University of Virginia Library

X. Cost of Buildings

What was the outlay required for the erection of the elaborate fabric of the University? The answer to this question is an important one, not only from an economical and historical point of view in general, but also because it demonstrates in another way the breadth and dignity of the work which Jefferson performed for his native State in founding and building that institution. It would be possible, from the contents of the proctor's vouchers belonging to the period of construction, to offer tables that would embrace every detail of the entire cost; but the prices of a few of the essential and fundamental materials used by the contractors will be sufficient for our present purpose.

The chief price list at that time was known as the Philadelphia Price Book, and we shall find that it governed many of the charges in the building of the University, although, in some cases, with modifications called for by local conditions. Take, for instance, the bids of the carpenters and joiners in 1819. "From my knowledge of the manner in which the work is to be done," writes James Dinsmore in May of that year, "and of the difficulty of procuring good workingmen, and also in the difference in [the price of] the materials between here and Philadelphia, I shall not consider myself justified in undertaking by the book (Philadelphia Price Book) as the standard, at a less advance than the difference of the currency between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Should it be more agreeable to the Visitors, I would undertake it at five per cent less, provided they get an experienced

Philadelphia measurer to measure the work after it is executed. At these rates, I should wish to undertake the carpenter's and joiner's work of the Ionic pavilion, with the range of dormitories attached to it." It seems that Dinsmore and Perry, after this letter was written, consented to reduce the amount of their bid because there had been a fall in wages since it was first submitted; and they asserted their willingness now to conform to the Philadelphia Price Book provided that a Virginia dollar should be accepted as equal in value to a Pennsylvania dollar. Perry, testifying, in 1830, in the suit of James Oldham, said that he recalled "that it was distinctly understood that the last work let at the University was to be done at ten per cent. below the first work undertaken. I recollect I applied to Mr. Jefferson, and urged it, that, as we were fixed then to do the work, I did not think it right that we should be required to work for less than we had done. His reply was, that work had fallen everywhere and that no more would be given."

The men who had the principal share in building the University, lacked, with hardly an exception, even a moderate amount of capital; when they did buy their own material, payment was usually effected by advances on their accounts with the proctor; the purchase, in each case, was really made by him, and a deduction for it was entered against the balance due the contractor on his books. But this fact rather increases than diminishes our ability to find out the most significant charges.

Down to a period as late as 1819, the former habit of stating all prices in the terms of the old Colonial currency of pounds and shillings was very often followed. Thus we find that the edge plank used in the construction of the pavilions was valued at so many shillings the one hundred feet; but when the quantity was very large, the

price was expressed in American units. Richard Ware, in 1820, bought 2,424 feet of W. D. Meriwether at the rate of thirty dollars the thousand; but this was probably undressed, as flooring plank furnished by Nelson Barksdale, the same year, was valued at forty-five dollars for the same number of feet. The shingles for the kitchen roofs were purchased at the rate of three dollars and seventy cents the thousand and scantlings at the rate of thirty-four dollars. In 1819, John M. Perry agreed to furnish three hundred thousand bricks in return for fourteen dollars the thousand for place-brick, and twenty-four dollars for oil-stock, while the charge of Carter and Phillips for the same proportions was respectively eleven dollars and fifty cents, and twenty dollars. The accounts reveal that the University was able to manufacture one hundred and eighty thousand bricks within the space of a month; and the expense of doing this was estimated at $539.68. This seems to have taken in the wage of the moulder, the hire of the laborers, and the cost of their food, as well as the cost of the fifteen cords of wood consumed in the making.

In the beginning William Leitch, of Charlottesville, acquired the sole right to supply all the ironmongery for the buildings; but as this monopoly brought down the criticism of the trade, and raised up enemies for the new institution, the contract, with his consent, was cancelled. As this material was afterwards procured from Richmond, the prices were very much swelled by the charges for hauling.

The most onerous single feature in the construction of the University was the importation of the capitals and bases from Italy. Writing to Cabell in September, 1821, Jefferson calculated that the seventeen capitals for pavilions II, III, V and VIII had cost $1,784.00; and that

the charge for the same number yet to arrive would be $2,052.00. The freight upon thirty-one boxes from Leghorn amounted to $264.00. In April, 1823, four Ionic capitals for pavilion II cost $60.00 apiece; four Corinthian for pavilion III, $180.00 each; six Ionic for pavilion V, $55.00 each; and two Corinthian for pavilion VIII, $110.00 each. Jefferson estimated that the outlay for transportation added fifty per cent to the expense at the quarry. In 1825, the cost of ten whole and two half capitals for use in the Rotunda amounted to $6,270.27.

