Chemical lab of Thomas Jefferson discovered in University of Virginia Rotunda

At the famous University of Virginia Rotunda, a recent renovation unearthed a long-hidden chemistry laboratory which had been sealed away since probably the 1850s.

Mr. Jefferson is of course known as a statesman and writer, but the directives he gave for the lab reveal his concern for the natural sciences, as he specified size and location for the lab.

Finally, the school officials note that Jefferson apparently wrote, of the laboratory: “For the professor of chemistry, such experiments as require the use of furnaces, can not be exhibited in his ordinary lecturing room”.

The lab offers a sense of how chemistry was taught in the early days years of the United States. Inside are two fireboxes, fed by underground air tunnels, where wood and coal would have been burned to provide heat for reactions, and five workstations cut into the countertop where pupils may have worked.

The university plans to make the lab part of the permanent display when the Rotunda reopens after renovations.

UVA stated in a news release that Jefferson planned for the lab to be built on the ground floor of the Rotunda to avoid pumping water to higher-level floors and because it was advantageous for experiments.

Matt Schiedt, a project manager for John G. Waite Associates, a firm that specialized in historic buildings, explored a unusual hole in the wall when examining the Rotunda because he needed to know how thick the walls were, he told The Charlottesville Newsplex. “The original arch above the opening will have to be reconstructed, but we hope to present the remainder of the hearth as essentially unrestored, preserving its evidence of use”, said Mark Kutney, an architectural conservator in the University Architect’s office in a news release.

The hearth was walled off in 1850 and survived a major fire that destroyed a large portion of the building in 1895, according to the university. The university believed that the lab was sealed when it was moved to an annex of the Rotunda.