tja: Notes File

Note: p3f2 Jefferson to Page, February 21, 1770. Writings of Jefferson (Ford, 1892-99), I. 370. [back]

Note: p4f1 Writings of Jefferson, (Ford) X. 395. [back]

Note: p4f2 This description would apply to the collection until Jefferson employed the "polygraph" made for him by Peale. Before that time the copying-press gave imperfect and at times undecipherable copies. [back]

Note: p4f3 Mass. Hist. Collections , Seventh Series, I. XXXV. The date of the letter is not given, but it must have been before 1829. [back]

Note: p4f4 Tucker , Life of Thomas Jefferson, I. XV. [back]

Note: p5f1 Randall, Life of Thomas Jefferson, I. Xi. The preface is dated 1857. [back]

Note: p6f1 Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson, Viii. [back]

Note: p6f2 I have not been able to obtain a copy of the will of Thomas Jefferson Randolph. [back]

Note: p6f3 Bulletin of the Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State, no. 10 (I903), iii. This particular series of Jefferson Mss. was bound in nineteen volumes supplementary to what call the "original" Department collection. [back]

Note: p7f1 Report of the Librarian of Congress (1907), 135. It was from Mr. Wilson Cary Nicholas Randolph that the University of Virginia received the Jefferson drawings, sixty-two pieces in all, now in its possession. [back]

Note: p7f2 Ib. , (1912), 38. [back]

Note: p7f3 The following description of this collection is taken from the document laid before Congress:

This collection of Mr. Jefferson's papers, now offered for sale, numbers by actual count 3060, none of which are duplicated in the collection of the State Department. The papers are contained in 21 large portfolios. The letters are usually written on large sheets of paper, and are, save in a very few instances, in perfect preservation. They are also, almost without exception, autograph letters . . .

In addition to these 3060 letters of Jefferson's there are a number of letters to him, 170 of which I have closely examined and found to be very valuable; doubtless there are many others equally valuable. Of those that I have examined are letters from such men as Benj. Rush, his brother Richard, Adams, Madison, and Monroe, Kosciuszko, Wm. C. Rives, David Rittenhouse, Timothy Pickering, Edward, Robert, and Brockholst Livingston, Edmund Pendleton, Edmund Randolph, Count Jean Potoçki (the Polish historian), Arthur Lee, Chief Justice Story, George Ticknor, and Andrew Stevenson (Speaker of the House and Minister to France)

In addition to these are the Nicholas letters which show plainly the sources of the famous resolutions of 1798 and 1799 letters from Wilson Cary Nicholas, George Nicholas, of Kentucky, and James Breckenridge, of Kentucky, whose names were so closely connected with the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions.

[back]

Note: p8f1 Mary Walker Randolph, who married William Mann Randolph. She was a daughter of Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Jr. [back]

Note: p8f2 Daughter of John C. Randolph Taylor, who married Martha Jefferson Randolph, daughter of Thomas Jefferson Randolph. [back]

Note: p13m2 For our knowledge of Jefferson's personality [back]

Note: p13m3 For the history of American architecture [back]

Note: p13f1 Preserved in the libraries of the Maryland Historical Society, the American Institute of Architects, and the Library of Congress. Many of these relating to the Capitol have been published by Glenn Brown in his History of the United States Capitol (1900), vol. 1. Thornton's elevation for the President's House has been published by Brown in an article, Dr. William Thornton, Architect, Architectural Record (1896), vol. ¢, pp. 53-70; and Hoban's in Restoration of the White House. Message of the President of the United States transmitting the report of the Architects. (1903.) 57th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Document, no. 197, after p. 47. [back]

Note: p13f2 The earliest is that of Andrew Hamilton for the old State House in Philadelphia, published by Th. Brabazon: Our Earliest Civic Center, Architectural Record (1913), vol. 34, p. 2. Facsimiles of the two drawings for Harvard Hall, 1764, probably by Governor Francis Bernard, are given in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 14 (1913), facing pp. 1¢ and 42 (kindly called to my attention by Mr. W. C. Lane.). Several drawings by George Washington have been reproduced, one for Pohick Church, about 1770, in B. J. Lossing: The Home of Washington (1866) p. 74 ; others for the remodelling of Mount Vernon, begun 1784, Ib. , p. 135 et seq. ; J Winsor: Narrative and Critical History of America (1888) , vol. 7, p. 225; and The Georgian Period (Pt. VI, pls. 33 and 35.) L'Enfant's elevation of Federal Hall in New York, 1789, is reproduced in Massachusetts Magazine (June, 1789), vol. 1, facing p. 329, and, from the same plate, in Columbia Magazine (August, 1789), vol. 3, facing p. 504. Reprinted in Winsor, op. cit. , vol. 7, p. 331. [back]

Note: p14m1 For the study of the classical revival and other periods [back]

Note: p14m2 Development of opinion regarding Jefferson as architect: Contemporary appreciation and subsequent neglect. [back]

Note: p14f1 Travels in North America (London, 2d ed., 1787), vol. 2, pp. 41-42. [back]

Note: p14f2 Travels through the United States (London, 2d ed., 1800), vol. 3, pp. 61 and 137-38. [back]

Note: p14f3 Traces of this appear in Wirt's official eulogy of Jefferson delivered October 19, 1826, and in H. S. Randall's Life of Jefferson (3 vols., 1858) . [back]

Note: p14m3 No-it was not Dunlap himself who saw them, but Mills who sent Dunlap the speciously worded notes on which Dunlap's passage was based. FK [back]

Note: p14f4 History of the Origin and Progress of the Arts of Design in America (1834), vol. 2, pp. 225-26. [back]

Note: p14m4 The revival of interest [back]

Note: p14f5 U.S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information no. 1 (1888). [back]

Note: p14f6 "Thomas Jefferson, Architect, "Alumni Bulletin of the University of Virginia, vol. 1, pp 68-74, reprinted in American Architect (1895), vol. 47, pp. 29-30. [back]

Note: p15m1 Professional skepticism and popular belief [back]

Note: p15f1 "History of Old Colonial Architecture" Architectural Record (1894-95), vol. 4, pp. 348-51 "The Architecture of American Colleges," Ib. , (1911) vol. 30, p. 73. "The Old Greek Revival" American Architect (1910-1911),vol. 91, p.125, and vol. 99, p. 84. [back]

Note: p15f2 History of the United States Capitol (1900), vol. I, p.97. [back]

Note: p15f3 Letters of Thomas Jefferson and William Thornton, Architect, relating to the University of Virginia. Journal of the American Institute of Architects , (1913), vol. I, pp.21-27. [back]

Note: p15f4 "Thomas Jefferson, The Architect," Architectural Record (1911), vol. 29, pp.177-85. "Monticello and the Jeffersonian Style," Country Life in America (Oct. 1, 1911), vo1. 20, pp.43-46. [back]

Note: p15f5 Thomas Jefferson as an Architect and a Designer of Landscapes , by W. A. Lambeth and W. H. Manning (1913) [back]

Note: p15f6 Thus Miss Stapley assigns Jefferson's inspiration to the Italian Renaissance, a misleading statement earlier made by O. Z. Cerwin: "The So-called Colonial Architecture of the United States," American Architect (1895), vo1. 48, p. 130. Lambeth recognizes Jefferson's classical inspiration but makes such far-reaching claims of superiority for him as to tend to discredit the presentation as a whole ( op. cit. , esp. p. 93). [back]

Note: p15f7 "Jefferson's Place in Our Architectural History,&rdquo Journal of the American Institute of Architects (1914), vol. 2, pp. 230-35 [back]

Note: p15m2 An attempted vindication [back]

Note: p15f8 The Nation (New York, January 8, 1914), vol. 98, p. 33. Journal of the American Institute of Architects (1914), vol. 2, pp.329-30. [back]

Note: p15f9 Architectural Quarterly of Harvard University (1914), vol. 2, pp. 89-137. Journal of the American Institute of Architects (1915), vol. 3, pp. 371-81, 421-34, 473-91. Separately reprinted. A briefer statement in Art and Archaeology (May, 1915), vol. I, no. 6, pp. 219-27. [back]

Note: p16m1 Materials for study: Published documents [back]

Note: p16f1 Edited by P. L. Ford (1892-99), and by A. A. Lipscomb and A. E. Bergh (1903-04), both since reprinted. [back]

Note: p16f2 Massachusetts Historical Society Collection (1900), Seventh Series, vol. I. [back]

Note: p16f3 Calendar of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson. (3 vols., 1894-1903.) [back]

Note: p16f4 Especially the list of the papers, books, and maps on file in the Office of Public Grounds and Buildings ( Report of Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, 1900 , pt. 8, pp. 5281-83); and of the papers on file in the State Department "relative to the affairs of the Federal District and the city of Washington," etc. ( Ib. , pp. 5283-85.) [back]

Note: p16f5 Especially: Documentary History of the Construction and Development of the United States Capitol Building and Grounds (1904), 58th Congress, 2d Session, H.R. Report, no. 646. [back]

Note: p16f6 Calendar of Virginia State Papers (II vols., 1875-93). [back]

Note: p16f7 E.g., Virginia Historical Society, Catalogue of books and manuscripts. (1901.) [back]

Note: p16m2 Unpublished documents [back]

Note: p17f1 A list of Jefferson's architectural drawings outside the Coolidge collection, so far as known, with indications where any have been published, will be found in this volume. [back]

Note: p17m1 The monuments [back]

Note: p17f2 E g., J. E. Chandler : The Colonial Architecture of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia (1882); Crane and Soderholz : (same title), n.d.; E. C. Mead : Historic Homes of the Southwest Mountains, Virginia (1899); E. T. Sale : Manors of Virginia in Colonial Times (1909); R. A. Lancaster : Historic Virginia Homes and Churches (1915). [back]

Note: p17f3 Cf. especially The Georgian Period, being Measured Drawings of Colonial Work (3 vols., 1900-02), particularly pt. IX, including drawings of Monticello and the University of Virginia buildings. [back]

Note: p17m1 Difficulties and methods [back]

