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Lake
Monticello is a private 3,500-acre community divided
into 12 sections containing 4,601 lots. At this
time, there are approximately 11,000 residents
residing in nearly 4,100 single-family homes and
15 condominium units. Nine sections of the community
are within the gated area, with access through
five gates. The community, approximately 15 miles
east of Charlottesville, Virginia, situated around
a 350-acre manmade lake (fed by some 200 springs)
with 22.5 miles of shoreline. Home sites are connected
by 62 miles of privately maintained roads and
served by a central water and sewage system. Utilities,
including telephone, electric, and cable television,
are underground in most of the community. Lake
Monticello is patrolled twenty-four hours a day
by our own private police department, and active
volunteer fire department and rescue squads are
located just outside the gated area.
Access
to Lake Monticello is restricted, with routine
access limited to property owners and tenants,
their family members and guests, associate members,
authorized groups for special activities and other
authorized persons.
The
Clubhouse contains Association administrative
offices, the Lakeview Dining Room, the Pub and
space for meetings and special events.
The
beautiful main lake is ideal for boating, water
skiing, and fishing. A marina with docks and a
concrete launching area are available to serve
boaters. Five beaches with picnic areas are located
around the main lake. The Lake Monticello golf
course is an eighteen-hole, 72-par PGA championship
length course, with a golf clubhouse housing the
Pro Shop and the Eagles Nest Snack Bar. Other
recreational facilities include a swimming pool;
softball and soccer fields; tennis, basketball
and and horseshoe courts; and playgrounds with
picnic facilities.
Purpose
and Responsibilities of the Association:
The Lake Monticello Owners’ Association
(referred to as LMOA or “the Association”)
is a non-stock, not for profit Virginia membership
corporation and is operated exclusively for the
promotion of the common good and general welfare
of the people of the Lake Monticello community.
It provides an organizational framework for cohesive
community efforts by the membership, and provides
for the necessary and convenient operation, administration
and government of Lake Monticello as a community.
LMOA promotes cultural, esthetic, recreational
and general civic advantages of the members. LMOA
is responsible for community services, general
maintenance, care and upkeep of community infrastructure,
including roads, buildings, facilities, amenities
and other common properties.
In
accordance with the Statements of Subdivision,
LMOA collects appropriate charges, in the form
of dues, levies or assessments against the members
as compensation for services rendered and to finance
activities of the Association.
LMOA
interprets, applies, administers and enforces,
through the Board of Directors and duly authorized
committees, the covenants and restrictions affecting
the real property as proved by the recorded statements
of subdivision. It is responsible for taking whatever
actions may be necessary, useful, suitable or
proper for the furtherance or accomplishment of
the purposes and powers of the Association.
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History
Gives Life to Present: Everyone
who has ever lived at Lake Monticello has a story
of how they got here. Most of us came in search
of some common goals – quiet, country living;
escape from the hustle and bustle of big cities;
a slower, more relaxed pace of life. Some came
because they visited family or friends and loved
it here, some came because of the excellent value
in close proximity to Charlottesville. The recreation
possibilities were a big draw for some, and others
came simply because it’s a good, safe place
to retire or to raise a family.
History
Has Many Layers: The knowledge of where and
how we began is helpful when determining where
we are now and where we’re headed. When
we began uncovering the story of Lake Monticello’s
beginnings a couple of years ago, we found a multi-layered
history. While there is much more to learn, here
are just a few snippets of the rich history that
exists here.
The original concept of what eventually became
Lake Monticello was first conceived by a group
of local businessmen in 1958. A business plan
dated June 1, 1962 noted that a site for a recreational
community had been found 13 miles from Charlottesville,
bounded by Routes 53, 600 and 618, with the possibility
for impoundment of 420-450 acres of water. The
lake would have 16 miles of shoreline and be 2.5
miles long. The elevation of the shoreline would
be 320 to 400 feet above sea level, “affording
a magnificent view of the Blue Ridge Mountains
as well as the lake.” The lake was to have
been named Boston Lake for the creek that would
feed it. Although the ultimate result is somewhat
different, that plan was the seed that germinated
into Lake Monticello.
The four men who put together this plan —
Robert Harmon, Harry Lewis, Aubrey Huffman and
David Turner – formed a fictitious corporation,
Nahor Milling Corporation, to acquire land. According
to an article written in 1995 for the Lake Monticello
Review by Judge Ralph Zehler, legal counsel for
the investors, the corporation was fictitious
in the sense that it was not at Nahor and had
nothing to do with milling.
The article describes the individual properties
obtained for the community: a parcel of 210 acres
on Adrien’s Creek, extending from Rt. 53
to the pipeline, was owned by Virginia State Senator
Ed McCue and was the first to be purchased for
just $100 per acre in 1962. It is on this tract
that the fishing lake is now located. A tract
of 159.5 acres on Boston Creek was owned by Oakley
Skeen and includes the area of Old Homestead Circle,
named for the frame house that originally sat
on the property.
According
to the article, Harry Faulconer, who eventually
completed the development of Lake Monticello,
built his own home on that site. Two additional
parcels, totaling 320 acres, were owned by Charlotte
and Walter Neuhauser, who moved here from New
England in 1952. Until just a few years ago, portions
of the farm buildings still stood on the site
that includes The Acres development. A tract of
175 acres, owned by the Garrison family adjoined
the Skeen and Neuhauser properties. The largest
tract of land obtained was owned by the Purcell
family under the name of Louisa Land and Lumber
Corporation. Called the Boston Tract, it contained
1200 acres and extended from Rt. 618 to the present
location of the Fire & Rescue Building and
comprises most of the current Section 1, including
the area of the dam, and much more. Additional
land purchased from Garland and Ruby Carter is
in the center of the lake bottom.
