Scientific learning has evolved through time and while photos of past schools and learning centers are still available to take us back in time, nothing compares to actually seeing a preserved, unadulterated one.
In the process of renovating University of Virginia Rotunda, workers were stunned to discover a chemical lab designed by Thomas Jefferson back in the 19th century. During the preparation for the renovation, they studied some of the craters on the walls and discovered the chemistry hearth.
"It was a surprise, a very exciting one for us," said Brian Hogg, senior historic preservation planner.
The early science classroom had been kept in one of the lower-floor walls since the 1850s and thus, was safeguarded from the 1895 fire that wreak havoc most of the interiors.
In the original Rotunda of Thomas Jefferson, the chemistry class was held on the bottom floor, with the lectures given in the lower west oval room and the experiments in the lower east. It was John Emmet, the first natural history professor at the university, who taught the classes.
The space, which Emmet also helped equip, had two fireboxes for heat source - a wood-burning and coal-burning one. These fireboxes, as well as the students' workstations were provided with fresh air using an underground brick pit. The students had five stone countertop workstations at their disposal.
In April 1823, Jefferson wrote a letter to Joseph Cabell, who is part of the Board of Visitors, requesting for the class to be transferred on the Rotunda's ground floor, so as to have sufficient water supply for experiments, without the need to pump water to the upper floors.
"For the Professor of Chemistry, such experiments as require the use of furnaces, cannot be exhibited in his ordinary lecturing room," Jefferson wrote. He added that the space was prepared under the oval rooms of the ground floor for stoves and furnaces, among others.
The Board of Visitors deemed the basement of the Rotunda to be one of the chemical labs in October 1824.
At present, the university's Department of Chemistry is located on the McCormick Road. Nonetheless, the chemical hearth provides an essential throwback into the history of the institution, emphasizing the importance Jefferson gave on natural science studies.
Mark Kutney, an architectural conservator in the university, said that the hearth is an important sign of the early years of the university. He added that the original opening arch will have to be renovated but they wish to preserve the chemical lab in such a way that signs of past use is still evident.
