REPORTERS, EDITORS: News media are invited to attend and
cover the private reception for Charlottesville firefighters in the
McGregor Room of Alderman Library on Nov. 5.  The reception will be
held at 2 p.m., with remarks by University, city and international
fire officials scheduled for 2:30 p.m.  Firefighters will be in
uniform and will join the public in the Library Quadrangle at 3:15
p.m. for the arrival of a horse-drawn turn-of-the-century fire truck
and demonstration of antique fire equipment.  There will be
excellent photo possibilities.

AS PART OF ROTUNDA FIRE COMMEMORATION,
U.VA. WILL FORMALLY THANK CHARLOTTESVILLE FIREFIGHTERS
FOR A CENTURY OF SERVICE

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 26 -- The University of Virginia
will offer a special thank-you to Charlottesville firefighters for
100 years of dedicated service on Sunday, Nov. 5, as part of the
centennial commemoration of the historic fire that gutted U.Va.'s
landmark Rotunda.
	More than 100 firefighters and their families are expected
to attend a private reception with City Council members and
University officials in Alderman Library's McGregor Room, where a
centennial exhibition about the 1895 Rotunda Fire is on display.
University President John T. Casteen III will host the event and
formally thank the fire department not only for its valiant efforts
to save the Rotunda 100 years ago but for the daily fire protection
services provided to the University over the years.  Charlottesville
Fire Chief Julian Taliaferro, U.Va. Executive Vice President Leonard
W. Sandridge Jr., and University Librarian Karin Wittenborg will be
among others speaking.
	An official delegation of the International Association of
Fire Chiefs, representing fire departments throughout United States
and Canada, will attend.
	At 3:15 p.m. the public is invited to join in the
commemoration, when a turn-of-the-century horse-drawn fire truck
will arrive at the Library Quadrangle in front of Alderman Library.
The fire truck, owned by the Charlottesville Fire Department, has
never been publicly displayed before. Firefighters in period costume
will demonstrate the antique equipment and explain how similar
equipment was used to fight the catastrophic fire that struck the
Rotunda on Oct. 27, 1895.
	University student guides in period costume also will be on
the Lawn and at the Library Quadrangle Nov. 5 to offer "living
tours" and answer questions about the historic fire and University
life in that era.  In addition, the University Guides have prepared
a special program for children attending the event. 
	The McGregor Room exhibit will be open to the public from
3:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 5.  It is also on display currently through
Jan. 6, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1
p.m. on Saturday.  The exhibition, drawn largely from the libraryÕs
Special Collections, features Holsinger StudioÕs photographs of the
fire, newspaper accounts, official papers, plans and drawings for
the White restoration, as well as artifacts and other photos.
JeffersonÕs original drawings for the Rotunda, other early
descriptions and images, and a brief survey of the 1973-76
restoration of the Rotunda to JeffersonÕs original design also are
included.
	The Rotunda fire was one of the worst catastrophes in the
University's history but one that ultimately changed the course of a
small, struggling institution.  The great fire gutted the landmark
domed building that Thomas Jefferson designed to be the centerpiece
and library of the University he founded.
	JeffersonÕs Rotunda design set an American tradition for a
universityÕs library to be seen as its symbolic heart.  The fire
that ravaged one of the greatest achievements of American
architecture on a Sunday morning 100 years ago brought students,
faculty and townspeople running in a valiant effort to save the
UniversityÕs book collection.  Fire companies from throughout
Central Virginia fought in vain to prevent the building from being
totally engulfed; only its outer shell was undestroyed.
	But the loss of its most important building also caused a
series of events that fundamentally changed the institution,
according to Commonwealth Professor Richard Guy Wilson, one of the
countryÕs leading architectural historians who will present a
centennial address at Fall Convocation at 2 p.m. Oct. 27 on the
Lawn.  The fireÕs aftermath galvanized important decision making
that propelled the University into a position of leadership in the
20th century.
### 
October 25, 1995






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