Grizzard: Construction of UVA: 1996: Abstract

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

Frank Edgar Grizzard, Jr.
Emporia, Virginia

B.A., Virginia Commonwealth University, 1987
M.A., University of Virginia, 1989

A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Corcoran Department of History
University of Virginia
August 1996

Abstract

At the time of its initial phase of construction, from about 1817 through 1828, Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village at the University of Virginia was one of the largest building projects ever undertaken in American history. Many of the documentary sources surrounding the construction of the university have survived and, when taken together, probably represent the best documented building project from early America, aside from the United States Capitol. This work pulls together those sources and presents them transcribed and annotated, along with a lengthy historical narrative, in the format of a permanent electronic database. A thorough analysis of the process of erecting this unique group of buildings fills a void in the history of the University of Virginia while supplementing our understanding of Jefferson the architect and the man. Although the written record confirms previous observations that the physical structures owed their conception and preliminary designs to Jefferson—as did nearly everything else connected to establishing the university—the sources also show that Jefferson incorporated important alterations in his plan as a direct result of contributions and criticism that he received from several persons, most notably Benjamin Henry Latrobe, William Thornton, and Joseph Carrington Cabell. Furthermore, the physical characteristics of the construction site, the availability of skilled workers, and the financial and political limitations that were imposed on the institution greatly influenced Jefferson's scheme as it was being carried into effect. Moreover, the documentary record reveals that while the university's Board of Visitors delegated its overall authority to supervise and inspect the construction to two of its members, Jefferson and General John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo, who together formed a committee of superintendence, the bulk of the government of the day-to-day affairs at the site fell upon the shoulders of one man, the university proctor, Arthur Spicer Brockenbrough. Finally, the documentary record which forms much of this account offers a rich source from which to explore some of the texture of the material life and culture of Virginia society during the second and third decades of the nineteenth century.

This electronic database consists of 1,750 manuscript documents and a lengthy historical narrative related to the construction of the original buildings of Thomas Jefferson's nineteenth-century architectural masterpiece, the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia.