When the lot next door to Jim Rounsevell’s Belmont home became available for purchase in 2007, he had no choice but to snatch it up. An architect by trade, Rounsevell didn’t buy the property for its aged structure, a late 1920s general store. What he really needed was its lawn. “Our own house has little […]
President Obama’s first major education speech since taking office, in which he laid out a plan to make America’s education system
When Gens. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first met in battle, it was in May 1864, at a site called Wilderness—just 50 miles northeast of Charlottesville. And the result of that meeting was some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War. The intersection near the proposed site isn’t exactly pristine. There’s already […]
If you trekked to D.C. for the inauguration, you probably spotted or even purchased your fair share of commemorative Obama merchandise: the usual t-shirts, water bottles, and baby bibs; the kitschier “Shot of Hope” shot glasses and “Party like a Barack Star” thongs. None of it rare and hardly any of it valuable. Auctioneers expect […]
READ MORE • The halls (and roofs and floors) of learning “Daddy, look what I made.” “That’s beautiful. But you know what, the adults are trying to have a conversation right now. So can you go in the other room and draw until Mommy gets home?” “O.K., Daddy.” Five-year-old Alice trots back into the kitchen […]
ecoMOD1: the OUTin house, 2005 Partner: Piedmont Housing Authority • Two-unit condo built from eight small modules in Charlottesville’s Fifeville neighborhood • Designed to merge outdoor and indoor spaces • Includes first potable rainwater collection system in the city ecoMOD2: the preHAB house, 2006 Partner: Habitat for Humanity • Built in post-Katrina southern Mississippi • […]
Lately, “Main Street” has become a tiresomely banal political slogan for Everywhere America. But in some well-preserved parts of the country, like historic Palmyra in Fluvanna County, Main Street isn’t a saying; it’s the soul of the community, both past and present. Downtown Palmyra, simply known to locals as “the village,” sits on a short […]
So you want to sell your house. Ouch. The current housing market may not welcome you with open arms, but Realtors repeat like broken records the idea that pricing your house correctly can go a long way toward finding a buyer within a reasonable time frame (which, these days, is about two months). Supply exceeds […]
We might be swimming in tomatoes, but Virginia-grown rice is consigned to the realm of the imagination. Kathryn Faulkner explains why certain foods just don’t come from here. Dairy. As the milk industry grows more consolidated (Dean Foods now owns Shenandoah’s Pride), only a couple of local retailers sell dairy products straight from local farms: […]
Outside the financial limelight, nonprofits, ever vulnerable to the ebb and flow of donor funding, are battening down the hatches for an economic squeeze. As a result, they have less money to spend on fundraising. “Because of budget cuts…nonprofits have to focus their money on serving the community,” says Serena Gruia of Alloy Workshop design […]