Documentary History
of the Construction of the Buildings
at the University of Virginia, 1817-1828

Frank Edgar Grizzard, Jr.

Notes

265. Lewis Mumford, "The Universalism of Thomas Jefferson," in The South in Architecture, 63-64.

266. Jefferson alluded to Cabell's complaint and the visitors' mounting discord in his letter to James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and Chapman Johnson of 8-26 July 1819, located in ViU:TJ.

267. See Watson to John Hartwell Cocke, 8 March 1819, in ViU:JHC. While Watson's complaints apparently did not lead directly to any changes at the university, they are fairly indicative of the fact that as a group the other visitors lacked a full agreement with Jefferson's overall plan. Watson's unflattering portrait of the university should not be understimated, however, because although he was now no longer a visitor, he was a member of the House of Delegates, where the battle for the university's purse strings eventually would be waged, and he still could exert some influence. His letter to Cocke, who already agreed with many of Watson's complaints, may have served as an impetus for Cocke to finally take decisive action to alter the design more to his own liking.

268. See the Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 29 March 1819, in PPAmP:UVA Minutes.

269. Cabell to Cocke, 15 April 1819, ViU:JCC.

270. Cabell to TJ, 17 April 1819, ViU:TJ; see also Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, 174-76. When publishing this letter in 1856, Nathaniel F. Cabell wrote that his uncle "Mr. Cabell was wont to relate several pleasant anecdotes--better suited to a social circle than to a permanent record here--relative to the dissent of the other Visitors, not only from the plan of the buildings, but other novel and cherished ideas of the author; to the respectful manner in which their counter-opinions were conveyed to the venerable rector, and to the adroitness with which they were met. Their motives for general acquiescence are well stated by his biographer, Mr. Tucker. Though every essential part of the establishment required the sanction of the Board of Visitors, yet, on almost all occasions, they yielded to his views, partly from the unaffected deference which most of the Board had for his judgment and experience, and partly for the reason often urged by Mr. Madison, that as the scheme was originally Mr. Jefferson's, and the chief responsibility for its success or failure would fall on him, it was but fair to let him execute it in his own way. They doubted, also, concerning one or more features of its organization, and certain principles on which it was proposed to conduct its government. These they knew would be tested by time and trial, and errors, when manifested, could be corrected by their successors" (ibid., 174).

271. Cabell's concerns about flat roofs echoes former visitor David Watson's statement that "I fear too that the flat roofs will leak, for I scarcely ever knew a flat roof in Virginia that did not" (Watson to Cocke, 8 March 1819, ViU:JHC).

272. "My idea of the Greek & Roman & French plan of oval rooms & seats rising one above the other for an area, Col: [Wilson Cary] Nicholas thinks would be objectionable in this--that they would render the rooms useless for the accomodaton of the Professors at other hours than those of Lecturing. I had not foreseen this objection" (Cabell to Cocke, 15 April 1819, ViU:JCC).

273. By "upper level" Cocke means the Lawn, as contrasted to the eastern and western ranges. See the Board of Visitors Minutes, 29 November 1821.

274. For Cocke's sketches, which Frederick Doveton Nichols suggested might be the four drawings of dormitories in ViU:TJ by an unidentified draftsman, see Nichols, Thomas Jefferson's Architectural Drawings, nos. 374, 375, 376, and 377). Brockenbrough requested the drawings from Jefferson in early June along with Jefferson's study of Hotel A, which is also missing (see Brockenbreough to TJ, 7 June 1819, in CSmH:TJ). Lasala includes those drawings in his thesis, but does not attribute them to Cocke (see #19-08, #19-09, #19-10, #19-11, and #19-12 in Lasala, "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia").

275. Cocke to TJ, 3 May 1819, ViU:TJ; see also appendix E.

276. Garrett to Brockenbrough, 12 May 1819, ViU:PP.

277. TJ to Brockenbrough, 17 May 1819, ViU:PP. Brockenbrough had laid off the grounds in preparation for construction to begin while at the site in April.

278. TJ apparently completed all the drawings for the pavilions of the east lawn by the end of June (see TJ to ASB, 27 June; see also the description of #02-01 in Lasala, "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia").

