| Ontario, Niagara on the Lake — Niagara on the Lake Historical District |
| | (Left side is in English)
In 1778, Loyalist refugees began crossing from Fort Niagara to settle the west bank of the Niagara River. A town was laid out in a grid pattern of four-acre blocks and grew quickly, gaining prominence as the first capital of Upper Canada from 1792 to 1796. Following Niagara’s destruction during the war of 1812, the citizens rebuilt, mainly in the British Classical architectural tradition, creating a group of structures closely related in design, materials, and . . . — Map (db m24585) |
| Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake — Niagara Apothecary — La Pharmacie De Niagara |
| | Acquired by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 1969, the Niagara Apothecary is a fine example of a Confederation era commercial establishment and pharmacy. Although the building probably dates to the 1820's. It was extensively renovated in 1866 when it was taken over by an apothecary. At this time the Italianate windows weer installed and the interior fitted up as a drug store. Until it was closed in 1964 it was one of the oldest and one of the longest continuously operating pharmaceutical . . . — Map (db m24609) |
| Czech Republic, Hlavní město Praha, Prague — Ema Destinnová — Emmy Destinn |
| | In Czech: Zde žila 1908-1914 Ema Destinnová česká pěvkyné
Translated, the marker reads: From 1908-1914 the Czech singer, Emmy Destinn, lived here. — Map (db m23108) |
| Czech Republic, Hlavní město Praha, Prague — Rudolf Kremlička |
| | In Czech:
V tomto domě pracoval český malíř Rudolf Kremlička
Translated, the marker reads: In this house worked the Czech painter Rudolf Kremlicka. — Map (db m22972) |
| Czech Republic, Hlavní město Praha, Prague — Vojta Náprstek |
| | In Czech:
V tomto domĕ žil a zemřel
Vojta Náprstek
1826-1894
Bojovník za kulturní
a společenský pokrok
R 1862 položil základy
Náprstokova Muzea
Translated, the marker reads:
In this house lived and died Vojta Náprstek (1826-1894). A champion of cultural and social progress. In the year 1862 he laid the foundations for the Náprstokova Museum. — Map (db m23067) |
| United Kingdom, Kent, Dover — Blériot's 1909 Landing Site |
| | After making the first Channel flight by aeroplane Louis Blériot landed at this spot on Sunday 25th July 1909. — Map (db m23521) |
| Virginia, Bristol — Civil War Memorial |
| | Presented by Col. J.M.Barker of Bristol, Tenn. to the Chapter of the U.D.C. in memory of the brave men and noble women of Tennessee and Virgina from 1861 to 1865 — Map (db m23143) |
| Virginia, Bristol — 43 - k — Historic Bristol |
| | Evan Shelby, noted Indian fighter, settled here about 1765 on a tract called "Sapling Grove". His home was a neighborhood fort, the refuge of settlers in Indian attacks. Bristol grew around this place and became an early railroad center. — Map (db m24323) |
| Virginia, Bristol — Overmountain Patriots of the American Revolution |
| | Dedicated to the hundreds of patriots from this area who fought in the American Revolution (1775 - 1783).
When the war in the north came to a stalemate by early 1880, the British turned their military strategy to the South. They believed that devoted southern Loyalists would rise and secure victory for King George III.
The British command underestimated the determination and bold spirit of the frontiersmen who crossed the mountains, fought Indians, and settled their land. The brave . . . — Map (db m24324) |
| Virginia, Charlottesville — W-200 — Monticello |
| | Three miles to the southeast, Thomas Jefferson began the house in 1770 and finished it in 1802. He brought his bride to it in 1772. Lafayette visited it in 1825. Jefferson spent his last years there and died there, July 4, 1826. His tomb is there. The place was raided by British cavalry, June 4, 1781. — Map (db m23436) |
| Virginia, Fairfax — Historic Blenheim |
| | A family farm, a Civil War encampment site, and a country home, Historic Blenheim now welcomes visitors to explore its landscape and many stories. Over 200 years ago, family patriarch Rezin Willcoxon moved here from Prince Georges County, Maryland. By the Civil War, his extended family owned most of the acreage along today’s Old Lee Highway. A labor force, including a small number of African-American slaves, aided the family’s growing prosperity. During the Civil War, Union soldiers camped . . . — Map (db m24662) |
| Virginia, Fort Story — Battle of the Capes |
| |
On the morning of September 5, 1781, a line of 19 British warships appeared off this cape, headed for Chesapeake Bay. Surprised at anchor in the mouth of the bay, the crews of 24 French warships scrambled out to challenge them. Both fleets sailed southward together in parallel “lines of battle,” passing out of view of the cape. Then the cannonade began. For two hours, their broadsides could be heard on shore. By nightfall, the shore was quiet again; the two fleets had dueled to a . . . — Map (db m23139) |
| Virginia, Fort Story — Cape Henry Memorial — Colonial National Historical Park |
| | Here at Cape Henry first landed in America, upon 26 April 1607, those English colonists who, upon 13 May 1607, established at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English colony in America.
Erected by the National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists
April 26, 1935 [logo of the National Society]
[Interpretive Sign at Site:]
Cape Henry
Memorial Cross
On April 26, 1607 three small ships approached the Chesapeake Bay from the southeast and made . . . — Map (db m23198) |
| Virginia, Fort Story — François Joseph Paul de Grasse — Cape Henry Memorial, Colonial National Historical Park |
| |
This statue, a gift from France is placed here, overlooking the waters where Admiral Comte de Grasse successfully engaged the British Fleet on September 5, 1781. The “Battle of the Capes” prevented crucial reinforcements from reaching Cornwallis, thus hastening his surrender.
