Virginia AHGP Information

Charlottesville

Charlottesville, post village, capital of Albemarle County, Virginia, 85 north west Richmond, 121 Washington City. Situated on Moore's creek, 2 miles from its entrance into Rivanna river. The plan is irregular, but it is well built, chiefly with brick. It contains about 230 buildings of every kind, and about 1,000 inhabitants. It has a court house and other county buildings, 4 churches, 1 Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist, and 1 Methodist, and an academy. It has 22 stores, 2 bookstores, a female academy, a circulating library, and a printing office, from which a weekly newspaper is issued. There are several flouring mills in the vicinity. It derives its chief importance from the University of Virginia, of which it is the seat. This institution was planned by Mr. Jefferson. It was designed to be more on the plan of European universities than most American colleges. The university buildings are various in their architecture, and arranged on three sides of a grassy parallelogram, at the upper end of which stands a large rotunda, containing lecture rooms and the library. The philosophical and chemical apparatus, and the mineralogical cabinet, and anatomical and general museum, are extensive. It has a fine astronomical observatory on the apex of a hill in the vicinity. It was founded in 1819, has a president and 8 professors or other instructors, has had 200 alumni, has 290 students, and 16,000 volumes in its libraries. The commencement is on the 4th of July. It is munificently endowed by the state.
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