Albemarle Historical Society

About Us


Our Mission Statement:


The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society nurtures and promotes awareness and appreciation of local history by encouraging the identification, collection, study, and preservation of the materials of history; by striving for excellence and quality in research and interpretation of collections and local history; and by disseminating knowledge through educational activities, so that the past may shed light on the present and the future.


Activities toward which the efforts of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society are directed include but are not limited to:

  • Encouraging the collection and preservation of manuscript and printed materials and other physical remains pertaining to the history of Charlottesville and Albemarle County;

  • Promoting historical programs, lectures, exhibitions, and other educational activities;

  • Facilitating writing and reporting upon local history in its relation to the local community, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Nation, and foreign countries; and

  • Exhibiting such material in its own or other museums or elsewhere and maintaining and operating a library and museum for housing and displaying historic materials.

Amended by the ACHS Board of Directors, April 1998


Our History:


Founded in 1940, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society (Society) is a private, non-profit educational organization (IRS 501 (c) 3) that seeks to study, preserve, and promote the history of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia. The Society is a membership organization, open to all, and receives no continuing operating support from federal, state or local governments but rather relies on membership fees, gifts and donations, and grants from private foundations.

The Society's research library, administered by a librarian on the staff of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, contains over 2,000 books and bound periodicals, as well as manuscripts, maps, pamphlets, newspapers, and vertical files relating to the history of our community. Additionally, the archival collection contains over 1,500 artifacts of historical significance to Charlottesville and Albemarle County in addition to over 60,000 photographic images.

The Society is located in downtown Charlottesville in the historic McIntire Building. Designed in the Beaux Arts style by architect Walter Dabney Blair, the McIntire Buidling was completed in 1921 and donated by local civic benefactor Paul Goodloe McIntire to the City of Charlottesville as the city's first municipal library. Following an extensive renovation by the Society of this city-owned building in 1993 and the Society moved into it in January 1994.



Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society


Officers 2011


President Steven G. Meeks
Vice President Preston Coiner
Treasurer Robert W. Tharpe


Directors 2011


Preston A. Coiner
Rob Craighurst
Raymond C. Doss
Steven G. Meeks
Bobby Montgomery
Lynn Rainville
Edwina St. Rose
Robert W. Tharpe