Note: p18m1 General state of architecture in America. [back]

Note: p18f1 For the best analyses of the development of our colonial architecture and-its relations with that of Europe, see F. R. Vogel: Das Amerikanische Haus (1910), especially pp. 89-93, and H. D. Eberlein: The Architecture of Colonial America (1915). [back]

Note: p18m2 Its character in point of style. [back]

Note: p18f2 T. Wescott: The Historic Mansions and buildings of Philadelphia (1877), p.82. [back]

Note: p18f3 The Georgian Period (1902), vol.3, pp.77-78. Montgomery Schuyler first made the suggestion (Architectural Record [1894-95], vol. 4, p.327) that by "Gibson" James Gibbs was meant. He inclined to think that "it was he who designed St. Michael's," not canvassing the more probable case that the design was suggested by one in Gibbs's Book of Architecture, published in 1728. [back]

Note: p19f1 Cummings, loc. cit. , p. 471. Cf. the engraving and description published in Massachusetts Magazine (1789), vol. 1 p. 131. [back]

Note: p19m1 Conditions in Virginia: Difficulties [back]

Note: p19f3 Randall: Life of Jefferson, vol. 1, pp. 2-3. [back]

Note: p19f4 Notes on Virginia. Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 2, p. 212. [back]

Note: p19f5 Id., ib. An old view of the building is reproduced in L. G. Tyler: Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital (1907), p. 207. [back]

Note: p19f6 View in Georgian Period, pt. xii, Pl. 22. Cf. Leoni's translation of Palladio (2d ed., 1721), book ii, Pl. 41, and Gibbs's Book of Architecture (1728), Pl. 57. [back]

Note: p20f1 For the curriculum of that day, see H. B. Adams: Jefferson and the University of Virginia (1888) , p. 4I, and his Thc College of William and Mary, U.S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information no. 1 (1887), p. 20. [back]

Note: p20m1 Opportunities [back]

Note: p20f2 William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, vol. 19, p. 49. An early account is given by La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt; Travels (2d ed.), vol. 3, pp. 47-56. [back]

Note: p20f3 Kennet's Antiquities of Rome and Noble's Elements of Linear Perspective. William and Mary College Quarterly, vol. 15, pp. 101-13. [back]

Note: p20f4 The volumes of the William and Mary College Quarterly contain many inventories of colonial libraries. See also the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, especially vols. 2 and 17. [back]

Note: p20f5 A Catalogue of the Books in the Library at Westover, as offered for sale, was printed in the Virginia Gazette, December 19,1777; reprinted in J. S. Bassett: The Writings of Colonel William Byrd (1901), pp.413 ff. The architectural entries, omitting books only partially relevant, are as follows: Leicester's Antiquities of Cheshire, Kennet's Antiquities, Richard's Palladio, Antiquité de France (? Maffei, 1734), Roma illustrate, The Art of Sound Building (? Halfpenny, 1725), Moxon's Perspective, Antiquitez de Perrier, [Views] of Versailles, Maison de France, Palazzi di Roma, Vitruvius Britannicus (3 vols.), Seats in Great Britain, Palladio's Architecture (twice repeated), Alberti's Atrchitecture (2 vols.), Principes L'Architecture, Traité d'Architecture (? Leclerc, 1714), Donatus' Roma vetus et Recens, Architecture di Scamozzi, Rettrato di Roma Antica, Description de Versailles, Lamy's de Perspective, Practical Architecture, Abregé de Vitruve, Chauncy's Antiquities of Hertfordshire, Potter's Antiquities of Greece. [back]

Note: p20m2 Jefferson's personality. [back]

Note: p21m1 Student days. [back]

Note: p22m1 First creative impulse [back]

Note: p22f1 S.N. Randolph ; The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson (1871) p. 32 [back]

Note: p22f2 Letter to John Page, February 21, 1770, Lipscomb : Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 4, p. 19 [back]

Note: p22m3 E.g., Figures 16, 17, 163 [back]

Note: p22m5 Figures 5, 6, et seq., and accompanying notes [back]

Note: p22m6 The allegiance to Palladio [back]

Note: p22m7 Figures 68, 72, 80 [back]

Note: p23f1 Concerning Palladio's historical position and his relation to his art, so often misunderstood, see especially Fritz Burger : Die Villen des Andrea Palladios. (1909.) [back]

Note: p23m1 Character of Palladio's work [back]

Note: p24f1 Leoni, book II, Pl. 41. [back]

Note: p24f2 Of other architectural works which he may have owned at the time (cf. page 34 and the section entitled The Architectural Books owned by Thomas Jefferson I have seen copies of Robert Morris's Select Architecture. Being...designs of plans...well suited to both town and country... of which no copy has been found in a search through the leading American architectural and general libraries. Even the catalogues of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the British Museum are silent regarding it. [back]

Note: p25f1 A notable example of the octagon was the rear wing of the Roger Morris house in New York, which Vogel dates from 1758 ( Das Amerikanische Haus Fig. 123). The octagonal projection or bay occurs in several cases at Annapolis and Philadelphia before 1770, though not so frequently as at Charleston, which Jefferson had not visited. At Charleston in a number of cases, and to a lesser degree at Annapolis, the bay results from a central projecting salon, an evidence perhaps of French influence there. Cf. for Annapolis, Vogels, Figs. 130-41, pp. 122-123; for Charleston, Georgian Period , pt. x; for Philadelphia, Wise and Biedleman: Colonial Architecture...in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. (1913.) [back]

Note: p26m3 The manner of their construction [back]

Note: p26m4 Figures 68-92 [back]

Note: p26f1 The interest of Stanford White in the house during his work on the new buildings for the University of Virginia, and his comments on it, were made known to me by Mr. Rodes, the manager of the Monticello estate. [back]

Note: p26m5 The dependencies [back]

Note: p76f1 Cf. Gibbs: Book of Architecture, Plate 57. [back]

Note: p27m5 Grounds and decorative structures [back]

Note: p27f2 Full text in Randall: Life of Jefferson, vo1. 1, pp. 60 61. The original is in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. [back]

Note: p27f3 T. A. Glenn: Some Colonial Mansions, p. 65. [back]

Note: p28m1 Later decorative structures [back]

Note: p28m6 Chronology of the design and construction [back]

Note: p28f1 Letter to Page of February 21, Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 4, p. 19. [back]

Note: p28f2 Ib., vol. 4, p. 233. [back]

Note: p28f3 Life of Jefferson, vol. 1, p. 59. Randall places the date a year earlier, but here his oral information is less trustworthy than Jefferson's letter to Ogilvie. [back]

Note: p28f4 Itinerary in Ford: Writings of Jefferson (1903), vol. 1 pp. xl-xli. [back]

Note: p29f1 Three documents relative to these inquiries are preserved by the Massachusetts Historical Society, among Jefferson's miscellaneous papers. They are all datable by their water-marks as from about 1770 (cf. the section entitled "Media and Papers used in the Drawings," Papers AE, AG, AJ). They are entitled, respectively, "Estimate sent in to G. Wythe from London of some expences of building such a house as that at Monticello Another estimate sent to G. Wythe from Glasgow," "Valuation of Masonry by William Gates, Mason, at . . . London Valuation of Masonry byThomas Patty Mason in Bristol," and "Sketch of a (Doric) Column 22 « f. high . . ." referred to in the preceding paper. The items and dimensions show that the design then under consideration was that shown in Figures 18 and 19. [back]

Note: p29f2 Lipscomb, vol. 4, p. 236. [back]

Note: p29f3 Life of Jegerson, vol. 1, p. 65. [back]

Note: p29f4 Letter of December 9, to Cary and Harrison. Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 4, pp. 23-26. [back]

Note: p29f5 Cf. notes to Fig. 146, and de Chastellux's Travels, vol. 2, pp. 41-42. [back]

Note: p29f6 Cf. Fig. 135 and accompanying notes. [back]

Note: p30f1 They appear in the plan of 1796 (Fig. 135), but are not mentioned by de Chastellux. It nevertheless be unsafe to assume that they were not standing in 1782. [back]

Note: p30m1 Travel and observation [back]

Note: p30m3 Figure 107 [back]

Note: p30m4 The public architecture of Virginia [back]

Note: p30m5 The Governor's House at Williamsburg [back]

Note: p30m8 Figure 100 [back]

Note: p31m1 The proposed new capital [back]

Note: p31m2 Jefferson's bill of 1776 [back]

Note: p31f1 Ford: Writings of Jefferson (1903),vol.2 ,pp. 106-09. [back]

Note: p31f2 Cf., for instance, P. Klopfer: Von Palladio bis Schinkel, eine Characteristik der Baukunst der Klassismus (1911), Justiz-und Verwaltungsbau, pp. 94-100. [back]

Note: p31f3 F. H. McGuire, in Report of the Virginia State Bar Association (1895), p.98. [back]

Note: p31f4 L. G. Tyler: Williamsburg (1907), p.240. [back]

Note: p32f1 W. W. Hening: The Statutes at Large, vol. 9, pp. 434, 557; vol. 10, p. 99. [back]

Note: p32f2 Ford: Writings of Jefferson (1903), vol. 2, p. 106, note. The act is published in Hening, vol. 10, pp. 8 5 ff. [back]

Note: p32m1 The act for locating the public squares [back]

Note: p32f3 Hening: Statutes at Large , vol. 10, p. 318. [back]

Note: p32f4 Hening: Statutes at Large , vol. 10, p. 3I8. The bill was prepared by Messrs. Southall, Carrington, Wilkinson, Mayo, and Underwood, and brought in by Mr. Southall. Journal of the House of Delegates, 1780 (Richmond, 1827) pp. 18, 24. Its provisions for modifying the rectangular plan seem the suggestions of practical men familiar with the local difficulties. [back]

Note: p32m2 Jefferson as a director of the public buildings [back]

Note: p32m4 The Halls of Justice [back]

Note: p33f1 Hening: Statutes at Large , vol. II, p. 496. [back]

Note: p33m1 The Governor's House [back]

Note: p33m4 Jefferson's development to 1784 [back]

Note: p34f1 Cf. The section entitled The Architectural Books owned by Thomas Jefferson [back]

Note: p34f2 The Redwood Library at Newport, which seems to have fallen heir to the books of Peter Harrison, listed in its catalogue (1764), Ware's Palladio , Oakley's Architecture , Price's British Carpenter , Smith's Carpenter's Companion , William Salmon's Palladio Londonensis , James Ralph's Critical review of the publick buildings...in London , and the Builder's Dictionary.