The wages of ordinary stonecutters, in 1820, was twenty-five cents for each superficial foot. It was, however, fifty cents per foot in straight moulded work, and seventy-five cents in circular. Alexander Spinks, the quarrier, received a wage of thirty dollars a month, and as the charge for board was ten dollars only for the same length of time, he still retained a satisfactory margin of profit. In January, 1820, John Gorman was working at the rate of seventy-five cents the superficial foot in chiseling the Tuscan bases and capitals. For the Doric bases and capitals, on the other hand, he was paid at the rate of eight dollars apiece; for the moulded doorsills, four dollars and eighteen cents; and for the plain, two dollars and fifty cents; and for setting the sills, two dollars respectively.

The work of sheeting the roofs with tin during the years 1820, 1821, and 1822, was done by the hand of A. H. Brooks. His scale seems to have been six dollars and thirty cents for each square. Jefferson soon became dissatisfied with him because of this high charge, for such he considered it to be. "The tinning," he wrote Mr. Yancey, of Buckingham, "can be done as well for one dollar as he can do it. We were led to it from a belief that it could not be done without the very expensive and

complicated machine which he used to bind the tin, which he told us was a patent machine costing forty dollars, and not to he had in the United States. At that stage of our business, I got him to come and cover a small house for me. Seeing his machine at work and how simple the object was, I saw that the same effect could he produced by two boards hinged together. I had this done accordingly, and it did the work as neatly, and something quicker, than his forty dollar machine, while this could be made for fifty cents. Any person will learn to do it in a day as well as in a year."

This letter brings into light, not only Jefferson's unremitting vigilance in superintending the work of building at the University, down to the minutest particulars, but also his shrewd discernment and his mechanical ingenuity. Brooks seems to have been retained in spite of the discredit cast upon his machine by this object lesson, for, in 1826, he was employed in laying on such sheets of tin as the Rotunda needed, at the rate of five dollars and fifty cents the square, -which was only about one dollar less than he had charged for the like covering on the other buildings.[49]

The cost of all the materials used in the construction was very much increased by the high charge for wagonage and boatage. We have seen that packages from a distance, however ponderous, -and there was no one thing of its size heavier than a marble capital or base, were conveyed either in the overland vehicles, or in the river batteaux that put Charlottesville and Richmond into commercial intercourse by water. The rates for local hauling were moderate in comparison, but formed a serious expense on account of the quantity of lumber and

the like weighty articles dumped by carts within the precincts of the University. The hardware purchased in Richmond was transported by wagon at an average return of one dollar the hundred pounds; and this was also the rate for blocks of stone. If the overland freight consisted of but one or two casks, the charge was seventy-five cents the hundred pounds. On one occasion, William Estes hauled twenty-five boxes of tin from Richmond for eighteen dollars and fifty-eight cents; and this seems to have been the rate customary with his associates on the road: William Dietrick, James Myers, and Thomas Priddy. There is on record a charge by another wagoner, John Craddock, of forty cents the hundred pounds in the instance of one box of general merchandise and six boxes of tin. The rate for articles of ordinary weight brought by boat to the Milton landing was usually about fifty cents the hundred pounds; on four barrels of Roman cement transported thither in 1821, and from thence carted to the University, the aggregate charge was six dollars. When the Ionic and Corinthian capitals were imported in 1823, the boatage from Richmond to Scott's landing in Albemarle, was found to be very expensive, -Peter Rutherford and William Megginson were the owners of the batteaux used, and to one of them the sum of one hundred and twenty-five dollars was paid; and, no doubt, the same amount to the other. Not less than six persons were employed for the wagonage to the University, each of whom received five dollars for every day of service. Some were occupied with the work at least eight days and some only four. If the hauling was from the immediate neighborhood, and the materials were wood, rock or lumber, the charge by the day ranged from four dollars to five.

One of the continuous expenses which had to be met

was the hire of slaves and the purchase of provisions for their support. In 1820, the outlay on this score amounted to $1,099.08; in 1821, to $1,133.73; in 1822 to $868.64; and in 1825 to $681.00, a steadily falling scale from year to year. The charge for each negro was gauged by his age and physical condition. Sixty dollars was the average amount. When the slave was returned at the end of his time, he had to be fitted out with outer and underclothing, and double-soled shoes. The monthly wages of a white or free colored laborer ranged from ten to sixteen dollars. These men were either boarded by the University at a weekly rate, or they were supplied with meal and bacon, large quantities of which were bought for them, and also for the slaves, at the rate of ten cents the pound for the bacon, and two dollars the barrel for the corn. John Herron, the overseer, received one hundred and twenty dollars annually for his services; and this income was increased by his wife, an industrious seamstress, whose time was chiefly taken up with sewing for the hired workingmen.

