David Sarratt



David Sarratt

ENWR 380

May 6, 1999

Charlottesville in the Depression:

A Portrait of Everyday Life

Progressive Tradition

Reading the Charlottesville/ Albemarle city guide from 1934, one would never know that the nation was in the midst of an economic depression. The guide’s introduction makes Charlottesville sound like nothing short of an American small town utopia. Charlottesville is described as a town “unexcelled for healthful living conditions,” whose “industrial future is assured by vast resources,” with “exceptional transportation facilities,” and where “race and labor disturbances are unknown.”[1] During a time when banks were closing elsewhere, Charlottesville could boast three banks during the depression, one of which was founded in 1931. Obviously the original investors of the Citizens Bank and Trust Co. felt confident enough in Charlottesville’s economic climate to start up a new bank even at the very height of the nation-wide depression. The University was expanding during the depression as well, albeit a little slower than normal. But while other Universities were closing their doors, the University of Virginia was constructing several of its most ambitious landmarks and providing hundreds of jobs. New UVA structures during the 1930s include Alderman Library, the Medical School Classroom building, the Bayly Art Museum, a new engineering school and Scott Stadium. Alderman Library was funded by the Public Works Administration; a New Deal program designed to undertake building projects for the public good. All this is not to say that Charlottesville did not experience difficulty and hard times during the depression, but it did survive in better fashion than most of the nation.

Economy

Economically, then as now, Charlottesville had a very balanced economy. Unlike some communities that had become completely dependent upon a single industry for survival, Charlottesville’s economy had a wide base, with interests in agriculture, textile manufacturing, retail, real estate, and especially higher education. The two industries that suffered the most in Virginia after the post World War I slowdown were coal and timber, in which Charlottesville did not have a large stake. Charlottesville did, however, boast the largest woolen mill in the South, along with 2 silk mills with a total of over 400 looms, a chemical extract plant, underwear manufacturing company, and a drapery weaving plant.[2] Charlottesville was served by two major railroads, the Southern and the Chesapeake & Ohio. Having all this, Charlottesville was still a town that prided itself on not being overly industrialized, and was generally considered by its inhabitants to be a garden-like haven from the industrial modern world. Albemarle was the self-proclaimed, “Garden Spot of Virginia,” calling itself, “the land of peaceful, wholesome and progressive Americans…land of purest American stock.”[3] While Charlottesville was indeed progressive for the period, the phrase “purest American stock” did not include poor whites and especially not blacks, although these peoples did represent a large portion of Charlottesville’s population.

Charlottesville, not unlike today, was home to a great deal of old money during the 1930s. It was not uncommon for rich industry tycoons flee the industrialized North and land in peaceful Charlottesville, which made for a profitable real estate industry. Especially in areas where agriculture was struggling, the land could be sold off at a handsome profit to a wealthy transplant looking to buy a beautiful Old Virginia farm. During the forty or so years before the depression, Charlottesville’s leaders were generally in favor of bringing industry to the area, but had had only moderate success. After seeing in the depression what the rest of the nation had gained by industrialization, the leaders of Charlottesville quickly had a change of heart. As Moore puts it, “Over drinks (Prohibition not-withstanding) rich men who had fled the smokestacks and grime of northern industrial centers undoubtedly pressed home their conviction that Charlottesville and its lovely countryside were indeed fortunate to have escaped such a fate.”[4]

Agriculture in Albemarle County, although it suffered a few tough years in the early years of the depression, was not permanently injured. In fact, a book on the history of Crozet--the center of the Albemarle apple and peach industries--contains a chapter entitled “Prosperity, 1923-1950.”[5] During the period between 1925 and 1935, usually considered a devastating decade for agriculture nationwide, farmers in Crozet set out over half a million new fruit trees. Crozet became known as the “Peach Capital of Virginia.” During peak peach time, a single distributor would ship out as much as sixty-two railroad carloads of peaches in a single day. Crozet also led the state in the production of Albemarle Pippins and Winesaps, apples for which Albemarle County is famous. A popular county legend claims that Queen Victoria would have no other apple on her table. In 1929, which was bad year for the orchards weather wise, Crozet constructed a new cold storage plant which greatly expanded their production capability. Small farmers from around the county who had fallen on hard times with their own farms would go to Crozet to pick peaches and apples to earn extra money. The orchards in Crozet, much like the rest of the county, suffered a few tough years, but overall they were able to grow through the depression while other areas continued to struggle.

Despite the success of Albemarle’s apple and peach orchards, in 1935 wheat and corn were still the county’s leading crops. According to the WPA’s guide to Albemarle County, by 1940 Albemarle was producing nearly 90,000 bushels of wheat annually, and over 550,000 bushels of corn. The cattle and dairy industry also gained strength in Albemarle during the depression, with numbers growing to an estimated total of 18,900 beef cattle and almost 9,000 milk cows in 1940. Albemarle’s biggest agricultural problem historically has been erosion because of the hilly terrain. However, in the depression the county received the aid of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, whose young men worked around the county to “successfully control” the problem.[6] Overall, agriculture continued to be a vital and growing sector of the economy in Albermarle County despite several seasons of bad weather and slow national economic conditions.

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[1] Hill’s Charlottesville city directory (Richmond, Va.: Hill Directory Co., 1934) 13

[2] Ibid, 13

[3] qtd. in John Hammond Moore, Albemarle, Jefferson’s County (Charlottesville, Va.: The University Press of Virgina, 1976) 372

[4] Ibid, 367

[5] Stephen G. Meeks and Ray Page McCauley, Crozet: a pictorial history. (Crozet, Va.: Meeks Enterprises, 1983) 43

[6] Writers of the Works Progress Administration, Jefferson’s Albemarle. (Charlottesville, Va.: Jarman’s Inc., 1941) 20

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