Dedicated in grateful remembrance of the decisive contribution of Admiral de Grasse to the winning of the American independence. October 17, 1976 — Map (db m23274) |
| Virginia, Lexington — I 22-a — Original African American Cemetery |
| | Near the intersection of Washington and Lewis Streets stood the original burial ground for Lexington's substantial free black community and slaves dating to the early 1800's. The majority of the original burials were in unmarked graves and no records were maintained of these burials. The Town of Lexington obtained ownership of the cemetery in 1876 and closed itin 1880 and the persons buried there were purportedly moved to the Evergreen Cemetery, although there is little information to document . . . — Map (db m23800) |
| Virginia, Lexington — A 42 — William Henry Ruffner |
| | William Henry Ruffner, educational reformer, clergyman, and geologist, was born in Lexington on 11 Feb. 1824. After pursuing careers as a preacher and a geological surveyor, he was appointed in 1870 as Virginia's first superintendent of public instruction by the General Assembly. During Ruffner's tenure, he developed Virginia's free public school system. Resigning from his position in 1882, Ruffner returned to geological surveying and farming before becoming the president of the State Female . . . — Map (db m23806) |
| Virginia, Manassas — CL-4 — Manassas |
| | According to tradition the name Manassas was derived either from an Indian source or from Manasseh, a Jewish innkeeper at Manassas Gap (35 miles west). The community originated in 1852 at the junction of the Manassas Gap and Orange & Alexandria railroads, which linked northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., with the Shenandoah Valley and central Virginia. During the Civil War the junction's strategic importance led to the battles of First and Second Manassas (Bull Run). Manassas was incorporated as a town in 1873 and became a city in 1975. — Map (db m23697) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Manassas 1850 — Katie Hooe House & Tudor Hall — A New Village |
| | The Kate Hooe House at 8920 Quarry Road is the only known building in the historic district believed to date from the pre-Civil War period, when Manassas was a small village at the junction of two railroad lines. This wood frame house contains a rear ell, constructed of logs, that was used as housing for railroad workers. Just east of this spot stood the early 19th century farm dwelling Tudor Hall, (later structure pictured at right), which gave its name to the train stop and post office . . . — Map (db m23798) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Manassas 1862 — Civil War Railroad Turntable & Repair Shop — Railroad Central to War |
| | In this vicinity stood the Civil War era Orange & Alexandria Railroad repair shops. Just east of Manassas City Hall stood the sidings and turntable of the railroad, used to reverse the direction of a train. When the Confederates evacuated the Manassas area in March 1862, the turntable, an engine, rolling stock, and other equipment were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands. Since the railroad track was torn up before the locomotive could be sent south, the engine was wrecked where it sat (see photo on left). — Map (db m23825) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Manassas 1890 - 1900s — Railroad Work's Homes Add Variety to City Architecture — A Prosperous Town |
| | After the county seat moved to Manassas in 1892, and the Southern Railway continued to prosper, the area outside the core downtown and along the railroad track experienced a building boom. The new clapboard homes ranged in style from Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne to Craftsman and American Foursquare. Several examples of turn-of-the-19th century Queen Anne-style dwellings are concentrated in the 9300 block of Prescott Avenue, and were built for Southern Railway employees: see the R.L. . . . — Map (db m23797) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Manassas 1900 — A Flurry of Construction — Speiden Leaves Mark on Town |
| | As Manassas grew and prospered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the historic district filled with prominent homes, churches, and commercial buildings. The town had two banks and two newspapers. Telephone service began in 1895. Albert Speiden (pictured at right), a noted Washington, D.C. and Virginia architect who lived on Battle Street, designed the first Town Hall and many buildings and churches in Old Town. Manassas builders John, Frank, and Ira Cannon, and Benjamin C. Cornwell . . . — Map (db m23826) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Manassas 1906 — Rebuilding Manassas — A Spirit of Optimism |
| | When the Civil War ended, newcomers and residents rebuilt the burned and devastated landscape around this vital railroad junction. The resulting town of Manassas, incorporated in 1873, quickly became the transportation and commercial hub of Prince William County. After a devastating 1905 fire, optimistic Manassas citizens rebuilt the town again. The town council required that buildings erected in the central business district be constructed of brick, stone, or concrete. Most of the prominent . . . — Map (db m23828) |
| Virginia, Manassas — Manasss 1905 - The Great Fire — Courage & Determination Save Town |
| | During the cold winter night of December 5, 1905, a smoldering fire began in Blossom's Alley across the tracks from the train depot. It soon raged through the young town of Manassas, destroying 35 homes, the post office, and business bordered by Main, Center, and Battle Streets and the railroad tracks. Standing shoulder to shoulder, men, women, and children of all ages passed buckets of water and wet blankets down Center street to extinguish the fire. Local lore tells that brickmaker Donation . . . — Map (db m23773) |
| Virginia, Richmond — 13th Street Bridge |
| | The keystone inscription bears the initials of the two owners of the Haxall-Crenshaw Mill, which once stood here.
The old 13th Street Bridge and the arch on the bank of the canal opposite this spot were built by Richard B. Haxall and Lewis D. Crenshaw, proprietors of the Haxall-Crenshaw Mill. The arch was part of a lateral canal extending into an auxiliary building of the flour mill, which was one of America's largest. — Map (db m23820) |
| Virginia, Richmond — A Bateau Pole |
| | This pole is a reproduction of the poles used by Bateau polemen. The crew of a Bateau consisted of two polemen, who walked on boards running the length of the boat on either side and a steersman who used a sweep at the stern. To navigate upstream, one of the polemen, standing on the walkway in the bow, set his iron shod pole in the bottom of the canal or river, adjusted the pole to the pad at his shoulder and pushed the Bateau forward as he walked along the board. The other poleman, in turn, . . . — Map (db m23922) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Adapting Power |
| | The Raceway and Earlier Uses of the Site
This raceway brought water from the James River and Kanawha Canal to power waterwheels, and later turbines, that drove machinery. During its earliest use, the raceway contained at least two overshot waterwheels that powered a corn mill, a cotton mill, and a flour mill. The stone base of the Pattern Building probably dates from the earliest structures.
