Rowell 1

Emily Rowell

ARCH1700

Wilson

2 Dec. 2009

The University of Alabama: A Testament to a New State’s Ambition

Little save one building and a few scattered sites of ruins

remains of the original University of Alabama campus, but the

humble remnants hardly communicate the grandeur and aspiration

which characterized the architecture and landscape of the state’s

first university. Scholars even note similarities between Thomas

Jefferson’s Charlottesville, Virginia university and the historic

Tuscaloosa, Alabama campus, but the extent of the President’s

impact upon the architecture of the Alabama college continues to

stand unsolved. William Nichols, the architect of the Alabama

campus, delivered a scheme which both picked up elements of

Jefferson’s academical village and which diverged, one which

imitated and innovated. The arrangement of the universities’

academic buildings and dormitories; the congruencies between the

University of Virginia and the Alabama rotundas; and recently

discovered communication between Jefferson and the Alabama

Rowell 2

governor serving during the campus’s erection lead scholars to

draw connections between the University of Virginia and

University of Alabama plans. Yet Nichols’s design should not be

reduced merely to a copy of Jefferson. The original plans for

the University of Alabama reveal far more than the South’s

admiration of classical and Jeffersonian architecture; implicit

in the architectural designs is Alabama’s lust for respect and

power, its firm, visible assertion of pride and confidence.

Eager to prove publicly that Alabama’s admission to the

Union was well-deserved, the Alabama legislature sought to

compete with the older, more established states by building an

impressive and modern state university. After lengthy

deliberation, the Alabama board of trustees determined in 1828

that the site for the new college would be in the small town of

Tuscaloosa, and three years later, the first phase of building

was complete.1 Although the Federal troops nearly entirely

destroyed the university campus during the Civil War, some clues

about the appearance of the original college exist from state

documents and communication records.1 Delos D. Hughes, “Jefferson’s ‘Academical Village’” Alabama Heritage Jan. 1 1997: 26.

Rowell 3

In 1827 the Alabama legislature selected William Nichols as

the State Architect. For the following seven years, Nichols

served in the posts of both State Architect and Engineer and

exerted notable influence over the state’s early architectural

development, providing the plans for numerous private homes, the

state capitol building, the State Bank, several churches,

Tuscaloosa’s Town Hall, and the University of Alabama.2 His name

widespread throughout the southern colonies from his extensive

work under his previous post as State Architect for North

Carolina, Nichols proved a logical and desirable choice to begin

the constructional development of the burgeoning young state

Alabama. Nichols, an immigrant from Bath, England, brought to

his designs knowledge of the country homes and castles from his

homeland but also awareness of contemporary American

architecture.3 For instance, Nichols’s plan for the North

Carolina State Capitol incorporated new elements into the

existing design of the national capitol building.4 While Nichols

demonstrated familiarity with drawings from the books of

2 C. Ford Peatross,William Nichols, Architect (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama ArtGallery, 1979) 15.3 Robert O. Mellown, “The Alabama Rotunda” Alabama Heritage. Jan. 1 1997. 34.4 Ibid.

Rowell 4

respected British architects James Stewart and Nicholas Revett

and the classical designs of Andrea Palladio, the Bath native

most likely received no formal academic training.5 Thus, his

designs should not chiefly be understood as attempts to display

precision and theoretical principles but instead as

reinterpretations and spontaneous innovations of existing models.

In addition to attempting to strike a balance between

eighteenth century British architecture and contemporary American

architectural trends, Nichols also found himself negotiating

between his own creative impulses and the demands of the Alabama

government when devising plans for the university campus. Many

southern states, enamored with the ideals set forth by the Greek

revival style, wished to model the tenants of the ancient

civilization’s democratic system of government through its

architecture.6 As a result of its diverse roots and influences,

5 Palladio in Alabama: An Architectural Legacy (Montgomery, AL: Montgomery Museum of FineArts, 1991) 68-69. The exhibit notes that no known record demonstrating Nichols’s intellectual or theoretical interest in architecture exists and posits that most of Nichols’s training was of a practical nature. First a craftsman, Nichols presumably assumed an elevated position as architect as he gained more experience and established a commendable reputation.

6 Peatross 2-3.

Rowell 5

Nichols’s University of Alabama campus lacked easy or neat

characterization.

