Charlottesville

On its founding: "An Act of the Assembly of Albemarle County established Charlottesville in 1762."¹ Thomas Walker was named its first trustee, and the town grew up along Three Notch'd Road, the trade route from Richmond to the Shenandoah Valley.¹ "The former capital of Virginia, it is named after Queen Charlotte"¹ and remains "the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city."¹ It was "the home of two U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe,"¹ and the University of Virginia, "founded by Jefferson, straddles the city's southwestern border."¹

On the mountaintop that defines it: Just southeast of the city stands Monticello. As Virginia's Department of Historic Resources describes it, "Reflecting the genius and versatility of its creator, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello is a monument to a scrupulous interest in architecture, landscaping, agriculture, and domestic comforts."² "Jefferson began his dwelling on the 'Little Mountain' after leveling the top in 1768. He worked on it for over forty years, altering and enlarging it as his taste developed, calling it 'my essay in architecture.'"² Monticello, "along with the University of Virginia, [is] a UNESCO World Heritage Site, each attracting thousands of tourists from across the country every year."¹

On the layers beyond Jefferson: Charlottesville's history runs well past its founders. The Woolen Mills Village "encompasses a neighborhood central to the history of the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County since a mill opened there in 1829," a riverside works that "developed into one of the city's and the region's most noteworthy industries, producing cloth for military uniforms from the late-19th century through the 1950s."³ And the Daughters of Zion Cemetery, established in 1873, "is named for the African American mutual aid society that purchased the land"⁴ — "one of the few sites in the city today directly linked to one of the Reconstruction-era aid societies"⁴ that "played a vital role in developing black communities after the Civil War, in Charlottesville and elsewhere around Virginia."⁴

Monticello is the reason most first-time visitors come to Charlottesville — Jefferson's "essay in architecture"² three miles southeast of downtown, and one half of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that draws visitors "from across the country every year."¹ Give it a half-day.

The other half of that World Heritage designation is the University of Virginia. Walk the Lawn to the Rotunda, which "Thomas Jefferson designed... to represent the 'authority of nature and power of reason' and modeled... after the Pantheon in Rome."⁵ Then spend an evening on the Downtown Mall — "one of the longest pedestrian malls in the United States,"⁶ eight brick-paved blocks "home to an array of restaurants, shops, offices and art galleries."⁶ Time a Friday visit for "Fridays After Five, a weekly concert series."⁶