The tubes or penstocks you see here, carry water into the round metal casings that . . . — Map (db m24411) |
| Virginia, Richmond — African Americans and the Waterfront — Richmond Riverfront |
| | African Americans and the waterfront
The Richmond waterfront is steeped in African American history. From the early days when Richmond was a colonial trading post, free, indentures, and enslaved African Americans lived and worked in the area. Later, the Richmond dock became a place of arrival for many slaves brought from other parts of the South to be sold at auction houses a few blocks north of here.
Both free and enslaved blacks worked in the ironworks and tobacco warehouses . . . — Map (db m23856) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Albemarle Paper |
| | In 1916, the Dixie Paper Company opened a paper mill in the building of the closed Brown’s Island electric plant. By 1919, the mill was taken over by Albemarle Paper Company, which had been operating a paper mill just upriver at Hollywood since 1887. The Brown’s Island mill made kraft paper and operated until 1967. The mill buildings filled the island, with the last pulled down in 1978.
In 1957, Albemarle Paper purchased the Tredegar Iron Works property. By then it had acquired most of . . . — Map (db m24107) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Belle Isle — Captain John Smith’s Adventures on the James — www.johnsmithtrail.org |
| | James River Park System
The Virginia Company of London instructed the first English colonists to choose a river for their settlement and to “let Captain Newport discover how far that river may be found navigable.” Following this charge, Newport and a group that included John Smith sailed upriver as far as modern Richmond in late May, 1607.
Richmond straddles the fall line between Virginia’s Coastal Plain and the Piedmont region, the limit of navigation for sailing . . . — Map (db m23719) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Belle Isle |
| | During the winter of 1863-1864, the island visible from this spot held up to 8,000 Union army prisoners.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, prisoners poured into Richmond. Camps built only as transport stations soon became permanent. Over the course of the war, several thousand Belle Isle prisoners died, many during the harsh winter of 1863, when the entire city was overcrowded and undersupplied. — Map (db m24097) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Belle Isle and Old Dominion Iron and Nail Works |
| | Once called Washington’s or Broad Rock Island, Belle Isle was bought by Captain John Smith from Chief Powatan in 1608. Early travelers found the island natural and idyllic and current visitors only see hints of the island’s industrial past. In 1815, a wooden dam built on the southern side diverted water to power a nail factory, which eventually became Old Dominion Iron and Steel. Belle Isle later became the home of stone quarries and a Virginia Electric Power plant.
Old Dominion Iron and . . . — Map (db m24375) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 75 — Black Hawk (1767-1838) |
| | Black Sparrow Hawk (Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak) led the Sauk Nation in defense of land taken from them in the 1830s. Displaced from three Midwestern locations, the Sauk resisted another federal relocation. Led by Black Hawk, the Sauk fought throughout the summer of 1832 in what has become known as the Black Hawk War. Outnumbered, the Sauk and Black Hawk surrendered and he was held in federal custody. President Andrew Jackson ordered him paraded through major cities in European clothing as . . . — Map (db m24336) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Brown’s Island |
| | Brown’s Island was created when the Haxall Canal was extended west to the Tredegar Iron Works.
Encircled by the waterways that provided power and transportation to flour mills, foundries, and paper companies, Brown’s Island has been at the center of Richmond’s industrial activities for more than 200 years. Remains of Civil War-era bridges can be seen from its shores, and the CSX Railroad still runs along its southern edge. — Map (db m24095) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Brown’s Island |
| | Brown’s Island is named for Elijah Brown who acquired it in 1826. Brown came from Rhode Island in 1811 to be a gunsmith at the Virginia Manufactory of Arms. In 1818, he entered the Public Guard, which was stationed at the Manufactory, and served as Lieutenant and Paymaster. For a time the Island was called Neilson’s Island, after a subsequent owner, but the name Brown’s Island eventually stuck.
Since Elijah Brown’s day, the island has had a varied history, sketched in plaques around . . . — Map (db m24105) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Burnt District |
| | More than 1,000 buildings burned between 4th and 15th Streets, from Main Street to the river.
“The sky in the direction of Richmond is lurid with the glare of burning houses. …It was as if a great battle were going on around us.” Kate Mason Rowland, 1865
As the Confederates evacuated Richmond in 1865, they torched bridges, warehouses, and arsenals to keep them from the Union Army. All the buildings in the Shockoe warehouse district were destroyed. The devastation . . . — Map (db m24290) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Canal Walk / Historic Canals — Richmond Riverfront |
| | canal walk
First envisioned by George Washington in 1774, the canals were to be part of a continuous transportation route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. By 1789, initial construction of portions of the canal around the falls to the west of downtown had been completed by the James River Canal Company. Ultimately part of the James River and Kanawha Canal system, this canal entered the city from the west and ran behind the Tredegar Iron Works to a basin between 8th and . . . — Map (db m23793) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Canal Walk / Historic Canals — Richmond Riverfront |
| | canal walk
One hundred and fifty years ago, Richmond’s waterfront bustled with business and trade, workers and travelers, hotels, saloons, and tobacco warehouses. Along the canals, barges were towed by teams of horses and mules. Batteaux for carrying freight plied the river and the canal around the rapids, and passenger boats, called “packets,” left for Lynchburg every other day.
Richmond has now restored its historic canals. Once again, boats can bypass the beautiful . . . — Map (db m23854) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Canal Walk / Historic Canals — Richmond Riverfront |
| | canal walk
One hundred and fifty years ago, Richmond’s waterfront bustled with business and trade, workers and travelers, hotels, saloons, and tobacco warehouses. Along the canals, barges were towed by teams of horses and mules. Batteaux for carrying freight plied the river and the canal around the rapids, and passenger boats, called “packets,” left for Lynchburg every other day.
