THE ARCHITECTURE OF JEFFERSON COUNTRY:
Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia:
The architectural significance of Albemarle County and
Charlottesville rests on the continuing influence of Thomas Jefferson
and his artistic achievements in his native county and elsewhere: the
Richmond Capitol, his home Monticello, his Bedford County retreat
Poplar Forest, and the University of Virginia. It is further
supported by the many examples of Jeffersonian classicism later
constructed by his master builders within the county's borders as
well as beyond them. Still later, examples of other architectural
idioms were built here--some were important works by nationally
renowned architects. At the turn of the twentieth century, the
renewed interest of wealthy clients in eclectic architectural styles
attracted some of the finest Beaux Arts architects in the country to
the county. Grand new buildings complemented and competed with the
Jeffersonian models of a hundred years earlier. With the
establishment of the School of Architecture at the University of
Virginia in 1919 under Fiske Kimball, "the dean of American
architectural history," the institution produced architects trained
in historical styles, and many of them practiced locally as well as
nationally. Consequently, this book constitutes an unusually rich
microcosm of the major national architectural styles as well as the
original models upon which they were based.
Lay divides his book into six chronological chapters: "The Georgian
Period," "Thomas Jefferson and His Builders," "The Roman Revival
(1800-1830)," "The Greek Revival (1830-1860)," "Beyond the Classical
Revival," and "The Eclectic Era (1890-1939)." In the 378-page book,
he discusses over 800 buildings, from Sears houses to grand estates
with 26 color photographs and 369 black-and-white illustrations
complementing his text. A final chapter discusses the University of
Virginia. Maps of the area allow readers and visitors to trace the
locations of individual buildings and to recognize trends of
settlement and construction in the area.
Published n 2001 to supplement the hard-bound book of The
Architecture of Jefferson Country is a CD-ROM that includes the
book manuscript along with a comprehensive inventory of 2,409
buildings illustrated with 3,359 images. The records, drawings, and
photographs are searchable by building type or characteristic,
surname, or other keyword along with an illustrated glossary. As an
important bonus, the CD-ROM will include the 1907 Massie Map of the
county, a large, detailed wall map showing historical data and the
locations of buildings. The map is searchable, definitively indexed,
and has never been reproduced since its origin.
Even though the manuscript pertains to a specific Virginia county,
the impact of the work of Jefferson and his master builders and the
work of faculty at the University of Virginia makes it of national
interest.
TO ORDER THE BOOK:
University Press of Virginia
Box 3608 University Station, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0608
(www.upress.virginia.edu; Marketing 804-924-6064, <mhs5u@virginia.edu>)
$49.95 + shipping and handling + Va sales tax
Also can be purchased twww.amazon.com at 30% discount + handling
TO ORDER THE CD-ROM:
Albemarle County Historical Society
200 Second St NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
(jefferson country.lib.virginia.edu, 804-296-1492, <acohs@cstone.net>)
$24.95 + $3.00 shipping and handling + Va sales tax
($19.95 + free shipping for ACHS members)
REVIEWS
Richard Guy Wilson, Chair of UVA Architectural History, TV commentor of America's Castles, author of Thomas Jefferson's Academical Village,The Making of Virginia Architecture, and Buildings of Virginia:
"The Architecture of Jefferson Country is an amazing compendium of
research and documentation and a model study of a county's
architectural legacy. Albemarle County's architecture mirrors
national trends, but also from its soil sprang some of the United
States's most refined and historically significant creations and
styles. From Thomas Jefferson's important essays at Monticello and
the University of Virginia to the sophisticated work of twentieth
century Colonial Revivalists, Albemarle County and Charlottesville
contain critically important architecture of interest to the entire
nation, indeed to the world."
William Seale, author of The President's House:
"I've read Ed Lay's book (I'm glad you sent the footnotes as well)
and it is a delight. Not burdened with mere description, it is an
architectural history and a history as well. I really enjoyed this
book -- great detail. Professor K. Edward Lay gives us not only a
splendid county architectural history but a rich and detailed local
context for Jefferson's Monticello and the University of Virginia,
which he rightly calls 'two of the world's great examples of the
building arts'."
Catherine Bishir, author of North Carolina Architecture:
"This is a very informative and handsome book, and I look forward
to seeing it in print. In The Architecture of Jefferson Country,
Professor Lay draws upon decades of fieldwork and research to provide
a detailed portrait of the architectural riches of Albemarle County
and Charlottesville. The generous illustrations -- old and new
photographs, and drawings of floor plans and architectural features
-- demonstrate the quality and diversity of local building from the
eighteenth century into the twentieth, with special emphasis on the
nineteenth century. Clearly, Monticello and the University of
Virginia are stars in a remarkable constellation."
Michael Dennis, MIT, author of Court and Garden:
"Thomas Jefferson is as significant to Charlottesville and the
United States as Palladio to Vicenza and Italy. This welcome study
expands and deepens our understanding of our most important American
architect."
Virginia Quarterly Review:
"This is a definitive and exemplary treatment of a county
architectural history. Lay serves up site plans, floor plans,
elevations, and lavish illustrations that capture the essence of more
than 250 years of architectural evolution in public and private
architecture that reflects our national building history. Going
beyond Jeffersonian classicism, the wonderful eclectic collection of
architecture that peacefully coexists within Jefferson country is
revealed. A must for the student of American architectural
history."
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians:
"A comprehensive, fully illustrated, well-written, and detailed
survey of the area's rich architectural heritage, it makes it obvious
that there is a great deal more to see in Virginia's Albemarle County
than Monticello and the University of Virginia. It is a lifetime of
his own and his University of Virginia students' research. Lay has
succeeded in drawing the audience's attention, not away from the
monuments that have become cliches of the Albemarle landscape, but to
the greater architectural canvas of which they are a part."
Virginia Libraries:
"A bounty of images illustrates this work, drawing on a variety of
sources including period and contemporary photographs, sketches,
field notes, color plates, and architectural drawings. A compilation
of these images by themselves would mark a milestone in the
documentation of Albemarle County. Attempting an architectural
history that embraces a spectrum of structures from a chicken coop to
Jefferson's Rotunda at the University of Virginia is an ambitious
undertaking. This account of Albemarle County's architectural
heritage rises to the challenge, providing an important tool for both
the local history enthusiast and the serious scholar of Virginia
history. Professor K. Edward Lay gives us not only a splendid county
architectural history but a rich and detailed local context for
Jefferson's Monticello and the University of Virginia, which he
rightly calls 'two of the world's great examples of the building
arts'."
UVA Alumni News:
"Grounded in decades of research and field work, the book provides
many glimpses of the business of building and gives the reader an
unprecedented view of the rich architectural legacy of the piedmont.
It is not dryly academic like many scholarly tomes, but has a more
intellectual heft than a coffee-table book. Numerous illustrations
make it a valuable reference."
Marilyn Casto, Virginia Tech University, in Vernacular Architecture Forum:
"This well-written book provides an excellent overview of
Albemarle County's architecture. Given the breath of its subject, it
offers a good depiction of building types common to other areas of
Virginia. The well-organized format treats the subject topically
[and] offers the background social, economic, and political
environments in which the structures existed. His book, drawn from
his own extensive files on the county's architecture, specifically
discusses over 800 buildings from a database of around 2300.
[It] offers a fine example of the breath of building that
once existed in a small area and a reminder that many small
communities have experienced a considerable quantity of architectural
history extending well beyond famous buildings and equally worthy of
investigation."
Send E-Mail to K. Edward
Lay.
Last Modified: 12 September 2002