96 Fun Facts About Charlottesville

Which two US presidents lived in Charlottesville?

Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe were neighbors on purpose: Jefferson urged his friend to buy the farm beside Monticello in 1793. James Madison's Montpelier lies in neighboring Orange County.

Charlottesville honors Queen Charlotte, the wife of which British king?

George III had married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1761, and the new Albemarle County seat, established the following year, was named for the new queen.

What is Charlottesville's common nickname?

C'ville is how locals shorten Charlottesville, and the city's alternative weekly took the nickname for its own title, which it styles C-VILLE Weekly.

What is Charlottesville's Downtown Mall?

A car-free Main Street, not a shopping center: the city closed East Main Street to traffic to revive its fading downtown, and the brick-paved mall opened in 1976.

Around 1784, Thomas Jefferson carried out one of America's earliest archaeological digs on what near Charlottesville?

A Native burial mound drew Jefferson after Indian visitors were seen paying respects there; he cut a trench through it and published what he found in Notes on the State of Virginia.

Who rode 40 miles in June 1781 to warn Jefferson at Monticello of a British raid?

Jack Jouett spotted Banastre Tarleton's cavalry near Louisa and outrode them overnight to Monticello. Jefferson and most legislators escaped, and Jouett became the Paul Revere of the South.

Which Union general's 1864 raid on Charlottesville was turned back at Rio Hill?

George Armstrong Custer surprised a Confederate horse-artillery camp at Rio Hill and was driven off. He came back with Sheridan in March 1865, and the town surrendered to them.

Which downtown African American neighborhood did the city raze in 1965 as urban renewal?

Vinegar Hill was the city's Black business hub; voters chose to raze it by just 36 votes, in a referendum held while a poll tax kept many Black residents from the polls.

Which architect designed Old Cabell Hall at the south end of UVA's Lawn?

Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White designed Old Cabell Hall after the Rotunda fire of 1895, closing off the south end of the Lawn that Jefferson had left open to the mountains.

What did Jefferson put at the head of UVA's Lawn instead of a chapel?

A library filled the Rotunda at the head of the Lawn, and Jefferson left a chapel out of his plan altogether; the university added one only late in the nineteenth century.

Jefferson modeled the University of Virginia's Rotunda on which ancient building?

The Pantheon in Rome was Jefferson's model, built at a much smaller scale. A fire that began in the annex in 1895 gutted the Rotunda, which had to be rebuilt.

Which poet enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1826, the year Jefferson died?

Edgar Allan Poe spent February to December 1826 at the university, excelling in Latin and French before gambling debts ended his stay; the Raven Society preserves his room, 13 West Range.

Jefferson's epitaph names the Declaration, his university and what else?

A religious freedom law, Virginia's 1786 statute, made the stone. Jefferson asked for three achievements and 'not a word more', so his two terms as president went unmentioned.

The name Monticello comes from Italian words meaning what?

Little mountain is what monticello means in Italian, a diminutive of monte, and it fits: Jefferson built the house on the leveled summit of a small peak outside town.

Monticello appeared on the reverse of which US coin every year from 1938 to 2003?

The Jefferson nickel carried Monticello on its reverse from 1938 through 2003; the 2004-05 Westward Journey designs interrupted the run before Monticello returned in 2006.

Which Italian Renaissance architect's principles did Jefferson follow in designing Monticello?

Andrea Palladio's Four Books of Architecture shaped Jefferson's eye: Monticello's portico and symmetry follow the Italian's rules, and the same pages guided his designs for the University of Virginia.

Which organization bought Monticello from the Levy family in 1923?

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, now the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, paid Jefferson Monroe Levy $500,000 for Monticello in 1923 after the Levy family had preserved the house since 1834.

James Monroe's estate near Monticello, long called Ash Lawn, was renamed what in 2016?

Highland was Monroe's own name for the farm. A later owner rebranded it Ash Lawn, and the College of William & Mary, his alma mater and the estate's owner, restored the original in 2016.

Which famous rock group formed in Charlottesville in 1991?

Dave Matthews Band formed in Charlottesville in 1991, when bartender Dave Matthews, urged by lawyer friend Ross Hoffman, recorded demos and recruited local jazz players.

