Richmond IPA: [ɹɯʒmɐnɖ] is the
capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the
United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it
is an independent city and not part of any county
(Richmond County is unrelated, and located more than 53 miles
(85 km) away in the northeast region of the state). Richmond is the center of the
Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond area. Surrounded by Henrico and
Chesterfield Counties, the city is located at the intersections of
Interstate 95 and Interstate 64 in
central Virginia. As of 2006, the city's estimated population is 192,913, with a metro area population of approximately 1.2
million.
The site of Richmond, at the fall line of the James River in the Piedmont region of
Virginia, was briefly settled by English settlers from Jamestown in 1607, near the site of a significant native settlement. The present city of Richmond
was founded in 1737. It became the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in
1780. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the
city, including Patrick Henry's, "Give me liberty or give me death," speech in 1775 at St. John's Church, and the
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1779; the latter of
which was written by Thomas Jefferson in the city. During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America, and many important civil war landmarks remain in the city
today.
Richmond's economy is primarily driven by law, finance, and
government with several notable legal and banking firms, as well as federal, state, and local
governmental agenices, located in the downtown area. The Richmond area was ranked 3rd best city for business by MarketWatch in 2007. Richmond is one of twelve cities in the United States to be home to a Federal Reserve Bank. There are also nine Fortune 500, and
thirteen Fortune 1000 companies, in the city. Richmond is also home to several smaller
companies which contribute to its small town, friendly, southern atmosphere, such as Ukrop's Super Market, a regional, family-owned chain of supermarkets.
Residents of the city are commonly referred to as Richmonders, and they may refer to their city in everyday language
as, RVA, RIC, (its airport code or
The 804 (its area code).
History
-
In 1606, James I granted a royal charter to the Virginia Company of
London to settle colonists in North America.[1] After the first permanent English
settlement was established in April, 1607, at Jamestown, Captain Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith
led explorers northwest up the James River, and on June
3, 1607, erected a cross on one of the small islands opposite the site of the present city.
The first permanent settlement within the present limits of the city was made in 1609 in the district known as Rockett's.[2] Before 1607, Indian tribes of the
Powhatan Confederacy had lived in the region. For centuries, the tribe recognized the value of
this site, rich in natural beauty. They knew it as a place to hunt, fish, play, and trade, and they called it
"Shocquohocan,", or Shockoe.[2][3]
Later the same year, Captain Smith bought a tract of land on the east bank of the river from the Indians, about 3 miles
(4.8 km) from the initial settlement. He named this tract, "Nonesuch," and attempted to establish a small garrison, which
was later abandoned due to ongoing attacks by the Indians. In 1645, Fort Charles was erected at the falls of the James – the
highest navigable point of the James River – as a frontier defense. New settlers moved in, and the community grew into a bustling
trading post for furs, hides, and tobacco.[2][3]
In 1673, William Byrd I was granted lands on the James River that included the area
around Falls that would become Richmond and already included small settlements. Byrd was a well-connected Indian trader in the
area and established a fort on the site. William Byrd II inherited his father's land in
1704, and in 1737 founded the town of Richmond at the Falls of the James and commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the original town grid. Byrd named the city Richmond after
the town of Richmond in England (a suburb of London) because the view of the James
River was strikingly similar to the view of the River Thames from Richmond, England, where
he had spent time during his youth. The settlement was laid out in April, 1737, and was incorporated as a town in 1742.[2][3]
Revolutionary War
Patrick Henry delivering his, "Liberty or Death," speech at
St.
John's Church in Richmond, helping to ignite the American Revolution.
