Thomas Jefferson Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Jefferson, Thomas" AND Recipient="Oldham, James"
sorted by: author
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-44-02-0465
Note: this document has content that may require expanded/print view for best results (icons above right)

From Thomas Jefferson to James Oldham, 11 October 1804

To James Oldham

Washington Oct. 11. 04.

Sir

I have duly recieved your’s of the 7th. and am sorry for your disappointment at Richmond. at this place what little private building is going on is engaged, and the public (wooden part) will wait for funds till next spring. the work which I could put into your hands at once, is

 12. a pair folding doors, mahogany, for partition between the Hall & Parlour,
  7. { 2. pair Mahogany sashes (lights 12. by 18) for windows of 2. square rooms looking into N.E. portico
1. sash do. for North Octagon bedroom to supply the one demolished.
 18. 4. semicircular sashes, pine, for the 4. pediments outside
 22. 5. semicircular do. } for the South Piazza as a Greenhouse pine
 21. 5 pr square do.
150  about 30. panneled doors of pine. the pannels flat on both sides.
230. D.
they wd.
cost by
Evans’s
book of
prices.
supposing Richmond still the best place to set up, would not this job give you an opportunity of shewing there your stile of working, and give you time to get into employment? I have no objection to the having my doors made there, for I question if they would weigh much above 100. to 150 each. I had no intention that you should have been out of business on such short notice; and therefore shall consider your wages going on till you have a reasonable time to get into employ. Mr. Madison would have been very glad to have employed you: but he is not at all in readiness yet. he has a very wealthy brother in law, mr Macon, who is building a very large house near him. whether he wants workmen or not he does not know. but I think it very possible. he is not skilled in the style of work, yet he is a man who I am sure would wish for good work, if he understood directing it. my best wishes for your health & success.

Th: Jefferson

PoC (MHi); at foot of text: “Mr. Oldham”; endorsed by TJ.

TJ’s calculations came from John Evans’s The Builder’s Universal Price Book (Washington, D.C., 1804), 15-39.

large house: Somerset, the home of Thomas Macon and Sarah Catlett Madison Macon, was near Montpelier (Madison, Papers, Pres. Ser., 1:252n).

Index Entries