About: Vinegar Hill (Charlottesville, Virginia)

Vinegar Hill was one of the earliest neighborhoods in Charlottesville, Virginia. Originally a predominantly Irish neighborhood, located near downtown, it was bordered by West Main Street to the south, Preston Avenue to the north, and 4th Street to the west. When it was first populated by African American families in the early nineteenth century, it was called "Random Row." George Toole, a local Irish-American resident, began calling it Vinegar Hill to memorialize the Battle of Vinegar Hill. It was incorporated into the city in 1835. Vinegar Hill is remembered now for the city of Charlottesville's invasive urban renewal project begun in 1964 that razed the majority black neighborhood.