In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his famous, "Give me Liberty or Give me Death," speech in St. John's Church in Richmond that was crucial for deciding Virginia's
(then the largest of the 13 colonies) participation in the First Continental
Congress and setting the course for revolution and independence. Thomas
Jefferson, who would soon write the United States Declaration
of Independence, and George Washington, who would soon command the
Continental Army, were in attendance at this critical moment on the path to the
American Revolution.[4]
On April 18, 1780, as Virginia’s population moves further
west, the state capital was moved from the colonial capital of Williamsburg to
Richmond, to provide a more centralized location for commerce, as well as to isolate the capital from British attack.[5] In 1781, under the command of Benedict Arnold, Richmond was burned by British troops causing Governor Thomas Jefferson to flee the
city. Yet Richmond shortly recovered and, by 1782, Richmond was once again a thriving city.[6]
In 1786, one of the most important and influential passages of legislation in American history was passed at the temporary
state capital in Richmond, the Virginia Statute for Religious
Freedom. Written by Thomas Jefferson and sponsored by James Madison, the statute was the basis for the separation of church and state, and led to
freedom of religion for all Americans as protected in the religion clause in the
U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. Its importance is recognized annually by the
President of The United States, with January 16 established as National
Religious Freedom Day.[7]
The Virginia State Capitol building, designed by Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clérisseau, was
completed in 1788. It is the second-oldest US statehouse in continuous use (Maryland's is the oldest) and was the first US
government building built in the neo-classical Roman style of architecture,
setting the trend for other state houses and the federal government buildings (including the White
House and The Capitol) in Washington,
DC. The state capitol is one of thirteen in the United States without a dome and
underwent a complete renovation which was completed in May 2007.[8]
After the revolutionary war, Richmond emerged an important industrial center; it also became a crossroads of transportation
and commerce, much of this tied to its role as a major hub in the Transatlantic slave
trade. George Washington proposed and received the support of the Virginia
legislature for the establishment of the James River and Kanawha Canal,
the first canal system to be established in the U.S. The canal allowed goods and services coming
up the James River to be navigated around the falls at Richmond and connect Richmond and the eastern part of Virginia with the
west. As a result Richmond became home to some of the largest manufacturing facilities in the country, including iron works and
flour mills, the largest facilities of their kind in the south. Canal traffic peaked in the 1860s and slowly gave way to
railroads, allowing Richmond to become a major railroad crossroads, eventually including the site of the world's first triple
railroad crossing.[9] The Canal
officially ceased operations in the 1880s, although portions of the canal have been preserved and rebuilt by 1998–1999, spurring
tourism and economic development along the old canal route in downtown Richmond.[10]
Civil War and Reconstruction
Shells of the buildings of Richmond, silhouetted against a dark sky after the destruction by Confederates fleeing advancing Union
forces, 1865.
-
The resistance to the slave trade was growing by the mid-nineteenth century; in one famous case in 1848, Henry “Box” Brown made history by having himself nailed into a small box and shipped from Richmond to
abolitionists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, escaping slavery.[11]
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the strategic location of the
Tredegar Iron Works was one of the primary factors in the decision to make Richmond
the Capital of the Confederacy.[12] From this arsenal came the 723 tons of armor plating that covered the
CSS Virginia, the world’s first ironclad used in
war, as well as much of the Confederates' heavy ordinance machinery.[13] In February, 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated
as President of the Confederate States of
America in Montgomery, Alabama, the first Confederate capital. In the early
morning of April 12, 1861, the Confederate army fired on
Fort Sumter in Charleston, South
Carolina, and the Civil War had begun. On April 17, 1861,
Virginia seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States, and soon thereafter the Confederate government moved
its capital to Richmond.[14]
The Seven Days Battle, in which Union General McClellan threatened Richmond and came very near but ultimately failed to take
the city, followed in late June and early July of 1862. Three years later on April 3,
1865, Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army captured
Richmond, and the state capital was then relocated to Danville. Six days later,
Robert E. Lee's retreating Army of Northern
Virginia surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, symbolically
ending the war. On April 2, 1865, about 25% of the city's
buildings were destroyed in a fire set by retreating Confederate soldiers. Union soldiers put out the fires as they entered the
city.[14]
A historic postcard showing electric trolley-powered streetcars in Richmond, Virginia, where
Frank J. Sprague successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888. The intersection
shown is at 8th & Broad Streets.
