Queer Places:
Yale University (Ivy League), 38 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520
University of Virginia Cemetery and Columbarium
Charlottesville, Charlottesville City, Virginia, USA
Frederick Doveton Nichols (July 1, 1911 - April 9, 1995) was an architect, educator, and historian.
He was a member of the Horace
Walpole Society, elected in 1963, honorary member in 1992. He studied for two years at Colorado College and completed his undergraduate degree in fine arts from Yale University in 1935. He joined the National Park Service, becoming regional director of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). He became director of architectural studies at the University of Hawaii in 1941 and after service in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, he returned to Hawaii. In 1950 he became a professor and later chairman of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia until his retirement in 1982. Nichols wrote several books on the architectural history of Georgia and Virginia and on Thomas Jefferson as a designer. He was a Guggenheim fellow in 1963 and received the University of Virginia Thomas Jefferson Award in 1979 as well as other fellowships and awards. Nichols was a member of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, the American Institute of Architects Task Force on the U.S. Capitol West Front, the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, and the Monticello Restoration Society.
'Freddie' Nichols, born in Trinidad, Colorado, on July 1, 1911,
was the son of Wilbur Oliver and Harriet Doveton Nichols. He
received his M.F.A. from Yale University in 1935, transferring
there from Colorado College, where he had completed two years
from 1929 to 1931. His first job upon graduation, at the height of
the great Depression, was as regional director of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) with the National Park Service. It
was this work that piqued his interest in architectural preservation
and launched him on the career for which he became famous.
The Second World War interrupted his exciting new work
by calling him first to serve on the National Committee for
Aeronautics (1941-46), and then to actual military service with
the United States Air Force (1943-45). He spent four years after
the war as head of the architectural studies program at the University of Hawaii.
In 1942, just at the beginning of his professional career,
Nichols married Jane Root. They had three children, two sons Frederick and
Allen, and a daughter Elizabeth Nichols Kasper.
In 1950 Freddie Nichols took a position at the University of
Virginia, from which he would retire after a long and fruitful career in teaching and preservation. Arriving as associate professor
of art and architecture, he was promoted to full professor in 1960,
and in 1967 was awarded the Cary D. Langhorne chair. As is customary in the academic world, Nichols put in his time as department chairman, first of art and architecture, 1965-70, and then of
the division of architectural history, which he founded, after 1970.
From his prestigious position at this university steeped in the
world-famous tradition, architectural and otherwise, of Thomas
Jefferson, Nichols was able to exert a strong voice and guiding
hand to the post-World War II historic preservation movement.
His career at the University of Virginia provided many opportunities to work on subjects related to Thomas Jefferson, in
whom he first became interested while conducting the HABS survey in the early years of his career. Nichols delved into the architectural and landscape-architectural drawings of Thomas
Jefferson, and he published on this subject in several prestigious
journals. In addition, he advised and wrote portions of the architectural sections of the Jefferson Papers edited by Julian Boyd at
Princeton. In 1978, with Ralph Griswold, he published Thomas
Jefferson., Landscape Architect., which was published by the University Press of Virginia.
As part of his research focus on Thomas Jefferson, Freddie
Nichols served on the Monticello Restoration Committee starting in 1956, and in 1970 was elected a member of the board of
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, on which he
served until just prior to his death. On this board he was the
champion of an extensive restoration program of both the mansion and landscape at Monticello.
In the professional world, Nichols was best known for his work
on Jefferson, especially the restoration of the Rotunda, the key
architectural piece in Jefferson's academical village at the University. He directed the project, overseeing the preparation of the
working drawings based on original plans, the bidding procedure,
and the selection of the restoration contractors, as well as the
fimdraising efforts to get the job done by the 1976 Bicentennial
of this nation. The results are a masterpiece in historic restoration, and Nichols took great delight in having dismantled the 'remodeling' done by Stanford White in the early part of this century as well as later accretions.
Nichols's students, as well as the many professional and lay
preservationists throughout the country especially in the South,
remember him not only for his strong association with the works
of Thomas Jefferson, but also for his monumental work The
Architecture of Georgia, first published in 1957, and revised in
1976. He also wrote several other books and pamphlets including
Catalogue of the Historic American Buildings Survey (1941); Fiske
Kimball: A Biography (1959); and Thomas Jefferson's Architectural
Drawings (1959).
Freddie Nichols's influence extended beyond the classroom.
Much of it was exerted through his membership on important national committees, such as the National Fine Arts Commission,
the Drayton Hall (South Carolina) Council, the Properties
Committee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and
as founding governor of the American Association for Architectural Bibliographers. He was invested as a fellow by the American
Institute of Architects for his leadership in his field. In 1978 he
was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
When die Society held its semiannual meeting in Charlottesville
in April 1985, Nichols led those Society members in attendance
on a brief but thoroughly engaging tour of the Rotunda, tbe
Lawn, and Pavilions.
Unlike many academicians, Freddie always found time to consult with individuals and committees at the grass-roots level.
Among the sites on which he advised were Stratford Hall, Christ
Church (Lancaster County, Virginia), and The Woodrow Wilson
Birthplace (Staunton, Virginia). He was a prime mover in the acquisition and restoration of Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's
second home in Bedford County, Virginia, near Lynchburg.
Freddie Nichols lived his life much as a sculptor chisels a piece
of wood. There were always strong goals and objectives relating
to the final product, but along the way, one might have to take a
different course around a knot or a particular type of wood veination.
The world of historic preservation lost one of its earliest and
staunchest advocates with the death of Frederick Doveton
Nichols on April 9, 1995. Through his teaching, written works,
on-site consultations, and service on several state and national
committees, Nichols influenced many people and saved a long list
of important historic buildings.
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