| Virginia, Richmond — "Richmond" |
| | William Byrd II of Westover, owner of the land around
the falls of the James River, wrote in his diary on
September 19, 1733:
…we laid the foundations of two large Citys. One at Shacco’s, to be called Richmond and the other at the point of Appamattux River to be named Petersburgh. …Thus we did not build Castles only, but also Citys in the Air.
Byrd, who had lived and been educated in England, chose the name “Richmond” for his new city because the view of the James . . . — Map (db m16145) |
| Virginia, Richmond — "The Great Chief Justice" |
| | Born in Fauquier County, John Marshall was admitted to the bar there in 1780 following service in the Revolutionary army. In 1783 he married Mary Willis Ambler and lived the remainder of his life in Richmond where until 1797 he accepted President Adam’s request to help represent his nation in France. Marshall was deeply involved in state political and legal affairs. He served intermittently in the House of Delegates on the Council of State, the Richmond City Council, and after 1793 as brigadier . . . — Map (db m22610) |
| Virginia, Richmond — “I must save the women of Richmond!” |
| | Site of the house in which Maj. Gen'l. J.E.B. Stuart, C.S.A. died May 12, 1864
“I must save the women of Richmond!”
This tablet is placed by the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, A.D. 1911 — Map (db m16216) |
| 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 — A. P. Hill |
| | Front of Monument: Born in Culpepper Co. November 9th 1825 Killed before Petersburg April 2nd 1865. Back of Monument : His remains were interred here June 24, 1891. — Map (db m19813) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 69 — Adams-Van Lew House |
| | Richmond mayor Dr. John Adams built a mansion here in 1802. It became the residence of Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900) whose father obtained it in 1836. During the Civil War, Elizabeth Van Lew led a Union espionage operation. African Americans, such as Van Lew's associate Mary Jane Richards (whose story closely parallels that of legendary spy Mary Elizabeth Bowser), served in Richmond's Unionist underground. Van Lew served as postmaster of Richmond from 1869 to 1877. Maggie Lena Walker, . . . — Map (db m15926) |
| 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 — Alexander H. Stephens House Site |
| | Alexander H. Stephens
Vice President of the
Confederate States of America
Lived in the house that stood here in 1861
This tablet is placed by the
Confederate Memorial Literary Society, A.D., 1912, — Map (db m16272) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 58 — Alfred D. “A.D.” Price |
| | Born into slavery in Hanover County in 1860, Alfred D. “A.D.” Price moved to Richmond in the late 1870s. Soon after coming to Richmond, he set up a blacksmith shop, which expanded into a livery stable and the funeral home that stands here, now known as A. D. Price Funeral Establishment. In August 1894, Price became one of the first funeral directors in Virginia to receive a state embalming license. He served on the board of directors of a number of businesses and organizations, . . . — Map (db m5601) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA-47 — Anna Maria Lane — Soldier of the American Revolution |
| | Near the Bell Tower in Capitol Square stood the barracks of the Public Guard. There, from 1801 to 1807, lived John Lane and his wife, Anna Maria Lane, the only documented woman veteran of the Revolutionary War to reside in Virginia. She disguised herself and enlisted with her husband in the Connecticut Continental Line. "In the garb, and with the courage of a soldier, (she) performed extraordinary military services," and was wounded at Germantown, Pa., in 1777. She followed Lane through his . . . — Map (db m4624) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Arnold’s Picket Driven In |
| | Arnold’s
Picket driven in
Jany 4th 1781
By
Col. J. Nicholas
(south face)
This pylon, re-created in granite and containing a replica of the original 1834 inscription, was re-dedicated April 17, 1991, by the Sons of the Revolution in the State of Virginia
(west face)
The central pylon was erected about 1834 to mark the site in this vicinity where Benedict Arnold’s attack during the Revolution was repulsed. Re-erected 1948 by the Sons of the Revolution in the State . . . — Map (db m16099) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Arthur Ashe Monument — Monument Avenue Historic District |
| | [Inscription on east face of monument:]Arthur R. Ashe, Jr. 1943 - 1993
World Champion, Author, Humanitarian,
Founder of Virginia Heroes, Incorporated,
Native of Richmond, Virginia.
This Monument was placed at Monument Avenue and Roseneath Road on July 10, 1996, to inspire children and people of all nationalities.
