The Cville recently had an article about the building of a priory at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlottesville.
Houses of the Holy: Alderman Road to get monastery
Article from the Cville about the new Monastery
A Dominican monastery is sure to add a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of Alderman Road in Charlottesville.
The friars who serve St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church outlined for nearby residents on January 7 their plans to build a monastery, the first of its kind in the city.
Site plans will be submitted to city officials in the next few months, and the project could break ground as early as spring 2011. The monastery will be built on two lots of land that form a triangle between Midmont Lane and Kent Road, an area tucked away from Alderman’s late-night life and Football Saturday scene. The two lots are owned by St. Thomas and have by-right status, so the monastery will not need formal approval from the city’s planning commission so long as it meets city zoning requirements.
The cramped quarters in which the friars currently live make it less than ideal to serve a growing, 2,300-family parish, and the new monastery will provide the space and serenity they need, Pastor Luke Clark said. Four friars currently live in a single-family house on Alderman Road, next to the Alderman Law School House that is “infamous,” according to Pastor Clark.
“We’ve been doing our best to live the religious life, but the facility we have right now doesn’t do it,” he said. The new monastery will initially house six friars, and the goal is to craft a building with the capacity to fit 12.
Local architect John Gorman, whom the church tapped for the project, assured the monastery’s nearest neighbors that its design, even the 13-space parking lot, will not disrupt the neighborhood in any significant way. Judging from the applause at the end of his presentation, the roughly 30 neighbors who attended the meeting came away satisfied.
“They have always been a good neighbor to us,” said Arthur Lichtenberger, president of the Lewis Mountain Neighborhood Association and a neighbor to St. Thomas since 1986.
However, several residents expressed minor concerns, such as how the new building would affect area drainage, and how construction trucks might impede local traffic. “It’s going to be a tight fit, but a skilled contractor can manage it,” Gorman said. “The intention obviously is not to plug your streets with pick-up trucks,”
—Matthew Deegan
