Enclosure: Thomas Carstairs’s Estimate of the Cost of Masonry for the Capitol, [ca. 15 August 1793]
Enclosure
Thomas Carstairs’s Estimate of the Cost of Masonry for the Capitol
[ca. 15 Aug. 1793]
At the request of the President of the United States, and the Honble. Thomas Jefferson, the subscriber has measured and estimated the cut stone and Ruble work of a Capitol as seen in the plan and one elevation hereto annexed at the Philadelphia rates, viz.1
| Cut Stone round building2 including 24¾ Columns and 2. pelestars3 | £437278.13.0 |
| Setting Do. & building rough Stone work | 14705. 0.0 |
| Rough Stone Lime & Sand for building | 12571.17.6 |
| 64,555.10.6 | |
| or $ | 172,148.6/100 |
Thomas Carstairs
The above estimate is as follows5
Rusticated Stone at 5/. per foot.
Plain Cut Stone at 4/. per foot.
Building in rough Stone work at 6/. per perch.
Stone lime & Sand at 11/3. per perch.
N.B. The cost for Carriage for Virginia Stone from thence to Philadelphia at 20d. per foot.
T. C.
PrC of Tr (DLC: TJ Papers, 91: 15720); in a clerk’s hand; undated. Tr (Lb in DNA: RG 59, DL). Tr (DLC: TJ Papers, 232: 41559); entirely in TJ’s hand; at head of text: “Carstairs’ estimate of the Capitol at the Philadelphia prices”; lacks two sentences and contains an additional calculation in pencil; endorsed by TJ: “building.”
For the provenance of this estimate and the enclosed plan, see TJ to George Washington, 17 July 1793, and note. The elevation may be that reproduced in Pamela Scott, “Stephen Hallet’s Designs for the United States Capitol,” Winterthur Portfolio, xxvii (1992), 150. Washington also transmitted a copy of the estimate to the Commissioners later in the month ( xxxiii, 74–5).
1. Text to this point lacking in Tr in DLC.
2. Tr in DLC: “round the building.”
3. Tr in DLC: “pilasters.”
4. Tr in DLC: “£ Pensva. curry.”
5. This line and preceding signature omitted in Tr in DLC.