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Virginia Piedmont

The foothills of Virginia, between the Tidewater and Blue Ridge Mountains, are the heart of the Old Dominion.

Charlottesville
	"C-ville" — named for the wife of King George III of England — was founded in 1762 along the road from Richmond to the Appalachians.

	Amazingly, three American presidents in a row — Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe — hailed from the Charlottesville area.

The town served as Virginia state capital for several days during the Revolutionary War.			In 1781, Governor Jefferson and the legislature fled here from Richmond ahead of British troops.


	In later years, Jefferson set out to establish a state university with a more liberal curriculum than his alma mater, the College of William & Mary.


Construction of the University of Virginia campus began in 1817, and the school opened for classes in 1825.




Along with nearby Monticello, UVA's "academical village" is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Monticello
	Thomas Jefferson made his home at Monticello, a hilltop estate (it means "little mountain" in Italian) near Charlottesville.

	He designed and built the mansion between 1769 and 1784, before serving as U.S. ambassador to France.


		He remodeled the house between 1796 and 1809, adding its signature dome.

	In retirement, Jefferson turned his attention to the gardens and plantation, cultivating 160 species of trees and 330 vegetable varieties on the "home farm" surrounding the house.
	Jefferson owned about 5,000 acres — and over 100 slaves — at Monticello. Although he freed a handful of servants in his lifetime, most were sold after his death to pay off debts.

	Lynchburg
	The "City of Seven Hills" is an important regional hub on the banks of the James River, east of the Blue Ridge.
	Chartered in 1786, the city was named for John Lynch, who first established ferry service across the river. Thomas Jefferson was an early Lynchburg booster, and built a retreat nearby at Poplar Forest.

By the eve of the Civil War, Lynchburg was the second-wealthiest city per capita in the nation, after New Bedford, MA.			The city served as Virginia state capital after the fall of Richmond to Union troops in April 1865.

	Lynchburg was the hometown of televangelist Jerry Fallwell, founder of the "Moral Majority" movement and Liberty University, which overlooks the city.

	Appomattox Court House National Historical Park

The Civil War reached its inevitable climax on 9 April 1865, at a small village on the Richmond-Lynchburg stage line.			General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant here.

	The Confederates agreed to generous surrender terms: officers kept their side arms, and any soldier who owned a horse was allowed to take it home with him.

	Farmville
	The county seat of rural Prince Edward County is located near the geographic heart of the state.

It is the home of Longwood University, founded in 1839 as the Farmville Female Seminary Association.			Later designated a state teachers college, Longwood is the birthplace of four sororities —more than any other school.

	Nearby Hampden-Sydney College dates from 1775, the nation's 10th-oldest institute of higher learning.
	What brought us all the way out to Farmville, however, was not the education, but the shopping. Green Front Furniture has transformed a dozen historic warehouses into vast furniture galleries.

This page was first published 1 September 2008, and last updated 01 September 2008.