Your first view here takes in Court Square Park, a 0.4-acre public park in Charlottesville, Virginia. Once called Jackson Park and later Justice Park, this block is bounded by Jefferson Street, Fourth Street N.E., High Street and the Albemarle County Court Building. The park began in 1919 when Paul Goodloe McIntire established it by donating the land to the city. Its original name honored Confederate general Stonewall Jackson; in 1921 a statue of Jackson on horseback, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, was placed here.
The park's recent history has been shaped by civic conversation. In November 2016 the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces recommended transforming the statue into a monument for remembering racial oppression and changing the park's name. The city council voted in June 2017 to rename it Justice Park, and in July 2018 the name was changed again to Court Square Park. That statue was removed on July 10, 2021.
Stand here and feel the layers of those decisions in this 0.4-acre park. Notice the streets that frame this block: Jefferson Street, Fourth Street N.E., High Street, and the Albemarle County Court Building.