Documentary History
of the Construction of the Buildings
at the University of Virginia, 1817-1828
Frank Edgar Grizzard, Jr.
Notes
Chapter 3
153. Cooper to TJ, 5 January 1819, ViU:TJ. During this period Cooper and
Jefferson frequently corresponded about the offer of a professorship at the Central
College that the Board of Visitors previously had extended to Cooper and which
was rescinded when the Central College became the University of Virginia.
154. James C. Fisher, Edward Burg, John Vaughan, and John Read to Nelson
Barksdale, 17 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
155. Robert Mills to TJ, 20 March 20 1819, ViU:TJ. Mills added in a postscript
that "we have raised the Column of the Washington Monument the last season to
upwards of 100 ft. & hope this year to get on the Capital. the whole is built with
white marble."
156. Ware to Nelson Barksdale, 26 March 1819, ViU:TJ. Ware listed his address
as 178 North 4th Street, Philadelphia.
157. See ViU:PP, Ledger 1, and Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy,"
Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:28-95.
158. A Bill for the Establishment of an University, 1818, in TJ's writing, ViU:TJ.
The act passed by the General Assembly on 25 January 1819 differed slightly from
Jefferson's draft. See also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia,
(appendix K) 447-50, and Knight, A Documentary History of Education in the South
Before 1860, 180-83.
159. David Watson, Miscellaneous Memoranda, 22-24 January 1819, ViU: Watson
Family Papers. David Watson (1775-1830), who commanded a cavalry company
during the War of 1812, served six terms in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Watson and his wife Sally Minor are buried at Brackett's, their Louisa County estate
situated on Hudson's Creek at Route 638 (Chisholm and Lillie, Old Home Places of
Louisa County, 182, 197, 221).
160. TJ to Cabell, 28 January 1819, in ViU:TJ; see also Cabell, Early History of the
University of Virginia, 154. Cabell, who had kept Jefferson abreast of the
legislature's actions on the bill prior to the votes, relayed him the news of its passage
in both houses. See Cabell to TJ, 21 and 25 January, in ViU:TJ; see also ibid., 152-53. Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas wrote Jefferson on 28
January to inform him of the bill's passage, saying, "The object was always dear to me, it is doubly so, as it
is now so compleatly identified with your fame" (DLC:TJ).
161. Jefferson also wrote Governor Wilson Cary Nicholas and William Cabell
Rives on 28 January to voice the same sentiments that he did to Cabell. The letters
are in DLC:TJ.
162. TJ to Duke, 24 January 1819, DLC:TJ. Richard Duke (d. 1849) and his
brother James (d. 1844) owned the Rivanna Mills (later Burnt Mills), a busy
sawmill on the Rivanna River (see DNA: Records of the Bureau of Census,
Manufactures of Fredericksville Parish, Albemarle County, 1820). Duke, who
served as sheriff of Albemarle County in 1847, and his wife Maria Barclay Walker
(1785-1852), the granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Walker of Castle Hill, lived at Mill
Brook in Albemarle County (see Gayle M. Schulman, "Court Square 1863 As
Recalled by Richard Thomas Walker, Jr.," in Magazine of Albemarle County
History, 52 (1994), 114-24; see also Woods, History of Albemarle County Virginia,
181-82).
163. Ambrose Flanagan, Proposal for Plank, 15 February 1819, ViU:PP.
Ambrose Flanagan and his brothers James and Whittle owned a 400-acre tract of
land near Hudson's and Bunch's Creeks in Lousia County and located west of Route
15 and south of Route 22. Red Hill, a "well-preserved, story-and-a-half frame
dwelling constructed over a partially raised brick basement," still stands on the
property (Chisholm and Lillie, Old Home Places of Louisa County, 214).
164. Flanagan to Barksdale, 1 April 1819, ViU:PP. Flanagan added the
stipulation "payable on the Delivery of the plank" when writing to Barksdale.
Barksdale's letter to Flanagan of 26 March, mentioned in Flanagan's reply, has not
been identified.
165. Thomas Appleton and Michele and Giacomo Raggi, Agreement for
Stonecarving, 17 February 1819, ViU:TJ. See also TJ's Memorandum on the Raggi
Brothers, 17 February 1819 to 17 February 1820, in ViU:TJ. The memorandum
shows the sculptors' advances and wages for the year 1819.
166. Appleton to TJ, 25 February 1819, DLC:TJ. The Strong did not actually
leave port until 18 March. See Appleton to TJ, 30 April 1819, in DLC:TJ.