Richmond has now restored its historic canals. Once again, boats can bypass the beautiful . . . — Map (db m23866) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Canal Walk / Historic Canals — Richmond Riverfront |
| | canal walk
One hundred and fifty years ago, Richmond’s waterfront bustled with business and trade, workers and travelers, hotels, saloons, and tobacco warehouses. Along the canals, barges were towed by teams of horses and mules. Batteaux for carrying freight plied the river and the canal around the rapids, and passenger boats, called “packets,” left for Lynchburg every other day.
Richmond has now restored its historic canals. Once again, boats can bypass the beautiful but . . . — Map (db m23887) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Christopher Newport Cross / Canal Walk — Richmond Riverfront |
| | Christopher Newport Cross
On May 24, 1607, Captain Christopher Newport and a party of explorers who had landed at Jamestown just days earlier arrived at the site of modern-day Richmond. Hoping to find a passage to the Pacific, they found instead a fortified Indian village with outlying agricultural fields. Newport, advised by the leader of the village not to proceed farther than the falls, where a rival group of Indians lived, traveled the next day a short distance upstream. There he . . . — Map (db m23819) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Christopher Newport Monument |
| | Capt. Christopher Newport
John Smith
Gabriela Archer
Hon. George Percy
With gentlemen, mariners, soldiers numbering twenty-one explored James River to the falls, and set up a cross
Whitsunday, May 24th 1607
This monument is presented to the City of Richmond by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
June 10th 1907
“Dei Gratia Virginia Condita” — Map (db m23818) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Civil War Visitor Center — Richmond National Battlefield Park |
| | You are standing amid the remains of the Tredegar Iron Works, the nation’s largest and best-equipped ironworks in 1860. Some Tredegar iron industries operated until the 1950s.
Today, Tredegar’s Pattern Storage Building, constructed around 1867, serves as Richmond’s Civil War Visitor Center. This building once held patterns for casting guns, railroad wheels, and machinery. Other surviving structures include the 1861 gun foundry, the office building, a 1915 carpenter shop, and the company . . . — Map (db m24474) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Company Store |
| | The Tredegar Company operated a company store, or commissary, in this two story brick building. The company store was opened shortly after Tredegar resumed production at the end of the Civil War (c.1868) and remained in business until just after the end of World War I (c.1918). The entrance to the store was on the upper floor and faced the James River and Kanawha canal. The lower floor was used for storage, and a small rope and pulley elevator carried goods up to the sales area — Map (db m24129) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Confederate Laboratory |
| | Brown’s Island was the site of the Confederate Laboratory, a major powder-loading and cartridge-producing plant during the Civil War.
During the Civil War, the hazardous work of loading powder was carried out here on Brown’s Island because of its separation from the city by water. On March 13, 1864, a huge explosion killed 46 workers – mostly women whom hard times had forced into this dangerous occupation. — Map (db m24098) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Confederate Navy Yard |
| | Begun in 1862, the Confederate Navy Yard occupied both banks of the James River, including the community and port of Rocketts Landing on the north bank. The Yard was the base, construction site, and headquarters for the James River Squadron, commanded by Admiral Raphael Semmes, which included the famous ironclad vessel; C.S.S. Virginia II, as well as other ironclads. Here, too, the Confederate Navy fashioned prototype artillery mounted on a railroad car for General Lee’s use at the . . . — Map (db m23663) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Cupolas from the Virginia State Penitentiary |
| | The cupolas you see here sat atop the Virginia State Penitentiary building that stood not far from here. Benjamin Henry Latrobe's original penitentiary was replaced by the building below in the 20th century, but was torn down in 1992 when the state moved the penitentiary outside Richmond.
Ethyl Corporation's new laboratory facility now stands on the site of the penitentiary. — Map (db m24143) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Early Industrial Patterns |
| | The Pattern Building’s origins reflect the uses of the Valentine Riverside site by several industries that were key to America’s, and Richmond’s industrial development. The building’s stone and brick foundations are from a water-powered flour mill built by Lewis D. Crenshaw, later used a woolen mill. Crenshaw’s operation also included a warehouse-grain elevator on the canal. After Crenshaw’s mill burned in 1863, Tredegar Iron Works rebuilt the mill in its present form for making and storage of . . . — Map (db m24154) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Early Shockoe |
| | "We laid the foundation of two large cities, one at Shacco's, to be called Richmond." William Byrd II, 1733
"In those days the river was the road to town. Tobacco was boated down to Westham, seven miles above the falls, and then brought by land carriage to Shokoes." John F.D. Smythe, 1769
Shockoe is Richmond's oldest neighborhood. In the late 17th century, tobacco, furs, rum, and enslaved Africans were traded within blocks of here. In 1742, the town was no more than a . . . — Map (db m23950) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Electric Trolley |
| | In 1888, Richmond built the first commercially successful electric trolley system in the world.
The tops of the new cars were connected to an electrical line called a "troller" and thus became known as "trolleys."
Richmond's horse-drawn carriage line was replaced in May 1888 with a trolley system powered by electricity generated at this end of the Haxall Canal. The streetcars ran for 60 years before giving way to buses and cars. — Map (db m23929) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Electricity for Streetcars |
| | Power from Brown’s Island began to run streetcars in 1894, when Richmond Railway & Electric built a coal-fired generating plant.
In 1888, the Richmond Union Passenger Railway became the first streetcar line in the world to be successfully powered by electricity. Designed by Frank Julian Sprague, the Sprague streetcar system was installed in cities around the globe.
