LoCoHistory

During the Revolutionary War, the Barracks (located west of the shopping center; today a horse stable) was a prison for British and German troops captured at The Battle of Saratoga in October 1777. They were originally imprisoned by Revolutionary forces in Massachusetts, but within the year they marched 628 miles to the more hospitable climate of Charlottesville, Virginia. The term “hessian” is a reference to the German mercenaries who fought for the British. Hence, the nearby housing development on Georgetown Road called “Hessian Hills.” Although no prisoner list survives, estimates suggest over 4,000 prisoners lived at the Barracks. By the spring of 1779, locals described the camp as a small town with a commissary store, a coffeehouse, and a theater. Despite these amenities, over 1,000 prisoners escaped between 1779 and 1780. Many of the German soldiers settled in the Shenandoah Valley and became American citizens.

The Barracks Road Shopping Center is one of the oldest in the country, dating to 1959. To view the rest of this great old photograph of Barracks Road, see Cville Dave’s Posting on the Barracks Road Shopping Center in the 1960s. In the photo you can see the newly built shopping center, mostly surrounded by woods, with large expanses of asphalt for the “acres of free parking” that was touted in the original advertisement. Built by an area developer, Rinehart, it displaced a famous tavern called Carroll’s Tea Room. Moore’s history of Charlottesville reports that although it often possessed neither tea nor room, it was “an oasis for thousands of thirsty university students.” If you look closely at the Barracks Road logo, found on signs along the edges of the retail center, you will notice a rider on a horse. This logo references the cavalry soldiers who manned the “Barracks.” The military barracks were constructed west of town near Ivy Farms during the Revolutionary War to house British and German prisoners-of-war.