After the Civil War, Richmond entered a phase of recovery and reconstruction. Monument
Avenue was laid out in 1887, with a series of monuments at various intersections honoring the city's Confederate heroes,
included (east to west) J.E.B. Stuart, Robert E.
Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall
Jackson, and Matthew F. Maury.[15] Richmond's Hollywood
Cemetery is the final resting place of both Stuart and Davis.
Contributing to Richmond's industrial reconstruction was the first successful electrically-powered trolley system in the United States, the Richmond Union
Passenger Railway. Designed by electric power pioneer Frank J. Sprague, the
trolley system opened its first line in 1888, and electric streetcar lines rapidly spread to other cities.[16] Sprague's system used an overhead wire
and trolley pole to collect current, with electric motors on the car's truck's.[17]
Twentieth Century
By the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the city's population had reached 85,050 in 5 square miles, making it the most
densely populated city in the southern United States.[18]
In 1903, African-American businesswoman and financier Maggie L. Walker chartered St.
Luke Penny Savings Bank, and served as its first president, as well as the first female bank president in the United States.
Today, the bank is called the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, and it is the oldest surviving African-American bank in the
U.S. The Governor's School in Richmond City is also dedicated to her name.[19]
In 1910, the former city of Manchester was consolidated with the city of
Richmond, and in 1914, the city annexed the Barton Heights, Ginter Park, and Highland Park areas of Henrico County.[20]
In May of 1914, Richmond became the headquarters of the Fifth District of
the Federal Reserve Bank. It was selected due to the city's geographic location, its importance as a commercial and
financial center, its transportation and communications facilities, as well as Virginia's leading regional role in the banking
business. The bank was originally located near the federal courts downtown and moved to a new headquarters building near the
Capitol in 1922, and finally to its present location overlooking the James River in 1978.[21] Richmond's business and industrial development continued throughout the
decade, and in 1929, Philip Morris, which began as a British company about 100 years
earlier, opened its first US factory in the city. Richmond was chosen because the town's rich tobacco history.[22]
Richmond entered the broadcasting era in late 1925 when WRVA, originally known as the
Edgeworth Tobacco Station and owned by Larus & Brothers, went on the air. The white ballad singers and black gospel
quartets that were popular on the radio at the time were often urban and sometimes even professional men. At the time, Richmond
was particularly self-conscious with its southern roots, and such music was seen as culturally inferior.[23]
The Landmark Theater, originally known as The Mosque, adjacent to Monroe Park.
Several performing arts venues were constructed during the 1920s. In 1926, The Mosque (now called the Landmark Theater) was constructed by the Shriners as their Acca Temple Shrine, and since then, many of
America's greatest entertainers have appeared on its stage beneath its towering minarets and desert murals.[24] Loew's Theater was built in 1927, and was
described as, "the ultimate in 1920s movie palace fantasy design." It later suffered a decline in popularity as the movie-going
population moved to the suburbs, but was restored during the 1980s and renamed as the Carpenter Center for the Performing
Arts.[25] In 1928, the
Byrd Theater was built by local architect Fred Bishop on
Westhampton Avenue (now called Cary Street) in a residential area of the city. To this day, the Byrd remains in operation as one
of the last of the great movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s.[26]
In his autobiography, "The Moon's A Balloon". Academy award winning actor David
Niven described how he was on a trip from New York to Florida in the late 1930s when he decided to spend the night at
Richmond's famous Jefferson Hotel, located in downtown Richmond. Niven stated that as he
was signing the guest registry at the Jefferson, his eyes snapped open with amazement when he noticed a full sized alligator
swimming in a small pool located six feet from the reception desk.[27] Alligators at The Jefferson would become world famous, and the last alligator living in the