The main generating plant in 1888 was two blocks north of here, on 7th Street between Canal and Cary Streets. In . . . — Map (db m24106) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Enterprise and Iron |
| | By 1844, Tredegar Iron Works managers used this building for an office and as a residence. After the Civil War, it became the principal iron works office. It was rebuilt after being damaged by fire in 1903. During most of the history of Tredegar, the company was owned and operated by Joseph Reid Anderson and members of his family, with a few skilled workers and managers. Ownership by families or limited partnerships was not unusual for industrial organizations in the 1800s, but it became . . . — Map (db m24128) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Falls of the James |
| | The Falls of the James River are the central physical fact of Richmond, having directly influenced its history through their effect upon Trade, Energy, Community and Nourishment.
Trade
As the Falls of the James are a natural barrier between the sea and the interior, the area immediately surrounding the Falls has for centuries been a center for trade. Before European settlement, the Powhatan and Monacan Indians exploited the lands around the Falls as a trading center for the entire . . . — Map (db m23814) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Francis Turbine |
| | This Francis Type Turbine was used on the Tredegar site in the early twentieth century and is very similar to one of the five turbines located near the building to your left. It was built by the S. Morgan Smith Company of York, Pennsylvania. By turning the wheel attached to the gears, the cylinder gate (the part with the fin-like openings) moves in and out, controlling the amount of water passing into the turbine, thus controlling the power. The water pushes the buckets of the runner, turning the power shaft. — Map (db m24426) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Gallego Mill Flume |
| | The Gallego Flour Mill was located in 1835 at the east end of the Great Basin, approximately where 12th and Canal Streets are today. The Mill, which when completed, stood nine stories high, contained 31 pairs of grinding stones, and was powered by six water wheels designed to use the water twice over. Water was drawn from the Great Basin to drive these water wheels and then returned to the canal along a flume which ran under 13th Street via the arch to your right. — Map (db m23951) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Gallego Mills |
| | Richmond's Gallego Mills were a major 19th century industry. In 1834, Joseph Gallego built a mill on the Great Basin at the northwest corner of 12th & Canal Streets. The mill used Basin water to turn its waterwheels. After an 1848 fire, Messrs. Warwick & Barksdale, who had taken over Gallego Mills, rebuilt a 7-story mill on the same spot.
In 1860, they built an even larger 12-story mill on the southwest corner of 12th & Canal Streets. It reused water from the original upper mill. Both . . . — Map (db m23880) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Gateway to the Civil War — Discover more than 800 Civil War sites along ten breathtaking trails. |
| | Welcome to our nation’s only multistate Civil War driving trail, which links hundreds of authentic sites in three states. Established in Virginia in 1995 as the Route of Lee’s Retreat trail, the program has grown to include more than 400 sites in five regions throughout the state. In 2001, Maryland and North Carolina joined the program, and now trails in Tennessee and West Virginia are being developed. Today, the Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina Civil War Trails program includes more than . . . — Map (db m23652) |
| Virginia, Richmond — George Washington’s Vision |
| | George Washington’s Vision
George Washington promoted the concept of a great central waterway long before he became this nation’s first President. A surveyor of western lands as a young man, and later a landowner of vast tracts beyond the Alleghenies, Washington had close knowledge of the western territories, which he feared would be controlled by France and Spain if trade routes to eastern markets were not established.
Washington’s vision was to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the . . . — Map (db m23753) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 80 — Grace Evelyn Arents — 1849-1926 |
| | Grace Evelyn Arents worked tirelessly as an urban reformer and philanthropist to improve the daily life of individuals regardless of race, gender, or class. She developed a church complex that included St. Andrews Episcopal Church, St. Andrew’s School, the Grace Arents Free Library, a teachers’ house, and a medical clinic. Arents also established a night school for working children, built public baths and playgrounds, and funded numerous social programs. She supported the formation of the . . . — Map (db m24338) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Great Ship Lock |
| | The Great Ship Lock connected the navigable part of the James River with the Richmond city dock, which extended for ten blocks to the west. Ocean-going vessels were raised up from sea level to the level of the city dock which accommodated ships as large as 180 feet long by 35 feet wide. The Great Ship Lock was completed along with other canal improvements in 1854, although earlier ship locks were located in the same location. — Map (db m23672) |
| Virginia, Richmond — 6 — Great Ship Lock — Captain John Smith’s Adventures on the James — www.johnsmithtrail.org |
| | James River Park System
Despite the presence of a large Indian village just below the falls—or perhaps because of good relations with the local ruler Parahunt and his father Powhatan—Capt. Francis West built a fort near the Falls of the James in 1609. By George Percy’s account, his group numbered 140, by John Smith’s, only 20.
Nominally allied with Powhatan, the English were supposed to help defend the village from the Monacan, Powhatan’s historic enemy to the . . . — Map (db m23706) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Haxall Headgates |
| | One of Richmond's early canals began as a millrace, built by David Ross in 1789.
When the Ross Mill was acquired by the Haxall family in 1809, the race became known as the Haxall Canal.
Before the American Revolution, Samuel Overton built a mill on rocks in the James River. In 1789, David Ross purchased this property and, to power his mill, dug a new waterway. This later became a canal that extended from 12th Street to headgates here at Tredegar Iron Works. — Map (db m23921) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Haxall Millrace |
| | The first gristmill in Richmond was built on rocks in the river and approached by planks laid from one rock to another.
In the 19th century, fleets of schooners and brigs carried Richmond's flour to Brazil and around Cape Horn to San Francisco and Australia.
From Colonial times, the waterpower of the James was used to grind wheat into flour. This became even more effective when millraces, like the Haxall canal, were dug to divert water from the river for this purpose. Eventually, . . . — Map (db m23928) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Horseshoe Shops |
| | In the late 1800s, horse-drawn carts, wagons, and carriages dominated city streets, and southern agriculture still largely depended on the power of horses and mules. To meet the demand for horse and mule shoes, Tredegar began selling machine-made horseshoes in 1873. By 1887 a series of buildings for the producing horseshoes had been constructed at Tredegar in the area where you are standing.
