Twilight Zoning

James Branham's grand-daughters in the backyard of 1512.

The Hook has weighed in with an article about James Branham's farm in the Woolen Mills. "Twilight Zoning--BZA procedure trumps reality"

reclaiming the street

commercial vehicles negotiate turn at Franklin and Market, 11/8/06, five weeks after voluntary measures regarding such use went into effect.
For twenty years the Woolen Mills neighborhood has sought relief from cut through traffic. This evening Charlottesville City Council will revisit the matter.

Independence, interdependence, bootstraps

The Woolen Mills was independent for a long time. For a hundred years the people of Woolen Mills Road looked after each other.

After the Mill shut its doors in 1963, that independence, formerly an asset became, in one respect, a pronounced liability. The independent Woolies didn't have client status with either the County of Albemarle or the City of Charlottesville. They didn't have friends, champions, in the government.

Thursday, May 17, 4 p.m.-- the taking by typo saga will re-commence in the basement conference room of City Hall.
What does the future hold for the Woolen Mills. Will the stability of legislative action taken in 1993 prevail? Will the future of a historic property be dictated by a typographic error committed in 2003?

Invest in the future of this community with an hour of your presence. A watchful and concerned public makes the difference. The Board of Zoning Appeals will be at the top of their game before a room full of people-- and the Woolen Mills needs their very best.

I would urge you to think both about fairness to the parties here and what the most minimum due process requires, which is notice and an opportunity to be heard. And then also to think about the precedent and the way in which this kind of taking by typo would really threaten and jeopardize all of our ability to trust the stability of the records.--Anne Coughlin 4/19/07

mapping memory, mapping intent

The map above created by James Branhams grand-daughter, Dorothy.
Woolen Mills Road (Market Street) is at the bottom of the map, the C&O (CSX) railroad tracks are at the top of the map, her grand-fathers seven acre farm is in the middle.

In 1993, Charlottesville City Council placed a protective zoning overlay on this property. Click here to see maps.

their son, her brother

James and Bannie Branham receive a posthumous award for their son, Thomas Eugene Branham, killed in action on Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945. Lucile Watson, Tom's sister, stands between her parents with her daughter Jane.