Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Charlotte. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 46,553. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the City of Charlottesville with Albemarle County for statistical purposes, bringing its population to approximately 160,000. Charlottesville is the heart of the Charlottesville metropolitan area, which includes Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, and Nelson counties.
Albemarle County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city and enclave entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 112,395.
The Southwest Mountains of Virginia are a mountain range centered on Charlottesville, parallel to and geologically associated with the Blue Ridge Mountains, which lie about 30 miles (50 km) to the west. Some of the more prominent peaks include Carters Mountain, Fan Mountain, Brush Mountain, Peters Mountain, Walton's Mountain, and Hightop Mountain.
Thomas Walker was a physician, planter and explorer in colonial Virginia who served multiple terms in the Virginia General Assembly, and whose descendants also had political careers. Walker explored the Western Colony of Virginia in 1750, 19 years before the arrival of Daniel Boone.
Shadwell is a census-designated place (CDP) in Albemarle County, Virginia. It is located by the Rivanna River near Charlottesville. The site today is marked by a Virginia Historical Marker to mark the birthplace of President Thomas Jefferson. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with Clifton.
Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. was an American planter, soldier, and politician from Virginia. He served as a member of both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, a representative in the United States Congress, and as the 21st governor of Virginia, from 1819 to 1822. He married Martha Jefferson, the oldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. They had eleven children who survived childhood. As an adult, Randolph developed alcoholism, and he and his wife separated for some time before his death.
Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in Virginia listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
Michie Tavern, located in Albemarle County, Virginia, is a Virginia Historic Landmark that was established in 1784 by Scotsman William Michie, though in Earlysville. The Tavern served as the social center of its community and provided travelers with food, drink and lodging. It remained in operation, in the Michie family, until 1910, when it came to be owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1927, the Tavern was purchased by Josephine Henderson, who had it moved seventeen miles from Earlysville to its present location, close to Monticello.
The Monticello Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1913 to care for, preserve, and continue the use of the family graveyard at Monticello, the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. The organization's members are lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. The site is located just outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson was the designer, builder, owner, and, with his family, a first resident of Monticello.
Thomas Jefferson Randolph of Albemarle County was a Virginia planter, soldier and politician who served multiple terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, as rector of the University of Virginia, and as a colonel in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. The favorite grandson of President Thomas Jefferson, he helped manage Monticello near the end of his grandfather's life and was executor of his estate, and later also served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 and at the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861.
Grace Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 5607 Gordonsville Road in Keswick, Albemarle County, Virginia, United States. The Gothic Revival building was designed by architect William Strickland in 1847. It is the only known work of Strickland in Virginia. The interior was rebuilt after a fire in 1895.
Castle Hill (Virginia) is an historic, privately owned, 600-acre (243 ha) plantation located at the foot of the Southwest Mountains in Albemarle County, Virginia, near Monticello and the city of Charlottesville, and is recognized by the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Castle Hill was the home of Dr. Thomas Walker (1715–1794) and his wife, Mildred Thornton Meriwether (widow of Nicholas Meriwether III). Walker was a close friend and the physician of Peter Jefferson, and later the guardian of young Thomas Jefferson after his father's death.
Shack Mountain is a house near Charlottesville, Virginia, that is a tribute to Thomas Jefferson's architectural style. It was designed by and for Fiske Kimball (1881-1955), an architectural historian who was the founder of the University of Virginia School of Architecture, and who is credited with restoring respect for Jefferson's architectural ability. The house derives its name from the Shackelford family, who owned and settled the property in the 18th century.
Sidney Fiske Kimball was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director. A pioneer in the field of architectural preservation in the United States, he played a leading part in the restoration of Monticello and Stratford Hall Plantation in Virginia.
Limestone, also known as Limestone Plantation and Limestone Farm, has two historic homes and a farm complex located near Keswick, Albemarle County, Virginia. The main dwelling at Limestone Farm consists of a long, narrow two-story central section flanked by two wings. the main section was built about 1840, and the wings appear to be two small late-18th-century dwellings that were incorporated into the larger building. It features a two-story porch. The house underwent another major renovation in the 1920s, when Colonial Revival-style detailing was added. The second dwelling is the Robert Sharp House, also known as the Monroe Law Office. It was built in 1794, and is a 2+1⁄2-story, brick and frame structure measuring 18 feet by 24 feet. Also on the property are a contributing shed (garage), corncrib, cemetery, a portion of a historic roadway, and a lime kiln known as "Jefferson's Limestone Kiln" (1760s). Limestone's owner in the late-18th century, Robert Sharp, was a neighbor and acquaintance of Thomas Jefferson. The property was purchased by James Monroe in 1816, after the death of Robert Sharp in 1808, and he put his brother Andrew Monroe in charge of its administration. The property was sold at auction in 1828.
The historic home listed as Lewis Farm, also known as The Farm and John A. G. Davis Farm, is located at Charlottesville, Virginia. It was built in 1826, and is a two-story brick dwelling with a low hipped roof and two large chimneys. On the front facade is a Tuscan order portico with a terrace above. The house was built by individuals who worked with Thomas Jefferson on building the University of Virginia. Its builder, John A. G. Davis, was law professor at the University of Virginia and was shot and killed outside Pavilion X by a student in 1840. During the American Civil War, Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer set up temporary headquarters at the house where he remained for three days.
Dr. Charles Everett, his surname was also spelled Everette and Everard, was an American physician and planter from Albemarle County, Virginia. He was a physician to three American presidents, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and James Madison. He was also a private secretary to Monroe. He served twice in the Virginia House of Delegates in the 1810s. He purchased land from Jefferson that had been part of the Shadwell tract that became known as Everettsville. He lived his mid- and later-years on the Belmont Plantation. He owned slaves in the 1800s, and later decided that slavery was a sin. He freed them and his will stipulated creation of a community Pandenarium for them in Pennsylvania, a free state.
John Harvie, often called Colonel John Harvie (1706–1767), was raised in Stirlingshire, Scotland and immigrated to the United States. He settled in Albemarle County, Virginia by 1735 and purchased Belmont that was a plantation near Shadwell and Keswick, Virginia. He had close relationships with his neighbors the Jeffersons and was the guardian of future president Thomas Jefferson for some years after Jefferson's father died.
John Rogers was an overseer of three plantations, including Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. He then owned and operated the East Belmont plantation. Rogers was a co-founder of the Albemarle Agricultural Society, and was known for his revolutionary agricultural reforms. His influence and knowledge-gathering was centered among planters in Albemarle County, as well as across the country and in Europe.