[Inscription on west face of monument:]Since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so . . . — Map (db m22823) |
| Virginia, Richmond — E 1 — Bacon’s Quarter |
| | Nathaniel Bacon (1647–1676), leader of Bacon’s Rebellion, acquired land in 1674 at Curles Neck in Henrico County and property near the falls on the north side of the James River that became known as Bacon’s Quarter in what is now present-day Richmond. Bacon’s Quarter, located nearby, was run by an overseer and likely contained a trading post. Bacon’s Quarter Branch was a small stream that ran through the tract and one time flowed from approximately the Boulevard meandering eastward into . . . — Map (db m1895) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA-48 — Barton Heights Cemeteries |
| | The Burying Ground Society of the Free People of Color of Richmond established its cemetery (later renamed Cedarwood) here in 1815. African Americans eventually founded five more cemeteries here: Union Burial Ground (later called Union Mechanics), Sons and Daughters of Ham, Ebenezer, Methodist and Sycamore. The burial societies, fraternal orders, and religious organizations that sustained these cemeteries formed the cultural and economic bedrock of Richmond’s nineteenth century African American . . . — Map (db m1028) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Basin Race |
| | The Great Basin of the James River & Kanawha Canal covered three square blocks directly in front of this plaque: between Cary and Canal, and 8th and 12th Streets. By 1834, millers had realized the Basin’s water could be used to turn waterwheels, and the Gallego Mills and the Franklin Paper Manufacturing paper mill opened. Basin hydropower was used until the early 20th century.
The Basin was large and elevated, and the water level could be maintained by flow from the Canal. The Canal . . . — Map (db m26573) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA-71 — Battle of Bloody Run |
| | Nearby is the site where Chief Totopotomoy of the Pamunkey died in 1656. The English colonists had become concerned over the recent settlement nearby of the Rickohockans along the falls of the James River. They called upon Totopotomoy to assist in removing the Rickohockans. An English force led by Col. Edward Hill along with Totopotomoy and his men fought the Rickohockans in 1656. Totopotomoy and many of his men were killed, and the event became known as the Battle of Bloody Run. The Council of . . . — Map (db m16046) |
| 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 — Belle Isle Prison |
| | Directly in front of you, in mid-river, is Belle Isle. Despite the large number of Union prisoners brought to Richmond during the Civil War, the city had only two full-time prisons. Libby Prison for Union officers, a mile and a half downriver, was the more famous of the pair, but Belle Isle, designed for Union enlisted men, was the most miserable.
Confederate authorities realized that the island would make an ideal site for holding captured enlisted men from the Union army. The first . . . — Map (db m26595) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Bill “Bojangles” Robinson |
| | December 14, 1878 – November 25, 1949.
Dancer •
Actor •
Humanitarian
Native Son of Richmond ———
Internationally famous actor and dancer rendered many kindnesses to the citizens of Richmond. — Map (db m1915) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Birthplace of Cardiac Transplantation |
| | This site commemorates the pioneering basic, clinical and translational research that laid the foundation for successful cardiac transplantation. On this campus, Dr. Richard Lower performed the first heart transplant in Virginia on May 25, 1968. Modern-day research in transplantation medicine continues to flourish at the VCU Medical Center, as does organ transplantation at the Hume-Lee Transplant Center and cardiac transplantation at the Pauley Heart Center.
VCU
Virginia Commonwealth University — Map (db m19180) |
| 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 — SA 68 — Branch Public Baths |
| | John Patterson Branch (1830–1915), banker, philanthropist and community leader, erected Richmond’s first public bath here in 1909 at 1801 East Broad Street as a gift to the city. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York began operating municipally managed public baths that were open throughout the year to promote good public health. In 1913, Branch Public Bath No. 2 at 709 West Main Street was opened. At the peak in the early 1920s, . . . — Map (db m1902) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 46 — Broad Street Station |
| | Broad Street Station served passengers of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railway and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad from 6 Jan. 1919 until 15 Nov. 1975. The Neoclassical Revival station was the only commercial building designed by John Russell Pope, who also designed the Branch House in Richmond and the Jefferson Memorial, National Gallery of Art, and National Archives in Washington, D.C. The station is noted architecturally for its Classical details, hundred-foot-high rotunda, and . . . — Map (db m9209) |
| 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 |
| | (front panel)
Railroads
Richmond has been a railroad center since the 1830’s.
In 1838, the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad had its main depot and shops at 8th & Byrd streets. A short north-south link, the R&P was the parent company of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. In 1967, the ACL merged with Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, now part of CSX.
The Richmond & Danville Railroad opened its main depot on the James . . . — Map (db m26586) |
| 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 — Canons and Corpses |
| | Big guns on the hill deterred riots - in the over crowded prison encampment to your left. Few escaped, most died of starvation, dysentery, and disease. In total about 1,000 perished. The cemetery, now empty, was to your right where trees grow today. — Map (db m13994) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Chimborazo Hospital |
| | On this hill stood Chimborazo Hospital 1862-1865
Established by Surgeon General S.P. Moore, C.S.A. Directed by Dr. James B. McCaw.
