Southall-Venable House

ca. 1918

The Market Street Park was originally occupied by the Southall-Venable House.

Originally built by V. W. Southall, it was the home for many years of the widow of Mr. V. W. Southall until her death, in 1874, when it came into possession of her daughter, Mrs. Charles S. Venable. By 1917 the house was owned by Southall’s grandson, Charles Venable, Jr., and his wife, Madge. Charles was the son of Mary Southall Brown, who inherited the property from her mother in 1874, and Charles Scott Venable, Sr. a University of Virginia professor. Venable Sr., who had served as an aide-de-camp for Gen. Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, worked to promote education as a way to improve post-Reconstruction conditions in Virginia. The city of Charlottesville named an elementary school after Venable in 1925.

Located on Market Street between 1st, Jefferson and 2nd. Purchased by Paul Goodloe McIntire, a commodities trader and philanthropist, in 1917; razed in 1918 to make room for a public park (Lee Park). Some of the original plantings were incorporated into the park landscape.