The Library Company of Philadelphia, which may well have had the benefit of Dr. Kearsley's interest, possessed, when its catalogue of 1770 was issued, probably the finest collection of architectural books in America, both in numbers and in quality. To classify them on a system similar to Jefferson's, they comprised, theoretical works on the orders:

Palladio , tr. by Ware . (1738.) Perrault's Five Orders , tr. by John James. (1708.)

Practical compilations:

Descriptions of ancient monuments:

Modern designs:

[back]

Note: p35m1 The Notes on Virginia [back]

Note: p35f1 Lipscomb, vol. 2, pp. 211, 213. [back]

Note: p35f2 See notes in Figs. 40 and 93 [back]

Note: p35m2 Observations on building [back]

Note: p36f1 The original is preserved, with the Farm Book , by the Massachusetts Historical Society. [back]

Note: p36m1 His creative work [back]

Note: p37m1 Formative influences: Paris [back]

Note: p37f1 Burger : Die Villen des Andrea Palladio , pp. 145-48. [back]

Note: p37f2 Letter to Comtesse de Tessé, March 20, 1787. Lipscomb : Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. ¢, p. 102 [back]

Note: p37f3 September 30, 1785. Ib. , vol. 5, p. 154. [back]

Note: p37f4 See the extract published in Randall : Life of Jefferson , vol. I, facing p. 456. [back]

Note: p37f5 Especially letter to Colonel Humphreys, August 14, 1787. Lipscomb : Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 6, p. 279. [back]

Note: p37m2 Travel [back]

Note: p37f6 Travelling notes for Mr. Rutledge and Mr. Shippen, June 3, 1788. Ib. , vol. 17, p. 292. [back]

Note: p37m3 Travel [back]

Note: p38f1 Letter to John Page, May 4, 1786. Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 5, pp. 304-05. [back]

Note: p38f2 Memorandems [ sic ] made on a tour to some of the gardens in England, described by Whateley in his book on gardening. Ib. , vol. 17, pp. 236-44. [back]

Note: p38m1 The South [back]

Note: p38f3 Ib. , vol. ¢, p. 106. [back]

Note: p38f4 Memoranda taken on a journey from Paris into the southern part of France, and northern Italy, in the year 1787. Ib. , vol. 17, pp. 153-236. [back]

Note: p38m2 Holland and Germany [back]

Note: p38f5 Memoranda of a Tour to Amsterdam, Strassburg, etc., and back to Paris. Ib. , pp.244-90. [back]

Note: p38m3 Books [back]

Note: p38f6 Cf. the section entitled The Architectural Books owned by Thomas Jefferson. [back]

Note: p39f1 Thus he acquired in 1791 a copy of Desgodetz , and, before 1805, a copy of Piranesi ; thus also he acquired copies, after their appearance, of Kersaint's Discours sur les monuments publics (1792); Meinert's Schöne Landbaukunst (1798); Becker's Plans d'architecture (1798); the Leipsic Portefeuille des artistes (1800); Mitchell's Perspectives of Buildings in England and Scotland (1801); and Krafft and Ransonnette's Maisons de Paris (1802) a selection representative of the diverse currents of the time. (Cf. the section entitled The Architectural Books owned by Thomas Jefferson. ) [back]

Note: p39m1 Maps and engravings [back]

Note: p39f2 Letters to L'Enfant and to Washington, April 10, 1791. Lipscomb : Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 8, pp. 162-66. [back]

Note: p39m2 Personal relations [back]

Note: p39f3 Letter of Jefferson to James Barbour, January 19, 1817. Ib. , vol. 19, p.242. [back]

Note: p39f4 Notice and bibliography by F. Noack in Thieme-Becker : Künstler Lexikon , article Clérisseau. [back]

Note: p39f5 Cf. his letter to Mrs. Maria Cosway, October 12, 1786, published by Lipscomb : Writings of Jefferson (1407), vol. 5, p. 430, which also testifies to his admiration for the dome built by Legrand and Molinos over the Halle au Blé, as well as for their market and bridge designs, and suggests adaptations of them for the market at Richmond, a bridge over the Schuylkill, etc. Cf. also articles "Legrand, J. G.," and "Molinos, J.," in Grande Encyclopédie . [back]

Note: p39f6 Fragment of his autobiography published by Ellen S. Bulfinch : Charles Bulfinch, Architect (1896), p. 42. [back]

Note: p40m1 Creative activity [back]

Note: p40m3 The history of the design [back]

Note: p40f1 It is impossible to enter here into the vast mass of documentary evidence for ascribing to Jefferson the predominant rôle in its design. The documents have been published in extenso in the author's Thomas Jefferson and the First Monument of the Classical Revival in America , and its conclusions regarding the division of responsibility are made use of here. [back]

Note: p40m6 Figures 115, 116 [back]

Note: p40m7 Jefferson's responsibility for it [back]

Note: p41m1 The plan [back]

Note: p41f1 The Constitutions of the Several Independent States of America... (2d ed., Boston, 1785), p. 126. [back]

Note: p41m2 The exterior [back]

Note: p41m4 Historic importance of the design: in America [back]

Note: p42f1 Neither in Switzerland nor in Holland does the republican form of government seem to have given rise to new types of buildings before the nineteenth century. [back]

Note: p42m1 In the classical revival generally [back]

Note: p42f2 Vol. 2, Pl. 27 and p. 2. Jefferson never owned this book, and in view of his unqualified condemnation of English architecture it seems unlikely that he knew of Campbell's project. [back]

Note: p42f3 Cf. Klopfer: Von Palladio bis Schinkel, passim. [back]

Note: p42f4 Cf. A. E. Richardson: Monumental Classic Architecture in Great Britain and Ireland (1914), passim. The Birmingham Town Hall, the only important English example known to me, is from 1831-35. See The Architectural Magazine . . . conducted by J. C. Loudon (1825), vol. 2, pp. 1¢-27, 237-39. [back]

Note: p43f1 Ford: Writings of Jefferson (1903), vol. 5, p. 186. Detailed evidence for the original form of the building has been given in the author's special study of the Capitol, and cannot be repeated here. [back]

Note: p43m1 The result [back]

Note: p43m2 The Virginia Penitentiary: genesis of Jefferson's design [back]

Note: p44f1 Memoir, printed in Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson, vol. 1, p. 68. [back]

Note: p44f2 Ib., p. 69. [back]

Note: p44m1 Historic position of the design [back]

Note: p44f3 Cf. J. R. Thomas: History of Prison Architecture, American Architect, vol. 34, pp. 87 ff., .and Handbuch der Architektur, vol. 4, pt. 7, Gefanghäuser (2d ed., 1900), p. 340 ff. [back]

Note: p44f4 Handbuch der Architektur, , vol. 4, pt. 7, pp. 340, 342. [back]

Note: p44m2 Its relation to the executed building [back]

Note: p44f5 See letters and vouchers in the Calendar of Virginia State Papers, vol. 8, pp. 406-528, and vol 9, pp. 233, 300. [back]

Note: p45f1 Reprinted in H. A. Christian: Richmond: Her Past and Present (1912), p. 106. [back]

Note: p45f2 Cf. Kimball: Thomas Jefferson and the First Monument of the Classical Revival, p. 26. [back]

Note: p45m1 Monroe's request for a plan [back]

Note: p45f3 January 19, 1786: ". . . I am thinking of settling at Richmond--building an house &c will you be so kind as transmit me a plan? Suppose the house when finished to cost 3. or 4000 dol" rs (a part to be finished only at first)-I shall I believe commence it as soon as I receive it.... Jefferson Papers (L. of C.), ser. 2, vol. 57, no. 19. [back]

Note: p45f4 New York, August 19, 1786: " . . . Believe me I have not relinquished the prospect of being your neighbor--the house for which I have requested a plan may possibly be erected near Monticello..." Ib., no. 21. [back]

Note: p45f5 December 18, 1786.. Ib., ser. I, vol. 2, no. 180. [back]

Note: p45f6 E. Woods: Albemarle County (1901), p. 279; J. S. Patton: Jefferson, Cabell, and the University of Virginia (1906), p. 194. [back]

Note: p45f7 Woods: Albemarle County, p. 280. Monroe's later estate, "Oak Hill," in Loudon County, built during the last years of Jefferson's life, cannot here come into consideration. It shows the influence of Jefferson's later designs, but has many features which prevent us from assigning the design to him. Major R. W. N. Noland states circumstantially, "The Oak Hill house was planned by Mr. Monroe, but the building superintended by Mr. William Benton, an Englishman, who occupied the mixed relation to Mr. Monroe of steward, counselor and friend." Quoted in D. C. Gilman: James Monroe (1883), p. 219. There is an old cut of the house in Howe: Historical Collections of Virginia (1856), p. 356. [back]

Note: p45m2 General consequences of Jefferson's European residence [back]

Note: p47m1 First buildings [back]

Note: p47m7 Federal projects [back]

Note: p47f1 Columbian Magazine (1789), p. 504; Winsor: Narrative and Critical History of America (1888), vol. 7, p. 331 [back]

Note: p48f1 Cuts in New York Magazine (1795), front., and in Magazine of American History (1886), vol. 16, p. 222. [back]

Note: p48f2 Engraving by George Strickland, 1828, kindly furnished by Mr. John W. Jordan, Librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. [back]

Note: p48m1 The new seat of the government [back]

