Crisp October mornings in Charlottesville are the best time of the year to watch the Rotunda burn. At least that's what I've heard...
But first things first. In 1895, the University's student population had grown to a size much greater than the original 40 students who made up the first incoming class. Like today, there was nowhere on Grounds to put the overflowing classes. To remedy the situation, the University hired architect Robert Mills -- a young planner who had studied under Thomas Jefferson and was about to make a name for himself by designing the Washington Monument -- to build a new facility for classrooms. He designed an ugly, box-shaped -- and ironically anti-Jeffersonian -- building called the Annex to be attached onto the north side of the Rotunda, extending out to University Avenue.
For 43 years, the Annex was considered by many to be an eyesore. That is, until a Friday evening when some faulty copper wiring malfunctioned and sparked. The wires began to smolder behind the walls, unnoticed until the morning of Oct. 27, 1895. At just past 10:15 a.m. Mason Foshee, a student, was returning home when he smelled smoke, investigated the cause and hurried to awaken everyone he could. Minutes later, the entire stunned University community was gathered on the Lawn groggily discussing how to put out the fire and save Mr. Jefferson's Temple of Knowledge. They divided themselves into three separate roles: the optimists, the realists and the "crazy guy."
The optimists thought that if they could put out the fire in the Annex before it reached the Rotunda, they would be heroes. However, because the University's only fire engine was "rusted out in innocuous desuetude," according tothe 1886 issue of "Corks and Curls," the optimists were forced to resort to a bucket brigade. Carting water from a small pond located halfway between Madison Hall and the Annex, the group was unsuccessful and finally forced back by thick smoke.
That's when the second group stepped up. Realizing the Rotunda was going to be lost, the group of realists bravely decided to run through the now smoke-engulfed Rotunda to save as much from the Dome Room Library as possible. They opened the windows of the third floor and began heaving everything within reach out to the Lawn below. They even managed to drag the 3.5 ton marble statue of Mr. Jefferson to the top of the staircase leading down to the second floor of the Rotunda.
Meanwhile, the third group was formulating a plan. That group consisted of just one man: Professor William "Reddy" Echols, an eccentric Irishman who headed the new University Engineering Department and lived in Pavilion VIII. For whatever reason, (and who are we to judge?) he kept stores of dynamite in his basement. Echols wanted to separate the Annex from the Rotunda so that the fire couldn't spread. To accomplish this, he drilled holes in the columns of the portico that attached the two buildings and filled them with 25 pounds of dynamite. When the explosion was set off, it caused the four columns between the two buildings to collapse, but it did nothing to the sturdy roof of the portico. The only real result was more smoke and chaos.
All were about ready to give up when Echols returned from his Pavilion, this time with double the amount of dynamite. Without regard for his (or anyone else's) safety, he ran up to the roof of the Rotunda, lit the fuse and threw the explosives on top of the portico. He was certain that his plan would work this time -- but it didn't. The rocking of the Rotunda was so violent that the ceiling of the Dome Room caved and all the windows of the Rotunda shattered.
By then, the fire had reached the Rotunda and everyone was ordered to evacuate. That, of course, included the statue of Mr. Jefferson which was dragged out to the Lawn and turned around so that he could watch his beloved Rotunda be consumed by flame.
You may be wondering how the Rotunda came to be rebuilt but that is a story for another time. Meanwhile, next time you're walking down the Lawn and smell smoke, make a quick check to be sure it's coming from a Lawnie's fireplace and not from someplace else...
Michael Ehmann is a Cavalier Daily columnist who covers people and events in the University's history.
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