"Charlottesville, Virginia" Charlottesville by no1birdlady

Thomas Jefferson's father moved to the area now known as Charlottesville in 1735 and lived on a farm here. Patrick Henry's father did the same thing. The actual town of Charlottesville was laid out in 1762. We visited Monticello nearby which Jefferson began building in 1768 on top of Little Mountain. Jefferson's influence is also seen in the town at the University of Virginia which he founded. He considered it his crowing achievement and spent his retirement working on the university. He helped design the Rotunda here, an interpretation of the Pantheon in Rome. The Charlottesville area escaped the ravages of the Civil War but it did serve as a Confederate hospital where 20,000 wounded were treated. Five weeks before Robert E. Lee's surrender in 1865, Charlottesville was captured by a calvary force but was not destroyed. Because of this, interesting historic buildings can be seen. This is not the case in Georgia, my home, where so much was destroyed during the Civil War.