The final design featured a π-shaped campus with two

parallel rows of dormitories extending below the lengthy main

axis which contained the principal buildings such as the dining

hall.7 At the center stood the rotunda, the university’s library

and commencement hall (Figure 1.1). With its Roman Ionic order—

likely the earliest use of the colossal neoclassical order in the

state8—harkening back to Nichols’s English roots, perhaps a

partial nod9 to the University of Alabama sponsors’ zeal for

ancient Greek architecture, the rotunda’s grandeur conveyed the

state’s aspirations for public education and established a

precedent for future state buildings (Figure 2.2). The Gorgas

House, originally designed as the dining hall and steward

residence but later designated as the university president’s 7 Mellown 34.8 Robert Gamble, The Alabama Catalog: Historic American Buildings Survey: A Guide to the Early Architecture of the State (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987) 50.9 Although Nichols modeled his design after Roman, not Greek classical architecture, scholars believe that the university sponsors would not have discerned the difference between the two styles—or at least, the Roman order proved similar enough to the Greek Revival style that they found the rotunda still to capture the ideals of ancient Greece. C. Ford Peatross argues, “For the leaders of Alabama…the building’s spherical section symbolized the core oftheir democracy, the animus of a liberally educated electorate. Its Ionic peristyle, composed of twenty-four Ionic columns, encircled the form like the principles of the Greek civilization which they held so dear” (15).

Rowell 6

quarters, also featured a grand portico set off from its brick

exterior. Later architects adopted numerous elements from

Nichols’s university plan for public structures and private

homes. Alabama mansions subsequently erected mimicked the hipped

roof, five bay structure of the Gorgas House, and Mobile,

Alabama’s Spring Hill College elected to model the portico of one

of its central buildings after the Rotunda design.10

Although Nichols’s University of Alabama established a

standard for future Alabama buildings, the design was not

unprecedented in the United States; in fact, Nichols seemed to

incorporate various aspects from his University of North Carolina

design and the University of Virginia plan into his overall

scheme. The resemblances between the Alabama and Virginia

campuses proved especially remarkable. Like Jefferson’s

academical village, the University of Alabama classrooms and

professors’ homes shared a common space, an unconventional

arrangement in 19th century college architectural design. Most

universities followed the College of William and Mary’s model,

with one principal building holding the students’ classrooms,

10 Peatross 15-18.

Rowell 7

living quarters, and dining area. Alabama historian Robert O.

Mellown argues that perhaps the most strikingly similar element

in both the Alabama and Virginia designs was their rotundas,

massive central buildings constructed of brick, plaster, and

wood.11 Both Jefferson and Nichols deeply admired the stone

columns they had encountered in Europe and attempted to produce

the illusion of stone by constructing their columns with a

combination of plaster and brick. For both universities, the

rotunda housed the book collections beneath the large dome and

served multifarious purposes, at times filling the function of

library, commencement hall, or lecture space for important

speeches. The rotundas proved the paradigmatic symbol not only

of the universities’ robust academic lives but also of the

students’ and professors’ pride. One Alabama professor recounted

the experience of lecturing at the paramount hall, remarking,

“The ceiling…made the voice roll and resound and reverberate. We

could shout there in a rotund voice, and I suppose that is the

reason it was called the Rotunda…It was there that I formed the

acquaintance of Caesar, Brutus, and Antony…”12 For educated

11Mellown 36.12 Ibid.

Rowell 8

Alabamians and Virginians, the classically-inspired domed

buildings conclusively and insuperably expressed the democratic

and educational principles of the accomplished past Greek and

Roman civilizations and the United States’ present aspirations to

greatness.

The exact nature of the relationship between the Alabama and

Virginia campus designs, however, proves perplexing. While

scholars have posited a link between the Alabama governor and

Thomas Jefferson due to a recently discovered document, no

written sources attest to Nichols’s conscious or intentional use

of the Virginia plan for his Alabama design. Merely two pieces

of evidence draw a tenuous connection between the Tuscaloosa and

Charlottesville universities: an 1822 letter from Alabama

governor and Board of Trustees president Israel Pickens to

Jefferson and an 1826 entry in the Board of Trustees meeting

notes which reported that an otherwise-unknown “Mr. Beene” had

given a copy of the Virginia plan to the board.13 In the letter,

Pickens requested a copy of the University of Virginia design,

appealing to Jefferson’s passion for facilitating the extension

13 Hughes 22.

Rowell 9

of the sciences throughout America and attesting to the trustees’

desire “to obtain the most approved models and plans both for the

buildings and for the government of such litterary [sic]

establishments which our country can furnish.”14 For Pickens,

Jefferson’s architectural drawings set the tone for ideal

academic learning, and responsible for overseeing and increasing

his state’s growth, he hoped to achieve a status for Alabama akin

to that of Virginia through emulation.

