Charlottesville became the County seat of Albermarle in 1762, and is named after little Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Streliz, the child bride of George the Third. According to an old geography the city lies 385 feet above sea level and is nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Negroes have lived in this little mountain town since 1700, but the actual history of the race becomes interesting when the first church was established in 1865, as activity has not ceased since. A group of Negro Baptist members left the balcony of a lo cal white church and erected a small white-washed shanty, which paved the way for the present structure at 7th and Main Streets.
Three white instructors from Boston, Mass., and two Negro men from New York City came to Charlottesville two years later, 1867, and by a system engineered strictly by time and luck, the movement started by these pioneer educators seventy years ago, has bl oomed forth into what is now one of the six accredited high schools of Virginia for Negroes which is Jefferson High School on Commerce St.
Our early city fathers were men of imagination, who made their plans before they were sure about the required cash. So early in the 18th century, streets were laid off, on maps! And what is known now as Market St. was chosen as the principal city stree t, since it followed a direct route to the largest Southern market, Richmond, Va. Well, when the time came for the actual work, the fathers faced an empty treasury at City Hall and were forced to drop their plans to develop this section into a "Street of Markets", the name was retained however.
The old county road which is Main St. today, was the scene of small huts owned by recently freed Negroes who had become attracted to the section because of the low priced tracts of land.
The "Street of Markets" never was developed and the old county road gradually became the most raveled thoroughfare and some of the Negroes held on to their huts, which may explain why Charlottesville is the only city of its size in the state, with as man y Negro owned and operated business enterprises in the chief commercial center of the city.