1798] BUILDING HOUSES 523 benefit you can derive from my Wall. If Mr. Frost is disposed to build a house immediately, or very soon; and will give it an accordant elevation, it would be agreeable to me that he should erect Chimnies on the South end similar to your's on the North end of my buildings. With respect to your own accomodation you will please to give Mr. Blagden such Instructions when he enters upon the Walls as to suit your views perfectly. Whether, as there is water so handy, it be necessary to sink a Well, is a matter that circumstances must regulate. If one should be dug, I would range it with the partition Wall of the buildings, that if ever they are occupied as distinct houses, one Pump with two leavers and pipes may subserve both. I am in sentiment with you and Mr. Law, that a five feet Area is too narrow; but whence the remedy? If the regulations will not allow more, and cannot be altered, it must be indured, or the buildings must recede from the Street which would be exceptionable in another respect. aid Although the Commissioners have been obliging, and ready throughout the whole of this business to render me every I could wish, and am I persuaded would continue to do it; yet, as I shall be bound by Contract (with Mr. Blagden) to supply his wants, agreeably to the Conditions of it, and this can be accomplished with more ease by an Individual than by the Board; the setting of which, at times, may be impeded by the absence of some of its members when most inconvenient for his calls; and as you reside in the City, and always there; and have moreover been so obliging as to offer to receive the Bills and pay their amount (when presented by Mr. Blagden) I will avail myself of the kindness: and accordingly, send a Check upon the Bank of Columbia, which will carry a credit of five hundred dollars (left there) when I was in the City last, to be drawn for by you, for the above purpose, as occasion may require: and at all times on notice being given, the Bank shall be replenished, and subject to your draughts to satisfy the Bills of expenditure, of which you will be so good as to inform Mr. Blagden. Upon conversing more fully with Mr. Blagden upon the frontispiece of the Doors, and considering that to make them of Stone instead of Wood, will add durability to the work, I have agreed to allow the difference, viz $150 that they may be executed with the latter. And as he represented in strong terms, the wishes of Mr. Francis that a part of the Cellars should be vaulted, for the benefit of Wine, I have agreed to this also. He thinks the additional cost may amount to $100 dollars more; but having made no estimate thereof it shall be charged at what it really stands him. Whether he begins, or not, to lay the foundation of the building this Autumn, he ought by all means to have the Stone and sand on the spot to begin early in the Spring. The carting now, is so much better than it will be then, that he must find this an eligable measure. His lime too ought to be secured, and his flooring Plank to be good and procured early, tried up, and seasoned, or the floors will shrink. With very great esteem etc.59 *RIVER FRONT WALL [October, 1798?] B 8 Suppose the dot at A to be the highest part of the hill in front of the house, and the black line from B to C the natural From the William Thornton Papers in the Library of Congress. 1798] RIVER FRONT WALL 525 shape of the hill (or fall of the hill) the pricked line may be a good direction for the wall, in order to prevent its being too serpentine or crooked, this, in some places, will come in upon the level (or that which is nearly so) of the hill, as at 1, 2, 3, and in others as at 5, 6, 7, and 8 will be below the declivity, and require filling up in order to bring the whole to a level, which is to be effected by the earth which may be taken from 1, 2, 3, There are two reasons for doing it in this manner, the one is, to prevent the wall from being too serpentine and crooked (as the black line), and the second is, that the hill below the wall may be more of a sameness, otherwise it w'd descend very suddenly in some places and very gradually in others. You will observe that this wall is not to be laid out, or worked by a line, the whole of it is serpentine, which I am particular in mentioning lest by the expression in your letter of zig-zag, you had an idea that it was to be laid out by line 20 or 30 feet or yards (as the hill would admit) one way, then angling and as far as it would go strait another in the follow'g man'r It is not my wish to have it very serpentine nor would I have it quite strait if I could, a little curving and meandering would be my 60 choice. From the original in private hands. The assigned date is problematical. (See "Work for the Bricklayers" with the letter to James Anderson, Nov. 1, 1798, post.) |