marble pools of the Jefferson's Palm Court, named Old Pompey, remained there until he died in 1948.[28]
Between 1963 and 1965, there was a, "downtown boom," that led to the construction of more than 700 buildings in the city. In
1968, Virginia Commonwealth University was created by the merger of the
Medical College of Virginia with the Richmond Professional Institute.[29] In 1970, Richmond's borders expanded by an additional 27 square miles (69 km²) on the
south. After several years of court cases in which Chesterfield County
fought annexation, more than 47,000 people who once were Chesterfield County residents found themselves in the city’s perimeters
on January 1, 1970.[30]
Between the 1984 and 1985 seasons, the city completed construction of the Diamond, a new baseball stadium for the Richmond
Braves, a AAA baseball team in the Atlanta Braves minor league system. The park
opened on April 17, 1985, replacing the old Parker Field, which
previously occupied the same site.[31] Also
in 1985, Richmond saw the opening of 6th Street Marketplace, a downtown festival marketplace,
which was envisioned as a solution to the downtown areas urban erosion. The project ultimately failed, and the shopping center
was closed and demolished in 2004.[32]
A multi-million dollar flood wall was completed in 1995, in order to protect the city and the Shockoe Bottom businesses from
the rising waters of the James River. After the flood wall was completed, the River District businesses grew rapidly, and today
the area is home to much of Richmond's entertainment, dining and nightlife activity.[33]
In 1996, a reminder of Richmond's Confederate history arose amid controversy involved in placing a statue of African American Richmond native and tennis star Arthur Ashe to the famed series of statues of Confederate heroes of the Civil War on Monument Avenue.[34] After several months of controversy, the bronze statue of Ashe was finally completed on
Monument Avenue on July 3, 1996.[35]
Twenty-first century
Richmond entered the twenty-first century in the process of undergoing several redevelopment initiatives. The city completed a
$52 million restoration of the James River and Kanawha Canals, as well as the Haxall Canal, in 1999, which included a
Canal Walk, designed to attract businesses such as restaurants and nightclubs to the area. The riverfront project has brought the
1.25-mile corridor back to life, with trendy loft apartments, restaurants, shops and hotels winding along the Canal Walk, along
with canal boat cruises and walking tours.[10] Riverfront development continued in April 2003 with the start of construction of Riverside
on the James, a 720,000 square foot (66,890 sq m) residential and office complex near Brown's Island between 10th and
12th Streets downtown. The project, costing $90 million, was completed in July 2005, and is expected to attract even more
commercial development to the downtown area.[36]
On September 19, 2003, despite Hurricane Isabel's sustained winds of 40–60 mph (64–96 km/h) the day before, as well as major
power outages in the area, the city saw the opening of its first open air shopping center, Stony Point Fashion Park. The 690,000 square foot (64,103 sq m) center is located
off of Stony Point Parkway just south of the James River, and saw the arrival of 45 new stores to the area, including
Sak's Fifth Avenue, Galyen's Sporting Goods, and Dillard's.[37]
Short Pump Town Center, a similar shopping center, opened later in the fall in
the nearby suburb of Short Pump.
The next year, in September 2004, Tropical Storm Gaston swept through the
area, bringing with it intense rain, causing severe flooding in the Shockoe Bottom business district, as well as major electrical
outages throughout the metropolitan area.[38]
Geography and climate
Geography
- See also: Richmond-Petersburg
Richmond is located at 37°32′18.05″N, 77°27′41.42″W (37.538346,
-77.461507).1 According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62.5
mi² (162.0 km²). 60.1 mi² (155.6 km²) of it is
land and 2.5 mi² (6.4 km²) of it (3.96%) is water. The city is located in the Piedmont region of Virginia, at the highest navigable point
of the James River. The Piedmont region is categorized by relatively low, rolling hills, and lies between the low, sea level
tidewater region and the Blue Ridge
Mountains. Significant bodies of water in the region include the James
River, the Appomattox River, and the Chickahominy River.