Unfortunately no known response from Jefferson exists, so

the importance of the Pickens correspondence remains only

marginal. Although Jefferson certainly received Pickens’s

letter, for the President made note in an August 22, 1822 journal

entry, Pickens’s request was realized only four years later, well

after Jefferson’s death.15 Almost certainly did the plan derive

from a source other than Jefferson, for the lapse in time between

Pickens’s written plea and the 1826 arrival of the Virginia plan—

presumably the fairly well-circulated Maverick plan (Figure 1.2)—

to Mr. Beene proves too great to establish a plausible direct

link between the two. Instead, the letter’s and the meeting

14 Ibid. 27.15 Ibid. 29.

Rowell 10

notes’ revere of the Virginia campus design hold importance as

indicators of the deep admiration and authority which educated

Alabama individuals gave to Jefferson’s architectural designs.16

For the young state, Jefferson’s academical village provided a

scheme for the ideal modern educational institution, a type of

institution which Alabama also desperately wished to claim as its

own.

Less than one year after receiving the University of

Virginia plan, the university board hired Nichols to create the

visual realization of the principles which they believed the

classical ancient Greek and Roman civilizations and Jefferson’s

academical village exemplified. Nichols’s design reinforced the

ideals which the Alabama trustees held so tightly but also

ultimately established an identity for itself that could be truly

called unique. While it shared parallels with classical Greek

architecture, Palladian designs, and the University of Virginia

rotunda, the Alabama rotunda was not simply a direct copy of

previously conceived buildings. For instance, instead of

standing at the head of the campus as did Jefferson’s rotunda,

16 Ibid. 25.

Rowell 11

Nichols positioned his rotunda at the campus’s center (Figures

1.1 and 1.2). Furthermore, since students would approach the

building from all its sides, Nichols changed the designs of

classical Rome’s Pantheon, Palladio’s Villa Rotunda, and

Jefferson’s rotunda so that twenty-four paired Ionic columns

encircled the entire perimeter of the circular structure (Figures

2.2 and 2.3).17 In contrast with many historians, C. Ford

Peatross even suggests that the direct prototype for the Alabama

rotunda was the Marine Pavilion in Brighton, England rather than

the Pantheon or Virginia rotunda.18 Unlike Jefferson, Nichols did

not provide a careful theoretical interpretation of the Pantheon

but offered a rendering which proved far more experimental,

playful, and piecemeal.19 Nichols’s original plan for the

rotunda called for a tower, an architectural feature Jefferson

strongly disliked and avoided employing in his own designs.

Nichols’s tower was to perch atop the dome on a projecting

rectangular base with gable but was never constructed (Figure

2.1).20 Academic precision was not Nichols’s concern; rather, he

17 Palladio in Alabama 14.18 Peatross 17.19 Mellown 36.20 Peatross 48.

Rowell 12

hoped to exert his own creative spirit within the perimeters of

the trustees’ guidelines.

Other marked differences existed between the Alabama and

Virginia universities. Jefferson warned against the dangers of

housing large numbers of young men within the same structure and

purposefully designed housing which provided separate quarters

for the students.21 The University of Alabama, on the other

hand, housed all of its students in six large three-story brick

dormitories.22 Also, although professors’ homes were interspersed

in the midst of the student dormitories, the shared living space

in Tuscaloosa did not prove as fluid or uninterrupted as the

combined professor and student housing in Charlottesville.

Jefferson’s university connected the professors’ quarters to the

classrooms and linked the student and instructor housing with a

series of covered walkways whereas the Alabama professors’ houses

stood apart from the dormitories and to the side of classroom

buildings.23 A consideration which further diminishes the

likeliness of the University of Virginia exerting a direct

21 Don Gifford, “Letter to Trustees of East Tennessee” The Literature of Architecture (New York: Dutton, 1966) 78.22 Hughes 30.23 Ibid.