Machine-made Horseshoes
Tredegar hired J.H. Snyder in the early 1870’s to develop machinery . . . — Map (db m24137) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Industrial Recycling |
| | Iron companies in the late 1800s began melting down scrap metal from old machines and parts to make new products, just as we recycle materials like aluminum cans today. The “car wheel crusher” that stood here broke up old railroad car wheels so that the pieces could be melted and reshaped. A large weight was dropped on the wheels to break them. — Map (db m24405) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Inside A Flour Mill |
| | One of the first industries to benefit from American industrial innovation was flour milling. Oliver Evans published The Young Mill-wright and Miller's Guide in 1795, and his patented principles of design spread quickly. Evans' mechanized system required manual labor "only to close the barrels."
The main driveshaft of the waterwheel powered the grinding stones and mill machinery through gears and smaller driveshafts. Hopper elevators and screw conveyors moved grain and flour around . . . — Map (db m23883) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA-74 — Jackson Ward |
| | Before the Civil War this neighborhood was home to free blacks and enslaved individuals, along with European immigrants and Jewish residents. The area served as a city electoral district (1871-1903) and is still called Jackson Ward. By the early 20th century it had become one of the premier centers of African American business, social, and residential life in the United States. Black-owned businesses such as the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, the Southern Aid Insurance Company, the Richmond . . . — Map (db m24202) |
| Virginia, Richmond — James River & Kanawha Canal |
| | In its peak years the canal employed 75 deck boats, 66 open boats, 54 batteaux, 6 passenger or packet boats, 425 horses, and 900 men.
"The batteaux...charmed my young eyes more than all the gondolas of Venice." George William Bagby, c. 1830
In addition to commercial barges and batteaux, passenger boats, called "packets," ran along the James River and Kanawha Canal between Richmond and Lynchburg. At night, the lower deck was divided into two sleeping compartments - one for men . . . — Map (db m23865) |
| Virginia, Richmond — James River & Kanawha Canal |
| | The James River and Kanawha Canal was completed as far as Buchanan in 1854. The canal provided a continuous navigable waterway from Tidewater to Buchanan, a distance of 197 miles. Consisting of ninety lift locks and a total lift of seven hundred and twenty-eight feet, traffic on the canal flourished to its peak in the late 1850's. With the expansion of railroads the canal suffered heavily, and in 1880 was sold to the Richmond and Allegheny Railroad Company, who built tracks along the towpaths . . . — Map (db m23870) |
| Virginia, Richmond — John Jasper |
| | “The manner he preaches is only in keeping with the openness and candor of his heart.” Deacon and Officers of the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, 1884
“Jasper didn’t convert me to his religion, but he did convert me to himself….I felt his greatness.” A Richmond reporter
“You felt the ground got holy where he went along." One of Jasper’s converts
Born in a slave cabin, John Jasper became one of the most famous preachers of his . . . — Map (db m24102) |
| Virginia, Richmond — John Jasper |
| | John Jasper was born in a slave cabin on Peachy Plantation in Fluvanna County on July 4, 1812, and lived until 1901. In 1839, while working in a Richmond tobacco factory, he was "annointed by the Holy Ghost" and went on to become a preacher.
On Sunday, April 2, 1865, the day the Evacuation of Richmond began, John Jasper preached at the Armory Rolling Mills, next to Tredegar Iron Works.
In September, 1867, Rev. Jasper formed a church on Brown's Island "in a little, old wooden shanty" . . . — Map (db m24180) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Making Machines at Tredegar |
| | During the 1880’s the Tredegar Iron Works made many of the specialized machines necessary in iron production. This was especially true for machinery used in the rolling mills. Two major parts of the stand of rolls you see in the display behind you, were made at Tredegar–the rolls which shape the metal, and the large housings that hold the rolls and gears together.
The rolls were turned on the lathe displayed here. The lathe copies the form of an already shaped piece. — Map (db m24427) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Manchester & Free Bridges |
| | By 1873, complaints about Mayo’s’ tolls led to the opening of the Free Bridge.
The day after the Free Bridge opened, thousands crowded onto it to watch the Reverend John Jasper conduct a large group-baptism ceremony in the river.
For years, the only James River crossing for pedestrians and vehicles was Mayo’s toll bridge, at 14th Street. Richmond’s first “free” bridge was built east of here in 1873. Today’s Manchester Bridge, built in 1972, includes a legally mandated free walkway. — Map (db m24104) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Neighborhoods at Tredegar |
| | [Three] communities grew up around the Tredegar Iron Works: Oregon Hill, Penitentiary Bottom, and Gamble’s Hill. Today little remains of these communities. A part of Oregon hill still survives, but Penitentiary Bottom and Gamble’s Hill are both gone, torn down after years of decay and neglect. Their evolution mirrored the industrial, commercial and social development of the city and the diversity of the urban experience in Richmond and the nation.
Oregon Hill was once the location of . . . — Map (db m24413) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Norfolk and Southern Bridge |
| | The Kanawha Canal Draw Bridge was built in 1930 by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company to carry the Norfolk and Western Railroad's West Point line over the James River and Kanawha Canal. This type of bridge is known as a single-leaf bascule bridge. The bridge lifts its hinged single span using a large counter weight. Sketches for bascule bridges have been found among notes made by Leonardo da Vinci in 1500. Although the bridge has not been raised in years, it is still in use carrying Norfolk Southern railroad traffic across the canal. — Map (db m23671) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Overshot Waterwheel |
| | This is a reconstruction of one of many waterwheels used on this site. It is called an overshot wheel because the water flows over the top. The Tredegar Iron Works used waterwheels from its founding in 1836 until the 1870s when turbines were installed. Two different wheels were located here, powering foundry blowers and an early machine shop.