167. TJ's docket on Appleton's letter of 25 February reads in part "recd June 30."
168. Cabell to TJ, 15 February 1819, ViU:TJ; see also Cabell, Early History of the
University of Virginia, 161-63. Governor Preston sent the commissions to the
members of the board on 27 February. See Preston's letters of that date to TJ, in
ViU:TJ, to Madison, in DLC:JM, and to Cabell, in ViU:JCC; see also the governor's
copies in Vi: Executive Letterbook. Preston's letter to Cabell and Cabell's reply of
17 March 1819 are printed in ibid., 160. On 3 March Jefferson sent letters to the
new visitors, copies of which (for Johnson and Breckenridge) are located in
DLC:TJ, inviting them to Monticello on the "day before our appointed meeting,
which gives us an opportunity of talking over our business, at leisure, of making up
our minds on it, & even of committing it to paper in form, so as that our report to the
College (where there is no accomodation) is a mere legal ceremony for signing
only" (TJ to Breckenridge, 3 March 1819, DLC:TJ).
Chapman Johnson (1779-1849) of Louisa graduated from the College of
William and Mary in 1802, studied law under St. George Tucker, and set up practice
in Staunton after being admitted to the Virginia bar. A member of the
state senate from 1815 to 1831 and of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in
1829, Johnson served on the Board of Visitors from 1819 to 1845. James
Breckenridge (1763-1846) of Fincastle graduated from William and Mary in 1785
and was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1787. One of the most prominent
Federalists in the Virginia General Assembly before representing the Botetourt
district of Virginia in the United States Congress from 1809 to 1817, Breckenridge
served on the Board of Visitors from 1819 to 1833. Robert Barrand Taylor
(1774-1834) returned to his native Norfolk to study law after graduating from
William and Mary in 1793. He soon became a respected attorney and was elected to
the Virginia General Assembly, and towards the end of his life he became Judge of
the General Court of Virginia. Taylor also served as a brigadier general in the state
militia during the War of 1812, and in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of
1829. Taylor served on the Board of Visitors from 1819 to 1822.
169. TJ to Cabell, 19 February 1819, ViU:TJ; see also ibid., 164-65.
170. See TJ to Watson, 19 February, and Watson to TJ, 21 February 1819, in
DLC:TJ.
171. TJ to Cocke, 19 February 1819, ViU:JHC.
172. Watson to TJ, 26 February 1819, DLC:TJ.
173. In the postscript of Jefferson's letter to Madison of 3 March 1819, Jefferson
wrote that he obtained Watson's signature on the original visitors' minutes when "on
my return I fell in with mr Watson who signed our proceedings" (DLC:TJ).
174. Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 26 February 1819,
ViU:TJ; see also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 451-52.
175. See Nelson Barksdale, Advertisement for Workmen, ca 1 March 1819, in
James Oldham's "Memoriall to the bord of Visitors of the U.Va. Octobr 3. 1823,"
ViU:PP. For instance, Jefferson sent a copy of the advertisement to Thomas Cooper
on 3 March with instructions for Cooper to place it in the Philadelphia paper "most
read by the mechanics." In the postscript Jefferson requested Cooper to inquire into
open stoves for the pavilions: "I believe they are called Rittenhouse stoves in
Philadelphia. the largest for their larger rooms should be about 26. I. wide in the
back, and a smaller size for the bedrooms. will you be so good as to select two of
the handsomest forms, and desire the holder of them to mark them for us? we shall
apply for 5. as immediately wanting, for half a dozen more towards the end of the
year, & others subsequently as we advance in our buildings. I know there is a good
deal of choice in forms, and wish to avail of your presence there to select" (ViU:TJ).
Cooper succeeded in finding suitable stoves, and the university sent Louis Leschot
to Philadelphia to arrange their shipment to Bernard Peyton in
Richmond. See TJ to Cooper, 9 April, and Cooper to TJ, 11, 15, 22 April, 21 June,
James Dinsmore to TJ, 1 July, Dinsmore to Brockenbrough, 2 July, and List of
Items Lacking Vouchers, 9 April 1819, all in ViU:PP.
176. Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 26 February 1819,
ViU:TJ; see also ibid. For a later resolution by the university's Board of Visitors
concerning the Bursar's compensation, see its Minutes, 3 October 1820, in ViU:TJ.
177. Watson to Cocke, 8 March 1819, ViU:JHC. Ten days later Watson wrote in
his memoranda book that about the "1st inst: I was at the site of the University of
Virga. The hands (negros) were then engaged in leveling the ground. Two
pavillions (as Mr. Jefferson calls them) are raised & covered in . . . The site is
beautiful; but the buildings appear to me to [be] too small. . . . The pavillions, two
stories high, are not sufficiently roomy for the convenient accommodation of a
genteel family, & no plan yet of attaching gardens or back grounds to them. The
dormitories are to small for convenience" (Miscellaneous Memoranda, 18-29 March
1819, ViU:Watson Family Papers; see also appendix D).