Jefferson struggled for decades at Monticello to make which product, now a specialty of the countryside around Charlottesville?

Wine defeated Jefferson: he replanted his Monticello vineyards again and again, in an age when rot and pests doomed European vines. The surrounding hills became the Monticello wine appellation in 1984.

Charlottesville-raised Boyd Tinsley played which instrument in a hometown rock band until 2018?

Violin came to the band for one song only: in 1991 Tinsley, who led his own group, was asked to guest on a single demo track, and by 1992 he had joined full time.

Which comedy writer and actress earned a drama degree from the University of Virginia in 1992?

Tina Fey studied playwriting and acting in Charlottesville, graduated in 1992 and left for Chicago's Second City; by 1997 she was writing for Saturday Night Live.

Which small area a few blocks from the Downtown Mall is the original center of Charlottesville?

Court Square's courthouse doubled as the town's church: with no church building in early Charlottesville, congregations held services in the courtroom, and Jefferson sometimes attended.

What is the name of the commercial strip of bars and eateries along University Avenue next to UVA?

The Corner began as a literal corner, a few businesses at the entrance to the university's grounds, and the name spread to the blocks of shops and bars that grew up around it.

Charlottesville lies along which river, a tributary of the James?

Rivanna is the river on the city's eastern edge; it meets the James at Columbia. The Jeffersons owned land along it, and a young Thomas Jefferson pushed to have it cleared for boats.

Charlottesville is closest to which of these cities?

Richmond, the state capital, lies about 70 miles southeast, near enough that Virginia's government fled from there to Charlottesville when British troops advanced in 1781.

Which two major highways pass through Charlottesville?

Interstate 64 and US Route 29 cross here, though I-64 nearly missed the city: Virginia chose a southern route through Lynchburg in 1959, and federal officials overruled it in 1961.

Which Amtrak long-distance train links Charlottesville with Chicago and New York City?

The Cardinal nearly vanished: Amtrak cancelled it in September 1981, and a congressional mandate put it back on the rails the following January, three days a week.

Which scientific institution has its headquarters in Charlottesville?

National Radio Astronomy Observatory headquarters sit on Edgemont Road beside the university, a long way from its telescopes, which include the Very Large Array in New Mexico.

UVA's men's basketball team, the 2019 national champion, plays under which nickname?

The Cavaliers beat Texas Tech 85-77 in overtime for the 2019 title, a year after becoming the first men's No. 1 seed ever to lose to a 16 seed, UMBC.

Which coach led Virginia to its first NCAA basketball title in 2019?

Tony Bennett turned down the raise that came with his contract extension months after the title, asking Virginia to spend the money on his staff and program instead.

Which seven-foot-four Virginia center went first overall in the 1983 NBA draft?

Ralph Sampson, a three-time national player of the year at Virginia, went first to the Houston Rockets in 1983 and later paired with Hakeem Olajuwon as the original 'Twin Towers'.

In which summer collegiate league do the Charlottesville Tom Sox play?

Valley Baseball League owners voted in 2013 to add a Charlottesville club. The Tom Sox, named in a public contest, began play in 2015 on the Charlottesville High School field.

The Foxfield Races, held near Charlottesville each April and September, feature which sport?

Steeplechase horse racing arrived in 1978: Mariann de Tejeda had bought the land where huntsman Grover Vandevender once ran a riding school, and she built the race course on it.

Which of these events takes place at Monticello every Fourth of July?

A naturalization ceremony turns Monticello's West Lawn into an outdoor courtroom each July 4. For more than 60 years, new citizens have taken their oath at the home of the Declaration's author.

What became of the Confederate statue behind the Unite the Right rally?

Melted down: the bronze was cut into pieces and liquefied in October 2023 under a local group's proposal to recast the metal as new public art.

The Unite the Right rally was organized to oppose the removal of a statue of which Confederate general?

Robert E. Lee's statue was wrapped in black after the rally turned deadly: the council voted to shroud it in mourning, and a judge ordered the covers off in February 2018.

Zyahna Bryant, who wrote the 2016 petition to remove a downtown Confederate statue, was what at the time?