279. TJ to Brockenbrough, 5 June 1819, ViU:PP.

280. TJ to James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and Chapman Johnson, 8-26 July 1819, ViU:TJ. For a discussion of the effects on Jefferson's architectural drawings by his adaptation of Cabell's suggestion, see Lasala's descriptions of #00-13, #00-14, #00-15, and #00-16 in "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia." Robert B. Taylor, already informed by Senator Cabell of the alteration of the ground plan, told Jefferson on 27 July that in writing to him "You have imposed on yourself, Sir, a very unnecessary trouble, as I shoud have adopted, with entire satisfaction, whatever measures you judgment & experience led you to pursue" (DLC:TJ).

281. George W. Spooner, Jr. to Brockenbrough, 9 August 1819, ViU:PP.

282. Garrett to Brockenbrough, 12 May 1819, ViU:PP. Cocke wanted to unite the hotels and dormitories in "massive buildings of 2. or 3. stories high," a proposal Jefferson could not concede to. See TJ to James Breckenridge, Robert B. Taylor, James Madison, and Chapman Johnson, 8-26 July 1818, in ViU:TJ, and appendix E.

283. Brockenbrough to TJ, 7 June 1817, CSmH:TJ.

284. TJ to Brockenbrough, 27 June 1819, ViU:PP. The proctor's design has not been identified (see in Lasala, "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia," #03-03).

285. George W. Spooner, Jr. to Brockenbrough, 9 August 1819, ViU:PP.

286. Spooner to Brockenbrough, 13 August 1819, ViU:PP.

287. Jefferson owned the 1766 edition, edited by the French printer and publisher Charles Antoine Jombert (1712-1784). See #4216 in Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 4:380.

288. Oldham to TJ, 21 June 1819, ViU:TJ. Lasala speculates that Oldham's draught was an unidentified drawing or drawings that might be copies of an architrave detail from Palladio (see the description of #19-15 in Lasala, "Thomas Jefferson's Designs for the University of Virginia").

289. Spooner to Brockenbrough, 9 August 1819, ViU:PP.

290. Spooner to Brockenbrough, 13 August 1819, ViU:PP.

291. These three mills were in Albemarle County. Gilmore's may be Gilmers Mill on Buck Island Creek which was operated by George C. Gilmer in the mid-nineteenth century and razed after 1907. Garths Mill on Ivy Creek is sometimes called Gaths Mill. Reuben Maury's mill, been built around 1810 and run by John Wheeler in 1814, was located on Moores Creek at Frys Spring. The enterprising university contractor John Perry became Maury's partner in 1819. See DNA: Records of the Bureau of Census, Manufactures of Fredericksville Parish, Albemarle County, 1820.

292. John Pollock, Account with James Dinsmore, 14 April to 29 May, 1819, in ViU:PP.

293. John Pollock, Account with James Dinsmore, 22 August 1819, ViU:PP.

294. John Pollock, Account with Dinsmore & Perry, 8 May to 9 July 1819, ViU:PP.

295. William D. Meriwether, Invoice for Plank, 30 August to 9 September 1819, ViU:PP.

296. See Garrett to Brockenbrough, 17 and 24 May 1819, in ViU:PP.

297. Wood to Brockenbrough, 15 June 1819, ViU:PP.

298. See Garrett to Brockenbrough, 30 July 1819, in ViU:PP.

299. Oldham to Brockenbrough, 20 June 1819, ViU:PP. William D. Meriwether delivered 3,140 feet of "1 Inch bordes and thirty feet of Scantling" to Oldham on 20 May, costing $59.45 (Loose Receipts, 6 and 12 July 1819, ViU:PP).

300. See Jonathan Michie Account with James Oldham, 17 July, and Loose Receipts, 29 September 1819, in ViU:PP.

301. William D. Meriwether to James Oldham, Invoice for Scantling, 18 September, and Jesse Garth, Account with James Oldham, 15 October 1819, ViU:PP.

302. Robert Lindsay, Invoice for Hauling Plank, 7-30 August 1819, ViU:PP.

303. Spooner to Brockenbrough, 13 August 1819, ViU:PP.

304. Spooner to Brockenbrough, 20 August 1819, ViU:PP.

305. See List of Militia Subscriptions, 1812, in ViU: Maury Papers.

306. John Bishop, Account with Richard Ware, 16 August to 6 September 1819, ViU:PP. John Bishop apparently operated a sawmill with his brother, Joseph (see DNA: Records of the Bureau of Census, Manufactures of Fredericksville Parish, Albemarle County, 1820).

