Tag: montpelier

Teens in trouble

Three young men were arrested for the spate of recent muggings around UVA. Pendarvis Marquette Carrington, 18, was charged with two counts of robbery, two for use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Two 17-year-olds were also charged.

Wife killer gets 40 years

Franklin Burruss was sentenced September 12 for the second-degree murder of Tayler Lindsey Harsch Burruss, who was stabbed 22 times before she drowned in the hot tub in their Lake Monticello home September 5, 2015.

Bad news for book-lovers

Oakley’s Gently Used Books will close its doors September 18 after more than 20 years. Owner Chris Oakley is retiring to do volunteer work, but she will continue to sell books at sci-fi conventions and online. The store, located in York Place on the Downtown Mall, is having a 50 percent off sale until it closes.

Irish exit

McGrady’s Irish Pub will also close this month. On its last day, September 25, restaurant decor and furniture will be auctioned off to benefit Red Shoe Cville. After a decade on Preston Avenue, general manager Tracy Tuttle says a new eatery, which will be announced this fall, will take the pub’s place. And it’ll have plenty of TVs so sports watchers can still catch a game.

We’re No. 2

UVA moves up in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings of public universities from last year’s No. 3, and comes in behind No. 1 UC Berkeley and ties for the second spot with UCLA.

The other Founding Father

Here in the heart of all things Thomas Jefferson, it’s pretty easy to forget that he’s not the only area revolutionary figure who designed our democracy. James Madison lived up the road in Orange, and had the not-insignificant role of framer of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. And maybe, like some of us, you haven’t been to Montpelier since the duPont exterior was removed in 2008. With Constitution Day on September 17, we thought it would be a good idea to check in on the fourth president’s home and say, here’s to you, Jemmy and Dolley Madison.

Constitution Day: Free admission from 9:30am-4pm Saturday, September 17, and Mr. Madison will greet guests.

“We the People” hike starts at 9am on the new 3.5-mile Montpelier Trail Loop. The estate has more than eight miles of trails, which are open to the public every day during business hours.

Gilmore Cabin: Built by former slave George Gilmore on Route 20 across from Montpelier, it’s the first freedman’s preserved and interpreted home in the U.S.

Public digs: Archaeologists are excavating the South Yard, where slaves lived, and working now on the site of a kitchen, as well as reconstructing two two-family slave quarters. Don’t take the artifacts.

Furnishings: Thanks to Dolley’s profligate son leaving her impoverished, most of Montpelier’s furniture is long gone. Gradually replenished, Madison’s mom’s rooms—Nelly’s sitting and dining rooms—were furnished this year.

Barbecue: The Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein has bestowed a bundle on Montpelier, and in the visitor center that bears his name is The Exchange Cafe, which features Gordonsville barbecue-meister Craig Hartman’s pulled pork and griddled ham on a cheddar-chive biscuit.

By the numbers

The cost of off-campus living

Zillow releases an analysis of monthly median rents to go with the latest U.S. News & World Report college rankings.

$1,526

UVA, Charlottesville

$6,139

Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, is the priciest

$723

Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, is the cheapest

Quote of the week

“My mother sexually abused me for eight years.”—Elizabeth Haysom, interviewed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch September 8 at the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center. She also insists Jens Soering, who filed a petition for absolute pardon last month, was the one who killed her parents in 1985.