Founded in the mid 1980s, and known at that time as Monroe Hill College, today it’s called Brown College at Monroe Hill. The Monroe Hill House, located here, was once the home of president James Monroe, who sold land from his family farm for the establishment of the University of Virginia. The original house was built in 1790 and it was expanded in the early 1800s after Monroe sold it. He sometimes called it the “lower plantation”, to distinguish it from his other residence, the Ash Lawn-Highland plantation.
The Monroe Hill Complex includes the House, Monroe’s former law office, and two ranges for housing students. The name of the college was changed to its current title in 1986, in honor of an endowment from the Brown family. It is the first modern residential college here at the University of Virginia. Admittance into the college is competitive and overseen by current students. If you find a willing and friendly Brown College student, you might have fun asking him or her what essay questions were given on his or her application, because they are not typical questions!
Photo “Monroe Hill House UVa 2010 cropped” by Karen Blaha is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