307. Ware to Brockenbrough, 22 September 1819, ViU:PP. James Stone operated a sawmill in Albemarle County (see DNA: Records of the Bureau of Census, Manufactures of Fredericksville Parish, Albemarle County, 1820).

308. Ware to Brockenbrough, 27 September 1819, ViU:PP.

309. Ware to Brockenbrough, 18 December 1819, ViU:PP.

310. The bursar requested local merchants to submit proposals for "furnishing the University" (Alexander Garrett to Brockenbrough, 17 May 1819, ViU:PP).

311. See Peter Carr to TJ, 14 August 1814, in ViU:Carr-Cary Papers. Winn also served in the county militia during the War of 1812. See List of Militia Subscriptions, 1812, ViU:Maury Papers.

312. For example, John Winn & Co. arranged for the purchase and shipping of $894.68 worth of sheet iron from Baltimore in September, which apparently arrived at the university by the beginning of November. See John M. Perry to Brockenbrough, 4 September 1819, ViU:PP.

313. Bramham & Jones, Proposal, 16 May 1819, ViU:PP. John Winn and Horace Bramham served on a committee that arranged a July 4th celebration in 1823 which Jefferson declined to attend because of "age and debility" (see TJ to John Winn, William C. Rives, Daniel M. Railey, John M. Railey, John Ormond, Horace Bramham, and George W. Nicholas, 25 June 1823, in Ford, Jefferson Correspondence, 10:276-77.

314. Alexander Garrett to Brockenbrough, 12 May 1819, ViU:PP.

315. Brockenbrough to Garrett, 2 August, and Brockenbrough & Harvie, Invoice for Nails, 2-16 August 1819, ViU:PP. When the first shipment arrived on 6 August contractor John Perry wrote beneath the proctor's letter that "I have received the articles expressed in the above note but had No money to pay. I wish verry much to See you here on business that Cannot be done to well any where else." Guthrie later hauled more nails and other hardware to the university for the Richmond firm of John Van Lew & Co. See Loose Receipt, 27 October, 14 and 18 November 1820, in ViU:PP.

316. Brockenbrough & Harvie, Account with the University of Virginia, 2 August 1819 to 2 June 1821, ViU:PP.

317. Oldham to Brockenbrough, 1 August 1819, ViU:PP. Oldham previously had notified the proctor that John Perry "has disappointed me in my window silns and I have to looke for them from some other qurter . . . I Shall soon want a little asortment of Nails, brads, & sprigs for my window frames; the Planke kiln is not yet compleated" (Oldham to Brockenbrough, 20 June 1819, ViU:PP).

318. John Van Lew & Co., Invoice, 9 August 1819, ViU:PP.

319. Perry to Brockenbrough, 15 August 1819, ViU:PP.

320. John Van Lew & Co. to Brockenbrough, 8-9 September, and Loose Receipt, 12 September, in ViU:PP. The glass cost $90 and the hinges and screws $15.25. See John Van Lew & Co. to Brockenbrough, 1-24 September 1819, in ViU:PP.

321. John Van Lew & Co. to Brockenbrough, 3 October 1819, ViU:PP.

322. John Van Lew & Co. to Brockenbrough, 3 October 1819, ViU:PP.

323. John Van Lew & Co., Account with the University of Virginia, 9 August 1819 to 27 July 1820, ViU:PP.

324. See Dinsmore to Brockenbrough, 2 July 1819, in ViU:PP.

325. Sabbaton to Brockenbrough, 4 June 1819, ViU:PP.

326. Peyton wrote Brockenbrough on 2 December saying that "I have this day recd. from Sabbaton of New York 199 Window Waites" for the university, which will be detained until I hear from you" (ViU:PP). On 9 December Peyton paid $8.84 cash for "freight, Wharfage, Dragage Canal Toll & Commssn. for recg. & fordg. 199 Window Waits for the University of Va. from N. York" (Peyton to Brockenbrough, 27 March 1820, ViU:PP).

