have separate local governments for our cities and counties, ending at the university of virginia. that really is the window through which you can understand ,ocal issues, local politics history. there really is that cooperation and attention that's going on between the three parts. i know it charlottesville because it's on the back of the nickel, monticello. >> that is correct, and as we speak, where driving toward monticello. that rise right there, the little mountain, as we call it. thomas jefferson was born here april 13, 1743. his father had moved adhere to the west. jefferson waster a survey or an co-opted -- co-authored what was the official new map of virginia, which at that time, there was nothing like it, it was the best macbook or junior. little tommy was raised on stories by this man who would go out and explore and make maps and discover. , peterthink about it jefferson was using scientific experiments to make the unknown now, to create maps of what was then wilderness, and to carve out of this unknown backcountry of beautiful image of a map. it's very poetic. it's a metaphor for jefferson's mind. this guy was constantly learning , combine the idea of signs and knowledge with discovery. >> were heading to the top of the hill. wechsler climbing monticello. this was over 2000 acres in thomas jefferson's estate. and where were going to go is the highest point on that former estate which jefferson called mount alto. mountain,e little thomas jefferson's little mountain. this was part of jefferson's 2000 acre estate which of course whereuld point out hundreds of people of color were enslaved for many years. >> and we can see mulberry road from a peer as well. it theon considered industrial part of his estate where he had a number of little factories and workshops that were manned by people of color, along in there, just next to the garden. ofwe will get more and more view of charlottesville. what can we see from up here? the big white building is the university hospital and just beyond that you can see the dome the historictunda, core of the university of virginia. just to the right of that you see the big dome of the old university hall, basketball arena that was built in the 1960's. you can see what's becoming the 21st century skyline of charlottesville. we're experiencing a tremendous growth,development, and and it's a good from the hat is still a challenge that we had. >> so have a great aerial view of downtown. should we go there now? >> us go to the heart of downtown charlottesville. the oldving through belmont neighborhood which started in the 1890's. charlottesville, our humble skyline. whichn see the pavilion is at the east end of the downtown mall, that is the outdoor music venue. we're going to be heading toward , you can see the top of the old wants cello hotel which opened in 1925. -- the old monticello hotel. that's the original heart of the town of charlottesville. >> you mentioned the downtown mall. that's sort of the showpiece of downtown. >> that is our postcard view. charlottesville's pedestrian mall was created in 1976 and it was an effort to try to preserve the historic core of charlottesville. they basically closed off main street and rick did and turned ricked it andb turned it into a pedestrian mall. most of them in america did not survive. there are some that did very well it's arrived to this day, and charlottesville, the first part opened in 1976. it has been expanded into some side streets and it has been a terrific investment in the community. and now the downtown mall is just filled with people constantly. >> great restaurants, great local shops. music, art, it's just fantastic. but it was really controversial at the time, when the city council made that decision to close off main street, it was completely counterintuitive. they were responding to the fact of the car culture of suburban sprawl, all the new shopping centers that were opening north of town, and how are going to keep people interested in downtown? how will we keep them coming downtown because they're all getting into their cars and driving off into the suburbs. it was completely counterintuitive, but it worked. square bynow in court the albemarle county courthouse. when they created charlottesville in 1762 they laid it out on either side of the three notched road, which was the historic colonial road from richmond across the blue ridge up into the valley. the charlottesville was a clown -- planned town laid out on either side of this historic colonial road and the courthouse was located here on the hill, which was on the edge of town. the original town, but this was the historic core of the town of charlottesville. who is depicted in that statue? that is the 1909 confederate statue. it's called at the ready, which is the name of the statue. it depicts a confederate soldier who is standing with a gone and battle ready to fight to preserve human slavery in america, which is what the confederacy certainly stood for in the constitution and in all their writings. there is a number of confederate pro-confederate statues here in the city of charlottesville. it's been really contentious, as it is in communities across the cell where the had these monuments at celebrate and venerate the historic u.s. confederacy. i have to credit a lot of people who have been part of this ,onversation about the statues that i think people have really made an effort to have an enlightened, progressive, inclusive, truthful conversation . did not go up during the civil war. they didn't go up in the late 1860's after the war. they did not go up in 1870. they went up 60 years after the war, in the 1920's, most of them. the stonewall jackson statue, the robert e. lee statue, and they were very much a part of what we now call the lost cause, which was