TODAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY with Rick Britton: Historian Rick Britton talks with Les Sinclair about  the 200th anniversary of the cornerstone laying ceremony of the University of Virginia’s first building–Pavilion VII on the Lawn. According to a brief newspaper account, the stone was laid with all the ceremony and solemnity due such an occasion. Then-President James Monroe officiated–and the other 5 Board of Visitors members stood nearby, including former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison–the local fraternity of Freemasons participated, and a large crowd attended. The old 2-acre field (which had yet to be terraced) was filled with carriages and people including local shop owners, and the judges and attendees of the county and superior courts, then in session, who rushed to the ridge one mile west of Charlottesville. (Jefferson had already started using the term “Lawn” for what would soon be the center of his “Academical Village,” and of course that name would stick.)

The building thus commenced 200 years ago today was Pavilion VII, in the middle of the West Lawn structures. It would eventually feature a Doric portico in the upper story supported by a first story arcade–and it would eventually house the Colonnade Club for the faculty.

ALSO: On Tuesday, October 24th, Rick Britton is taking a bus group to see some of Winchester, Virginia’s Civil War sites including the Stonewall Jackson Headquarters, Star Fort just north of town, and the Old Courthouse Civil War Museum. To participate call the Senior Center Travel Office at (434) 974-6538, or go to www.SeniorCenterInc.org and select “Travel.”