Charlottesville has a rich history that dates back to English Colonial times and includes such notables as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Edgar Allan Poe and William Faulkner. But unbeknownst to many, Charlottesville was also home to a Claimant to the Grand Duchy of Russia.
In July of 1918 the Bolshevik Revolution summarily executed the Czar and his family, purging the country of its de-throned monarchy. A mass grave was found in 1991 which held the remains of the Tsar, his wife and three daughters, but the bodies of Alexei and one of his sisters - either Anastasia or her older sister Maria, were not to be found.
Persistent rumors of her survival circulated for decades with multiple claimants to her legacy, most notable of which was Anna Anderson
Between 1922 and 1968, Anderson lived in Germany and the United States with various supporters and in nursing homes and sanatoria, including at least one asylum. She emigrated to the United States in 1968, and shortly before the expiry of her visa married Jack Manahan, a Virginia history professor who was later characterized as “probably Charlottesville’s best-loved eccentric”
Jack became interested in Anna - who was 21 years his senior - through Gleb Botkin. Gleb himself was the son of the late Czar’s family physician who had been killed by the Bolsheviks along with the Royal Family in 1918. Botkin had known Anastasia as a child and supported Anna’s claim to be Anastasia. Botkin had escaped Russia during the early months of the revolution and came to New York, later moving to Charlottesville to be near his Daughter. He also served as Jack’s Best Man in his wedding to Anna.
Anna and her husband lived out their lives as Charlottesvillean notables, not just for her claim but also for their eccentricities. Anna believed that KGB was trying to kill her and, as one her many aversions, would not eat from anything metal. This resulted in their car being regularly littered with empty styrofoam trays The Daily Progress otes that Jack often ordered food from Ken Johnsons’s Cafeteria (located near what is now the site of Ruby Tuesday’s along Emmet Street) and would then stuff his pockets with condiments. He and Anna would then eat in in their car parked out side of the restaurant 
They resided in a small Italianate house on 32 University Circle for their entire marriage, which ended with Anna’s death in 1983.
After the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, the locations of the bodies of the Tsar, Tsarina, and all five of their children were revealed and multiple laboratories in different countries confirmed their identity through DNA testing. DNA tests on a lock of Anderson’s hair and surviving medical samples of her tissue showed that Anderson’s DNA did not match that of the Romanov remains or that of living relatives of the Romanovs.
So, if you ar looking at homes for sale inthe City of Charlottesville, take a close look, you might be buying a piece of history along with the home
Please contact me, I would love to be a help to you
Quinton Beckham
Keller Williams Realt
434.242.6212
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