The striking, Colonial Revival-style University of Virginia President’s House, located atop Carr’s Hill in the city of Charlottesville, was completed in 1909, and embodies the 1905 shift in university administration from Thomas Jefferson’s original vision of governance by collective faculty members to that by a university-wide president. The house was begun by architect Stanford White, of the firm McKim, Mead, and White, who had also been commissioned to design and implement the first campus master plan after the Rotunda fire of 1895. After White’s unexpected death in 1906, the house was completed by the firm, primarily under William M. Kendall, with design suggestions from the first university president, Edwin Alderman, and his wife. At the time of listing in the registers, Carr’s Hill had housed seven university presidents, who had collectively overseen the university’s academic, architectural, and social incarnations. There are four associated historic buildings on the property, including three used for student housing before the construction of the President’s House, and the carriage house, completed in 1908. The landscape, including the visually prominent position atop a large hill just north of the Rotunda and President Colgate Darden’s 1930s azalea garden, also contribute to the Carr’s Hill property’s historic character.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia