Monticello By Beacon Light, 1928

Atop the old Monticello Hotel (now the Court Square Condominiums) used to sit the Thomas Jefferson Light -- aka the "World's Largest Searchlight" -- which was occasionally called into service to illuminate Monticello at night, as pictured in the 1928 postcard above. You can see the searchlight in the postcard below, which is from the early 1940s.

For a fascinating history of the Thomas Jefferson Light, read this article from the Sept. 2005 issue of Lighthouse Digest. My two favorite passages:

"Care had to be taken when manipulating the beacon because it was claimed that if the beam were cast on a person 1,000 feet away, the intense light would blister the skin. The brilliance of the light producing center in the searchlight was said to have been the equivalent of the sun’s intensity at noon. When in operation, the center was touted as being the hottest spot on earth."

And,

"[The light] was too powerful for those who were caught in the illuminating beam as it panned over favorite necking areas. 'Roadside petting parties in Charlottesville are destined to vanish into the lost limbo of hoop skirts and mint juleps when the giant searchlight is permanently lit,' read a Daily Progress article after the tests [in Aug. 1927]. 'Consternation concerning the effect of the light is being felt among the ‘Roadside Sheiks’ and already, there is a general uproar in the ranks of the Philistines. Someone has conjured up a picture of a return to wartime methods and the use of camouflage'.”

Do you suppose this is one of the "favorite necking areas" that couldn't escape the Jefferson Light's prurient gaze?

Lovers Lane, Charlottesville, 1911 (Anyone know where this was? I can't place it.)