178. The five Brockenbrough brothers were the sons of Dr. John Brockenbrough,
Sr. (d. 1801), who studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the early
1790s and is buried at Doctor's Hall in Richmond County, and Gabriella Harvie
Randolph, daughter of Colonel John Harvie of Richmond and widow of Thomas
Mann Randolph of Tuckahoe, whom Herman Blennerhassett (Aaron Burr's
accomplice in the conspiracy and fellow jailbird) called "the nearest approach in this
town to a savante and bel esprit" (see Blanton, Medicine in Virginia in the
Nineteenth Century, 216, 367, 370, Weddell, Richmond Virginia in Old Prints,
1737-1887, 162, and Stanard, Richmond: Its People and its Story, 100). Dr. John
Brockenbrough, Jr. (d. 1853), a native of Essex County and a leader of the
Republican political power, the Essex Junto (or Richmond Junto) with Judge
Spencer Roane and editor Thomas Ritchie, was chosen cashier of the Bank of
Virginia when it was chartered in 1804. He served as one of the jurors in the Aaron
Burr conspiracy trial, and in 1818 built a residence on the corner of 12th and Clay
streets which was used as the executive mansion for the Confederate government
and as a public school by the city in the 1880s. Brockenbrough, whom John
Randolph of Roanoke described as "A one among men," later became the proprietor
of the Warm Springs and lived there until his death (see Dabney, Richmond: The
Story of a City, 64, 66, 72, 84, and Mordecai, Richmond in By-Gone Days, 89).
Thomas Brockenbrough was a Richmond merchant who often sold building
materials to the university. Dr. Austin Brockenbrough remained in Tappahannock
and served in the House of Delegates in 1820 and 1824. His son William Austin
Brockenbrough (1809-1858) and grandson Austin Brockenbrough (b. 1846) were
also doctors. Judge William Brockenbrough, who served on the Virginia Court of
Appeals, served with Judge Spencer Roane, Colonel Wilson Cary Nicholas, and
others on the 1817 commission to overseer the building in Richmond of
Philadelphian Thomas Crawford's Washington Monument. The laying of the
cornerstone for the monument was delayed, however, until 1850, the equestrian
statue was not unveiled until 22 Feb. 1858, and the symbolic groups were set up
only after the war in 1868 and 1869. By then the monument's total cost of
$259,913.26 nearly equaled the cost of building Jefferson's original Academical
Village (see Weddell, Richmond Virginia in Old Prints, 1737-1887, 119-20).
179. Stanard, Richmond: Its People and its Story, 95. Brockenbrough also built a
"typical city house of the early 1800's" in Richmond at 314 East Clay Street that
remained in the family until the late 1880s (Scott, Old Richmond Neighborhoods,
233-34).
180. Nicholas to TJ, 28 February 1819, DLC:TJ. According to his docket,
Jefferson received Nicholas' letter on 4 March.
181. After meeting with Garrett and Nicholas, Cabell wrote Jefferson on 12 March
that "from every thing I can learn in regard to Mr. Brockenbrough it would be
important to engage him, and as any salary we could give a Proctor would not
procure his services, neither Mr. [Chapman] Johnson nor myself, as at present
advised, see any impropriety in combining for that object, the appointment of
Proctor, with that of Undertaker of the wooden part of the buildings" (ViU:TJ; see
also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 173-74).
182. Nicholas to TJ, 13 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
183. See Nicholas to TJ, 27 March 1819, in DLC:TJ. Nicholas wrote Jefferson to
introduce Brockenbrough, "who I anxiously hope you will be able to employ on
some terms or other, I wish it most on your account, as I am sure he wou'd save you
much trouble & vexation." Jefferson replied to Nicholas on 1 April, instructing him
to attempt to engage Brockenbrough for $1,500 a year, and "we shall be all tolerably
contented. if you are obliged to go as far as 2,000. D. we shall not be contented but
will submit to it of necessity" (DLC:TJ).
184. See the Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 29
March 1819, in ViU:TJ.
185. See Wilson Cary Nicholas to John Hartwell Cocke, 14 April 1819, ViU:JHC.
186. Cabell to Cocke, 15 April 1819, ViU:JCC.
187. Preston to Cocke, 16 April 1819, ViU:JHC.
188. Brockenbrough married Lucy Gray in 1811 (see Eva Eubank Wilkerson,
Index to Marriages of Old Rappahannock and Essex Counties, Virginia,
1655-1900, 33). Jefferson later said that "Hotel E. was planned and built
particularly for the Proctor, and supposed to be sufficient for him including his
office" (TJ to Brockenbrough, 13 December 1825, ViU:PP), but Brockenbrough
apparently never occupied the building. After eleven years of dedicated service to
the university, the Board of Visitors demoted Brockenbrough to the office of sheriff
of the university (see appendix V).
