If I were to pick anywhere to live in the eastern U.S., Charlottesville, Virginia would be my first choice. The city is pleasantly sized at around 50,000 and somewhat over 100,000 in the metro area, set in an attractive terrain of woods areas and farms a short distance east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, only about 100 miles from Washington, and as home of the University of Virginia one of the best college towns in the country with a well-educated population and lots of the cultural and recreational amenities that go along with that.

The University of Virginia is usually ranked as one of the top public universities in the country . It was founded by President Thomas Jefferson, accompanied by James Madison and James Monroe to place first stone in the construction of the first campus building. Jefferson also designed the original part of campus, which he called an "academical village" around a great lawn with the classical Rotunda at one end. The original part of the campus constitutes, along with Jefferson's Monticello, one of the few manmade sites in the United States to make the UNESCO World Heritage List (Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, and Taos Pueblo are the others). UVA has to be one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country as well as one of the most academically distinguished.

I actually almost went to the University of Virginia twice. It was one of several colleges I was accepted to undergrad, but Duke narrowly won out over Virginia as my top choice. I was also accepted into the Ph.D. program in economics six years later and would have gotten in-state tuition since I had been living in Virginia for more than a year . Although Virginia’s econ program had a better reputation than Colorado’s, the finances of tuition remission and a teaching assistantship with stipend that would not require acquiring any debt swayed things in Colorado’s favor for me.

Charlottesville’s downtown area is almost two miles from campus which results in two centers of commercial activity in town. The eight-block pedestrian mall is one of the longest and liveliest I’ve seen in small cities around the country, and downtown looks like it’s becoming a popular place to live with plenty of new apartments and loft-type buildings. Charlottesville was also recently designated as the “Locavore Capital of America” for its farmers markets and large number of fine restaurants using locally-sourced ingredients, possible because of the wide variety of crops grown in Central Virginia.

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s self-designed hilltop home is the best known site in the area. The house is classical Roman, incorporates the five classical architectural orders, and is completely symmetrical, and inspired by the great homes of Palladio, although Jefferson did not see those in person since he did not make it to the Veneto region on his European travels while ambassador to France . Jefferson incorporated many unique features into the design of Monticello that he encountered in Europe, such as skylights, roof zigzags for improved drainage, alcoves, and dumbwaiters. From exterior elevations to interior furnishings and decorative items Monticello creates an impression of distinctive taste and erudition rather than ostentatiousness or grandiosity. Unfortunately, because some of the furnishings in the house are on loan from private owners, inside pictures aren’t permitted at Monticello. One unique design feature Jefferson included in Monticello involved concealing the usually unsightly work areas which he called dependencies - kitchens, smokehouse, storage rooms, stables, coach room, some servants quarters – underneath the house so that they neither marred the view of the house nor the views from the house.  

Jefferson is considered the ultimate American Renaissance man as author of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Virginia, Ambassador to France, Secretary of State, Vice President and President, speaker of seven languages, architect, horticulturist, foremost wine expert in America at the time, founder of University of Virginia, and owner of the largest library in the new country, which became the seed of the Library of Congress collection . Jefferson was not much on an inventor but was what would now be called an early-adapter, acquiring and incorporating cutting-edge gadgetry he came across into his home. Jefferson would fit right into modern America in other ways than his love of technology; he lived well beyond his means and left a large debt at his death.

I’ve read some evaluations of Jefferson’s presidency by modern historians whose reassessments do not place him on quite the pedestal he’s been on for so long, that his record as president was not as distinguished as his overall record of service to his country. I’m not sure about that; the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark expeditions seem important enough choices for the country’s long-term development to rank him quite highly.

After southern-style buffet lunch at nearby Michie Tavern, a historic tavern/inn during colonial times that does a booming trade in serving meals to Mount Vernon visitors, I continued about three miles down the road to Ash Lawn/Highlands, the home of James Monroe, fifth president of the United States. Monroe was wealthy like the four presidents before him and his buds Jefferson and James Madison, so the house and farm at Ash Lawn are quite modest. Monroe’s record of public service was similarly distinguished to Jefferson’s, and I learned the answer to a useful trivia question. Which U.S. president held the most different positions in government? It was James Monroe. Monroe also served in the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War and was wounded in the Battle of Trenton. What I best remember about history class about James Monroe was the Monroe Doctrine, that he formulated the American policy that European powers should stay out of the affairs of newly independent nations in Latin America.