Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Bricks Needed for Monticello Columns and Cisterns, [by 13 May 1822]
Notes on Bricks Needed for Monticello Columns and Cisterns
[by 13 May 1822]
Estimate of bricks for 6. shafts of Dor. columns
larger diam 23.I. dimd do 20.1 I
Shaft about 14.f. clear of base and cap.
| 16. | headers lay a course | ) | to be laid in alternate courses |
| 8. | stretchers1 lay a course |
call each third of the column 5.f. or 20. courses
suppose for the lowest & middle third, the large bric[ks] and the upper third the dimd bricks
| the | lower & middle 3d | 20. courses header | × | 16 = | 320. headers |
| 20. do stretchers | × | 8 = | 160. stretchers | ||
| upper 3d | 10. do headers | × | 16 = | 160 | |
| 10 do stretchers2 | × | 8 = | 80 |
| each column then will take | large headers | 320 | ) | 480. headers |
| small do | 160 | |||
| large stretchers | 160 | ) | 240. stretchers3 | |
| small do | 80 |
| 6. columns will take | large headers | ) | 1920 | ) | 2880 |
| small do | 960 | ||||
| large stretchers | ) | 960 | ) | 1440 | |
| small do | 480 | ||||
| 4320 |
| Say | 2200 | large headers | to wit | 280 | . | spare ones |
| 1100 | large stretchers | 140 | ||||
| 1100 | small headers | 140 | ||||
| 600 | small stretchers | 120 | ||||
| 5000 | 680 | |||||
| 4320 | ||||||
| 5000 |
| about | 10004 | common bricks to fill the hollows |
| + | 4000 | do for cistern |
| 5000 |
May 13. 22. wrote to J. Perry to provide them.
MS (ViU: TJP); written in TJ’s hand on verso of portion of a reused address cover from Joel Yancey to TJ; undated; edge trimmed; with additional notations, omitted here, also included in TJ’s Notes on Monticello Cisterns and Columns, [14 June 1822–29 Sept. 1824], and accounted for there.
The 6. shafts of Doric columns were for Monticello’s West Portico.
TJ’s letter to John M. Perry of may 13. 22, not found, is recorded in SJL with the additional bracketed notation: “5M column br. 5000. common.”
1. Manuscript: “streachers.”
2. Manuscript: “streachers.”
3. Manuscript: “stretcers.”
4. Reworked from “500.”
Index Entries
- building materials; bricks search
- cisterns; at Monticello search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Writings; Notes on Bricks Needed for Monticello Columns and Cisterns search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); cisterns at search
- Monticello (TJ’s Albemarle Co. estate); West Portico search
- Perry, John M.; and bricks for Monticello search
- Perry, John M.; letter to accounted for search