A local high school student, Zyahna Bryant was a 15-year-old freshman at Charlottesville High when she wrote the petition in March 2016, and the council voted the following year to take the statue down.

Which of these novelists has made a home in Charlottesville's Albemarle County?

John Grisham, the Mississippi lawyer turned novelist behind The Firm, makes his home near Charlottesville, where he built a $3.8 million youth baseball complex.

A gift of Albemarle Pippin apples so pleased which British queen that their import duty was dropped?

Queen Victoria got the basket in 1838 from the American minister in London, whose wife's home in Albemarle County, around Charlottesville, supplied the apples. With the duty gone, the pippin became an important export to Britain.

Which Nobel-winning novelist became the University of Virginia's first writer-in-residence in 1957?

William Faulkner held the post in 1957 and 1958. The Mississippian fielded questions from students and townspeople, and recordings of those sessions can still be heard today.

Two Charlottesville schools were shut in fall 1958 rather than integrate, under which Virginia policy?

Massive Resistance took the form of the 1956 Stanley Plan, under which the governor closed any school ordered to integrate; Lane High School and Venable Elementary were shut in September 1958.

The Blue Ridge Parkway meets Skyline Drive at the southern entrance of which national park?

Shenandoah's southern entrance at Rockfish Gap is where Skyline Drive hands over to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Virginia bought or condemned the park's land in the 1930s, and the mountain families living on it were moved out.

What did Thomas Jefferson call his design for the University of Virginia's grounds?

Jefferson planned the university as an 'Academical Village', with professors' pavilions and student rooms flanking the Lawn below the Rotunda so that teachers and students lived side by side.

On July 10, 2021, the city removed two Confederate statues and one honoring which expedition's leaders?

Lewis and Clark came down too: the 1919 bronze showed Sacagawea crouched below the two explorers, a pose her descendants objected to, and it left the same day as the Confederate monuments.

Which University of Virginia secret society names its members only after they die?

The Seven Society stays hidden for life. A member is revealed only at the funeral, where a wreath of black magnolias shaped like a 7 appears and the chapel bell tolls in sevens.

Which Brat Pack actor, later Sam Seaborn on The West Wing, was born in Charlottesville in 1964?

Rob Lowe was born in Charlottesville to a teacher and a trial lawyer, but he grew up in Dayton, Ohio, before moving to Malibu, California, with his mother.

Which Romanov grand duchess did Anna Anderson, who spent her last years in Charlottesville, claim to be?

Anastasia was the identity Anna Anderson claimed until she died in 1984. She married a Charlottesville history professor in 1968, and later DNA tests showed she was no Romanov.

Which website did University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian found in 2005?

Reddit grew from an idea the pair developed after hearing programmer Paul Graham lecture in Boston during their spring break.

Monticello appeared on the back of which United States banknote from 1928 until 1966?

The two-dollar bill showed Jefferson's house until the note was discontinued; when it returned in 1976, a painting of the Declaration of Independence had taken the mansion's place.

Thomas Jefferson died at Monticello on July 4, 1826, the same day as which fellow founder?

John Adams died a few hours after Jefferson, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, unaware that his old friend and rival had gone first.

Which 16th seed made NCAA tournament history by beating top-seeded Virginia in March 2018?

UMBC won 74-54 after a tied first half, the first time a 16th seed had beaten a top seed in the men's tournament; Virginia answered by winning the national title a year later.

Which painter of oversized flowers took summer art classes at the University of Virginia starting in 1912?

Georgia O'Keeffe had moved to Charlottesville with her family, and the design ideas she met in those classes proved pivotal in her development as an artist.

Which frontiersman, then a Virginia legislator, was captured near Charlottesville by British dragoons in 1781?

Daniel Boone had come east to take his seat in the legislature when the raiders caught him with several other lawmakers. The British released him on parole a few days later.

The University of Virginia's 'Good Old Song', sung after every football score, uses which Scottish tune?

Auld Lang Syne supplies the melody, and fans embrace and sway back and forth as they sing the first verse.

Which Oscar winner for Coal Miner's Daughter moved her family to a farm near Charlottesville in 1982?

Sissy Spacek, born on Christmas Day in the small Texas town of Quitman, won the award for playing country star Loretta Lynn.

