Number Nothing

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0 Court Square. Exterior view of west elevation, from corner of Park Street/Court Square, ca. 2010

Number Nothing (0 Court Square) is the original house on this lot. It was built in the 1820's as a double store, separately owned and handled. The name comes from the fact that at first the lot was intended for a horse lot. When it was sold the other lots had been numbered in rotation; a sequence was impossible, so Number Nothing was chosen. On February 23, 1995 “Number Nothing” was recognized by the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society as a historic landmark.

History

Number Nothing was built in the 1820's as a mercantile store that never received a proper address. It was originally owned by Sam Leicht Jr. and John R. Jones. There was a stone block outside the building that served as a marker for auctioning off both goods and slaves until 1865.

Location

Situated in the Court Square area of downtown Charlottesville, on the southeast corner of Park and East Jefferson Streets, the official street address assigned to the Building by the City of Charlottesville is 0 Court Square, Charlottesville, VA 22902.

Design

“Number Nothing” is a proportional brick commercial building with a low pitched roof and double-hung nine-over-six wood windows with paired black shutters. Most windows in commercial buildings at the turn of the 19th century retained a residential scale. This building is a temple form structure, common to early residential housing. It is possible that the design of the two story tall-building was influenced by some of the Jeffersonian architecture present in the University of Virginia’s early buildings.

Auction block

Auction announcement in the Richmond Whig newspaper, published in Richmond on December 16, 1862. "H. Benson & Bro.’s Auction Store, in Charlottesville."
Number Nothing: South elevation (facing site of Eagles Tavern), c. 1960

There are traditions of slave trade gathered about this house. Some hold that the lot to the rear was used of this purpose.

Excerpt from Historical Guide to Old Charlottesville complied by Mary Rawlings (1958):

Number Nothing...is the original house on this lot. It was built in 1820; traditions of the slave trade cluster here. Until some forty years ago there was on its Southern side, at the curb, a large stone, some eighteen inches high, by fifteen inches wide, and thirty long, which was known as the slave block. Here the village auctioneers long functioned, and doubtless when slaves were brought in, their dealers made use of these facilities. A fragment of an old sign may still be deciphered on this wall: “... and Bros. Auction Rooms.” The stone was unintentionally removed during recent street repairs. [1]

Mr. Homan W. Walsh, whose office occupied the southern half of the building, gave the following account:[2]

When I commenced practicing law in Mr. Harmon’s office in 1906 and for several years...there was a at the side of the office at the curb a large stone, perhaps 18 inches high by 15 inches wide and 30 inches long, which is was said was the auction block for selling slaves…It was taken away year ago by employees of the city, when cleaning the streets or paving this section…black lettering through the paint on the southern side of his office, facing the Monticello Hotel, as follows: “ – BENSON AND BRO. AUCTION ROOMS.” As the Bensons were for years the town auctioneers, and this sign was just over the auction block, we may infer that all auctions were conducted here, and thus when slaves were brought in, their dealers made use of these facilities.

References

  1. {{cite web|title=Historical Guide to Old Charlottesville: With Mention of Its Statues And of Albemarle's Shrines|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000277453%7Cauthor=Rawlings, Mary, 1873-1960 work=|publisher= Mary Rawlings and Velora C. Thomson|location=Charlottesville|publishdate=1958|accessdate=June 29, 2022
  2. Web. Early Charlottesville; recollections of James Alexander, 1828-1874. Reprinted from the Jeffersonian republican by the Albemarle County Historical Society.