooner, had an important share, in the construction of the College and University alike.

There seems to have been at first a cloud on the title to the site, for it was not until June 23, 1817, that a valid conveyance of it could be, made to Alexander Garrett as the trustee. On that day, Garrett, by the written order of Perry, paid to John Winn $1,066.81 of the money due for the area sold. That both tracts had passed into the possession of the College by September 16, 1817, is confirmed by Perry's acknowledgment of a deferred payment by Garrett, the late proctor of the College, for Nelson Barksdale was now the incumbent of that office.