The Portland daily press., 1899-04-28
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.
Noble Educational Institution Found-
ed by the Sage of Monticello, Every
Feature of which Reflects His work
and Character.

I
and Character.
Especial Correspondence of The Chicago
Rscord.)
Charlottesville, Va, April l7.-Ali the
plans for the construction of the buildings
of the University of Virginia. every esti-
mate for material, every architectural de-
tail, the depth of the cellars, the thick
ness of the found alton walls, the location
of windows and doors and stairs, the de-
signs of ornamentation, were made by
Thomas jefferson, and the original draw
ings and notes are still In the possession
Of his great granddausther, Miss Sarah
Randolph of Baltimore.
| He trained the carpenters, the bricklay-
ers and the painters; he designed tools
and implements for. them to work with
he imported sculptors from Italy to cbisel
the marble capitals Of the columns that
add so much to the beauty of the build
ings. His original intention was to use
nothing but Virginia stone, but when he
found 1t would not work well he brought
marble from Carrara. There is nothing
TO be seen. there is scarcely anything to
be heard and very few ideas can be sug.
gested at the University of Virginia that
did not spring from Jefferson's fertile
and comprehensive mind.
His designs, however, were not original,
Most of them were copied by his own
hand and that of his granada lighter from
picture book. 1t is generally known as
"The Architecture of A. .Palladio," and
is we'll known by students in that branch
of art 1t contains engravinRs of classic
models of the five orders of architecture,
with 1.-THE most necessary observations
by Giacomo Leoni, Venetian, and
"notes and remarks of lingo Jones, now
| first taken from his original manuscript
in Worcester college library, Oxford" Mr..
jefferson appears to have given the vol
ume careful study for years and repro
duced aIuong the buildings of the univer-
sity those features OF architecture which
| to his taste were the purest. and the most
| beautiful examples of the classic period
the theater Of Marcellus, the baths OF
Diocletian and Caracalla, the temple of
Fortuna withstand for the central
| figure of the composition he reconstructed
the Roman Pantheon, the temple Of all
the gods, reduced to one-third of Its
original size, but still mojestic and i'm.
posing.
The curves of the dome, when extended
to the ground, describe an exact circle,
aud in symmetry and simplicity he es-
teemed 1t the noblest expression Of human
construction. In selecting this model for
the library Mr.. Jefferson desired to keep
| constantly before the eyes of the students
an object lesson that would elevate their
taste and appeal to their highest sense
| of the artistic.
,,,I ,.,,A
quadrangle about 200 feet in length by
| $50 feet In width, the library lifting it's
noble form at one end, and n group of
| new Ionic buildings at the other, erected
recently to take the place of those which
were destroyed by fire in 1925. The three
| sides of the quadrangle are lined with
porticoes extending from the buildings
twenty feetor more and sustained by rows
| Of white pillars. They resemble the ctois-
tiers of an ancient monastery. The
stude hts occupy monkish cells, entered
from arcades and lighted from the rear,
while at intervals tine sameness Is broken
| by a two-story structure, with II held.
bald front, in which a professor resides.
The ground slopes just enough to enable
the landscape gardener to make series of
| terraces upon the lawn, and the ,naRnln-
| cent shade trees and luxuriaut shrubbery
and the quaint serpentine fences OF brick
combine to make a picture that is more
in any other American town.
The buildings furnish striking con E.
trast with the ugly square-cornered,
many-windowed. factory like dormitories
and recitation halls that you lind upon
the campus of the ordinary college in the
north. The leanness of their endowments
| and the demand for educational accommo-
| dations tempted their trustees. no doubt,
| to buy as many brick and partition off as
many rooms as they could with their
| money, without thought of the esthetic.
| But MIR. jefferson hao an ideal-the re-
| suit of years of inquiry and contemplation
and he endeavored to combine and carry
out in the University OF Virginia an in
| telleotual, political and moral develop
ment and the cultivation of an artistic
| taste among his countrJmen. As con-
| sequence you find at that institution i'm
| posing architectural effects, u curriculum
which embraces all branches of human
ognizes that boys as we'll as men are
| capable of self-government and are con-
| trolled by the instincts of honor.
| The old settlers tell lis that Mr.. Jeffer
son used to sit on the portico OF his
mansion at Monticello, four miles across
the valley, and with a field glass watch
| the progress of the building. If anything
seemed to be going.wrong ne mounted his
horse and came over in hurry. Several
buildings have been added to the scholas.
tic colony since his day, but the original
group rs planned by him still remains the
most notable examples in the United
States Of the pure classic schools Of alchi-
| lecture. The gymnasium Is detached and
| stands some distance from the library !;
the chapel is a Gothic structure entirely
| out of harmony with the rest of the
buildings. and looks as if 1t cannot help
| feeling that it is guilty of an unwarrant-
ed intrusion.
Running in parallel lines with the long
sides of the quadrangle are low dormi-
| tories and other buildings for the accom-
mediation of the literary societies and the
professors. and they are all connected by
collonnades, so that 1t is possible TO visit
nine-tenths of the university including
| the professors residences, without pass
| ing from under the roofs. The students
complain that their monkish cells are
damp and uncomfortable. that there is no
way to heat them except by CRATES and
that they nenrly persisted from cold dur
| ing the last blizzard but 1t is unbecoming
and reprehensible to mention defects in
such an artistic arrangement. 1t ought