189. Jefferson wrote Mathew Carey on 11 March requesting him to "forward by
mail a copy of the House carpenter's book of prices printed by him in 1812. it is of
importance to us as being the standard to which we refer for prices in our contracts
for all the buildings of our University" (DLC:TJ).
190. Nelson Barksdale, Advertisement for Workmen, ca 1 March 1819, in James
Oldham's "Memoriall to the bord of Visitors of the U.Va. Octobr 3. 1823," ViU:PP.
For references to the placing and appearance of this advertisement, see TJ to
Thomas Cooper, 3 March, and Cooper's reply of 11 April, TJ to Joseph Carrington
Cabell, 6 March, and Cabell's reply of 12 March, TJ to Dabney Carr, 11 March, all
in ViU:TJ, and Israel Collett's Account for Advertising, 18 March, in ViU:PP, as
well as the letters cited below. This advertisement appeared in the Richmond
Enquirer on 12 March (see Richard M. Burke to Barksdale, 6 April 1819, in
ViU:TJ).
191. Israel Collett's Account for Advertising, 18 March 1819, in ViU:PP, shows
that the advertisement cost $5 to publish in the Staunton newspaper.
192. Charles Johnston to TJ, 4 March 1819, in ViU:TJ.
193. William S. Reid, John M. Gordon, George Cabell, and John Bullock to TJ, 3
March 1819, in ViU:TJ.
194. James Bullock to TJ, 3 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
195. Hudson to TJ, 10 March 1819, ViU:TJ. Jefferson's dockets on the letters
sent on behalf of David White indicate they were all received on 10 March. By
"lathing" Hudson means preparing the groundwork of a wall or ceiling by nailing
narrow, thin strips of wood of various sizes to ceiling joists, studding, or rafters.
The lathes are covered with tile, slate, or especially plaster to create a finished (and
often polished) final surface.
196. Stuart to TJ, 9 March 1819, in ViU:TJ. Colonel John Jordan (1777-1854),
an Irishman who moved from his native Goochland County to Lexington in 1796,
and Samuel Darst (1788-1864), the son of prominent Lexington contractor
Benjamin Darst, operated the firm of Jordan & Darst from 1815 to 1824, with
Jordan negotiating the contracts and Darst managing its operations (see Lyle and
Simpson, Architecture of Historic Lexington, 81). The firm built some of
Lexington's "most impressive buildings," including Stono, Jordan's home near the
Virginia Military Institute at Jordan's Point, Darst's own mansion, Barclay House
(now called Beaumont) on Lee Avenue, and The Pines, the residence of the elder
Darst (ibid., 18-20). Jordan also contributed to Lexington's transportation system by
building roads connecting the town with the more established routes across the Blue
Ridge and Allegheny mountains, the bateau canal on the James River at Balcony
Falls beginning in 1824, and the North River Canal System in the 1830s (23-24).
Jordan previously worked as a brickmason at Monticello and owned a slave woman
married to TJ's brickmason slave "Brown," whom TJ ultimately sold to Jordan (see
TJ to Jordan, 21 December 1805, in MHi:TJ; see also Betts, Farm Book, 21-22,
McLaughlin, Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder, 103, 113, and
Lay "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County History,
46:52-53). Allen Hawkins layed the garden walls at Pavilion II and Hotels A and D
(ViU:PP, Ledger 1).
197. Dabney Cosby to Nelson Barksdale, 29 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
198. Cosby to TJ, 14 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
199. TJ to Bolinger, 9 April 1819, ViU:TJ.
200. Taylor to Barksdale, 16 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
201. James C. Fisher, Edward Burg, John Vaughan, and John Read to Barksdale,
17 March, and Mills to TJ, 20 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
202. William Mann Randolph to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., 17 March, enclosed
in Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., to TJ, 23 March 1819, in ViU:TJ. His undated
petition in ViU:TJ shows that Calverly was competent to do mahogany, satin, oak
maple, and marble graining "or any other fancy work to be done as low as any other
estimate," in addition to glazing.
203. Christopher Branch to TJ, 20 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
204. Walker to Barksdale, 20 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
205. Gibson to TJ, 22 March, and Brockenbrough to TJ, 22 March 1819, in
ViU:TJ.
