University of Virginia Library

VI. Men Who Built the University

We know the mind that conceived the plan of that noble group of buildings, and the hand which platted that plan, and drew up its vital specifications. Who were the men who actually laid the foundations, raised the walls, set the roofs, and decorated the entablatures? We have already mentioned the names of the contractors employed by the Visitors of Central College, and Spooner's letter, from which we have quoted, gives the names of most of those who were engaged in the work of construction after the University had been incorporated. Each pavilion in Jefferson's schema represented in his view a separate school. It is significant that the amount which, according to his estimate, each would cost was precisely the same as that which, by his calculation, would be required to erect each of the district colleges called for in his famous scheme for popular education. In a very

definite sense, he looked upon each of the University schools as a distinct institution, not unlike the projected academies, and, therefore, the man who built one of these pavilions, which typified in brick and mortar a single school, was entitled to as much credit as if he had erected the main structure of a district college.

Starting with the pavilion situated at the northern end of West Lawn, we find that the bricks used in its construction were laid by Phillips and Carter, of Richmond, whilst its woodwork was from the hand of James Oldham. The brickwork of the second pavilion, on the same side of the Lawn, was from the hand of Matthew Brown; the woodwork from that of James Dinsmore. The contractor for the brickwork of the third pavilion was John M. Perry, and for the woodwork, Perry and Dinsmore; for the brickwork of the fourth pavilion, Matthew Brown, David Knight, and Hugh Chisholm, and for the woodwork, John M. Perry. Carter and Phillips furnished the brickwork for the fifth pavilion -at the south end of West Lawn, -and George W. Spooner the woodwork. At least three of the pavilions situated on the East Lawn, beginning at the northern end, were erected by Richard Ware. The woodwork for the fourth pavilion seems to have been from the hand of James Dinsmore. The hotels, A, B, C, D, E, and F, were built by Perry, Spooner, Nelson Barksdale, Curtis Carter, William Phillips and A. B. Thorn. Perry alone had a share in the construction of all the hotels except Hotel D. The contractors for the numerous dormitories were the same men as the contractors for the pavilions and hotels. The bricks for the serpentine walls were furnished by Perry, Phillips, and Carter; the tin for all the houses by A. H. Brooks.[43]

We have already referred briefly to the history of John M. Perry. He not only conveyed to the College and the University almost the entire area of ground on which the group of buildings now stands, but he also had a more extensive part in their erection, as a whole, than any other person employed in the work. Spooner, who was associated with him in his carpentry, appears first under contract to General Cocke at Bremo, where he was a co-laborer with Neilson, afterwards a partner of Dinsmore in the construction of the Rotunda. He remained at the University during many years engaged in making the repairs which were soon constantly required; and he was so much respected there, that, during a short interval, he filled the responsible office of proctor. Curtis Carter and William Phillips were brickmakers in business in Richmond. The famous Brockenbrough House, afterwards the White House of the Confederacy, was a monument of Carter's mechanical skill; and he had manufactured most of the material used in the thick walls of the handsome banks of that city in those times. This firm, responding to the advertisement inserted in the Enquirer by the proctor in the spring of 1819, sent in a bid to supply one million bricks for the use of the University, which was an indication of the great scale of their operations.

Alexander Garrett, a shrewd and competent judge, and as bursar in a good position to compare the skill of the different contractors, pronounced the work of Richard Ware to be superior to that of all the others. Ware resided in Philadelphia, where he had built several of the most imposing public and private edifices adorning that cultivated city. He had seen the advertisement, -which had appeared in the journals there, -for the erection of the University pavilions and dormitories,

and had visited Charlottesville at once to offer his bid in person; and Jefferson had accepted that bid on the condition of his procuring his brickmakers and bricklayers from the North. It was perhaps due largely to them, and to the superior opportunities for training that had been open to them there, that the work with which Ware was credited, received such warm encomiums.

Subordinate to the contractors, there were at least three stonecutters who deserve some notice: John Gorman and Michael and Giacomo Raggi. Our first view of Gorman is in Lynchburg, where, before he was induced to come to the University by Jefferson, he had been employed in a large marble quarry. Having been heartily recommended by Christopher Anthony, a highly esteemed citizen of that town, he was engaged to chisel the Tuscan capitals and bases; and was also expected to do all kinds of stonework that might be required, such as keystones, and window and door sills. He seems to have hacked into shape most of those needed for the hotels and dormitories. He was paid in accord with a tri-monthly measurement; and the fact that one-half of the amount due him at the end of each interval was always held back for six months, would seem to prove that he was not entirely reliable, and, for that reason, had to be subjected to a check of some sort.

The Raggis were Italian brothers who had been imported in accord with the advice of Jefferson. The first intimation that he gave of his intention to pursue his architectural scheme on a more ambitious scale than was reflected in the first pavilion, was his request for authority from the Board of Visitors to bring in a stonecutter who had been trained in his art in Italy. Micheli and Giacomo Raggi were procured through the offices of

Thomas Appleton, the American consul at Leghorn. They arrived in Baltimore in June, 1819. They proved to be expensive from the very start: it was necessary to advance them a large sum of money before they sailed; and this was swelled by another draft on the bursar to pay the cost of the journey from Maryland to Virginia. The stone which they were called upon, after their arrival, to chisel, had nothing in common with their native marbles; and this was perhaps one reason why Micheli, at least, showed almost at once a lazy callousness to the requirements of his contract. Previous to July 16, some test of their abilities had been made, for writing on that day to the proctor, Jefferson said, "If Mr. Micheli should be sufficiently advanced in his carving of a capital to judge of its success by to-morrow morning, I would ride up in the morning to see it." One month afterwards, Spooner, in a letter to Brockenbrough, then absent in, Richmond, remarked rather pointedly that the "Italians are going on at the same gait, earning fifty cents a day." Their services, in the end, promised to be so unprofitable, owing primarily to the unfit nature of the stone which they had to work in, that, in September, 1820, the committee of superintendence decided to release them both, although the contract of one had still to run for eighteen months and of the other, for twenty. Giacomo had given only fourteen months of labor; Micheli, only twelve; and on that ground, the committee refused to pay the sum that would be due for their homeward passage. Although Micheli Raggi, the least industrious and trustworthy of the two, had been in the University's employment for twelve months, he had been the cause of an expenditure on his account of $1,390.56. Giacomo Raggi did not accompany his brother to Italy; or if he did, he had returned to Charlottesville by November 22, 1821, for, by that date, the outlay for his board and lodging had again become a charge on the funds of the University.[44]