I have frequently heard Mr Jefferson say that this germ of a fondness for building, was developed in him by the accidental circumstance of his purchasing a book on Architecture, when at College from an old drunken Cabinetmaker who still resided near the College gate in my time & whom I...

could the dead feel any interest in Monuments or other remembrances of them ... The following would be to my Manes the most gratifying. On the grave a plain die or cube of 3.f without any mouldings, surmounted by an Obelisk of 6.f. height, each of a single stone: on the faces of the Obelisk the...

for we may safely aver, that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.

would it not be best to make the internal columns of well burnt bricks moulded in portions of circles adapted to the diminution of the columns. Ld Burlington in his notes on Palladio tells us that he found most of the buildings erected under Palladio’s direction & he described in his...

there never was a Palladio here even in private hands till I brought one ... I send you my portable edition, which I value because it is portable ... it contains only the 1st book on the orders, which is the essential part.

to all this I add that it is deemed to read the Latin & Greek authors in their original is a sublime luxury; and I deem luxury in science to be at least as justifiable as in architecture, painting, gardening or the other arts.

one who loves the arts, must be well disposed to those who practice them.

in architecture, painting, sculpture, I found much amusement.

the city of London, tho’ handsomer than Paris, is not so handsome as Philadelphia. their architecture is in the most wretched stile I ever saw, not meaning to except America where it is bad, nor even Virginia where it is worse than in any other part of America, which I have seen.

I was written to in 1785. (being then in Paris) by Directors appointed to superintend the building of a Capitol in Richmond, to advise them as to a plan, and to add to it one of a prison. thinking it a favorable opportunity of introducing into the state an example of architecture in the classic...