206. David Hickey, Proposal for Plastering, 10 July 1819, ViU:TJ. Hickey
inadvertently dated his letter 1818. By "plastering and Stone worke" Hickey meant
the process of applying to the walls and ceilings the coats of lime, sand, and horse
hair composition that hardens into a firm smooth surface.
207. Parham to Barksdale, 23 March 1819, ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at
the University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:27-28.
208. Ashmead to Barksdale, 24 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
209. Curtis Carter and William B. Phillips to TJ, 24 March 1819, ViU:TJ; see also
O'Neal, "Workmen at the University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County
History, 17:28. Curtis Carter built a residence in Richmond at the northeast corner
of Main and First streets in 1814, later owned by Claudius Crozet; on the other end
of the block on Main Street, facing Second Street Carter's brother William Carter
built a "brick-and-frame house" in 1812 (Scott, Old Richmond Neighborhoods,
197). Before coming to the university Carter also built in Richmond a pair of brick
houses at the southwest intersection of Marshall and Munford streets (ibid., 228,
230), and from 1816 to 1818 laid the bricks for the Brockenbrough mansion, later
known as the White House of the Confederacy (see Lay, "Charlottesville's
Architectural Legacy," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:43). At the time
of his death Carter owned lots in the Libby Hill neighborhood of Richmond's
Churchill section, which his heirs sold in 1850
(ibid., 27). Carter, the principal brickmason at Pavilion VI and Hotel A, also laid
the paving bricks for the cellar of Pavilion IV; between 11 May 1820 and 4
February 1822 Carter was paid $4,951.81½ (ViU:PP, Ledger 1). Carter joined John
M. Perry to do the brickwork for dormitories nos. 5 to 13 on the east lawn and nos.
1 to 9 on the east range. Carter and William B. Phillips laid bricks at Pavilions I and
IX and dormitories nos. 1 to 4 and 27 to 28 on the west lawn. Carter & Phillips also
built the garden walls at Pavilion III; between 1 August 1819 and 25 November
1820 Carter & Phillips was paid $4,945.95 for brickwork (ViU:PP, Ledger 1).
Phillips worked alone as the principal brickmason for Pavilion X and Hotel C,
dormitories nos. 22 to 26 on east lawn and nos. 24 to 28 on the east range, and an
additional six dormitories on the west range. Phillips, who also worked on some of
the walls at Pavilions II and VII and did some unknown minor work at Hotel A,
contracted for the brickwork of the Anatomical Hall, for which he received
$1,998.73, and for the Rotunda (along with Thorn & Chamberlain), receving
$7,106.98; between 1 March 1820 and 25 November 1822 Phillips was paid
$7,798.95½ (ViU:PP, Ledgers 1 and 2). Phillips and brickmason Dabney Cosby of
Staunton apparently worked together on the west range dormitories.
210. TJ to Carter & Phillips, 9 April 1819, ViU:TJ. The detailed 3-page
agreement between Carter & Phillips and the university's proctor of 15 June 1819 is
in ViU:PP. It required "front Walls" to be "faced with Oil stock bricks, the others
with sand stocks, the interior mass to be place bricks, all to be laid with good bond,
to be clinkers, and not a single sammel brick to be used in any part of the work
under a penalty of five cents for every such brick, nor more than two bats for nine
whole bricks, the inner mortar to be one third lime and two thirds good clean gritty
sand, without any mixture of earth, the outer mortar to be half lime and half such
sand, and the whole to be grouted with a mortar of the inner quality." William B.
Phillips brought letters of recommendation from N. Turner, Christopher Tompkins,
and B. Tate, written at Richmond between 31 August 1818 and 15 March 1819 and
located in ViU:TJ, showing that he served a seven-year apprenticeship and then as a
foreman for Turner, who wrote that "I do not know a better workman in that line."
211. Hawley to Barksdale, 24 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
212. Gray to TJ, 26 March 1819, ViU:TJ. For Smith's proposal for painting and
glazing, see his letter to Barksdale of 29 March 1819, in ViU:TJ.
213. Hudnall to TJ, 26 March 1819, ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at the
University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:29.
214. Ratcliffe to TJ, 26 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
215. Adams to Breckenridge, 27 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
216. Ware to Barksdale, 26 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
217. Oldham to Barksdale, 27 March 1819, ViU:TJ. Oldham asked the favor of
"renewing" his proposal after James Dinsmore and John Perry told him that they
"were aboute handing in proposals different from theare former ones." See Oldham
to TJ, 3 April 1819, in ViU:TJ. Jefferson accepted Oldham's terms with an
allowance to him of the "Philadelphia printed prices without any discount" (TJ to
Oldham, 8 April 1819, document A in Oldham vs University of Virginia, ViU:UVA
Chronological File). See also TJ's second letter to Oldham of the same date in
which TJ encloses an architectural drawing of the "pavilion No 1 alloted to
[Oldham], and wishes him to take a copy for his own use so that Th. J. may receive
back his own on his return from Bedford . . . the master work men may lodge in the
Dormitories themselves and the under workmen in the cellars of the Dormitories"
(document B in Oldham vs University of Virginia, ViU:UVA Chronological File).