At that time, it was the largest military hospital in the world. It consisted of 150 buildings and 100 tents and cared for 76,000 patients with a mortality of less than 10 per cent. This tablet is placed by the
Confederate Memorial Literary Society
1934 — Map (db m15507) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Chimborazo Hospital — 1861-1865 |
| | In this park Dr. James B. McCaw developed for the Confederate States of America a military hospital which was then the largest in human history. It received 17,000 wounded, served more than 76,000 patients, and had a mortality of less than 10%. Dr. McCaw was its commandant and medical director, Mrs. John Minge its chief matron. Erected by Lee Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy. Richmond, Virginia, June 3, 1953 — Map (db m16047) |
| 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 — City of Richmond Bicentennial |
| | On July 2, 1782, the people of Richmond gathered near this site to elect twelve citizens and constitute their first city government, known as the Common Hall. The next day, the Richmond Common Council held its first meeting on the same site and elected from its membership Richmond’s first mayor, William Foushee.
Erected July 2, 1982, by the City of Richmond in celebration of the 200th birthday of Richmond’s incorporation as a city — Map (db m16306) |
| 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 Hospital — Chimborazo 1861-1865 |
| | Here on this 40-acre plateau the Confederates built Chimborazo Hospital, one of the largest and best known Civil War military hospitals. Its neat rows of pavilion buildings enhanced ventilation and served as a model for many postwar hospitals. None of Chimborazo’s 150 wooden structures exist today.
The large building before you was constructed in 1909 as a federal weather station. It houses the Chimborazo Medical Museum, which tells of the 78,000 sick and wounded Confederate soldiers who . . . — Map (db m16143) |
| 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 — SA 52 — Confederate Memorial Chapel |
| | The chapel was erected in 1887 in memory of the more than 260,000 Confederate war dead and as a place of worship for the veterans who resided here in the Robert E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers' Home. The veterans themselves, many of them disabled and impoverished, funded the construction. Marion J. Dimmock, Sr., designed the Gothic Revival structure and Joseph F. Wingfield built it. The chapel was used regularly until the last resident veteran died in 1941. The home was then closed and the . . . — Map (db m15908) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Confederate Memorial Pyramid |
| | [South side]:
Numini et Patri ae Asto
[West side]:
Erected by the Holly-Wood Memorial Association
A.D. 1869
[North side]:
Memoria in Aeterna
[East side]:
To the Confederate Dead — Map (db m13973) |
| 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 — Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument |
| | Erected by the
Confederate Soldiers & Sailors
Monument Association
Anno Domini 1887-1894. — Map (db m16230) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 34 — Craig House |
| | The Craig House, perhaps Richmond’s second oldest structure, was built between 1784 and 1787 by Adam Craig (b. ca. 1760–d. 1808). He was clerk of the Richmond Hustings Court, the Henrico County Court, and the General Court. To save the house, a group of Richmond citizens in 1935 formed the William Byrd Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. The house served Richmond’s black community as the Craig House Art Center from 1938 to 1941. — Map (db m1901) |
| 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 — Downtown Richmond Millsites |
| | Seven sites in downtown Richmond have been locations for water-powered industry:
HOLLYWOOD: A flour mill was operating by 1800. Canal water powered a paper mill beginning in 1887, and a 2,100 kilowatt hydroelectric plant from 1940 to 1972. River water powered a City hydroelectric plant until 1986.
TREDEGAR: Canal water powered a flour mill by 1801, the Armory by 1802, and Tredegar Iron Works beginning in 1837.
BASIN RACE: Basin water supplied a mill race which powered . . . — Map (db m26580) |
| 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 — Edgar Allen Poe |
| | Presented to the people of Virginia by George Edward Barksdale, M.D. and gratefully accepted by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a tribute of admiration for Poe's scholarly genius as an eminent and vigorous writer and poet. — Map (db m4637) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 72 — Egyptian Building |
| | In Oct. 1844, Hampden-Sydney College’s medical department first held classes in this Egyptian Revival structure designed by Philadelphia architect Thomas S. Stewart. Completed in 1846, it provided educational and clinical facilities for the medical school, which later became a centerpiece of the Medical College of Virginia. It is now part of Virginia Commonwealth University. The structure, named the Egyptian Building in 1927, was extensively renovated twelve tears later to carry the Egyptian . . . — Map (db m18855) |
| 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 — SA 54 — Engine Company No. 9 Fire Station |
| | On 1 July 1950, the first professional Afro-American firefighters in Virginia were hired and in September were stationed on the northeast corner of this intersection. These courageous pioneers created a loyalty and dedication to each other and their profession notwithstanding discriminatory practices. Harvey S. Hicks, among those first hired, became the city's first black fire captain in September 1961. On 14 June 1963, Hicks and firefighter Douglas P. Evans sacrificed their lives in a rescue . . . — Map (db m22323) |
| 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 — Evacuation Fire |
| | The Evacuation Fire destroyed roughly 1,000 buildings. It spread from here to the James River, and from the foot of Gambles Hill east to beyond 14th Street.
