Historic Shockoe Valley

Historic Shockoe Valley. . Richmond is one (of) America's most historic cities. 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 1862 photograph by Matthew Brady, shows Shockoe Valley from the Taylor's Hill overlook. In the distance is the classical Virginia State Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson. It houses the Virginia General Assembly, the oldest continually meeting legislative body in the United States., Monumental Church, one of America's earliest Greek Revival churches, is on Broad Street at the right edge of the picture. It honors the 72 who perished on that site in the theatre fire of 1811., The Adam Craig House (1784 to 1787) is in the grove of trees at the right center. It is considered the second oldest structure in the City., 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 is the notorious slave market, Lumpkin's Jail, known as 'Hell's Half Acre'.