When Oldham later filed suit against the university he referred to these letters to
buttress his argument that his contracts were with Jefferson and not the proctor.
218. Widderfield to Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough, 27 March 1819, ViU:PP.
James W. Widderfield (b. 1789) of Albemarle County worked for Perry for at least
4 years (see Widderfield to TJ, 1 April 1821, in ViU:TJ). He received only $31.97
in direct payments from the university between 3 January 1821 and 1 October 1824,
however (ViU:PP, Ledger 1). Widderfield also worked with university brickmason
William B. Phillips on Christ Church Glendower. By 1850 Widderfield and his
wife Eliza J. Branham were living next to George W. Spooner, Jr., and his family.
See Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County
History, 46:49.
219. Dinsmore to TJ, 27 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
220. Dinsmore & Perry to the Board of Visitors, 27 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
Apparently Dinsmore and Perry joined Allen Dawson on 27 March as Dawson
surveyed the 6¼ acre tract of land that the university had purchased from Jesse W.
Garth. See Dawson's Survey of Plot Purchased from Jesse W. Garth, 27 March
1819, in ViU:PP.
221. Perry to the Board of Visitors, 27 March 1819, ViU:TJ. Perry and Proctor
Brockenbrough disagreed over the terms of Perry's contract in June. See
Brockenbrough to John Hartwell Cocke, 19 June 1819, in ViU:JHC. The proctor,
scheduled to move into a house now occupied by Perry in August, thought their
disagreement threatened his projected move.
222. Smith to Barksdale, 29 March 1819, ViU:TJ. Wood graining and
marbleizing are painting techniques employed to simulate more expensive wood or
marble and granite patterns.
223. Percival to TJ, 29 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
224. Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 29 March
1819, PPAmP:UVA Minutes. Barksdale's estimate of the property value for the
Central College has not been identified but in early September the total value of
improvements for the university was set at $5,281.80. See William D. Meriwether
and Robert Lindsay, Jr., Valuation of Improvements, 4 September 1819, in ViU:PP.
225. Woglome to Barksdale, 30 March 1819, ViU:TJ.
226. Dinsmore & Perry to Nelson Barksdale, 1 April 1819, ViU:TJ.
227. Oldham to TJ, 3 April, ViU:TJ, and TJ's two letters to Oldham of 8 April
1819, documents A and B in Oldham vs University of Virginia, ViU:UVA
Chronological File.
228. Neilson to the Board of Visitors, 3 April 1819, ViU:TJ.
229. Burke to Barksdale, 6 April 1819, ViU:TJ.
230. Flournoy to TJ, 8 April 1819, ViU:TJ.
231. Cobbs to TJ, 14 April 1819, ViU:TJ.
232. Wood to Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough, 15 June 1819, ViU:PP.
233. Joseph H. Smith of Philadelphia, who practiced an unknown trade, wrote to
Brockenbrough on 24 June thanking "thee for engaging to keep the Job . . . I find I
cannot make any estimate without first examing the primises, and knowing a little
more of the nature of the work" (ViU:PP). In July the last bid for the season filtered
in from Joshua M. Stokes, "a mechanic by trade a painter & Glaizer" who was
working in Petersburg. Stokes sent Jefferson a proposal written on Independence
Day and located in ViU:TJ but inadvertently dated 1818. Jefferson correctly
docketed it "Stokes Joshua M. Petersbg. July 4. 19. recd July 27" and enclosed it in
his letter to Brockenbrough of 29 July 1819, written from Poplar Forest.
234. "The establishment of a proctor," Jefferson had informed Joseph Carrington
Cabell in March 1816, "is taken from the practice of Europe, where an equivalent
officer is made a part, and is a very essential one, of every such institution; and as
the nature of his functions requires that he should always be a man of discretion,
understanding, and integrity, above the common level, it was thought that he would
never be less worthy of being trusted with the powers of a justice, within the limits
of institution here, than the neighboring justices generally are" (The Jeffersonian
Cyclopedia, 902.)
235. TJ to James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and Chapman
Johnson, 8-26 July 1819, ViU:TJ.