The first tires were set by Confederate forces just after daybreak Monday April 3, 1865. Shockoe Warehouse at Shockoe Slip, and Public Warehouse on the site of Kanawha Plaza, were fired to destroy the tobacco. Railroad bridges and some private warehouses were also set on fire, but armed workers prevented the Tredegar Iron Works from . . . — Map (db m26582) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Evacuation of Richmond |
| | On Sunday morning, April 2, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was notified while in church that Petersburg was falling. By noon, the evacuation of the Confederate government and army from Richmond was set in motion. Late Sunday evening, a train left Danville Station carrying Davis and other officials, and during the night the Confederate troops guarding Richmond marched out to the southwest.
Before dawn on Monday, April 3rd, naval vessels and military stores were blown up, . . . — Map (db m26581) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 66 — Execution of Gabriel |
| | Near here is the early site of the Richmond gallows and “Burial Ground for Negroes.” On 10 Oct. 1800, Gabriel, an enslaved blacksmith from Brookfield plantation in Henrico County, was executed there for attempting to lead a mass uprising against slavery on 30 Aug. 1800. A fierce rainstorm delayed the insurrection, which then was betrayed by two slaves. Gabriel escaped and eluded capture until 23 Sept., when he was arrested in Norfolk. He was returned to Richmond on 27 Sept. and . . . — Map (db m15116) |
| 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 — SA 25 — First Trolley Car System in Richmond |
| | In 1888, the world’s first successful electric railway, the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, branched at this point to link downtown and Jackson Ward with the suburbs. This system, designed by Frank Julian Sprague (1857–1934), contained 12 miles of track with 40 trolley cars running to Byrd Park in the West End and to 29th and Broad streets in the East End. This model system that revolutionized urban transportation ceased operation in November, 1949. — Map (db m1899) |
| 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 — SA 6 — Freedmen's Bureau Freedman's Bank |
| | Slavery denied African Americans the education and skills required to exercise the freedoms won by the Civil War. To redress this, Congress created the Freedman Bureau and Freedman’s Bank in March 1865. In Richmond, the Bureau and its Bank first operated out of two frame buildings here at 10th and Broad Streets, relocating several times before closing in 1872 and 1874 respectfully. The agencies reunited families, legalized marriages, and provided education, food, clothing, job placement, legal . . . — Map (db m25307) |
| 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 Monument |
| | Washington
(Marker conveys the impact of Virginians on our Country's history through its prominent and allegorical figures. See the "More about this marker" section and the links for more information). — Map (db m4715) |
| 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 — SA 40 — Grant House / Sheltering Arms Hospital |
| | William H. Grant, a prominent Richmond tobacconist, built this mansion by 1856 on property acquired from John Wickham's estate. The house, an early example in Richmond of the Italianate style, reflected the wealth and sophistication of late antebellum society. In 1892, after years of mixed use, it was acquired by Sheltering Arms Hospital, founded in 1889 as a "haven of mercy" for impoverished Virginians. The building underwent alterations, including the construction of a connecting wing . . . — Map (db m16170) |
| 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 — Great Turning Basin |
| | The stones in this plaza have been arranged to suggest the outline of a typical lock on Richmond’s James River and Kanawha Canal. Where you now stand was once a part of the Great Turning Basin which served the heart of the commercial area in antebellum Richmond. This Basin was connected to the James River by a flight of five locks known as the Tidewater Connection Locks which were built between 1850 and 1854.
