 The Compton House, a.k.a. the former Beta Theta House, is now but a pile of rubble. Yet though its driveway is now a road to nowhere, the Thomas Jefferson Scholars Foundation sees this as a road to knowledge. Architecture firm VMDO is designing a 22,000-square-foot center to accommodate a growing number of graduate student fellowships. But historic preservationists thought that destroying the Compton House was a needless clearing of some of Charlottesville’s best architecture. The Compton House was designed by Eugene Bradbury and built in 1913, meaning it wasn’t old enough to earn historic designation and protection by the city’s Board of Architectural Review. |
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