Gooch Dillard Residence Halls


Gooch Dillard Residence Halls are a set of two residence halls on the south-west of the grounds of the University of Virginia close to the Scott Stadium.

Name

Gooch Dillard is named after Robert Kent Gooch and Hardy Cross Dillard. Gooch was a quarterback for the Cavaliers who fought at the Somme in the First World War and returned to lecture Political Science at UVA. Dillard was a Dean of the UVA School of Law who later served as a judge on the International Court of Justice.

History

Gooch Dillard halls were built on the Piedmont plantation owned by Reuben Maury. In the 19th century, Maury owned between 20-60 slaves at a time and it is believed he buried his slaves on his lands.
In the 1947 UVA acquired the land. Then in the 60s and 70s the attendance of UVA more than doubled which caused a "severe shortage" of housing. In response to this, UVA surveyed the land in 1982 to build new residency halls. In this survey they found 9 graves but did not ascertain that this was all. They marked the extent of the cemetery with 6 free standing walls and placed a plaque on one of them entitled Graveyard Site.
The residency halls were designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and were built in 1984.

Structure

Gooch lies to the east and Dillard to the west. The halls together have 112 suites, 56 in each. Six to ten people can stay in each suite with the total capacity of the Gooch Dillard being 610. The two main halls are built on a hill and straddle a natural gully and forested area.
There are several info boards in the area, one dealing with slavery at UVA and another called "A Forgotten Cemetery" that details the history of the site. There is a smaller memorial on a nearby wall entitled Graveyard Site.