Historic Shockoe Valley

Historic Shockoe Valley. . Richmond is one of the most historic cities in the nation. Captain John Smith was among the first Europeans to visit in 1607, and William Byrd II, the founder of Richmond laid out the original street pattern., This photograph, taken in 1865 shows Shockoe Valley as it appeared from the Taylor's Hill Park overlook. Note in the distance upon the hill, Thomas Jefferson's majestically designed Virginia State Capitol Building. It houses the oldest legislative body in the United States, the Virginia General Assembly., The Monumental Church, on Broad Street, is barely visible on the edge of the picture on the right. It is one of America's earliest and most distinctive Greek Revival churches. It was built to honor those who died in a theatre fire on that location in 1811., Where the grove of trees is located in the right center of the photograph is the Adam Craig House, considered the second oldest structure in the city dating from 1784 to 1787. The house, currently a private residence, served as an art center from 1938 to 1941., Shockoe Valley was the center of the domestic slave trade until 1865. The wagons in the middle of the view were lined up at Seabrook Warehouse. Behind it and to the right was one of the most notorious trading sites, Lumpkin's Jail, known as 'Hell's Half Acre.', Pleas do your part to preserve and protect Richmond's natural and historic sites.