46 Fun Facts About Charlottesville

Which two US presidents lived in Charlottesville?

Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe lived two miles apart outside Charlottesville, Jefferson at Monticello and Monroe at the farm later called Ash Lawn; Madison's home was in Orange County.

What was Charlottesville's population at the 2020 census?

The 2020 census counted 46,553 people in Charlottesville, about 46,500; with surrounding Albemarle County the local population is roughly 160,000.

What is Charlottesville's common nickname?

Locals shorten Charlottesville to C'ville, the name carried by the city's alt-weekly newspaper C-VILLE Weekly and used across University of Virginia student life.

In what year did Virginia's General Assembly establish the town of Charlottesville?

The General Assembly chartered Charlottesville in 1762 on the Three Notched Road, the colonial trade route from Richmond toward the Shenandoah Valley that US Route 250 now follows.

Which Monacan village occupied part of the Charlottesville area before European settlement?

Monasukapanough, a Monacan village on John Smith's 1612 map, stood on a riverbank just north of today's Charlottesville; Jefferson excavated its burial mound in the 1780s.

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

Colonel Banastre Tarleton's cavalry arrived to find the legislators gone; Jouett is remembered as the "Paul Revere of the South".

Which Union general skirmished with Home Guards at Rio Hill, Charlottesville's only Civil War battle?

A year later the mayor surrendered the town to Custer and Sheridan to keep it from being burned.

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

Vinegar Hill, the Black business district along West Main Street, was razed in 1965 under a federal urban-renewal program, displacing about 600 residents; much of the land sat empty into the 1980s.

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

Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White designed Old Cabell Hall, completed in 1898, closing the south end of the Lawn that Jefferson had left open toward the mountains.

In what year did Thomas Jefferson found the University of Virginia?

The Virginia General Assembly chartered the University of Virginia on January 25, 1819; Jefferson designed its grounds and classes began in March 1825, a year before his death.

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

Its dome is 77 feet across, exactly half the Pantheon's, and the building was gutted by fire in 1895 before being 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.

In what year did Monticello and the University of Virginia become a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

UNESCO inscribed Monticello and the University of Virginia together in 1987, the only World Heritage Site in the United States designed by a US president.

The name Monticello comes from Italian words meaning what?

Monticello is Italian for 'little mountain', from monte plus the diminutive -cello; Jefferson's house sits on an 850-foot summit about three miles southeast of downtown Charlottesville.

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?

Jefferson called Andrea Palladio's Four Books of Architecture his 'bible'; Monticello's portico, symmetry and dome follow Palladian principles, though the octagonal dome room was rarely used.

Which organization bought Monticello from Jefferson Monroe Levy 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?

Monroe himself named the farm Highland; later owners called it Ash Lawn, and the College of William & Mary, which received the estate in 1974, restored the name Highland 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.

At which Charlottesville bar was Dave Matthews working when he started the band?

Matthews tended bar at Miller's, a Downtown Mall jazz spot where drummer Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore played; they became his first recruits in 1991.

Which instrument did founding DMB member Boyd Tinsley play?

Boyd Tinsley, a Charlottesville-raised violinist, first guested on the band's 'Tripping Billies' and then joined full time, playing violin with DMB until 2018.

Charlottesville's Downtown Mall amphitheater took which company's name in 2019?

Ting became the venue's third telecom naming sponsor in 2019, following nTelos and Sprint.

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

Court Square, the original town center laid out around the Albemarle County Courthouse, keeps several early-19th-century buildings; the courthouse's oldest section dates from 1803.

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

The Corner is the strip of bars, restaurants and shops along University Avenue facing the UVA Grounds, with the White Spot diner among its long-time fixtures.

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

The Rivanna River flows along Charlottesville's eastern edge and joins the James at Columbia in Fluvanna County; the city lies between the university on the west and the river on the east.

Roughly how far is Charlottesville from Washington, D.C.?

Charlottesville sits about 100 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., roughly two hours by car; Richmond is closer at about 70 miles to the southeast.

Which two major highways pass through Charlottesville?

Interstate 64 runs east to Richmond and west to Staunton, where it meets I-81, while US Route 29 carries traffic north toward Washington and south toward Lynchburg.

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

The Cardinal runs three days a week between New York and Chicago via Washington, Charlottesville and the New River Gorge; the Crescent to New Orleans also stops at the West Main Street station.

Which scientific institution has its headquarters in Charlottesville?

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory moved its headquarters from Green Bank, West Virginia, to Charlottesville in 1965; it sits on Edgemont Road beside the UVA Grounds.

Which UVA team won the 2019 NCAA men's basketball championship?

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

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

Tony Bennett, hired by Virginia in 2009, coached the 2019 champions; Kyle Guy was the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player and De'Andre Hunter went fourth in that year's NBA draft.

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?

The Tom Sox joined the Valley Baseball League, a Shenandoah Valley-based summer collegiate circuit, as an expansion team in 2016 and play at Crutchfield Park.

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

Foxfield is a steeplechase meet, with horses racing over timber and brush fences on a course in Albemarle County; the spring races are a popular UVA student event.

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

Monticello has hosted a naturalization ceremony every Independence Day since 1963, swearing in new citizens on the West Lawn of the man who drafted the Declaration.

The Unite the Right rally took place in Charlottesville in August of which year?

The rally of August 11-12, 2017 ended when a white supremacist drove into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer a few blocks from the rally site.

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

The city finally removed the Lee and Jackson statues, and one of Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea, on July 10, 2021.

A 2016 petition to remove the Lee statue was written by Zyahna Bryant, who was what at the time?

Her petition also asked the city to rename the park, which became Emancipation Park and later Market Street Park.

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

John Grisham has lived on a farm in Albemarle County outside Charlottesville since the 1990s; Sissy Spacek, Jessica Lange and poet Rita Dove have also made homes in the area.

Which of these is one of Charlottesville's four sister cities?

The others are Pleven in Bulgaria, Poggio a Caiano in Italy and Winneba in Ghana.

Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, eight miles north of the city, uses which three-letter code?

Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport carries the IATA code CHO; it opened in 1955 with Piedmont Airlines DC-3 flights and is run by a joint city-county airport authority.

Charlottesville closed its white public schools in the fall of 1958 as part of which Virginia policy?

Under Massive Resistance, Virginia's 1956 Stanley Plan required the governor to close any school ordered to integrate, shutting Lane High School and Venable Elementary in September 1958.

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

Skyline Drive ends at Rockfish Gap, Shenandoah National Park's southern entrance near Waynesboro, where the Blue Ridge Parkway begins its 469-mile run south to the Great Smokies.

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 statues of Lee, Jackson and which expedition's leaders?

The Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and Sacagawea statue came down the same day as the two Confederate monuments after years of legal wrangling.

The Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway ran electric streetcars in the city until which year?

The Charlottesville and Albemarle Railway, organized in 1903 from lines dating to the late 1880s, ran its last electric streetcars in 1935, when buses replaced them.