A stately old home on University Circle begins a new life this fall as the University of Virginia opens Thornton House, its new international student center.

Once the home of the first dean of engineering, Thornton House has been renovated to create a center where the University's International community of more than 500 persons can gather, entertain and get to know each other and the people of the community.

The transformation was made with funds from the Perry Foundation.

The new center will serve as a site for the International Club's coffee hour and for cultural programs presented by national groups, as a reception center for foreign visitors, an orientation center for new international students and as a meeting place for the Charlottesville International Hospitality Committee and the foreign wives club.

"As the number of international students has grown, we have had difficulty finding meeting places large enough to hold them. And there has been no place regularly available for the smaller groups to meet," says Mrs. Lucy Hale, international student adviser at the University.

"The plan and the proportions of the rooms in Thornton House are perfect for us," she says. "There are large open rooms on the first floor and smaller meeting rooms throughout the house.  The yard and the gardens are expansive enough to have picnics or receptions outside."

The center is not planned as a place to be used solely by international students, but as a way to bring the American students, the Charlottesville community and the foreign students together, she explains.

"It will give us an opportunity to make the international community visible to the rest of the University and Charlottesville and will allow the foreign students to show wha they can contribute to the University and the community," says Mrs. Hale.

"And many students who come here from abroad have limited funds and don't have any suitable place to entertain their friends.  The center will give them a place to have friends over or to serve a native meal."

There will be no permanent residents at the center except for a manager and an assistant manager. Bedrooms on the second floor will be used to house distinguished foreign visitors and foreign students who are only in Charlottesville for a few days.