Lost In Time. Saturday April 29, 2017.

First 6 images are chronological. On the 1877 map you can see the house of Dr. Ware. This portion of 4th Street SE is renamed Ware Street. The house and 1915 subdivision survive until 1977 clearance by local housing authority for Garrett Square low-income Section 8 housing, renamed Friendship Court in 2002, one of 5 subsidized or public housing sites from Garrett urban renewal alone. The 1877 map also shows Garrett Street is the town-county border. In 1888 the town becomes a city after a huge annexation and separates from the county. The original names of the downtown side streets are given. They were later numbered so tourists could find their way around.

1929 map shows the inner city where blacks lived. Circled letters are black churches and schools. Circled numbers are landmarks aligned with list upper left. X marks the spot where blacks lived in white neighborhoods. The map only shows 2 high-profile locations: (a) South of the University of Virginia Academical Village (aka The Lawn) where Cabell Hall was built so you couldn't see it from the Rotunda. (b) In the Garrett neighborhood in the 1915 white enclave called Ware Street and side streets.

The 1929 map does not show the subdivision but it does show the white enclave. It also shows 6th Street SE where blacks lived on one side and whites on the other side of the same street by imposition of Jim Crow residential zoning. East-west rail arrives 1849 and north-south connects 1863. Before the bypass and interstate, the heavy lines are highway truck taffic, going through Old Belmont down Monticello Road.

The book was the only one I could find when I did my initial research. The only book on Charlottesville's urban renewal is a picture book of the African American Community. So it fell to me to describe the process and history of urban renewal. In so doing I discovered much of the so-called Lost History still making its way to book form. (This post on Facebook.)

Blair Hawkins | Charlottesville, Virginia | healingcharlottesville@yahoo.com | Résumé | Top