327. P. A. Sabbaton to Brockenbrough, 24 December 1819, ViU:PP. Sabbaton resubmitted his bill on 20 February 1820 after Brockenbrough failed to pay it. See Sabbaton to Brockenbrough, 20 February, and 9 March 1820, in ViU:PP.

328. TJ to Kupfer, 15 June 1819, ViU:TJ.

329. TJ to Kupfer, 25 June 1819, ViU:TJ.

330. Leitch to Brockenbrough, 14 May 1819, ViU:PP.

331. James Leitch, Account with the University of Virginia, 13 May 1819 to 15 April 1820, ViU:PP. The $827.87 worth of unlisted items sold to John M. Perry ($183.12), James Dinsmore ($200.98), Richard Ware (166.68), Giacomo and Michele Raggi ($189.23), Nelson Barksdale ($26.71), John Harrow ($10.25), and James Oldham ($50.90) were probably for personal consumption and had to be charged back against the workmen's accounts with the university.

332. See Thomas Cooper to TJ, 5 January 1819, TJ to Cooper, 15 April, and Cooper to TJ, 28 July 1819, in ViU:TJ.

333. James Dinsmore to Brockenbrough, 2 July 1819, in ViU:PP.

334. John Van Lew & Co. to Brockenbrough, 3 October 1819, ViU:PP. Van Lew shipped 20 boxes of tin (at $14 each) to the university in June 1820 by wagoner James Stone and 16 boxes more a month later by Thomas Jackson (see John Van Lew & Co. to Brockenbrough, 14 June, 21 July 1820, in ViU:PP). D. W. & C. Warwick, another Richmond firm, offered to sell up to 100 boxes of tin to the university for the same price (see D. W. & C. Warwick to Brockenbrough, 25 April 1820, in ViU:PP).

335. See Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 26 February 1819, in ViU:TJ.

336. John M. Perry, Roofing Estimate, 1819, ViU:PP.

337. See Alexander Garrett to Brockenbrough, 12 May 1819.

338. Brockenbrough to TJ, 7 June 1820, ViU:TJ. The proctor possibly was thinking of gutters when he wrote Thomas Perkins of Boston for an estimate of the cost of "Thin copper" in early June. See Perkins to Brockenbrough, 12 June 1820, in ViU:PP.

339. See Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the Central College, 26 February 1819, in ViU:TJ.

340. See TJ to Brockenbrough, 27 June 1819, ViU:PP.

341. Spooner to Brockenbrough, 9 August 1819, ViU:PP.

342. Spooner to Brockenbrough, 13 August 1819, in ViU:PP.

343. Harrison to TJ, 25 August 1819, ViU:PP.

344. TJ to Brockenbrough, 29 August 1819, ViU:PP.

345. Wade to Brockenbrough, 7 October 1819, ViU:PP.

346. Huffman and Fray, Proposal for Laying Pipe, 15 April 1820, ViU:TJ; see also Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough, Statement of Expenditures, 30 September 1820, in DLC:TJ, and Alexander Garrett's Statement of Vouchers, 14 September 1819 to 14 May 1822, in ViU:PP. Brockenbrough's statement lists Lewis Bailey and William Boin "& others" as ditching for the pipes, earning together $111.17 for their labors.

347. Brockenbrough to TJ, 7 June 1820, ViU:TJ. Jefferson later included "bringing water in pipes" in his estimate of the $10,000 cost for "numerous other contingencies" like covering with tin instead of shingles and levelling the grounds and streets. See his Statement of Probable Costs for the Buildings, 28 November 1820, ViU:TJ.

348. William B. Phillips to Brockenbrough, 20 August 1819, ViU:PP. George W. Spooner, Jr., reiterated Phillips' uneasiness that his men might become idle in a letter to Brockenbrough of the same date, located in ViU:PP.

349. John Hartwell Cocke, Jr., to John Hartwell Cocke, 27 August 1819, ViU:JHC. On 25 September the younger Cocke wrote his father again, informing him that "I have not been able to go up to the University since I recieved your last Cas the weather has been very bad ever since and therefore I can't answer you's with respect to the things which I omitted before" (ViU:JHC).