236. TJ to Ware, 9 April 1819, ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at the
University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:31. On his
retained polygraph copy, Jefferson made an estimate of the number of bricks
required for Ware's buildings: 100,000 for Pavilion V; 58,955 for Hotel A; 74,575
for Hotel B; and 345,000 for 23 dormitories, making a total of 578,530. Jefferson
offered Ware $11½ per thousand for place bricks and $20 per thousand for oil stock
bricks.
237. Cooper to TJ, 18 April 1819, ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at the
University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:31-32, and Lay,
"Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy," Magazine of Albemarle County History,
46:43-45.
238. Ware to TJ, 20 April 1819, ViU:TJ.
239. TJ to Brockenbrough, 17 May 1819, ViU:PP.
240. In describing this predicament, Jefferson and Cocke later wrote, "our
embarrasment was extreme." See TJ and Cocke to Cooper, 15 October 1819, in
ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at the University of Virginia," Magazine of
Albemarle County History, 17:37.
241. TJ to Brockenbrough, 28 May 1819, ViU:PP. Brockenbrough apparently
came to the university while Ware was making his initial visit. See Brockenbrough
to Cocke, 19 June 1819, ViU:JHC.
242. Ware to Brockenbrough, 11 and 22 June 1819, ViU:PP. One stone carver,
Joseph H. Smith, wrote Brockenbrough on 12 June saying he was "ready to engage"
as either a foreman, "working occasionally myself," or by contract, "at the regular
prices of Stone Cutting" (ViU:PP).
243. See Samuel Griscom to Brockenbrough, 19 June 1819, ViU:PP. Also, on 5
June Jefferson advised Brockenbrough not to omit the Philadelphia newspapers if he
advertized for stonecutters, "they are the cheapest, and generally the most steady &
correct workmen in the US" (ViU:PP). Abiah Thorn worked with Albemarle
County contractor John M. Perry on Pavilion VIII, Hotel B, and fourteen
dormitories on the east range, nos. 10-13 and 14-23. In the spring of 1823 Thorn
formed a partnership with Nathaniel Chamberlain and the firm contracted for the
Rotunda's brickwork. See Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of
Albemarle County History, 46:43, and Lay, "Jefferson's Master Builders,"
University of Virginia Alumni News, 80 (October 1991), 16-19. Thorn received
$364.25 in payments for brickwork at the university in his own name between 23
March 1820 and 30 September 1823; the firm of Perry & Thorn received $7,489.52
between 9 April 1821 and 22 August 1821; and from 14 May 1823 to 30 September
1824 the firm of Thorn and Chamberlain received $3,692.46 for brickwork
(ViU:PP, Ledger 1).
244. See Ware to Brockenbrough, 22 June 1819, ViU:PP. In that letter Ware told
the proctor that "if you could forward the buildings thats already up I would be
verry glad otherwise we Shall not have nor A place to lay our heads & I wish to
keep all of the Men to gether upon the premisis & away from the Town" (ViU:PP).
Jefferson informed Brockenbrough on 29 June that John Perry "promised to have
dormitories for the master workmen and Cellars ready for the others which was my
promise" (ViU:PP; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at the University of Virginia,"
Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:35).
245. See TJ to Brockenbrough, 29 June, in ViU:PP, and TJ to Thomas Cooper, 11
July 1819, in ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Workmen at the University of Virginia,"
Magazine of Albemarle County History, 17:35.
246. Ware to Brockenbrough, 22 July 1819, ViU:PP.
247. Ware to Brockenbrough, 26 July 1819, ViU:PP.
248. Garrett to Brockenbrough, 30 July 1819, ViU:PP. Also, George W. Spooner,
Jr., informed Brockenbrough on 9 August that the "Philada bricklayers have declind
laying stone & are engaged in their brick yard" (ViU:PP).
249. See TJ to James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and
Chapman Johnson, 8-26 July 1819, ViU:TJ.
250. See Appleton to TJ, 30 April, and TJ to Thomas Appleton, 28 May 1819, in
DLC:TJ.
251. TJ to John Hartwell Cocke, 7 July 1819, ViU:JHC, and TJ to James
Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and Chapman Johnson, 8-26 July,
ViU:TJ. The quotes are from the second letter. See also Jeremiah Sullivan and
Thomas Pettigrue to TJ, 9 August 1819, in ViU:TJ.
252. Carr to Jefferson, 24 June 1819, ViU:Carr-Cary Papers.
253. TJ to Brockenbrough, 2 July 1819, ViU:PP; see also James Dinsmore to
Brockenbrough 2 July 1819, in ViU:PP.
