Thomas Jefferson Papers

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.”

1Manuscript: “streachers.”

2Manuscript: “streachers.”

3Manuscript: “stretcers.”

4Reworked 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