350. Phillips & Carter, Account with Alexander Garrett, 28 August to 22 September, and Phillips to Brockenbrough, 8 September, 1819. Alexander Garrett delivered 67 cords of firewood to the kiln at cost of $167.50 for the wood plus $30 for 6 days wagonage, and John Bishop delivered 20 cords to the kiln for $50. The following explanation of clinkers and their importance in bricklaying cannot be improved upon: "Generally a number of bricks in the kiln or clamp are overburned or partly vitrified--this to such an extent sometimes that partial fusion causes two or more bricks to run together, forming one mass more or less solid throughout. Overburned bricks are know as `burrs' or clinkers. The latter name is probably derived from the quality imparted by vitrifaction, which causes them to give a clinking sound when struck. Or the name may have been taken from the vitrified masses of coal, the product of furnaces in which great heat is sustained, and which are distinquished from the ordinary cinders by the name of `clinkers.' The first name, `burrs,' may have some reference to the fact that the bricks have been over-burned" (The Stonemason and the Bricklayer, 202). A cord measures 4 x 4 x 8 feet.

351. TJ to Brockenbrough, 1 September 1819, ViU:PP.

352. Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 4 October 1819, PPAmP:UVA Minutes.

353. TJ to Thomas Cooper, 19 November 1819, ViU:TJ. In a postscript Jefferson added that "the Pavilion, besides a large lecturing room, has 4. good rooms for family accomodation. one of them below, large enough for you study & library; a drawing room & 2 bedrooms above. kitchen & servant's rooms below. the adjacent dormitories (14. f. square) can be used for your apparatus & laboratory."

354. TJ to Cooper, 8 March 1820, ViU:TJ. Actually, the doors and windows could not be hung until after the plasterer finished his work (see TJ to John Vaughan, 8 March 1820, in PPAmP:Maderia-Vaughan Collection).

355. TJ to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, 1 December 1819, DLC:TJ.

356. Brockenbrough to Cocke, 5 November 1819, ViU:JHC.

357. George Wilson Spooner, Jr. (1798-1865), the son of Sally Drake and George W. Spooner, Sr., of Fredericksburg, worked with John Neilson on the construction of John Hartwell Cocke's magnificent Palladian mansion on the James River in Fluvanna County, Upper Bremo, from 1817 to 1819 before coming to the university. At this time Spooner was boarding with contractor John M. Perry (see Spooner to Brockenbrough, 13 August 1819, in ViU:PP); in 1821 Spooner married Perry's eldest daughter Elizabeth, and, when Perry decided to move to Missouri in 1835, the Spooners lived at Montebello, the stately house that Perry built for himself in 1820 about a half mile south of the unversity. Spooner, who worked with Perry on Senator William Cabell Rives addition to Castle Hill and on Frascati, Judge Philip Barbour's Orange County home, built Cocke's Temperance Hall near the university in 1855, and four years later he put William A. Pratt's "Gothic Revival facade with gables and towers" on the Albemarle County courthouse (Lay, "Charlottesville's Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:45-46). Between 1 Nov. 1819 and 25 Nov. 1822 Spooner received at total of $7,076.28 for his work at the university, including $1,870.30 for Hotel C and $1,690.34 for Hotel E (ViU:PP, Ledger 1).

358. Brockenbrough to Cocke, 7 October, and Cocke to Brockenbrough, 9 October 1819, ViU:JHC.

359. Brockenbrough to TJ, 12 October 1819, ViU:JHC.

360. Alexander Garrett to Cocke, 24 October 1819, ViU:JHC.

361. Someone, apparently one of Jefferson's granddaughters, wrote this note on Brockenbrough's letter to Jefferson of 12 October and forwarded it to Bremo.

362. Neilson's "existing engagements" included the building of Cocke's Palladian mansion at Upper Bremo.

363. Cocke to Brockenbrough, 14 October 1819, ViU:PP. The proctor agreed to a modified version of Cocke's arrangement in a letter to him of 27 October (ViU:JHC). Brockenbrough's engagement with Spooner apparently contributed to a misunderstanding between Cocke and Neilson about the latter's contract in the winter of 1820. See Neilson to TJ, 15 February 1820, in ViU:TJ.

364. Brockenbrough to Cocke, 5 November 1819, ViU:JHC.

365. Brockenbrough to Cocke, 17 December 1819, ViU:JHC.

366. TJ to George Ticknor, 24 December 1819, DLC:TJ.