Note: p48f3 J. G. Nicolay: The White House from John Adams to James Madison. Read before the Columbia Historical Society, January 10, 1898. Unpublished manuscript generously placed at the disposal of the writer by Miss Helen Nicolay. W. B. Bryan: A History of the National Capital, 1790-1814 (1914), vol. 1, passim, but especially pp. 131 and 142. C. H. Van Tyne: Manuscript notes on the planning of Washington, kindly loaned to the writer. [back]

Note: p48m2 First proposals: public reservations [back]

Note: p48f4 Opinion on proceedings to be had under the Residence Act. (November 29, 1790.) Published in part by Ford: Writings of Jefferson (1903), vol. 5, pp.252-53. [back]

Note: p48m3 Proposals for a town [back]

Note: p49m1 Later memoranda [back]

Note: p49m2 Jefferson's sketch plan [back]

Note: p49f1 Jefferson Papers (L. of C.), ser. 4, vol. 1, p. 121. Reproduced in Bryan, Op. cit., vol. 1, p. 130. Cf. letter of Washington to L'Enfant, April 4, 1791, published in the Writings of Washington Relating to the National Capital, Columbia Historical Society Records, vol. 17, p. 22. [back]

Note: p50f1 Jefferson Papers (L. of C.), ser. 1, vol. 1, no. 123. [back]

Note: p50m1 Suggestions to L'Enfant [back]

Note: p50f2 Letter of April 4, already cited. This second may quite conceivably be a plan of a new town sent Jefferson in 1789 by Sir John Sinclair. Letter of Sinclair to Jefferson, April 7. Jefferson Papers (L. of C.), ser. 2, vol. 76, no. 23. [back]

Note: p50f3 Letter of April 10. Full text in Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 8, pp. 165-66. [back]

Note: p50f4 Letter of April 10. Ib., vol. 8, p. 162. [back]

Note: p50m2 L'Enfant's reaction [back]

Note: p51f1 Col. Hist. Soc. Records, vol. 2, pp. 26 ff. Bryan, in quoting this ( History of the National Capital vol. 1, p. 136) recognizes that it was directed at Jefferson's idea of a rectangular plan. [back]

Note: p51m1 L'Enfant's plan [back]

Note: p51f2 Cf. Bryan, op. cit ., pp. 147-50, and the text of L'Enfant's accompanying report, which explains his procedure in determining the design. Col. Hist. Soc. Records, vol. 2, pp. 32-48. [back]

Note: p51f3 He wrote to the Commissioners the next year, on one occasion: "The angular buildings at the commencement of the avenues may probably be offensive to the eye, if not well managed. I have seen this deformity obviated by terminating the house at that end with a bow window, with a semicircular portico and with other fancies...." Letter of May 8, 1792. Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907) vol. 19, pp. 88-92. [back]

Note: p51m2 Jefferson's ideas regarding private buildings [back]

Note: p51f4 Washington Papers (L. of C.), Sparks Index Series, vol. 76, p. 409. The appended paper contains a series of questions in Washington's handwriting, with answers by Jefferson (evidently showing what was agreed in Philadelphia, except for certain additions) of which the following are pertinent:

1. Ought there to be any wood houses in the town ? No.
2. What sort of Brickes those Houses should be built and of what height especially on the principal Streets or Avenues? Liberty as to advancing or withdrawing the front, but some limits as to height would be desirable. (Added later) No house wall higher than 35. feet in any part of the town; none lower than that on any of the avenues.
3. When ought the public buildings to be begun, and in what manner had the materials best pensable be provided? The digging earth for bricks this fall is indispensable. Provisions of other materials to depend on the funds.
4. How ought they to be promulgated, so as to draw plans from skilful Architects? and what would be the best mode of carrying on the work? By advertisement of a medal or other reward for the best plan. See a sketch or specimen of advertisement.
5. Ought not Stoups and projections of every sort and kind into the Streets to be prohibited absolutely? No incroachments to be permitted.

[back]

Note: p52f1 The regulations are published by A. P. Clark, Jr. , together with the memorandum just quoted, in Col. Hist. Soc. Records (1901), vol. 4, pp. 166-72. Without being familiar with the earlier documents, Clark realizes that Jefferson's contribution was important. Glenn Brown's assumption that William Thornton was "the prime mover and preparer" of the building regulations ( United States Capitol, vol. 1, p. 85) ignored the existence of regulations prior to July 20, 1795. [back]

Note: p52f2 Letter of April 10, 1791. Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 8, p. 166. [back]

Note: p52m1 Regarding public buildings: influence on L'Enfant [back]

Note: p52f3 Ib., vol. 8, p. 162. [back]

Note: p52f4 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, vol. 5, p.342. [back]

Note: p52f5 Letters of the Commissioners of Public Buildings (Dept. of State), 1791-93, vol. 1, p.20; and Calendar of the Virginia State Papers, vol. 5, p.356. [back]

Note: p52f6 Letter toWashington, October 21. Bryan: History of the National Capital, vol. 1, p. 165, note. [back]

Note: p52f7 Letters of Washington to L'Enfant, February 28, 1792 (Col. Hist. Soc. Records, vol. 17, pp.45, 46), and of Jefferson to the Commissioners, March 8 ( Lipscomb, vol. 19, pp.88-91). [back]

Note: p52f8 Letter of Jefferson to the Commissioners, March ¢, 1792. Documentary History of the United States Capitol, 1904, p. 14. The advertisement of the Capitol as printed is published, ib., p. 15. For the draught of the advertisement regarding the President's House see Notes to Figures 125, 126. [back]

Note: p53f1 Report of the Committee on the Memorial of the Commissioners to Congress, January 25, 1796. American State Papers, Miscellaneous, vol. 1, p. 136, cited by Bryan: History of the National Capital, vol. 1, p. 266. [back]

Note: p53m1 The President's House [back]

Note: p53m2 Jefferson's own design [back]

Note: p53f2 See Notes to Figs. 125-26. [back]

Note: p53m4 His competitive drawings [back]

Note: p53m7 Other competitive designs [back]

Note: p53f3 The Maryland Historical Society preserves, beside Jefferson's design and Hoban's accepted elevation, the designs of J. Small, James Diamond, and Andrew M. Carshore. That of John Collins, which received the second premium, is known from the proceedings of the Commissioners, cited by Bryan: History of the National Capital, vol. 1, p. 195, note; that of Hallet from a letter of Jefferson, see below. [back]

Note: p54f1 The Commissioners wrote from Georgetown, July 5, to Jefferson in Philadelphia: "Mr. Hoben applies himself closely to a Draft for the President's house; he has made a very favorable impression on us.... " District of Columbia Papers (Dept. of State). Cf. also, Bryan: History of the National Capital, vol. 1, pp. 194-95. [back]

Note: p54f2 Bryan: History of the National Capital, vol. 1, p. 195. [back]

Note: p54f3 Edition of 1786, p. 546. Cf. the work of my pupil and colleague Wells Bennett of the University of Michigan: Stephen Hallet and his Designs for the National Capitol, Journal of the American Institute of Architects, June, 1916. [back]

Note: p54m2 The Capitol: Jefferson's initial idea [back]

Note: p54f4 Cf. Jefferson's Account of the Capitol of Virginia, published in Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 17, pp. 353 ff. [back]

Note: p54m3 The competitive designs [back]

Note: p54f5 Many of them are preserved by the Maryland Historical Society; a representative selection of these is published by Brown: United Statel Capitol, vol. 1, Pls. 3-14. The design of Abraham Faw is published as Fig. 130, below. [back]

Note: p54f6 Brown: United Statel Capitol, vol. 1, Pls. 10-12, 13-14. Cf. Gibbs: Book of Architcture, Pl. 41. [back]

Note: p54f7 Bennett: op. cit., fig. 3, and corresponding passage in the text. [back]

Note: p55m1 The domical scheme: Jefferson's ideas [back]

Note: p55m3 Hallet's [back]

Note: p55f1 Bennett: op. cit., figs. 1, 2. [back]

Note: p55f2 Ib. figs. 9-11. [back]

Note: p55m4 Thornton's [back]

Note: p55f3 Thornton's competitive design is still unfound, and its specific provisions cannot be reconstructed with certainty. [back]

Note: p55f4 Bennett: op. cit., figs. 12-14. [back]

Note: p55f5 Letters to the Commissioners from Washington, January 31, 1793 ( Documentary History of the Capitol, pp,22-23) and from Jefferson, January 31 ( Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson [1907], vol. 9, p. 17) and February 1 (Ib., p. 18). [back]

Note: p55m5 The revised plan [back]

Note: p55f6 Jefferson to Washington, July 17, 1793. Documentary History of the Capitol, p. 26. [back]

Note: p56f1 Bennett: op. cit., fig. 15. [back]

Note: p56f2 Letter to the Commissioners, July 25. Col. Hist. Soc. Records, vol. 17, p.85. [back]

Note: p56m1 Residence designs [back]

Note: p56m3 House for Madison's brother [back]

Note: p56f3 May 19, 1793. Ford: Writings of Jefferson (1903), vol. 6, p. 259. [back]

Note: p56f4 It has not proved feasible to identify this design or the building for which it was made. [back]

Note: p56f5 June 19, 1793. Madison Papers (L. of C.), vol. 5. [back]

Note: p56m4 Advice on Montpellier [back]

Note: p56f6 June 29, 1793. Ford: Writings of Jefferson (1903), vol. 6, p. 327. [back]

