Thomas Jefferson on his French “mistresses”
If only all mistresses were as innocent as these! Here I am gazing whole hours at the Maison quarrée, like a lover at his mistress. The stocking weavers and silk spinners around it consider me a...
View ArticleThomas Jefferson on Monticello
What is your “dream setting” for a house? And our own dear Monticello: where has nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye? Mountains, forests, rocks, rivers! With what majesty do we there ride...
View ArticleWhat principles would guide your design?
I consider the common plan followed in this country, but not in others, of making one large and expensive [university] building, as unfortunately erroneous. It is infinitely better to erect a small...
View ArticleWhat does THAT building do for YOU?
But how is a taste in this beautiful art to be formed in our countrymen, unless we avail ourselves of every occasion when public buildings are to be erected, of presenting to them models for their...
View ArticleThe President’s recommendation open doors!
The bearer hereof, mr Mills, a native of South Carolina, has passed some years at this place as a Student in architecture. he is now setting out on a journey through the states to see what is worth...
View ArticleWho exactly is in charge here? Part 3
[This is the 3rd interchange in Jefferson’s internal dialog between his head and his heart, in his anguish over Maria Cosway’s departure. He reported the entire dialog to her in this letter.] Head. …...
View ArticleForm must yield to function, unfortunately.
I cannot express to you the regret I feel on the subject of renouncing the Halle au bled lights of the Capitol dome. that single circumstance was to constitute the distinguishing merit of the room,...
View ArticleUgly, expensive or inconvenient? Fugettaboutit!
The most approved plan of an [military] Hospital [in Boston is] of 4000. square feet area, two stories … the rooms for the sick to be well aired … Th:J. proposes to mr Gallatin that some such...
View ArticleWHAT was he thinking?
to cover with sheet iron in ridges & gutturs let the ridges be 6. I. high & 5. times that in span=30 I. then the slope will be 16.15 and adding 1.85 I. for the lap the sheets of iron must be...
View ArticleWas Jefferson GREEN?
… I should ask the favor of you to select for me in Philadelphia 3. of the handsomest stoves, of the kind called Open stoves, or Rittenhouse stoves, which are in fact nothing more than the Franklin...
View ArticleLet us be smart about this. (5 of 7)
4. buildings. the greatest danger will be their over-building themselves, by attempting a large house in the beginning, sufficient to contain the whole institution. large houses are always ugly,...
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