Category: architecture

stony prominence

power plant
The story of Charlottesville’s most famous mill complex is also the tale of a section of Albemarle County, specifically the plot of land approximately one mile east of Charlottesville’s original downtown. “At that point,” wrote Harry E. Poindexter, “Moore’s Creek empties into the [Rivanna] river from the southwest, forming a narrow triangle of land which rises rapidly to a rocky crest some one hundred feet high.”– Britton

3. Community Meeting – ZMA 202200013 Power Plant Residences
PROJECT: ZMA202200013 Power Plant Residences
MAGISTERIAL DISTRICT: Scottsville
TAX MAP/PARCEL(S): 07800-00-00-021B1
LOCATION: South side of E. Market Street, approximately 60 linear feet southeast of the municipal boundary between the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, VA
PETITION: Rezone 0.61 acres of Preserved Steep Slopes Overlay Zoning District to Managed Steep Slopes Overlay District on TMP 07800-00-00-021B1. No changes to the underlying primary R4 Zoning District are proposed with this application.

5th & Avon Community Advisory Committee

Date: 05/18/2023 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: 5th Street County Office Building, Room B
1600 5th Street Ext
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902

Application materials available

Industry remnants

smoke stack water tank
Woolen Mills technical improvements.
The Woolen Mills Historic District encompasses a village central to the history of the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County since a mill opened there in 1829. Located at the foot of Monticello Mountain, along the Rivanna River, Woolen Mills developed into one of the city’s and the region’s most noteworthy industries, producing cloth for military uniforms from the late-19th century through the 1950s. Although many of the company mill town’s early factories are now vanished, its brick mill buildings of the late-19th and early-20th centuries remain, as do brick and frame houses in a range of styles built during the mid-19th through the early-20th centuries for or by mill employees. Home to generations of families who worked in its mills, the village was annexed by Charlottesville in 1963. The Woolen Mills Village Historic District’s period of significance begins with 1847, the date of the earliest company-built housing, and ends in 1962, the year the mills closed. At the time of its listing, the historic district still evoked a late-19th century industrial village.–VADHR

double dog

woolen mills walkabout
I’ve been walking with two dogs in the morning

Woolen Mills walkabout
Typically I bike with one dog which makes taking pictures impractical. It is much easier to stop and photograph when walking. This is a view of the Rivanna River, Monticello and Carters mountain are in the distance.

The absence of leaves opens vistas not available in the summer. The water tank and smokestack are architectural remnants from 100 years ago, part of the Charlottesville Woolen Mills INC’s physical plant.

Union Chapel

day of rest

” This is a small, wooden church of Gothic style of the late nineteenth century. It exemplifies a vernacular style common in late nineteenth century residential and secular buildings. It is important as a feature of the Woolen Mills community, which contains many other fine examples of residential and industrial construction of the mid to late nineteenth century. The Woolen Mills Chapel, built in 1887, and located in the Woolen Mills community (approximately 1 1/2 miles east of Courthouse Square) typifies the late 19th century trend of Gothic stylization, often seen in rural vernacular buildings. The chapel was constructed on property which had been deeded by the Woolen Mills’ founder, H.C. Marchant, to be used as a non-denominational chapel for the Woolen Mills community.”-Historic American Buildings Survey