Note: p57f1 This view conflicts with the comprehensive assumption of Mr. Glenn Brown, repeated by others, that the house at Montpellier was designed by William Thornton. The document supposed to support such a view is a letter of Madison to Mrs. M. H. Smith, September, 1830, in which he says: "The only drawing of my house is that by Dr. William Thornton. It is without the wing now forming a part of it." ( Brown: United States Capitol, vol. 1, p. 86.) [note place="f" type="ms" resp="mlg" n="p57f6"]* Madison probably referred to a painting of Mrs Thornton. She painted Monticello in 1802 (preserved by Mrs. Harrison, Leesbury, VA) & in same year painted Montpelier. MLG.[/note] The house without the wings, however, seems to have been built by Madison's father before Thornton came to this country. ( W. W. Scott: History of Orange County, Virginia [1907], pp. 208-09.) Maud W. Goodwin's statement, in her Dolly Madison (1901), p. 64, that the building and rebuilding at Montpellier at the time of Madison's marriage was conducted with the aid of an architect named Chisholm, would seem to be misleading. Hugh Chisholm was a mason who had worked for Jefferson and who, with Jefferson's house-joiners, Dinsmore and Nelson, was employed on the extension of Madison's house in 1808-10. Cf. correspondence between Jefferson and Chisholm in the Massachusetts Historical Socicty, letters from Chisholm to Madison described in Calendar of the Correspondence of James Madison (1894), and letter of Jefferson to Thomas Munroe, March 4, 1815, in the collection of Mr. W. K. Bixby. [back]

Note: p57m1 Propositions for remodelling Monticello [back]

Note: p57m3 New conceptions [back]

Note: p57f2 See Krafft and Ransonnette: Plans des maisons de Paris (1802), a copy of which Jefferson acquired soon after its publication. [back]

Note: p57m4 Preliminary work [back]

Note: p57f3 Letter to A. Donald, November 11, 1792. Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.) under that date. [back]

Note: p57f4 Letter to Mr. Donath, November 16, 1792. Ib. [back]

Note: p57f5 Letter to Stephen Willis, November 12, 1792. Ib. [back]

Note: p58m1 Cf. p. 30, note and notes to Figure 150 [back]

Note: p58f1 Letter of that date. Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.). [back]

Note: p58f2 Ib. [back]

Note: p58m2 the "Observations" on building [back]

Note: p58m3 Monticello [back]

Note: p58f3 Letter to William B. Giles. Randall: Life of Jefferson, vol.2, p.302. [back]

Note: p58m7 The design for remodelling [back]

Note: p59m3 Figures 158-60 [back]

Note: p59m4 Critique of its provisions [back]

Note: p60m1 Its inspiration and historical position [back]

Note: p60f1 Its striking superficial resemblance to the plan of the Maison Beaugeon in Paris, shown by Krafft and Ransonnette, Plate 46, can only be regarded as accidental. Though this house was built in 1781, there is no resemblance in the façades; the book had not appeared in 1796; no sketch of the plan such as might have been made abroad exists among Jefferson's studies, which, on the contrary, show a gradual approach to the plan adopted. [back]

Note: p60m3 Cf. Notes following those to Figure 149 [back]

Note: p60f2 Architectural Record, vol. 6, p. 64. [back]

Note: p60f3 Capen: Country Homes of Famous Americans, pp.49-53. [back]

Note: p60m4 The execution [back]

Note: p60f4 La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt: Travels (2d ed., London, 1800), vol. 3,pp.137-38. Isaac Weld: Travels through the United States of North America (1800), Letter xv, pp. 207-08. [back]

Note: p60f5 The Jefferson Papers, Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections (1900),p. 55. [back]

Note: p61m2 Other designs [back]

Note: p61m5 Relation to the government buildings [back]

Note: p62f1 Cf., However, an unpublished letter from him to Thornton, April 23, 1800, Thornton Papers (L. Of C.), relating to suggestions for interior arrangements of the Senate and House. [back]

Note: p62m1 Public Works: their condition in 1801 [back]

Note: p62f2 For the documents concerning the condition of the city and the buildings at this time see Bryan : History of the National Capital , vol. I, pp. 357-78. [back]

Note: p62f3 Ib. , p. 241, note. These drawings are published by Brown : United States Capitol , vol. I, Pls. 28-31, 34. [back]

Note: p62m2 The provision of means [back]

Note: p62f4 Bryan : History of the National Capital , vol. I, p. 417. [back]

Note: p63f1 Bryan : History of the National Capital , vol. I, p. 449. [back]

Note: p63m1 Pennsylvania Avenue [back]

Note: p63f2 Section in letter of Nicholas King to Thomas Munroe, May 26, 1804. District of Columbia Papers (Dept. of State). Other letters in this collection, especially one of the same date from Jefferson to Munroe, make it clear that the design was due to Jefferson himself. [back]

Note: p63f3 Cf. Wirt's official eulogy of Jefferson, which recognizes his personal responsibility. [back]

Note: p63m2 The appointment of Latrobe [back]

Note: p63f4 The father of C. R. Cockerell, the archaeologist and architect. [back]

Note: p63f5 Letter of Jefferson to Latrobe, October 12, 1798. Jefferson Papers (L. of C.), ser. I, vol. 7, no. 252. [back]

Note: p63f6 Letter to Jefferson, May 21, 1807. The Journal of Latrobe (edited by J. H. B. Latrobe, 1905), pp. 139-140. [back]

Note: p63m3 The Capitol: attitude toward Thornton's scheme [back]

Note: p64f1 Letter of Thornton to Jefferson, June 28, 1804, in the possession of Mr. Cass Gilbert, kindly placed at the writer's disposal. [back]

Note: p64f2 East elevation reproduced by Brown: United States Capitol, vol. 1, Pl. 31. Cf. Letter of Washington to the Commissioners, November 9, 1795, Documentary History of the Capitol, p. 37. Brown failed to realize the import of this design, thinking that it showed a variant for the form of the main dome over the conference room. [back]

Note: p64f3 The Journal of Latrobe, pp. 114-15. [back]

Note: p64f4 Ib. This account, though not written exactly at the time, is admirably accurate so far as it can be checked by other documents. [back]

Note: p64f5 Letter of August 28, 1806. Madison Papers (L. of C.), vol. 19. [back]

Note: p64m1 The south wing [back]

Note: p64f6 Letter of Jefferson to Latrobe, February 28, 1804. Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. II, pp. 13-15. [back]

Note: p64f7 Letter of Latrobe to William Jones, on resigning as superintendent of the works at the Navy Yard. Published in Dunlap: Arts of Design, vol. 2, pp.473-74. [back]

Note: p64f8 Letters of Jefferson to Latrobe, September 8, 1805, October 31, 1806. Latrobe's of August 31, 1805, October 29, 1806, May 21, 1807. District of Columbia Papers (Dept. of State). Some of these letters, not now to be located in the Department archives, are fortunately accessible to me through the memoranda and transcripts of Mr. J. G. Nicolay. [back]

Note: p65m1 Remodelling of the north wing [back]

Note: p65m2 The future central building [back]

Note: p65f1 Reproduced in Brown: United States Capitol, vol. I, Pl. 44, and elsewhere. [back]

Note: p65f2 District of Columbia Papers (Dept. of State), under that date.

The idea that the design for the central building was undertaken on Jefferson's private initiative is confirmed by a letter of his to Mr. Coles in Washington, November 29, 1809, respecting the forwarding of his personal effects. "...There are three drawings, viz. Latrobe's of the capitol, the Diocletian Portico and a drawing of the Capitol on the Diocletian plan which I value. I mentioned to the President that I would leave them there a while, as Congress might select from them the plan they would chuse for finishing the middle part of the building; but whenever it shoud be apparent they would not proceed for the present with that middle building, I should be glad to receive them." Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.), folder for 1808. In a letter to Jefferson, April 29 1811, Coles notes that the prints are being sent together with one which Mr. Latrobe had had. Ib., 1811.

[back]

Note: p66f1 The popular belief that the Capitol was purposely faced east because of an idea that the town was expected to lie chiefly in that direction, has already been disposed of in papers by J. D. Morgan, Glenn Brown, and others. Why the City went West, Columbia Historical Society Records, vol. 7, pp. 107 - 45. [back]

Note: p66m1 The President's House [back]

Note: p66f2 A sketch of the exterior in 1799, by Nicholas King, is published in Restoration of the White House (1903), after p. 46. The chief contemporary account is the sprightly letter of Mrs. John Adams: Letters (1840), vol. 2, p. 239. Other contemporary evidences are summarized by Bryan: History of the National Capital, vol. I, pp. 376-77, and 458-59. [back]

Note: p66f3 Correspondence of Jefferson with Latrobe, Munroe, and others. District of Columbia Papers (Dept. of State), package no. 1¢, passim, supplemented by the Nicolay memoranda. [back]

Note: p66m2 The colonnades and grounds [back]

Note: p66f4
Letter of Munroe to Jefferson of July 31. Nicolay memoranda. [back]

The first drawings were made by Jefferson, and there is no question that the idea itself was his. Note: p66f5 Note: p66f5 Letter of Latrobe to Jefferson, May 3, 1805. District of Columbia Papers (Dept. of State). [back]

As the ground fell away toward the south, he proposed to line the portico with a series of service rooms, including cellars, stables, coach house, ice house, etc
The roofs were to provide terraces for promenade, all very much as in Jefferson's proposals for Monticello. Note: p66m5 Note: p66m5 Figure 178 [back]

In 1805, while Latrobe was seeking to modify the heights of the members of the colonnade in order to secure suitable junctions with the War and Treasury offices, Jefferson ordered the construction of the first sections of the dependencies begun. Note: p66f6 Note: p66f6 Ib., supplemented by Nicolay memoranda. Letters of Latrobe to Jefferson, March 26, April 28, May 5; Jefferson to Latrobe, May 11, 1805. [back]

The colonnades in front were not added till 1807. Note: p66f7 Note: p66f7 Ib., Jefferson, to Latrobe, May 27, 1807. [back]

Even then the buildings extended but a short distance to each side of the main house, their continuations, with special central features, being left for subsequent completion. Note: p66f8 Note: p66f8 Ib., sketches in letters of Latrobe to Jefferson, August 13, and September 2, 1807. [back]

The grounds, which had hitherto been neglected, were laid out in accordance with a general scheme for which both Jefferson and Latrobe prepared sketches which were in substantial agreement. Note: p66f9 Note: p66f9 Ib., supplemented by Nicolay memoranda. Letters of Latrobe, March 17, April 29, August 13, 1807, Jefferson's of May 22 and May 26, with sketches. [back]

Note: p66m6 Note: p66m6 Plans for the future [back]

For the President's House, as for the Capitol, Latrobe and Jefferson were looking to the future, and Latrobe prepared a set of drawings, dated 1807, showing proposed alterations. Note: p67f1 Note: p67f1 Plan and two elevations reproduced in Restoration of the White House, after p. 46. [back]

On the exterior he omitted the light piazza which Hoban had intended along the south side of the basement story, and, following a suggestion by Jefferson, substituted a great semi-circular portico aligned with the main order of the building and approached by a broad flight of steps. To the north he elaborated the engaged columns and pediment into a columnar portico, projecting across the area which was to light the basement on that side, and forming part of a monumental approach with steps and carriage ramps. In the interior he showed modifications which he thought would better adapt the house to its double functions, official and private, and at the same time make it conform more nearly to neo-classic ideals of form. Some of the changes are unmistakably on suggestions from Jefferson. The President's chambre de parade on the main floor, especially, with its alcove for the bed, was a feature unused in England, which Jefferson had learned to know in the France of the old régime, and had already employed wherever possible.