The amounts required for the purchase of separate articles would fail to give even an approximate idea of the total expenditures for erecting the several buildings of the University. There are figures available to show what was the aggregate outlay which each of these edifices entailed. In 1820, Jefferson, writing to Cabell, enclosed for his examination the following estimates: ten pavilions were to cost six thousand dollars each; six hotels, three thousand, five hundred dollars each; one hundred and four dormitories, three hundred and fifty dollars each. Independently of the Rotunda it was his belief that the entire group could be constructed for $162,364.00. In 1821, he stated that the average expenditure for the pavilions which had been finished was

$8,982.49; for sixteen of the dormitories, $13,898.35, and for nineteen others, $11,083.63. The estimated amount to be paid for the pavilions not completed was $33,563.15, and for dormitories in the like condition, $39,462.60. Down to this time, the total estimated cost of buildings unfinished was $110,911.49; the actual cost of buildings finished, $84,188.51. The divergence between the expended outlay and the actual outlay for such structures as were completed before November 29, 1821, is thus explained in the report of the Board drawn up on that day: "The two (first) pavilions and their dormitories were begun and considerably advanced when all things were at their most inflated paper prices, and, therefore, have been of expanding cost; but all the buildings since done on the more enlarged scale of the University have been at prices of from 25 per cent to 50 per cent in reduction. It is confidently believed that, with that exception, no considerable system of buildings in the United States has been done on cheaper terms, nor more correctly, faithfully, and solid of execution, according to the value of the materials used."

An impression that the outlay for constructing the University was far larger than was justifiable was very wide-spread in 1822; Cabell conceded that the charge of extravagance was now on the lips of even the "intelligent circle of society"; but he did not think that there was any substantial foundation for it. Writing to Jefferson in March, he said, "The admissions of our own friends, and the known opinion of a part of the Board of Visitors, have mainly contributed to give currency and weight to the prejudice prevailing on this subject." He insisted that, instead of prodigality, there had been strict economy in the expenditures; but it is probable that the opposing opinion of Cocke, who was not so much under Jefferson's

influence, and who had had practical experience as a builder, was, in the main, correct. There can be no doubt, however, that Jefferson was rigidly accurate in saying, as he did do in the course of the construction, that, with the exception of one payment of seventy-five cents, every penny had been fully accounted for in properly signed vouchers. Cocke's disposition to question arose from his disapproval of some of the details of the style of architecture adopted, which required so much to be spent in apparently useless ornament. The expression "raree show," which he jocularly applied to the whole grouping, indicated that he thought that some of the sacrifices of money for sake of mere beauty were unnecessary. He was looking at the structure from the point of view of a man who was scrupulously keeping his eye on the amount of the balance in bank, whereas Jefferson never really considered that balance at all, because, in his anxiety to carry out his whole scheme in its perfection, he was sanguine that the General Assembly could be wheedled into providing the funds in the end. As a member of the committee of superintendence, Cocke, a very prudent and conservative man of business, would have crept forward in the expenditures with even more caution than if the buildings had been his own property, and not the property of the University. Cabell occupied no such relation to the actual construction as this, and he was naturally more complacent in accepting Jefferson's perfectly honest but too hopeful estimates, and more indignant than Cocke or Chapman Johnson when public criticism was leveled at the sachem for being too liberal in the use of the large sums already put at his disposal.

The following tables show the actual cost of the pavilions, hotels and dormitories, which were in existence when the University was thrown open.

           

Pavilions	Hotels	Dormitories
I. $ 9992.05	Hotel A $4,499.21	$78,509.58
II. 10,863.57	Hotel B 6,278.29
III. 16,528.47	Hotel C 4,525.38
IV. 11,173.30	Hotel D 6,245.39
V. 11,723.41	Hotel E 4,638.71
VI. 9,793.40	Hotel F 6,013.68
VII. 9,399.73
VIII. 10,786.86
IX. 8,785.04
X. 11,758.06

The balance sheet of the proctor for 1828 disclosed that, up to that year, the residential buildings of the University had called for an expenditure of $236,678.29, and the Rotunda, of $57,749.33. The figures for the latter edifice clearly exhibited Jefferson's proneness to undercalculate the cost of construction, for he had agreed with the proctor in thinking that $46,847.00 would be sufficient for its erection. John Neilson, -who was pronounced by Cocke to be one of the few men employed in the work at the University who was competent to make an estimate, -had predicted that the outlay necessary for the Rotunda would not fall short of fifty-five thousand dollars; and this anticipation turned out to be almost precisely correct. In 1830, the entire property belonging to the institution was valued at $333,095.12, in which account the lands were assessed at $9,465.75 and the books and apparatus at $36,308.07.