Qualla: Grounds of the University of Virginia https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/0/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Grounds of the University of Virginia https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia Grounds of the University of Virginia: Introduction https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia/ Photo credit Cobaltum, CC BY-SA 4.0. On October 27, 1895, a professor named William Reddy Echols threw roughly a hundred pounds of dynamite into a burning building. The building was the Rotunda Annex at the University of Virginia, and Echols believed that if he could blow the Annex away from the Rotunda itself, he might save Thomas Jefferson's masterwork. He could not. The Rotunda burned to a brick shell that night, and a long fight began over what to put back in its place - a fight that took eighty-one years and the United States Bicentennial to finally settle.

Read more: Grounds of the University of Virginia on Qualla

Image: Cobaltum | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/0/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-wp/dqb0-grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Grounds of the University of Virginia: The Academical Village https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia/ Photo credit Georgia O'Keeffe, Public domain. Jefferson did not call the place a campus. He called it an Academical Village, and the name still describes what he built: a community where students and professors lived together, where teaching happened in the same buildings as sleeping and eating, and where the architecture it...

Read more: Grounds of the University of Virginia on Qualla

Image: Georgia O'Keeffe | Public domain

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/0/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-wp/dqb0-grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-the-academical-village.mp3 0:06 2 full Grounds of the University of Virginia: The Fire and the Argument https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia/ Photo credit Karen Blaha, CC BY-SA 2.0. After Echols's dynamite failed, the university hired Stanford White, the celebrity architect of the era, to rebuild. White did more than rebuild. He redesigned the Rotunda interior with two floors instead of three, added three new buildings to close off the south end of the Lawn,...

Read more: Grounds of the University of Virginia on Qualla

Image: Karen Blaha | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/0/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-wp/dqb0-grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-the-fire-and-the-argument.mp3 0:06 3 full Grounds of the University of Virginia: A Library at the Center https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia/ Photo credit JuxtaposedJacob, CC0. Most universities of the period built around a chapel. Jefferson built around a library. The Rotunda's original purpose was to house the books, and Jefferson personally selected the founding collection and devised its catalog. The Rotunda served as the main library for over a cen...

Read more: Grounds of the University of Virginia on Qualla

Image: JuxtaposedJacob | CC0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/0/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-wp/dqb0-grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-a-library-at-the-center.mp3 0:06 4 full Grounds of the University of Virginia: Living on the Lawn https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia/ Photo credit © Ben Lunsford, CC BY-SA 3.0 us. Fifty-four fourth-year undergraduates live on the Lawn each year, in single rooms tucked between the Pavilions. Ten faculty members live permanently in the Pavilions themselves, teaching where they sleep. The rooms have fireplaces. They do not have plumbing - residents walk to ba...

Read more: Grounds of the University of Virginia on Qualla

Image: © Ben Lunsford | CC BY-SA 3.0 us

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/0/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-wp/dqb0-grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-living-on-the-lawn.mp3 0:06 5 full Grounds of the University of Virginia: From Above https://qualla.com/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia/ Photo credit JuxtaposedJacob, CC0. Seen from the air, the Lawn is a long green rectangle running roughly north to south, with the white drum of the Rotunda at its head. The ten Pavilions step down the sides like punctuation. Beyond them, the serpentine walls curl through the gardens in shallow waves. The universit...

Read more: Grounds of the University of Virginia on Qualla

Image: JuxtaposedJacob | CC0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/b/0/grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-wp/dqb0-grounds-of-the-university-of-virginia-from-above.mp3 0:06 6 full