University of Virginia Library

University Marks
150th Anniversary
Of First Building

A small ceremony commemorating
the University's sesquicentennial
will be held tomorrow
at 1:30 p.m. in the serpentine
gardens behind Pavilion VII.

One hundred and fifty years
ago, the cornerstone was laid for
the first building of the college,
which later developed into the
University.

It was on a brisk October 6,
1817, that the University's founder,
Mr. Jefferson, along with
such distinguished citizens of the
Commonwealth as James Madison
and James Monroe, gathered
to establish the institution then
known as Central College. President
Monroe applied the square
and plumbline which set the
cornerstone in place on the pavilion
which now houses the faculty
Colonnade Club.

It was not until 1819 that the
General granted the charter for
a state university to be located
on the close to fifty acres dubbed
by Mr. Jefferson as a "well-drained
hillside."

At a study commission meeting
in a tavern at Rockfish Gap,
Mr. Jefferson took the lead in
arguing that Charlottesville was
the center of Virginia and thus
the logical site for a state university.

Maintaining that a healthier
climate pervaded the area than
that found in the swamplike tidewater
region around the college
of William and Mary, he foresaw
that the pavilion would become
a part of his dream for an
"academical village."

Sponsored by the University
Guide Service, Friday's ceremony
will begin with a historical account
of the stone-laying and
the reading of a letter written by
Mr. Jefferson describing the occasion.

To the tune "Hail, Columbia,"
a small cake in the shape of a
cornerstone will be placed upon
a larger cake representing the
foundation of the building. Both
have been designed by Mrs. Edwin
Betts, Rotunda hostess. A
miniature cake modeled after
Pavilion VII will also be unveiled,
denoting the construction
of the University and its continuous
growth to the present.