254. TJ to James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and Chapman
Johnson, 8-26 July 1819, ViU:TJ. The quotes were written on 11 July, the day
before Jefferson wanted to leave for Bedford. Jefferson's granddaughter was ill,
however, forcing him to delay his trip once again. See TJ to Brockenbrough, 14
July 1819, in ViU:PP. In the fall, even more to Jefferson's chagrin, the Raggis
informed Jefferson that they could travel back to Italy and carve the four large
Corinthian and ten Ionic capitals and their bases, well finished and crated, for half
the cost of producing them in the uncertain Virginia stone. See Michele and
Giacomo Raggi to TJ, 17 September 1819, in ViU:TJ; see also O'Neal, "Michele
and Giacomo Raggi at the University of Virginia," Magazine of Albemarle County
History, 18:18-19. The Italians' dissatisfaction in Virginia eventually led Jefferson
to see the wisdom of their proposal.
255. Ware to Brockenbrough, 26 July 1819, ViU:PP. As for marble wearing
down chisels, see Daniel Davis' Account with the University of Virginia, 28 July to
9 November 1819, in ViU:PP. Davis sharpened 166 chisels and made 6 more
between those dates, earning (with some other work he did on stone tools) nearly
£20.
256. See Christopher Anthony to Brockenbrough, 27 July 1819, in ViU:PP.
Christopher Anthony (d. 1835), a prominent Lynchburg Quaker, suffered a financial
reverse in the Panic of 1819 but recovered during the 1820s. His daughter,
Margaret Couch Anthony Cabell (b. 1814), wrote the first history of Lynchburg,
Sketches and Recollections of Lynchburg, published in 1857 (see Chambers,
Lynchburg: An Architectural History, 21, 78, 107).
257. Jeremiah Sullivan and Thomas Pettigrue recommended "Patomac Marble
both in slab and block" of the "best quality" when writing Jefferson on 9 August
(ViU:TJ).
258. TJ to Brockenbrough, 29 July 1819, ViU:PP. In late June Brockenbrough
requested a drawing (from Palladio's first book) of the bases and capitals for the
Tuscan and Doric columns in an attempt to ascertain the expense involved in cutting
each but the outcome of his experiment is unknown. See James Dinsmore to TJ, 1
July, in ViU:TJ, and Dinsmore to Brockenbrough, 2 July 1819, in ViU:PP.
259. TJ to Brockenbrough, 17 August, ViU:PP. John Gorman's Agreement for
Stonecutting, 1819, is in ViU:PP; see also appendix F.
260. Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County
History, 46:40; see also Lay, "Jefferson's Master Builders," University of Virginia
Alumni News, 80 (October 1991), 16-19. John Gorman (1786-1827) bought a
triangular building lot to the east of the university (situated on the corner of modern
14th Street and University Avenue) from James Dinsmore in 1825 and was living
there with his wife and daughter Mary Ann at the time of his death (Lay,
"Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County History,
46:34, 40). Gorman received $2,822.21 between 30 September 1819 and 30
November 1822 for work performed at the university, which also included setting
stove stones, gate blocks, and steps, in addition to stonework at the gymnasia and
some of the dormitories (ViU:PP, Ledger 1).
261. Alexander Garrett and George W. Spooner, Jr., visited the quarry in July
and August but found little work going on. In a letter to Brockenbrough of 30 July
Garrett mentioned that he had visited the quarry twice and found the stonemasons
"absent" each time (ViU:PP). Spooner was more blunt in his assessment of the
quarry work. On 9 August he observed to the proctor that the "twoo Ittalians are
going on quite laisurely they have cut three Bases and one Corrinthian Cap the twoo
from Philadelphia I went out to the Quarries to see, they appear to go on quite slow
owing to the difficulty in Quarryg this verry hard Rock" (ViU:PP). And on 13
August Spooner informed Brockenbrough that the "Itallians are going on the same
gate earning about fifty cents a day as for the youngest of them I verry seldom see
him" (ViU:PP). Spooner said the quarry needed a "man acquainted with blowing"
rock and moved the hands onto Meriwether's property about three-fourths of a mile
beyond the present quarry.
262. Appleton to TJ, 10 September 1819, DLC:TJ.
263. Brockenbrough to Cocke, 7 October 1819, ViU:JHC. Cocke assured
Brockenbrough that the free stone could be carved into Ionic capitals but doubted
whether Corinthian capitals could be made of it. See Cocke to Brockenbrough, 9
October 1819, in ViU:PP.
264. Conway to Brockenbrough, 13 October 1819, ViU:PP. For the saga of the
Richmond stone, see also Conway to Brockenbrough, 21 November and 8
December, and Brockenbrough to Cocke, 17 December 1819, in ViU:PP.
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