the south narrative after the civil war. it was historic revisionism, sort of writing a new history about the civil war and saying it had nothing really to do with slavery, it was only about states rights. even though it the time of the civil war, they were writing that it had a great deal to do with slavery. the robert e. lee statue goes up in 1924 and it's very much of a lost cause, why supremacist statement on the landscape. so the charlottesville city council recently voted in a 3-2 to remove the robert e. lee statue. they didn't talk about the stonewall jackson statue or the 1909 confederate soldier statue. they specifically addressed robert e lee, which went up in 1924. the decision was to remove it. i don't think they actually had the authority. the courts need to decide, but it's still up in the air. as a city in virginia actually have the authority to remove the statue, because there has been state legislation to keep those in place. so i don't know if richmond will let charlotte -- charlottesville move that statue. the question of where does the money come from to move it. it will not be cheap. abhorrente statue is and what it refers to, the white supremacy, the lost cause, that said, i'm one of the people who believes it should stay. >> why? >> because it should be a tool that we can use to teach people about the lost cause, which most andle of never heard of, look at that tension between how we remember the past and how we talk about the past and what actually happened. i would like to see new statues and talk about the civil rights movement here in charlottesville, but i think the statute should be there to remind people of what happened in the 1920's. now we are approaching the , and youy part of town start to see over to the left all the buildings, some of them very new, better part of the university medical system which is one of the very best in the entire country. the heart oftering the university community. at the top of that hill you can see the rotunda which was the library and main classroom building as part of the academic village that thomas jefferson designed. this section of town is called the corner. this is the corner of the corner and today it refers to five city blocks, but this is the heart of the university community here. you have a lot of bars and restaurants and shops that cater to the university community. to the rotundaup will take you up to the academical village and the rotunda and the lawn, the university of virginia that the state charter in january of 1819 and classes opened monday morning, march 7, 1825. jefferson lived just long enough to see the first year of classes . that had been her dream of his for over 40 years, to create a new kind of university for what he truly believed was a new kind of country. >> why was that important to him? >> public education specifically was important to jefferson fulfilled actually the dreams of 1776. you could have a resolution, but as long as the wealthy elites run everything, you're going to find yourself back in the same problems you were before you has a revolution. so the key was creating a new kind of school that would teach the principles of the democratic enlightenment to successive generations. what the university of virginia was all about. as far as jefferson was madison, whomes was just as much involved in the project that became the university of virginia, they was the that uva insurance policy for the american revolution and that it would be here on the grounds of the university where the flame of the enlightenment would burn brighter than anywhere else in the world. the university of virginia today has gone from an academical village to an academical city, a little academical city, with over 20,000 students, compared to many other significant universities, that is still relatively a medium-sized university. but it is quite big and sprawling today across much of what we would consider the west end of charlottesville. >> so we've seen monticello, we've driven through the downtown and now were here on the university grounds. thinking back on the city as a whole, you click here for 30 years. what would you like to see for the future? what is your dream for charlottesville. >> i know that charlottesville will continue to experience this tremendous growth which we are experiencing right now. a lot of new construction and development. great listsll those that you could make, best place to raise children, best place to retire, and on and on. we've been number one on all of those lists, which is great. but i would hate for it to be a victim of its own success, and the problems we have are really the problems you want as a community. you want people to want to live in your community. you want people to want to visit and experience all the things that you love about your hometown. so my dream for charlottesville would either that as it grows, and as we write this new century --brick and stone and martyr and mortar, as we write our story on the landscape, i would wouldhat people experience -- i would hope people would have the experience that i had a falling in love with the place and having it means so much to you in your own experience of being alive, and i would just hope that they would have that joy that i get every day and that privilege that i feel of being able to live here in this little city i love. staff recentlyr traveled to charlottesville, virginia, to learn about its rich history. learn more about other stops are /cities www.c-span.org tour. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. >> next on american history tv, we hear a panel of historians on the relationship between alexander hamilton and george washington. they will talk about thomas jefferson's opposition to hamilton's federalist party platform and how