In one other building for the city Jefferson took a particular interest -- the jail, in which he saw a new opportunity to put in practice his idea of solitary confinement, of the success of which he had meanwhile become convinced. He himself scrutinized various plans which had been handed in, and recommended instead the employment of Hadfield to prepare a design. Note: p67f2 Note: p67f2 Letters of Daniel C. Brent to Jefferson, June 7 and 26, 1802. Jefferson Papers (L. of C.), series vol. 9, nos. 9 and 92. [back]

The building, as erected on the Judiciary Square in 1802 - 1803, had individual cells on either side of a long corridor commanded by a head house. Note: p67f3 Note: p67f3 American State Papers, Miscellaneous, vol. I, p. 338. Register of Debates, 19th Congress, 1St ession, March 1, 1826, p. 1475, cited in Bryan: History of the National Capital, vol. 1, p. 544, notes. [back]

Even outside of the city of Washington, in the territories under national jurisdiction, Jefferson gave his attention to architecture and related problems. New Orleans naturally interested him especially. He wrote to Volney, February 8, 1805: "I have supposed it practicable to prevent its generation (the generation of yellow fever) by building our cities on a more open plan. Take for instance the chequer board for a plan. Let the black squares only be building squares, and the white ones be left open, in turf and trees. Every square of houses will be surrounded by four open squares, and every house will front an open square...I have accordingly proposed that the enlargements of the city of New Orleans, which must immediately take place, shall be on this plan. But it is only in case of enlargements to be made, or of cities to be built, that this means of prevention can be employed." Note: p67f4 Note: p67f4 Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson, vol. II, pp. 66-67. [back]

Jefferson's favorite rectangular town plan here reappears in a modified form, modern in its generous provision of civic open spaces, but inflexible and little regardful of economic considerations.

Note: p67m2 Note: p67m2 Jefferson's services to government architecture while President [back]

In his official position as President, Jefferson had stimulated the provision of means for the development of the public buildings, summoned the most able talent, and personally devoted his own attention to every detail, governing the character of the work and making many fruitful suggestions. Even more important was the fixing of ideals for future building. Though he felt that he could not himself be responsible for adopting changes of his own suggestion in preference to the plans originally approved by Washington, he could at least show what he thought a more proper character would be, leaving the choice between them to those who came after. The character of the original designs, in spite of Jefferson's efforts at the time to secure the adoption of classical models, was on the whole merely academic. The character of the new designs prepared under his oversight, with the sanction of his informal approval, was as classical as was then possible in view of the parts already erected. It was these new designs which proved to be preferred, and most came to execution.

Note: p68m1 Note: p68m1 Private practice while President: Monticello [back]

In spite of his presidential duties Jefferson found time to continue the development of Monticello and to design a number of other residences, both for members of his own family and for friends and neighbors. Much still remained to be done to the dwelling house at Monticello. An Analysis of expenditures from Mar. 4, 1801, to Mar. 4, 1802 contains the entry, "Building (at Monticello), $ 2,076.29." Note: p68f1 Note: p68f1 Randall: Life of Jefferson, vol. 3, p. 21. [back]

For the finishing of the interior Jefferson had brought a skilled joiner, James Dinsmore, from Philadelphia in 1798; in 1804 he brought thence a second, John Nielson, and both worked for him continuously until 1808. Note: p68f2 Note: p68f2 Letter of Jefferson to Thomas Munroe, March 4, 1815, kindly placed at disposal by Mr. W. K Bixby. [back]

In 1803 there were still rooms to be plastered. Note: p68f3 Note: p68f3 Letter of George Divers to Jefferson, July 14, 1803. Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.), under that date. [back]

Orders for sheet iron, Jefferson's favorite roofing material, for the top of the house (1803), for the north offices (1804), and for the south offices (1805), enable us to trace the approach of the buildings to completion. Note: p68f4 Note: p68f4 Memoranda and bills at the Massachusetts Historical Society. [back]

A description of the house at the moment when it might be considered finished is contained in a letter to Jefferson from his granddaughter, Ellen Randolph, April 14, 1808. "I think the hall with its gravel colored border is the most beautiful room I was ever in, without excepting the Drawing rooms at Washington. The dining room is much improved; the pillars of the portico are rough cast and look very well; all the railing on the top of the house finished and painted." Note: p68f5 Note: p68f5 Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.), folder for 1808. [back]

Note: p68m2 Note: p68m2 Mills' drawings [back]

In 1803 Jefferson seems to have taken to Monticello his protégé, Robert Mills, a young American who had already begun the study of architecture under Hoban, and who was continuing his studies in architectural books which Jefferson placed at his disposal. Note: p68f6 Note: p68f6 Regarding Jefferson's patronage of Mills see Dunlap: Arts of Design (1834), vol. 2, pp. 221 ff Dunlap, however, misconceived Mills' relation to Monticello and has misled others. Cf. notes to Fig. 154 [back]

Beside a drawing which Mills made of Monticello as it then stood,
he made a design of his own for a further remodelling, which would have increased the height of the main building and the dome, and substituted low semicircular arcades for the rectangular arcades of the end loggias.
The design was probably little more than a practice exercise, indulgently viewed by Jefferson, for many of the changes proposed showed little regard for expense or practical considerations. Some of its intended improvements in detail were likewise inconsonant with Jefferson's academic and classical ideals, so it is no matter for surprise that they were not carried out, and that the parts of the house and dependencies still uncompleted were finished according to the designs already adopted.

Note: p69m1 Note: p69m1 Proposals for the grounds [back]

Many improvements which Jefferson himself projected at Monticello during this time lay in the grounds and in the facilities for home manufacturing. About 1804 he set down a memorandum of "General ideas for the improvement of Monticello," embodying the fruits of his English observations -- a document of the very first importance for the history of landscape design in America.
The dominant idea of the proposed changes was, as with Shenstone in England, to eliminate completely the aspect of a farm, while retaining such profitable cultivation and use as this requirement would permit.
The upper part of the mountain was to be the pleasure ground or garden proper -- of lawns and groves of tall trees, diversified by thicket, all so arranged as to give "advantageous catches of prospect" from the paths or "roundabouts" which circled the mountain. The lower slopes were to be converted into park and riding grounds, with all the farming lands planted as orchard, and with grass cultivated under the trees. Principles laid down for the planting of dells, glens, glades, and so forth, show how carefully Jefferson had attended to the precepts of the landscape school.

Note: p69m3 Note: p69m3 Their partial execution [back]

Just how far these schemes were carried into execution cannot now be determined in all cases, though it is easy to see that they far outran Jefferson's means, which were already taxed to the utmost. The elimination of farm character was certainly never accomplished, and it is safe to say that a majority of the other projects remained as unrealized ideals, toward which some few steps were taken from time to time.
The condition of the estate at the period of their first proposal appears in the surveys which Jefferson undertook, especially in 1806 and 1809, doubtless primarily in order to have a basis for the carrying out of his further plans.
Although the contour of the ground is not indicated directly in the plots, its picturesque relation to the rocks and paths is amply suggested by their windings and the courses of the streams. The careful separation of the entrance roads from the great terraced lawn to the southwest of the house, the series of roundabouts and connecting paths, reveal at once an unusual interest in landscape design and a considerable degree of skill the handling of its problems. Note: p69f1 Note: p69f1 W. H. Manning's Jefferson as a Designer of Landscapes (1913), forming part of his book with W. A. Lambeth, already cited, is the first work to lay emphasis on this from a professional standpoint. Unfortunately, being written without reference to the manuscript documents, it is unhistorical in many of its assumptions and suggestions, both concerning the plan of the estate in Jefferson's day and concerning the motives which conditioned it. [back]

Note: p69m5 Note: p69m5 Garden temples [back]

Not the least important features of the improvements proposed were, as Jefferson had always intended, the ever recurring "temples" or garden houses. His earlier designs for these were inspired by those of the academic writers.
Even since his return from France he had sketched a garden pavilion having a similar character. By 1804 Jefferson proposed to take his garden houses directly from ancient buildings.
The first proposal for these, in the memorandum previously discussed, included "a specimen of Gothic, model of the Pantheon, model of cubic architecture, a specimen of Chinese."
Later the suggestion was elaborated, the Maison Carrée was chosen to represent "cubic architecture" and the number was increased by a model of the Monument of Lysicrates, based on the drawings of Stuart and Leroy. Two entries of December 15, 1807, tell that the circular bricks necessary for the Pantheon and the monument were ordered, and a payment for "laying 7000 bricks in temple" in 1812, shows that one, at least, was finally erected. Note: p70f1 Note: p70f1 Account of Jefferson with Hugh Chisholm. Mass. Hist. Soc. archives. [back]

Jefferson's advanced stylistic position appears nowhere more clearly than in the proposal of these models, in which his inclinations were unrestrained. Sophomoric as they may seem to us, they typified the widening conception of architecture which could look behind the unconscious tradition of the moment and recognize -- if not an organic growth, as Goethe divined -- at least a variety of styles, each historically ordained. In actual execution of works supposedly Greek and Gothic, as well as in the application of these styles to buildings for practical uses, Jefferson was anticipated by Latrobe. Latrobe had already shown a Greek order in his design for the propylæa of the Capitol in 1807; at Sedgley in 1799 he had begun for William Crawford the first Gothic residence in America. Note: p70f2 Note: p70f2 T. Westcott: The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia (1877), p. 449, with cut. [back]

It must not be forgotten, however, that Jefferson had proposed imitations both of Greek and of Gothic architecture as early as 1771 .