With the unexpected death of Bob Harmon in 1967,
plans for the community changed dramatically,
and the land that had been acquired by that time
was sold to Great Eastern Management. And as stated
earlier, the development of the community was
eventually completed by Faulconer Construction
Company of Charlottesville.
Facts & Fiction: There are many interesting
facts and tall tales about the community and about
the land Lake Monticello occupies. For instance,
it is true that the lake was filled, literally,
overnight as the result of hurricane Camille in
1969, although it had been predicted to take 5
years or more. This was the same hurricane that
took a heavy toll of lives and property in Nelson
County to our west.
No, it is not true that heavy equipment was abandoned
at the bottom of the lake. According to sources
who were present at the time, there was a bulldozer
that was flooded on the dam, but it was rescued,
repaired and put back into operation. Apparently,
there was fear that the freshly packed earth of
the new dam might not hold in the onslaught of
quickly rising water during the powerful hurricane.
The bulldozer was used to cut a gap in the dam
to reduce the pressure. The cut-away area of land
on Route 618 near where it intersects with Route
600 was left when soil from that site was used
to repair the breach in the dam later on.
Yes, Lake Monticello is located on a geological
fault — an earthquake measuring 3.8 on the
Richter scale was documented on August 18, 1984.
The epicenter apparently was beneath the lake
itself. Property owner and former Director Jean
Burns said it sounded like an explosion, and the
water in the lake appeared to be flowing from
two directions at once.
No, there is no abandoned village at the bottom
of the lake, although the town of Bernardsburg
was located nearby, just downstream from the dam
near where Boston Creek meets the Rivanna River
and near the location of two canal locks that
are on Lake Monticello property.
Lake Monticello pioneers:
- First
home built here belonged to Charlotte
and Walter Neuhauser and family on
Pineknoll, just a few blocks from the Clubhouse.
- First
child born here was Kip Gansneder, a
daughter born in 1972 to Nancy and Bruce Gansneder.
- Wes
Volk was the first property owner who served
as President of the Board of Directors. He served
as a Director for four years beginning in 1973.
- First
woman on the Board of Directors was Nancy
Gansneder in 1974.
- Joan
Volk, who was on the first Environmental
Control Committee, also named the rooms in the
Clubhouse and designed the original logo in
the early 1980s.
- First
dog was Inky, black Labrador retriever
owned by the Neuhausers.
- The
flagpole at Marina is dedicated to first Marina
Manager, Ken Luxhoj.
Bernardsburg: Below the story of how Lake
Monticello began is a significant layer of history
far distant from our own. The town of Bernardsburg,
located on the west side of the Rivanna River
where Boston Creek empties into the River, was
chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in
1796. Tradition says that General Lafayette’s
men spent the night in Bernardsburg on their march
to Yorktown where Cornwallis’s surrender
ended the Revolutionary War more than 200 years
ago in 1781. The two stone chimneys that still
stand across Jefferson Drive from the Marina are
the last evidence of a house called “Red
Hills,” which was built before the Revolutionary
War by the Bernard family. It eventually came
into the hands of the Boston family, members of
which are buried in the nearby cemetery along
with members of the Cocke family, who were related
by marriage. One of the Boston sons, Col. Reuben
B. Boston, who was thought to have been the last
Confederate officer killed in the American Civil
War in 1865 at age 31, is buried in the cemetery.
Southeast of the house on a point overlooking
the village of Bernardsburg, was a fort, also
built before the Revolution. There also was a
mill in the town, which was run by the Boston
family from around 1806. The town died out in
the late 1800s as navigation on the Rivanna River
and Canal slowed and the railroads took over.
Most of the remains of the town eventually disappeared
from decay, floods and scavenging and later on
from construction of the Lake Monticello dam.
Two well-preserved canal locks still exist and
have been uncovered during years of work by some
dedicated Lake Monticello and Fluvanna County
residents. There still is evidence of the mill
and a few other buildings between State Route
600 and the Rivanna River, but many of the stones
from the old buildings eventually were used for
other construction.
Commemoration of Bernardsburg: On Sunday,
October 27, 2002, the Fluvanna County Historical
Society dedicated a plaque commemorating the town
of Barnardsburg and the Bernard and Boston families
for the role they played in Fluvanna’s social
and economic history. The plaque is located on
Jefferson Drive, across from the Marina near the
ruins of “Red Hills.”
Tracking history: In 2000, LMOA embarked
on an effort to research and record the history
of Lake Monticello. With the commencement of that
project, it became clear that Lake Monticello’s
history will not be complete without the history
of Fluvanna County Virginia on which Lake Monticello.
Much information is available through the Fluvanna
County Historical Society and individuals whose
research has been extremely valuable. One of the
major segments of documenting our history is in
obtaining photographs and oral histories, a process
which is slow and ongoing.
For more information, to donate photographs or
documents, or to offer your help, please call
LMOA Communications Manager Peggy Alexander at
(434) 589-8263, ext. 111, or email Communications.
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