Rowell 13

influence on Nichols’s final design is the improbability that

Nichols ever visited or had any other association with

Jefferson’s university.24

The exact extent to which the University of Alabama campus

copied or drew inspiration from the University of Virginia design

will forever remain a mystery unless additional documents surface

which may provide further insight into the origins of Nichols’s

design. However, the significance of the first Alabama

university does not lie solely in its seeming appropriation of

the Virginia academical village, for the campus was more than a

mere shadow of a previously built institution. In his design,

Nichols presented an eclectic combination of ancient and

contemporary architectural elements, whimsically drawing upon

signature aspects of classical architecture while demonstrating

his awareness of contemporary British and American design. The

resulting campus showcased Nichols’s skilled craftsmanship

acquired from years of previous experience, his willingness to

experiment, and the pride and assuredness with which he

approached the design. The bold, innovative campus plan, with

24 Ibid. 27.

Rowell 14

its unconventional housing arrangements and massive rotunda,

captured both the architect’s and Alabama’s desires to convey

their preeminence and modernity to the surrounding nation.

Appendix of Cited Images

Unfortunately, no records of Nichols’s drawings exist. Architectural historians have produced suggestions for how the original Alabama campus likely looked, but much of the scholarship is admittedly based upon postulation.

Figure 1.1 University of Alabama central campus (rotunda, center, and dormitories, outlying)25

This 1838 engraving provides the earliest known view of the University of Alabama campus. Compare the placement of the Alabama rotunda with the Virginia rotunda’s position in Figure 1.2.

25 Hughes 26.

Rowell 15

Figure 1.2 Maverick Plan26

Composed by Peter Maverick, a New York engraver, the plan first circulatedin 1822 and then after undergoing revision in 1825. The “UVA plan” which Mr. Beene obtained was likely this engraving. The plan also shows the general layout of Jefferson’s academical village, with the rotunda at the head of the mall flanked by classrooms and living quarters.

Image 2.1 University of Alabama rotunda, south view27

Taken in 1859, the only known photograph of the Alabama rotunda shows thatNichols’s plan which called for a tower attached to a projecting rectanglewith gable base was never realized.

26 Ibid. 29.27 Clark E. Center, Jr., “The Burning of the University of Alabama.” Alabama Heritage 1990: 30.

Rowell 16

Image 2.2 Student’s sketch of the University of Alabama rotunda28

Alabama’s rotunda was circular, surrounded by twenty-four Ionic columns. Since students would approach the structure from all sides, Nichols deemphasized the primary façade and offered a design intended to be encountered from various angles.

Image 2.3 Rotunda, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia29

Virginia’s rotunda more closely resembled the Pantheon, with two main entrances on the north and south ends.

Bibliography

Bower, Alice Meriwether. Alabama Architecture: Looking at Building and Place. Tuscaloosa:

University of Alabama Press, 2001.

Center, Clark E., Jr. “The Burning of the University of Alabama.” Alabama Heritage 16

(1990): 30. Print.

28 Mellown 35.29 Ibid. 37.

Rowell 17

Gamble Robert, S. Historic Architecture in Alabama: A Primer of Styles and Types,1810-1930.

Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990.

-----. The Alabama Catalog: Historic American Buildings Survey: A Guide to the Early

Architecture of the State. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987.

Gifford, Don. “Letter to the Trustees of East Tennessee.” The Literature of Architecture. New

York: Dutton, 1966.

Hogan, Pendleton. The Lawn: A Guide to Jefferson’s University. Charlottesville: University

Press of Virginia, 1996.

Hughes, Delos D. “Jefferson’s ‘Academical Village.’” Alabama Heritage. 44 (Jan. 1 1997):

22-31. Print.

Mellown, Robert O. “The Alabama Rotunda.” Alabama Heritage. 44 (Jan. 1 1997): 32-7.

Print.

-----. “Variations on a Capitol Plan.” Alabama Heritage. Summer 2005. 77 (Summer 2005):

8-17. Print.

Palladio in Alabama: An Architectural Legacy. Montgomery, AL: Montgomery Museum of

Fine Arts, 1991.

Peatross, C. Ford. William Nichols, Architect. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Art Gallery,

1979.

Wilson, Richard Guy and Sara A. Butler. The Campus Guide: University ofVirginia. New

Rowell 18

York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999.