Watertower at Birdwood Pavilion, Ivy Road off of U.S. Route 250 West, Charlottesville, Charlottesville, Virginia

1994 Charles E. Peterson Prize, First Place
Significance: The Watertower is one of five service buildings which surround Birdwood Mansion, a Roman Revival residence built sometime between 1818 and 1830, allegedly by some of Thomas Jefferson's workmen. The estate rests on land that was part of the 1734 David Lewis Crown grant and has been owned over the years by some prominent area citizens. The tower itself, located approximately 110 feet east of the mansion, was constructed circa 1910 by Hollis Rinehart to serve the pavilion grounds. Rinehart was the owner of a civil engineering and construction company of national repute. The tower's water tank, now dismantled, once rested inside the upper half of the structure collecting water channeled down from the ragged mountains. The idiosyncratically disposed vertical circulation as well as its form which allows clever concealment of its function, take their cues from lighthouse design, an area of construction with which Rinehart was quite familiar. Thus Birdwood's adaptive reuse of the lighthouse form and details is akin to the typical 18th and 19th century impulse to adorn vernacular constructions with high style features and ornamentation. Its form is especially appropriate when understood as a site strategy, commanding a presence over the vast sloping lawn to its north and east, just as well sited lighthouses do over the shoreline when viewed from sea.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N159
Survey number: HABS VA-1343
Building/structure dates: ca. 1910 Initial Construction