When was charlottesville founded

The city is also the county seat of Albemarle County , though it is an independent jurisdiction with a separate government. The area is home to the University of Virginia which drives economic and population growth throughout the region. Its population of , ranked th in the nation. Charlottesville was chartered in to serve as the new county seat of Albemarle County along the Three Notch'd Road from Richmond to the Shenandoah Valley.

The initial division of land in the 's was "into twenty-eight squares with half-acre lots per square. Five were laid north to south. In the first sale in September , seven people bought fourteen of the lots. Another ten were sold in The remaining 23 lots were sold in and divided into fifteen parcels that were used initially for agricultural purposes. The 50 acres of the original village were laid out under a gridded town pattern.

A two acre public square to the north of the grid was set aside for a courthouse and would become Court Square. Early development was limited because of the distance from a navigable river.

The presence of several hills meant that different neighborhood developed independently of each other. Thomas Jefferson purposely distanced his 'Academical Village the University of Virginia away from the town center.

Commercial activity to serve the university took place on what would become known as the Corner. The town grew slowly. Charlottesville incorporated as a town on January 19 , There was an annexations in that included the courthouse area and was known as Anderson's Addition. By , there were about six hundred inhabitants. Throughout the mid 19th century, Scottsville remained the commercial center of the area, but the arrival of first rail line by the Louisa Railroad Company in connected Charlottesville to the rest of the country via east-west rail.

The Orange and Alexandria line followed soon after and connected the town to Lynchburg by Early Charlottesville residents used an omnibus line for local travel. It was established in and ran from Charlottesville to the University of Virginia. A one-way trip cost 10 cents, less than the cost of a pound of butter in those days.

By the s, proponents trumpeted railroad technology as instrumental to progress for Albemarle County. The advent of the railroad began to transform the county from a secluded agricultural community to a bona fide example of the Industrial Age. Businessmen established depots to ship their products to markets along the rail lines, further stimulating local trade. More than slaves, some purchased specifically for building the railroad, made up the construction crew. When completed, the connection was described as:.

The traveler may now leave Richmond soon after six in the morning, arrive in Charlottesville at one, and reach Staunton the same night.

The first engines were small wood-burning trains running at speeds of 12 to 15 miles per hour. That meant a trip to Richmond took about five hours. By , first- and second-class passengers were traveling every day on "mail trains. With the construction of national rail lines, including the Chesapeake and Ohio around and the Southern Line in , people hailing from all over the country converged in Charlottesville.

In , for example, the Southern railroad made sixteen stops per day there. New people meant new ideas as well as increased purchasing power. As a result of this influx of fresh capital and enterprising spirit, Charlottesville citizens came to consider themselves more sophisticated and progressive.

On November 4, , Albemarle residents witnessed the first local rail accident. Three miles east of Charlottesville, near Shadwell, Train Number 4 derailed going around a curve. Five people died, several cars were demolished, and many people suffered injuries. Investigators found the cause of the accident to be a broken axle. The intersection of these two lines formed four quadrants, which in turn resulted in four different areas of development: the University of Virginia, the Charlottesville downtown area, a segregated section where African-Americans lived, and a fourth undeveloped area.

This separation of neighborhoods meant that the development of the University and the city center occurred independently. On April 13, , the Jeffersonian-Republican announced that the town of Charlottesville "will have its own street railway. The Charlottesville and University Street Railway Company constructed the street railway with funding from private local capital.

The new technology revolutionized Charlottesville by appreciating the value of outlying property, spurring on urbanization, and altering approaches to city growth by making development more controlled and deliberate. Town denizens and University students responded enthusiastically to this symbol of modernity; more than 2, fares were collected in the first two days of regular operation.

The editor of The Daily Progress remarked that his only complaint about the new cars was that the ride ended too soon.

He proudly proclaimed,. Their hum as they swiftly passed through the streets has a very business-like sound and it is only necessary for the wide-awake citizens of Charlottesville to close their eyes in order to imagine that they are in one of our metropolitan cities.

While the railroad and streetcar systems increased the general efficiency of transportation, pedestrian travel was still the norm. In , sidewalks made entirely of wooden boards were laid along the main streets of the city. When one of their caissons accidentally exploded, they made a half-hearted counterattack and Custer withdrew, mistakenly thinking that Confederate reinforcements had arrived.

Perhaps in an attempt to salvage some good news from what turned out to be the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren fiasco, Union general George G. Meade , commander of the Army of the Potomac ,. Following Confederate general Jubal A. Sheridan and George Custer on March 3, Union forces initially occupied Charlottesville for three days.

Encyclopedia Virginia Grady Ave. Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation , the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia. We invite you to learn more about Indians in Virginia in our Encyclopedia Virginia. Skip to content. Contributor: Ervin L. Industry Charlottesville Woolen Mills. General John Bell Hood. In a September 3, , letter, thirty-four patients in a Confederate hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, petition "his Excellency Jefferson Davis," president of the Confederate States of America, for his help in dealing with incompetent medical care.

General Carnot Posey. Military Service 19th Virginia Infantry Flag. African Americans Enslaved Population in Virginia. Shoe Soles Made by Slaves. Flag Commemorating Rio Hill. April Four infantry companies—two each of town and university men—organize into the Charlottesville and University Battalion.

July Charlottesville General Hospital, a sprawling Confederate military medical facility, opens in Charlottesville and takes over various public and private buildings throughout the town, including hotels, churches, and facilities belonging to the University of Virginia.

Its first patients are Confederate soldiers wounded at Manassas. November Dr. Orianna Moon, Charlottesville General Hospital's superintendent of nurses, relocates to Richmond, having married her hospital colleague Dr.

September 17, The 19th Virginia Infantry, composed mostly of men from Charlottesville and Albemarle County, suffers more than a 47 percent casualty rate at the Battle of Antietam. April 20, The March 16 petition by black congregants of Charlottesville's First Baptist Church to establish the Charlottesville African Church is accepted by white church leaders. July 3, The 19th Virginia Infantry, comprised mostly of men from Charlottesville and Albemarle County, suffers a 60 percent casualty rate and loses its flag during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Marchant sells the Charlottesville Manufacturing Company, which operates a cotton and woolen mills, to his son, Henry Clay Marchant. Without it, Charlottesville would not have become what it is today. One of the first men to build upon this early infrastructure was Thomas Jefferson. He founded the University of Virginia down the mountain from Monticello, his mountaintop plantation.

He inherited this mountaintop land, some 5, acres, from his father at the age of He then used the labor of enslaved Africans to cultivate tobacco and construct the plantation house. Albemarle County was home to James Monroe too.