No photographs of these waterwheels exist. Information from maps, insurance policies, and company records was used to reconstruct this waterwheel, as . . . — Map (db m24148) |
| Virginia, Richmond — 1 — Pony Pasture Rapids — Captain John Smith’s Adventures on the James — www.johnsmithtrail.org |
| | James River Park System
The James River’s rocky rapids marked a border between the Algonquian Indians and the Monacan Indians. In 1608, Capt. Christopher Newport and a band of colonists may have passed by here as they travelled by foot further up the river in search of gold. They visited a Monacan town somewhere near modern Richmond. According to William Strachey, who arrived at Jamestown in 1610, the English had claimed the territory for their king: "One day’s journey into the . . . — Map (db m23711) |
| Virginia, Richmond — R&P Railroad Piers |
| | "The railroad bridge — then a frail, giddy structure, wide enough for a track and footway - spans near a mile across the boiling current." Thomas Cooper De Leon, 1890
Across the canal stands one of the remaining piers from the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad bridge. This was the railroad that brought Jefferson Davis to the city to be inaugurated as President of the Confederacy in 1861. When the city fell to the Union army four years later, all the James river bridges were burned. — Map (db m23809) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Raceways |
| | As you explore the grounds of the Tredegar Iron Works, you will occasionally see evidence of underground networks. Below the ground are numerous “raceways,” tunnels of stone and brick, which carried water downhill from the canal to provide water power to the various industrial facilities. The raceways powered water wheels during the mid-nineteenth century which were replaced by more efficient turbines after the Civil War. — Map (db m24209) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Rail Lines at Tredegar |
| | Nearly all of the materials shipped to and from Tredegar moved by railroad after the Civil War. The company’s small fleet of industrial switcher locomotives moved car loads along the spur lines that connected Tredegar to the outside world. Over two miles of railroad tracks criss-crossed the Tredegar complex. They ran alongside, between, and through many of the large buildings that filled the site. Other tracks ran to elevated dump sites where metal and coal were off-loaded. The photographs shown here were taken c.1918 through c.1940. — Map (db m24404) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Richmond Local Flood Protection |
| | Richmond Virginia is located at the fall line of the James River in Eastern Virginia. Its specific location makes the area vulnerable to all floods originating in the 6,760 square miles of drainage area upstream. Flooding in the city’s two business districts, Shockoe Valley on the north bank and Manchester in the southside, has resulted in serious and extended business losses to commercial and industrial activities, disruption of rail and highway transportation, and prolonged interruption of . . . — Map (db m23953) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Rocketts Landing |
| | Rocketts, or Rocketts Landing, is the river frontage of the community, named for Robert Rockett who operated a ferry across the James River beginning in the 1730s. Tenant laborers and merchants filled the floodplain with clusters of small houses and commercial establishments. Free black residents, Jews, and immigrants from Germany, Scotland, and Ireland worked to make Rocketts a prosperous world seaport between 1790 and 1830. Shipping lines connected Rocketts to Philadelphia, New York, . . . — Map (db m23664) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Ross' Mill Race |
| | The fluctuating water level of the James River inspired David Ross to construct this mill race. He designed it to provide a continuous source of water power for the mills he owned on this site from c. 1784 to 1809.
David Ross was born in Scotland c. 1739, and came to Virginia in the 1750s. He became a prominent Richmond merchant, tobacco planter, ship owner and operator of one of the largest iron works in the Revolutionary South.
On the occasion of his death in 1817, the "Richmond . . . — Map (db m23931) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Rutherfoord’s Mill |
| | Thomas Rutherfoord, a Scottish immigrant, built a flour mill on this site around 1800, using water power from the James River and Kanawha Canal. The ruins of the stone foundation can still be seen. Grain milling was the earliest industrial use of the Tredegar site, and was critical to Richmond’s development as an industrial city that was home to the largest flour milling operations in the world. In 1812, Edward Cunningham purchased Rutherfoord’s mill. — Map (db m24204) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 79 — Saint Joseph Catholic Church |
| | In 1884, Bishop John Keane bought this property and established Saint Joseph, making it the first-known Catholic congregation organized for African Americans in Virginia. The original congregation began in the basement of the all-white Saint Peter's Church in 1879, and grew to 50 members. During the years 1904-1968, this site also contained the Franciscan convent, still standing. Saint Mary's; a two-room school for grades K-12, later named Van de Vyver; a parish house; a trade school; and a . . . — Map (db m24177) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Shockoe Slip |
| | "How many varieties in language, dress, manner and appearance could be seen:-the English, the Scotch and the Irish....the Indian, the backwoodsman, the Spaniard, the Dutchman and the African." John P. Little, historian, 1851."
Built at the crossroads of Indian trade routes, Richmond has always been a place where people, languages, and goods have mixed. In the 19th century, immigrants, free blacks, and industrial slaves all lived and worked in Shockoe's tobacco warehouses and residential neighborhoods. — Map (db m23910) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Southern Firepower |
| | This 6.4-inch Brooke rifled canon represents one of the greatest sources of pride for the Confederacy. Named for its inventor, John Mercer Brooke, this type of gun was renowned for its superior range, accuracy and reliability over its smoothbore counterparts. Because of their effectiveness, Brooke’s guns were mounted inside many southern fortifications and were also used on board many Confederate warships.