Note: p70m4 Note: p70m4 Utilitarian buildings [back]

Jefferson followed Washington and others in attempting manufactures on his own estate, in a region hitherto almost exclusively devoted to agriculture. A grist mill had been begun as early as 1793, a nailery in 1795. The Rivanna canal for navigation and power, with its mills, was under construction in 1803. Note: p70m5 Note: p70m5 Numbers 169n-169v [back]

Although Jefferson prepared drawings for these buildings with as much care as for more monumental constructions, they have naturally but little architectural interest.

Note: p70m6 Note: p70m6 Other designs [back]

A group of new designs was the product of his desire to develop his other estates, and of the wish of friends to share in the new architectural dispensation. The first of these designs was for his friend George Divers of Farmington, whose house was already being ornamented by the summer of 1803. Note: p70m7 Note: p70m7 Farmington [back]

The accepted scheme has certain affinities with Monticello, and might be described as the Monticello plan cut in half, with the entrance at the end.
The octagonal bays, the tetrastyle pedimented Doric portico rising to the main cornice, the attempt to retain an effect of one story by special treatment of the upper windows, the alcove bedrooms, the privacy of the stairs, and the service passages below grade, are features of resemblance.
The design shows a less strict limitation to a single story than appeared in Edgehill and in the design for rebuilding Shadwell -- a concession perhaps to conservatism on the part of Divers, or a desire on his part to imitate Monticello. The problems with which Jefferson was now preoccupied were primarily formal; the practical solutions henceforth do not vary much. He was pursuing his attempts to canvass the possible combinations of the octagon with the rectangle, a pursuit which furnished the motives for so many of his later designs, and of his unidentified studies.

Note: p71m1 Note: p71m1 Shadwell? [back]

The design drawn by Mills under Jefferson's direction in 1803, apparently suggested by the desire for further improvements in the house at Shadwell, is another version of the Villa Rotunda, to which Jefferson returned with his noted persistence.
It preserves the characteristic dome and top-lighted central salon of the original, but, being influenced by the existing house, is less strictly imitative than Jefferson's previous designs on this motif.
As in his first study of the sort, the porticoes are reduced to four columns each;
they occur here only on the front and rear, being replaced on the sides by octagonal bay windows like those of Monticello.
One of the porticoes is made to serve specially as an entrance, the other primarily as veranda for an oval salon, introduced between it and the central hall and projecting somewhat into the portico. By these changes the design lost the absolute formal balance of its original; it became less doctrinaire, more flexible, more specialized, more practical. It is questionable, of course, whether Jefferson or Mills was really responsible for the changes. The octagonal projection was part of Jefferson's customary vocabulary of forms; the oval room occurs more rarely, although still reasonably often.
To Mills the oval form was especially familiar, both in Charleston and in Hoban's design for the White House, on which he had worked.
The underlying idea, to be sure, remained Jefferson's, and the changes can hardly have been made without his consent.

Note: p71m5 Note: p71m5 Poplar Forest [back]

The house intended, until 1804, for Jefferson's farm of Pantops, and finally begun by him at Poplar Forest in 1806, was of a type hitherto unused in America -- a single regular octagon.
Although it was in a sense the logical outcome of the experiments with octagons in the studies for Farmington, and with the centrally balanced type at Shadwell and elsewhere, the direct suggestion seems to have come from Plate 17 in Volume II of Kent's edition of Inigo Jones' designs, which, however, shows a building on a much larger and more elaborate scale. Jefferson's simplification was extremely ingenious, giving a square top-lighted room in the centre and octagonal-ended rooms around it, meeting at the central point of each side.
As finally developed for Poplar Forest there were porticoes at front and rear, one at the head of a broad flight of steps, the other over a low arcaded basement which a depression of the grade here rendered possible.
The stairs occupied small square projections on the other two cardinal faces, one serving Jefferson's private apartment, the other leading up to a pantry which served the central dining room. The arrangement of study, alcove, and dressing room, which Jefferson had already employed in his own suite at Monticello was repeated here. Although the architectural forms were, as always, academically correct, the detail was relatively simple, the ornamentation relatively free, as befitted a house intended as a country retreat. Note: p72f1 Note: p72f1 The modest degree of liberty which Jefferson allowed himself, even then, appears in a letter of his to Mr. Coffee, July 10, 1822, ordering the ornaments for the friezes: "In my middle room at Poplar Forest I mean to mix the faces and ox-sculls, a fancy which I can indulge in my own case, although in a public work I feel bound to follow authority strictly." Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.), folder for 1822. [back]

On the other hand the grounds received an interesting development. Those immediately about the house were laid out in a large octagon concentric with it, including a forecourt of clipped yew, and a broad sunken lawn on the southern or garden front between low tree-bordered terraces. Immediately to east and west were artificial mounds, screening the balancing privies which stood like two sentry boxes on the outer circumference, imitating the house in their octagonal form and Palladian cornices.

Note: p72m1 Note: p72m1 Critique of its design [back]

In any criticism of the estate, or comparison with others, its intentionally informal character must not be forgotten. The use of the central, distributing room as a dining room is an instance of freedom which would not have been admissible had the life at Poplar Forest been less simple. In other respects much skill is shown in the separation of the public approach, service arrangements, and private living quarters -- the sunny drawing-room with its portico and outlook over the garden. In the matter of pure form the house is especially satisfactory -- its pyramidal grouping being effective even in the elevation, and still more in the executed building, where the perspective lines of the cornice harmonize with those of roof and pediment from every point of view.

Note: p72m2 Note: p72m2 Others studies [back]

The designs projected for Poplar Forest before the adoption of the Pantops scheme were further experiments along the general lines of Monticello,
always with an octagonal projecting salon in the centre of one facade.
They show a progressive increase in size, with a doubling of the rooms along lateral passages,
similar to the development of Monticello itself.
Here, however, Jefferson was not hampered by existing walls,
and was able to carry through a logical system in the grouping of the bed alcoves along the passages, and in other matters.
The most elaborate of the series has an octagonal room on each side, with a complete theoretic symmetry on both axes.

Note: p72m4 Note: p72m4 The execution [back]

In 1806 the design was determined and the masonry begun; in the fall of 1808 the masonry was complete, Note: p72f2 Note: p72f2 Letter of Jefferson to Hugh Chisholm, the mason, September 8, 1808. Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.) under that date. [back]

and by 1809 Jefferson occupied the house for a time, though it was not yet finished. Note: p72f3 Note: p72f3 The earliest letter that I know of, dated from Poplar Forest, is of November 17, 1809; it is possible that Jefferson made a stay of two weeks there during July: Writings of Jefferson (1893), vol. 9, p. 257 [back]

The plastering was still unfinished in 1812, and the house was not painted until 1817. Note: p72f4 Note: p72f4 Letters of Jefferson to Charles Johnson, November 15, 1812, and to Mr. Higginbotham, March 16, 1817. Jefferson Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc.) under those dates. [back]

It was as late as 1822, as we have seen, before Jefferson ordered the ornaments for the interior friezes.

JEFFERSON'S LATER YEARS, 1809 - 26

His interest in domestic architecture remained unabated. Some time, indeed, elapsed before he again undertook any design of large magnitude, and meanwhile one event took place which might be thought important for his work -- the sale of his library to the government in 1814. This, while incidentally endowing the Library of Congress with a first-rate architectural collection, robbed Jefferson of the use of the books which he had employed so constantly. His designs, in fact, however, remained unaffected, both because his principles were now too firmly established and his knowledge too thorough to be much dependent on books, and because those works which he did need he took pains to replace at once. The smaller library of his old age gives, to a certain degree, an epitome of what he thought useful -- limited by his now straitened means. It included Jombert's compendious Bibliothèque d'Architecture in eight small volumes, comprising Vignola, Palladio, Scamozzi, and de Chambray; the Abrégé de Vitruve, Ware's Architecture, Milizia's Principi di Architettur Civile, Whateley's Gardening, and the Builders' Prices of Philadelphia, Washington and Pittsburg. Note: p73f2 Note: p73f2 Letter to De Bure Fréres, April 19, 1821. Ib. [back]

Durand's Recueil et Parallèle des Edifices de Tout Genre he wished to purchase on its appearance, but found it too costly. Note: p73f3 Note: p73f3 Letter to General Swift, June 22, 1825. Ib. [back]

For reference in constructing the Rotunda of the University he borrowed a copy of De Lorme. Note: p73f4 Note: p73f4 Cf. the section entitled The Architectural Books owned by Thomas Jefferson. [back]

Note: p73m1 Note: p73m1 Monticello [back]

During the whole period, almost to the day of Jefferson's death, Monticello continued in minor ways, as his biographer Raynor puts it, in a state of almost constant re-edification. "And so I hope it will remain during my life," he quotes Jefferson as saying to a visitor, "as architecture is my delight, and putting up and pulling down, one of my favorite amusements." Note: p73f5 Note: p73f5 Sketches of the Life, Writings and Opinions of Thomas Jefferson (1832), p. 524. [back]

The principal change was the raising of the roof to admit an attic with dormers. Note: p73t1 Note: p73t1 ? (With skylights?) MLG [back]

Note: p73m2 Note: p73m2 Ampthill [back]

Two little known residence designs of the time are those which Jefferson made for Randolph Harrison of Ampthill, Cumberland County, in 1815,
and for James Barbour, of Barboursville, Orange County, in 1817. Note: p73m4 Note: p73m4 Barboursville [back]

In plan they were developments from the studies for Farmington and from the rejected studies for Poplar Forest, respectively.
One had but a single story, the other had two stories and a dome like that of Monticello. The dome, however, was stated to be optional, and was in fact omitted in execution. Barbour's workmen were sent to Monticello to familiarize themselves with Jefferson's methods before commencing the construction.

