April 7, 2022

Pen Park is a Charlottesville City Park. Many years ago Lynn Rainville noted there were likely enslaved graves outside the Gilmer, Craven, and Hotopp cemetery. Recently the City of Charlottesville hired a firm which found there are likely 43 or so enslaved graves there. The City asked the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society if they would investigate and try to determine the surnames of the families that lived there during the Gilmer, Craven, and Hotopp ownership and also try to find living descendants. Sam Towler volunteered to do the research and he presents a summary of his findings as of April 2022.