Monticello and Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia jointly received which designation in 1987?

UNESCO World Heritage Site status makes Monticello the only presidential home in the United States on the list.

Which enslaved woman had six children whom Monticello's own historians say Thomas Jefferson fathered?

Sally Hemings was also the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha, because both women were daughters of the planter John Wayles.

Which unofficial nickname do University of Virginia students and fans commonly use for the school's teams?

Wahoos comes from an old school rallying cry, and the name was used only by the student body before it spread to local newspapers and broadcasters.

Which colors did University of Virginia athletes adopt in 1888 to replace their original gray and red?

Orange and navy blue won out because the old gray and red did not show up well on a dirty football field, just as the school was fielding its first team.

Which future Today show co-anchor from Arlington enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1975?

Katie Couric chose the school because it was her father's alma mater, and she came back in 2012 to deliver the graduation speech.

Which future US president studied law at the University of Virginia in 1879 and sang in its glee club?

Woodrow Wilson arrived straight from Princeton and also served as president of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society.

Which twin brothers starred for Virginia football in the 1990s before NFL careers with the Giants and Buccaneers?

Tiki and Ronde Barber were born five weeks premature. Tiki retired as the Giants' all-time leading rusher, and Ronde entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023.

Which future Massachusetts senator followed an older brother to the University of Virginia's law school in 1956?

Ted Kennedy had been rejected by Harvard Law for low grades, and it took a full faculty vote to admit him at Virginia. He graduated in 1959.

What shape did Thomas Jefferson give the brick garden walls behind the pavilions at the University of Virginia?

Serpentine curves brace a wall against sideways forces, so it can be built thinner than a straight one. Jefferson adapted the style from English gardens.

Which in-state rival does the UVA football team play for the Commonwealth Cup?

Virginia Tech first met its rival in 1895, though the trophy itself was created only in 1996.

Which British cavalry officer led the 1781 raid on Charlottesville meant to capture Virginia's governor and lawmakers?

Banastre Tarleton set out with 180 cavalrymen and 70 mounted infantry, planning to cover the last 70 miles in 24 hours, but all except seven legislators got away.

The prisoners of war held at Charlottesville's Albemarle Barracks from 1779 had surrendered after which battle?

Saratoga sent thousands of captives, known as the Convention Army, on a 700-mile march south from Massachusetts. At the camp they built log huts, a church, a theater and even a coffeehouse.

Which Siouan-speaking nation had a village near present-day Charlottesville before European settlement?

Monacan people were rivals of the Algonquian-speaking chiefdoms nearer the coast, and Congress passed an act granting their nation federal recognition in 2018.

Which restored movie palace on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall reopened in 2004 after an $18 million renovation?

The Paramount was bought in 1990 by a group of community members, who formed a non-profit and spent the next 14 years raising money to bring it back.

Which Charlottesville venue, home to Virginia basketball since 2006, was named by a donor in honor of his father?

John Paul Jones Arena honors a 1948 graduate of the university's law school, not the Revolutionary War naval hero who shares the name.

Which foreign-born Revolutionary War hero visited Jefferson at Monticello in November 1824 during a national tour?

Lafayette went on to a public banquet in his honor at the University of Virginia, four months before its first classes met.

UVA's Kluge-Ruhe Collection is the only US museum devoted solely to the Indigenous art of which country?

Australia's Aboriginal art captivated businessman John Kluge at a 1988 exhibition in New York, and he went on to commission or collect more than 600 works.

Which Army doctor, later famous for yellow fever research, earned a University of Virginia medical degree at 17?

Walter Reed finished the degree in 1869, two months before his 18th birthday, making him the youngest person ever to receive an M.D. from the university.

Which point guard led Virginia to three Final Fours before coaching South Carolina to national titles?

Dawn Staley is the only person to win the Naismith Award as both a player and a coach, and she left Virginia holding the NCAA record for steals.

Which school did Virginia beat in Omaha in 2015 to win its first College World Series title?

Vanderbilt was the defending champion and had beaten Virginia in the previous year's final, so the 4-2 win in the deciding third game was revenge.