Note: p74m1 Note: p74m1 Bremo [back]

Probably to this time may be assigned the design which Jefferson made for his friend, John H. Cocke for the building of his house at Bremo. The original design is now inaccessible, but we know that the house conforms to it in general, with some variations. Note: p74f1 Note: p74f1 Lambeth: Jefferson as an Architect, pp. 25-30. The plan seen by Lambeth in the possession of the University of Virginia was, before the publication of his book, claimed by the heirs of General Cocke, who have not permitted it to be published or examined, preferring to claim for their ancestor the sole credit for the design of Bremo. Dr. Lambeth has kindly given me the benefit of his personal knowledge of these circumstances, and of the design itself, which in his competent opinion is undoubtedly an authentic drawing by Jefferson. A plan of the house as executed is published in his book, Pl. 1. [back]

Many familiar Jeffersonian features recur in the building, the entrance hall with lateral corridors containing the stairs, and connected with outlying pavilions by passageways partly below grade, the clever turning to advantage of differences of level, and so forth. A novel feature is the semicircular moat or ha-ha which sweeps from one pavilion to the other, giving the plan a unity which, with the varied grouping of masses and porticoes, makes the house one of Jefferson's most successful creations.

Note: p74m2 Note: p74m2 The University of Virginia [back]

The culminating design of Jefferson's career was that of the University of Virginia. The history of his connection with the founding of the institution has been frequently written, Note: p74f2 Note: p74f2 Especially in: Early History of the University of Virginia, from Letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell (Richmond, 1856); H. B. Adams: Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia (1888); John S. Patton: Jefferson, Cabell, and the University of Virginia (1906) . Jefferson's minutes as Rector of the Institution are published in full in Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson (1907), vol. 19, pp. 361-499 [back]

and there have lately been attempts to trace in detail the genesis of his architectural conceptions, Note: p74f3 Note: p74f3 By Patton, op. cit., and more fully by Lambeth, who publishes, in his Jefferson as an Architect, portions of Jefferson's pocket notebook with memoranda of surveys, etc., as well as facsimiles of early studies of the general plan and the pavilions, etc. Jefferson as an Architect , Pls. 3-21. The notebook is the property of Dr. W. M. Randolph, now living in Arizona; it includes, according to personal advices from Dr. Lambeth, drawings of all the buildings, at a smaller scale than those preserved at the University. [back]

but of this latter question the recovery of other evidences demands a reconsideration. Note: p74f4 Note: p74f4 The new documents are published in full in the notes accompanying Fig. 213. [back]

Note: p74m3 Note: p74m3 History of its design [back]

The origin of Jefferson's idea of building a university in the form "of an academical village rather than of one large building" goes back to 1804-05. Note: p74f5 Note: p74f5 Letter to Latrobe of August 3, 1817, quoted in notes to Fig. 213. Cf. letter of L. W. Tazewell to Jefferson, December 24, 1804: Jefferson Papers (L. of C.), vol. 81, no. 9. In 1803 the Albemarle Academy was first chartered by the Virginia Legislature, and Jefferson was seeking the ideas of others with a view "to propose to the Legislature the establishment of a true University." Adams: Jefferson and the University (1888), p.56, and letter to Pictet of February 5, 1803, Ib., p. 52. The drawing mentioned below, among those in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society, may probably be recognized as a study made at this time. [back]

In 1810 it was expressed in a form essentially complete: "...a small and separate lodge for each professorship, with only a hall below for his class, and two chambers above for himself; joining these lodges by barracks for a certain portion of the students, opening into a covered way to give a dry communication between all the schools. The whole of these arranged around an open square of grass or trees...." Note: p75f1 Note: p75f1 Letter to the Trustees of East Tennessee College, May 6. Lipscomb: Writings of Jefferson, (1907) , vol 12, pp. 387 88 [back]

The plan which Jefferson submitted for Albemarle Academy in 1814, Note: p75f2 Note: p75f2 Letter to Latrobe just cited. Cf. Early History of the University (1856), p. 383. [back]

and for its successor, Central College, on May 5, 1817, Note: p75f3 Note: p75f3 Published by Lambeth: Jefferson as an Architect, Pl. 4. [back]

tallies exactly with this description, except that one side of the square is left open for growth. The detailed plan of the first professorial pavilion and its accompanying dormitories, Note: p75f4 Note: p75f4 Ib., Pl. 5, lower half. [back]

authorized on the day last mentioned, shows a continuous range of square piers spaced with reference to the dormitory chambers, and having no very intimate relationship with the pavilions. Above, a prostyle front of square "pilasters" was intended. Note: p75f5 Note: p75f5 Notes published in facsimile, Ib., Pl. 4. [back]

On the same day also, the Board of Visitors, Jefferson being one, ratified the purchase of the land on which the University was to be located, the precise position and the width of ground to be occupied being left to Jefferson.

Note: p75m1 Note: p75m1 Jefferson consults Thornton [back]

Before laying out the ground, however, Jefferson sought to fortify himself by consulting other persons of architectural ability. He first wrote, only four days after the meeting of the Visitors, to William Thornton, describing the scheme as proposed, and making a request. His specifications are . . . "The whole of the pavilions and dormitories to be united by a colonnade in front of the height of the lower story of the pavilions....The colonnade will be of square brick pilasters (at first) with a Tuscan entablature. Now what we wish," he goes on, "is that these pavilions, as they will show themselves above the dormitories, shall be models of taste and good architecture, and of a variety of appearance, no two alike, so as to serve as specimens for the Architectural lecturer. Will you set your imagination to work and sketch some designs for us? No matter how loosely with the pen, without the trouble of referring to scale or rule; for we want nothing but the outline of the architecture, as the internal must be arranged according to local convenience. A few sketches such as need not take you a moment will greatly oblige us." Note: p75f6 Note: p75f6 The full text and a facsimile of the letter with its sketch are given by Brown: Journal of the American Institute of Architects (1913), Vol. I, pp. 21-23. The text is given, from Jefferson's draft, by Lambeth: Jefferson as an Architect, pp. 4-5. [back]

The idea of a variety in the design of the pavilions, here appearing for the first time, was doubtless what led Jefferson to ask for suggestions to supplement the number of inventions which occurred to him. It is obvious that he felt mere hints would be sufficient.

Note: p75m2 Note: p75m2 Thornton's suggestions [back]

Thornton replied on May 27, sending two sketches and making a number of other suggestions -- that the pavilions would require more rooms, especially if for men of family, that the upper story might be made of a greater height and the lecture rooms placed there, that the pavilions near the corners be joined together, that but the three chief orders be used -- the Ionic on the corner pavilions, the Doric on the sides, and a single Corinthian one, with a pediment, in the centre -- that the roofs of the dormitories slope outward from a parapet. His sketches show the lower story of the pavilions treated as a basement with arches, supporting columns above, quite in the manner the French academists, and distinct from the porticoes before the dormitories. Note: p76m1 Note: p76m1 Full text given by Brown : Journal of the American Institute of Architects, vol. I, pp. 23-27. [back]

For these he recommended the use of columns instead of piers. Evidently, Thornton sent more than merely what had been asked of him, and gave very pertinent suggestions.

Note: p76m1 Note: p76m1 Jefferson consults Latrobe [back]

It seems probable that Jefferson was not wholly satisfied with Thornton's sketches, for, almost immediately after receiving them, he wrote to Latrobe a letter modelled on the one to Thornton, only omitting the statement that square piers would be used, and deprecating the charitable nature of the application in view of the thoroughly professional character of his correspondent. Latrobe was complimented and undertook an elaborate drawing; more correspondence ensued while the brick for the first pavilion were making. Jefferson evidently delayed operations in hope of getting Latrobe's draught, but time pressed, and finally, on July 8, he laid out the grounds and soon had the foundations begun. Note: p76m2 Note: p76m2 The beginning of construction [back]

In default of Latrobe's suggestions the design adopted was strongly influenced by Thornton's. It was, according to the description sent Latrobe substantially identical in elevation with the building as erected, Note: p76m2 Note: p76m2 Later known as Pavilion VII, now the Colonnade Club. Jefferson's working drawing is published by Adams : Jefferson and the University , after p. 13; a detail of the lower arcade, by Lambeth : Jefferson as an Architect , Pl. 5. [back]

with arches below and Doric columns above, much as in Thornton's Doric sketch, only lower proportions for the order to conform with the subordinate character the upper story, which Thornton had tried to ignore, though it was necessary practically. There was also a pediment, contrary to his advice. The dormitories were to have columns in front as Thornton had suggested, the alternation of columns and arches in the basement story being intended uniformly throughout the group, as Jefferson wrote Latrobe on August 3. The roofs of the dormitories, however, were not to slope as Thornton proposed, but to be as flat as Jefferson always preferred. Respecting the size of the pavilions, the Visitors were of opinion, October 7, "that where the family of a professor requires it, two additional rooms shall be added for their accommodation."

Note: p76m3 Note: p76m3 Revision of the general plan [back]

On a study of the land purchased, Jefferson had realized that it would be impracticable to retain the width of seven or eight hundred feet between side ranges of buildings, as shown in his first schematic plan and in the sketches sent Thornton and Latrobe. The width of ground which could be levelled transversely gave only two hundred feet between the fronts, and a drop in the other direction showed that low terraces across the lawn would be necessary. Latrobe, however, had been proceeding on the original scheme, as a rough sketch he had sent on July 24 had made Jefferson realize. Jefferson accordingly enlightened him regarding the changes which had become necessary, with the result that Latrobe suspended his work and sent it on, though unfinished.

Note: p76m4 Note: p76m4 Latrobe's designs and suggestions [back]

The original drawing, "on one very large sheet," "contained a plan of the principal range of building . . . and seven or eight Elevations of pavilions, with a general Elevation of the long ranges of Pavilions and portico."