Map (db m24109) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The Canal and the Civil War |
| | At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, the James River and the Kanawha Canal extended to Buchanon, nearly 200 miles west of Richmond. As Virginia’s railroads fell prey to Union armies, the canal became an increasingly important artery in the Confederacy’s transportation network. Despite its significance, Union armies made little effort to sever the canal in the first years of the war. It was not seriously threatened until March 1864, when Ulric Dalgren’s raiders briefly reached the James . . . — Map (db m24112) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The Center of Industry in 18th and 19th Century Richmond |
| | Her, beside the Falls of the James River, the foundation of Richmond's industry and commerce was built. The canal was the vital artery of transportation and the source of water power that nurtured industry's growth. Grain, hides, tobacco, cotton, wood, iron and coal were brought down the canal from the developing up country of Virginia. Finished products were then transported on the canal to Richmond's deepwater port below the fall line. The city became the center of industry south of the . . . — Map (db m23852) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The Cupola Furnace and Foundry |
| | The cupola furnace was last used here as part of the carwheel foundry, where railroad carwheels were cast until the 1950’s. The wall in front of you is the back wall of the building, and the arch behind you is the remains of the front wall of the original building. The foundry building was expanded considerably over time.
In the cupola furnace, iron was heated until it became molten, then poured into molds to produce various cast items. Furnaces at Tredegar once used pig iron from western . . . — Map (db m24135) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The Flour Trade |
| | Flour milling was Richmond's earliest industry, and in the 19th century, only tobacco surpassed flour as Richmond's largest commercial product. Richmond flour brands were known internationally for not spoiling in tropical conditions, and were particularly popular in South America and Australia.
Wheat arrived in Richmond by railroad, canalboat, and ship. Flour from country mills, shipped in by canalboat, was inferior and known as "canal flour".
During the California Gold Rush, clipper . . . — Map (db m23952) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The General Assembly of Virginia |
| | On the site of this
building
The General Assembly
of Virginia
met from 1780 to 1788
and
it was from here that the
Assembly was driven
in 1781
by the news of the approach
of the British Army
Placed in 1915 by the City of Richmond
at the request of the Commonwealth Chapter
Daughters of the American Revolution — Map (db m24287) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The Gun Foundry |
| | This building was built in 1861 to cast cannons for the Confederate Government. One of the reasons Richmond became the capital of the Confederacy was its ability to produce arms, clothing, paper, and other essentials for the Confederate government, army, and navy. Tredegar had produced cannons, ordnance and other iron products for the U.S. Army and Navy before the Civil War, and this effort was applied to Confederate contracts once Virginia seceded.
The Civil War at Tredegar
Joseph . . . — Map (db m24121) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The Richmond-Petersburg Railroad Bridge |
| | The expansion of railroads in the 1830s fueled the growth of iron works like Tredegar, and by the Civil War, five railroads had come into Richmond. The Richmond-Petersburg was the first railroad bridge in the city. It was built by Moncure Robinson, a Virginia native who engineered many early American railroad lines. Completed to Manchester, now part of Richmond, in 1838, the structure was 2,844 feet in length and stood 60 feet above the James River. Constructed primarily out of pine planks, the . . . — Map (db m24389) |
| Virginia, Richmond — The Trededgar Iron Works |
| | The Tredegar Iron Works
Founded 1836
Made for the Confederate Government
1861-1865
The greater part of the cannon and
projectiles produced in the southern
states and the wrought iron armor of
the frigate
Merrimac-Virginia
This tablet is placed at the request
of the
Confederate Memorial Literary Society
A.D. 1910 — Map (db m24282) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Three Days in April 1865 |
| | Some of the most dramatic events in Richmond’s history occurred during Three Days in April 1865 when the city fell to the Union army after four years of Civil War. — Map (db m23748) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Tidewater Connection Locks |
| | In 1854 the Tidewater Connection Locks linked the canal basin to the Jame River tidewater below Richmond. The system contained five granite locks, each measuring 15 x 100 feet. This resulted in a flight of water stairs that lowered boats a total of 69 feet within a distance of 3½ blocks. A sixth lock, the Great Ship Lock, was located just 1½ miles east near Pear Street. Traffic on the canal peaked in the late 1850's following completion of the Tidewater Connection Locks. However, the . . . — Map (db m23869) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Tidewater Connection Locks |
| | In 1854 the Tidewater Connection Locks linked the canal basin to the Jame River tidewater below Richmond. The system contained five granite locks, each measuring 15 x 100 feet. This resulted in a flight of water stairs that lowered boats a total of 69 feet within a distance of 3½ blocks. A sixth lock, the Great Ship Lock, was located just 1½ miles east near Pear Street. Traffic on the canal peaked in the late 1850's following completion of the Tidewater Connection Locks. However, the . . . — Map (db m23886) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Tidewater Lock View |
| | In 1860, 244,273 tons of goods were transported along the James River and Kanawha canal.
Visible from this spot is one of two locks that remain from Richmond's original canals. It was the last in a series of five stone locks that ran from the Great Basin to the river. In the canal's peak years, barges operating day and night moved through these locks on their way up or down the river. — Map (db m23923) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Tobacco District |
| | “Tobacco is in almost everyone’s mouth either for mastication, fumigation, inhalation, or discussion.” Samuel Mordecai, 1860
“In south Richmond…even the baloney sandwiches and measles epidemics always wore a faint odor of cure tobacco.” Tom Robbins, Novelist, 1976
From colonial times through World War II, Richmond was a center for tobacco inspection and processing. By the mid-19th century, the city had become the largest tobacco producer in the . . . — Map (db m24289) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Toledo 1000-ton Press |
| | This press was used to finish iron and steel parts, such as the pieces of rail-connecting plate (known as fishplate) you see displayed here. It straightened hundreds of thousands of tons of metal in its lifetime. The machine weighs about 40 tons. The “1000 ton” designation refers to the amount of force it can generate. The machine was purchased in the 1920’s and was moved to Cleveland when the Tredegar Company’s equipment was purchased by Cleveland Track material in 1986. . . . — Map (db m24151) |
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