Which 2007 Steve Carell comedy built its giant ark in Crozet, about 12 miles west of Charlottesville?

Evan Almighty shot scenes across central Virginia, and the state film office estimated the production brought $20-25 million to Virginia, most of it around Charlottesville.

Thomas Jefferson left Monticello in 1784 to serve as American minister to which country?

France showed Jefferson the fashionable new architecture of Paris, and after he came home he rebuilt the house on those ideas, more than doubling its area.

Which US president succeeded Thomas Jefferson as rector of the University of Virginia in 1826?

James Madison had helped Jefferson establish the university, served as rector for eight years until he retired in 1834, and left the school a significant sum in his will.

Where has the University of Virginia football team played its home games since 1931?

Scott Stadium predates every other top-division football ground in use in Virginia, and a rider on horseback leads the team in, a tradition paused while artificial turf covered the field from 1974 to 1994.

Which athletic conference did the University of Virginia join in December 1953 as its eighth member?

The ACC gained Virginia only after the Board of Visitors voted to join over the objections of the university's president, who wanted to avoid big-time football.

Which electronics retailer, started in 1974 in its founder's mother's basement, is based in Charlottesville?

Crutchfield was launched on a $25,000 line of credit after its founder could not find a modern stereo to fit an old car he was restoring.

Which Virginia governor declared a state of emergency during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017?

Terry McAuliffe said public safety could not be safeguarded without additional powers; the city had declared its own emergency that same morning.

The University of Virginia's graduate business school is named for which former governor and university president?

Colgate Darden worked for years to create the school, which opened in 1955 while he was running the university and took his name in 1974.

What kind of municipality is Charlottesville under Virginia law, even though it is Albemarle County's seat?

An independent city answers to no county government, even though Albemarle County completely surrounds Charlottesville and keeps its courthouse there.

Which 1784 inn was taken apart in 1927 and moved 17 miles to a new site close to Monticello?

Michie Tavern was bought by Josephine Henderson, who had it dismantled and hauled from Earlysville to stand near Jefferson's home.

At which family plantation just outside Charlottesville, named by his father Peter, was Thomas Jefferson born?

Shadwell took its name from a London parish, and a 1991 dig found the cellars of two houses, one believed to be the home where father and son lived.

Which Charlottesville newspaper, first published in September 1892, was sold to the Worrell chain in 1970?

The Daily Progress had a bigger circulation than any of the two dozen rural weeklies and handful of dailies its new owner already ran.

Which University of Virginia professor founded the Center for Politics, home of the Crystal Ball election forecasts?

Larry Sabato graduated from the university himself in 1974, and his center publishes its political analysis and electoral projections at no charge.

Which Pulitzer-winning poet, who joined the University of Virginia faculty in 1989, became US poet laureate in 1993?

Rita Dove, born in Akron, Ohio, was the first African American appointed poet laureate after the position was established under that title in 1986.

Which civil rights leader and NAACP chairman taught history at the University of Virginia from 1990 to 2012?

Julian Bond had helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee while a Morehouse student, and in Charlottesville he taught the history of the civil rights movement.

Which University of Virginia infielder was the Washington Nationals' first draft pick after the team's 2005 move?

Ryan Zimmerman, taken fourth overall, stayed with the club through 2021 and became the face of the team in its early years in the capital.

Leander McCormick's gift to the University of Virginia, dedicated on Jefferson's birthday in 1885, was a giant what?

Telescope makers regarded as the finest of the age built the instrument, and it was the second-largest refractor in the world when completed.

Which lane beside Jefferson's house at Monticello held a nailery and quarters for enslaved workers?

Mulberry Row ran right next to the mansion, lined with outbuildings for specialized trades, and beyond it lay the gardens where Jefferson experimented with plant breeding.

Which town was Albemarle County's seat until the county was split in 1761 and Charlottesville replaced it?

Scottsville had sat near the middle of the huge original county, but the partition left it off-center, so the seat moved to newly central land.

Which 1990s indie rock group was fronted by Stephen Malkmus, a University of Virginia history major and campus radio DJ?

Pavement's singer worked at the student station WTJU, where he met fellow DJ David Berman, who went on to front the Silver Jews.