This lock “footprint” is the same width as a real lock but only sixty . . . — Map (db m26569) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Harry Flood Byrd |
| | State Senator 1916-26
Governor of Virginia 1926-30
United States Senator 1933-65
The General Assembly of Virginia on March 9, 1974, authorized this memorial to Harry Flood Byrd, of Winchester, Virginia, declaring that "The sum total of this one life has had a larger and more lasting effect upon the history and destiny of Virginia and her people than any other in the twentieth century; established personal integrity and fiscal responsibility as first principles of public life and . . . — Map (db m4711) |
| 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 — SA 2 — Hebrew Cemetery |
| | Richmond’s Hebrew Cemetery was established in the early 19th century by Congregation Beth Shalome, which was formed by 1789 and merged with Congregation Beth Ahabah in 1898. The cemetery was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places in 2006. It is the oldest active Jewish cemetery in the south. Many leading Richmond merchants, civic leaders, and rabbis are interred here. Hebrew Cemetery displays traditional Jewish burial ground characteristics in its . . . — Map (db m22605) |
| 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 — Hunter Holmes McGuire, M.D. |
| | (Front):
To
Hunter Holmes McGuire, M.D., LL.D.,
President of the American Medical
and of the
American Surgical Associations;
Founder of the University College of Medicine;
Medical Director, Jackson's Corps,
Army of Northern Virginia;
an eminent civil and military surgeon,
and beloved physician;
an able teacher and vigourous writer,
a useful citizen and broad humanitarian,
gifted in minde and generouse in heart,
this monument is erected by his friends. . . . — Map (db m4735) |
| Virginia, Richmond — Inauguration of Davis |
| | On a platform erected on this spot Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the regularly elected President of the Confederate States of America, February 22, 1862. — Map (db m4742) |
| 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 — Inner Line of Defence |
| | This cannon marks the spot where in 1861 a large earthwork of the Inner Line of Defence was constructed Placed in 1915 by the City of Richmond at the request of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society — Map (db m15509) |
| 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 1 — Invasion of Richmond, January 1781 |
| | On 4 Jan. 1781, British troops led by Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold landed at Westover in Charles City County and began marching to Richmond. Learning of the threat, Governor Thomas Jefferson directed the removal of public records and military stores to safety before evacuating the capital. On 5 Jan., Arnold’s troops easily dispersed colonial forces arranged on defensive positions here on Church Hill and Shockoe Hill and occupied Richmond for twenty-four hours. Before returning the following day . . . — Map (db m1905) |
| 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 — SA 63 — Jacob House |
| | In 1817 George Winston built the Jacob House nearby, in the development known as Sydney. Winston (1759-1826), a Quaker who built the first Richmond Friends Meeting House at 19th and Cary Streets about 1798, employed a large number of free black apprentices. An important builder here during this period, Winston participated in the construction of the Virginia State Capitol and the Virginia State Penitentiary. The Jacob House derives its name from John Jacob, an assistant superintendent at the . . . — Map (db m25953) |
| Virginia, Richmond — James Monroe |
| | Born in Westmoreland County 28” April 1758.
Died in the City of New York 4“ July 1831.
By order of the General Assembly, his remains were removed to this cemetery 5” July 1858 as an evidence of the affection of Virginia for her good and honored son. — Map (db m8017) |
| 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 — Jefferson Davis — President of the Confederate States of America — 1861 – 1865 |
| | Jefferson Davis --------------- Exponent of Constitutional Principals Defender of the Rights of States --------------- Crescit occulto velut arbor aevo fama Right of Pedestal: With constancy and courage unsurpassed, he sustained the heavy burden laid upon him by his people. When their cause was lost, with dignity he met defeat, with fortitude he endured imprisonment and suffering, with entire devotion he kept the faith. Left Marker: The Army of the Confederate States --------------- . . . — Map (db m19809) |
| 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 — SA-61 — John Miller House |
| | John Miller, a free black cooper and minister, built this house about 1858. It is significant as a rare surviving antebellum house in Richmond constructed by and for a free African American family. More than two thousand free blacks lived in Richmond at the time of the Civil War; at least two hundred of them were homeowners. Miller was an influential member of the small free black community that existed in present-day Oregon Hill. Originally erected at 614 S. Laurel Street, the dwelling moved . . . — Map (db m4498) |
| Virginia, Richmond — John Tyler |
| | State Legislator, U.S. Congressman
Governor of Virginia,
U.S. Senator, Vice President of U.S.,
Peace Commissioner,
Confederate Congressman and
tenth President of the United States
This marker was placed in 1949 by
the Head Camp Jurisdiction of Virginia
Woodmen of the World — Map (db m4713) |
| Virginia, Richmond — SA 56 — Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome |
| | Jews have participated in Virginia’s social and economic life from the colony’s beginnings. Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome (Holy Congregation House of Peace) was founded in Richmond in 1789, when the Jewish community grew large enough to establish the first Jewish congregation in Virginia and the sixth oldest in the United States. Temporary sites housed Beth Shalome until a permanent synagogue was built nearby and dedicated on 15 Sept. 1822. The modest one-story brick structure was sold in 1891 and . . . — Map (db m27135) |
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