After William O’Shaughnessy’s eight-and-a half-hour shift in the MRI section of Martha Jefferson Hospital, it is 11:30 at night, and O’Shaughnessy is happy that home—the quieter portion of Ridge Street south of Cherry Avenue— is less than two miles away. “Convenience is critical, I have to admit,” he says. “Being home from work in less than 10 minutes…and riding my bike is great. I haven’t ridden a bike since I was 13 and I’m 43 now.”
| At a glance
Distance to Martha Jefferson Hospital: about 1.68 miles |
A sharp left off the busy Fifth Street Extended divided highway, and up a short hill, the less-traveled Ridge Street hosts a private, residential area that approaches a dead end in less than nine blocks. Lined with paved driveways and thirsty lawns, the older street overlooks the busy highway below. It feels removed up here: Even in the sweltering heat of a mid-August afternoon a teenage couple, holding hands, walks along the sidewalk past a garden of zinnias and a collection of plastic animals.
While O’Shaughnessy says he has complaints about the neighborhood, proximity to the hospital is very important to him, and it makes the neighborhood a great place for him to live. O’Shaughnessy moved onto Ridge Street in 2005 and since then, he says, he has had no issues with snow removal, electricity, or any other utility managed by the City of Charlottesville. It’s easy to meet neighbors and make new friends; people like to gather under the shade on hot afternoons.
But, he adds, there are a couple of problems with living in an older house in the heart of Charlottesville. O’Shaughnessy’s house was built in 1973 and is a bit of a fixer-upper. When asked his opinion of new developments in the area he said, “I’m jealous, I guess, that I can’t afford to buy one. They’re nice and new.”
For O’Shaughnessy, traffic through the neighborhood is a more unexpected downside. While he doesn’t have any children or pets of his own, O’Shaughnessy said if he did he would be worried for their safety.
Time travel
Even though many of the homes in this neighborhood are not new, there have been a total of seven sales in the neighborhood since 2007, the homes ranging in size from 750 square feet to a little over 2,000 square feet, according to Real Estate III agent David Cooke and a report from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors. CAAR’s website reports the cheapest home selling for $111,000 and the most expensive home, with refurbished hardwood floors and a deck, selling for $253,500.
 Along the quieter section of Ridge Street, older homes have seen a succession of changes as the neighborhood’s hosted both white and black residents. |
Cooke says he thinks one of the major draws to the neighborhood is its location, but the age of the homes makes homebuyers wary of buying in the area, since constant maintenance would be almost guaranteed. “They like the city location, but a lot of people really like the new construction,” Cooke says.
Developers have, of course, been quick to respond to that preference for new homes. Building company Southern Development recently constructed Brookwood, a neighborhood with around 75 new single-family homes with three to four bedrooms and up to 3,300 square feet. It connects to both the original Ridge Street and Fifth Street Extended. Southern Development has also proposed a development, called William Taylor Plaza, at the busy intersection of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue. Some residents worry it would encroach upon the historical feeling of the Ridge Street community and destroy some of the area’s natural charm.
 New development, like this Brookwood block, is changing the dynamics along Ridge Street, bringing more traffic and drawing protest from some neighbors. |
“In most historical districts all the buildings are not the same age, but the point of a district is to conjure a time, conjure a feeling, conjure a look,” said Oak Street resident Antoinette Roades. She said she worries that William Taylor Plaza “will break that mood radically. It’s a project, it’s a complex.” The plaza would sit at the border between the Ridge Street neighborhood and Fifeville.
Historical fabric
When the first homes were being built on Ridge Street in the late 19th century, the area was very different. The street is home to the first African-American Girl Scout troop in Charlottesville and is still the location of Oak Hill Estate, the residency of Thomas Jefferson’s friend and associate Alexander Garrett. Over the shifts and changes of the past 175 years, the street has served as one of the most coveted neighborhoods for both white and black residents, says Roades, and many of its buildings have been designated historic by the City of Charlottesville.
Roades says she is worried not only that people won’t want to maintain the older homes on the street, but that residents are forgetting about the impact the construction phase for the William Taylor Plaza will have on the neighborhood.
“Old houses are quirky. It doesn’t matter how beautiful they are, they always need something. They [residents] have to enjoy living in it,” Roades says. She tells the story of one family that bought a refurbished historic home, originally built around 1844. Although the family seemed extremely satisfied with their purchase, they are looking to sell the home after less than five years of ownership. Roades speculates that their move can be attributed to new developments and the noise and disruption that comes with beeping machines and jackhammers.
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Indeed, residents say that new developments have increased through-traffic in the old neighborhood. The same central location that makes O’Shaughnessy’s commute so easy means that development, occuring along the borders of dense city neighborhoods, impacts diverse swaths of residents.
Even so, William O’Shaughnessy says the neighborhood is affordable and he wouldn’t want to live anywhere else right now. It’s still a place where, he says, people bring by a couple of peaches for their neighbors.