The Richmond-Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 43rd largest in the United States, includes the independent cities of Richmond,
Colonial Heights, Hopewell, and
Petersburg, as well as the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield,
Dinwiddie, Goochland,
Hanover, Henrico,
New Kent, Powhatan, and
Prince George.[39] As of July 1, 2005, the
total population of the Richmond—Petersburg MSA is 1,194,008.[40]
Cityscape
- See also: Neighborhoods of
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond's original street grid, laid out in 1737, included the area between what are now Broad, 17th, and 25th Streets and
the James River. Modern Downtown
Richmond is located slightly farther west, on the slopes of Shockoe Hill. Nearby neighborhoods include Shockoe Bottom, the historically significant and low-lying area between Shockoe Hill and Church Hill, Jackson Ward, a historic neighborhood rich in
African American history and once called, "The Wall Street of Black America," and
Monroe Ward, which contains the Jefferson Hotel. Richmond's East End includes
neighborhoods like rapidly gentrifying Church Hill, home to St. John's Church, as well as poorer areas like Fulton, Union Hill, and Fairmont, and public housing projects like Mosby Court, Whitcomb Court, Fairfield
Court, and Creighton Court closer to Interstate 64.[41]
The area between Belvidere Street, Interstate 195, Interstate 95, and the river, which includes
Virginia Commonwealth University, is socioeconomically and
architecturally diverse. North of Broad Street, the Carver and Newtowne West neighborhoods are demographically similar to
neighboring Jackson Ward, with Carver experiencing some gentrification due to its proximity
to VCU. The affluent area between the Boulevard, Main Street, Broad
Street, and VCU, known as the Fan, is home to Monument
Avenue, an outstanding collection of Victorian architecture, and many
students. West of the Boulevard is the Museum District, the location of
the Virginia Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. South of the Downtown Expressway are Byrd Park, Maymont, Hollywood Cemetery, the predominately black working
class Randolph neighborhood, and white working class Oregon Hill. Cary Street between
Interstate 195 and the Boulevard is a popular commercial area called Carytown.[41]
Further to the west is the affluent, suburban West End. There are
three major neighborhoods in the West End: Westhampton, Windsor Farms, and Sauer's Gardens. The University of Richmond and the Country Club of Virginia can also be found here.[41]
The portion of the city south of the James River is known as the Southside.
Neighborhoods in the city's Southside area range from affluent and middle class suburban neighborhoods like Westover Hills,
Southampton, Stratford Hills, Oxford, Huguenot Hills, Hobby Hill, and Woodland Heights to the impoverished Manchester and Blackwell areas, the Hillside Court housing projects, and the ailing Jefferson Davis
Highway commercial corridor. Other Southside neighborhoods include Fawnbrook, Broad Rock, Cherry Gardens, Cullenwood, and
Beaufont Hills. Much of Southside developed a suburban character as part of Chesterfield County before being annexed by Richmond, most notably in 1970.[41]
The other side of the city, the Northside, began to develop at the end of the 19th century when the new streetcar system made
it possible for people to live on the outskirts of town and still commute to jobs downtown. Several neighborhoods developed here:
Ginter Park, Bellevue, Barton Heights, Highland Park, Azalea and Chamberlayne among others.[41]
Climate
Richmond has a humid subtropical climate with moderate changes of seasons.
Spring arrives in March with mild days and cool nights, and by late May, the temperature
has warmed up considerably to herald warm summer days. Summer temperatures can be unpleasantly hot, often topping 90 °F with high
humidity. On average, July is the warmest month of the year, with the maximum average precipitation. Days stay warm to mild until
October, and Fall is marked by nights once again becoming cooler. Winter is usually mild in
Richmond, with the coldest days featuring lows in the mid-upper 20s and highs in the mid 40s. The highest temperature ever
recorded was 107 °F in 1918, and the lowest temperature ever recorded was -12 °F in 1940. On average, the coolest month of the
year is January.[42] Snow falls every winter,
averaging 12 inches per season.[43]
| Monthly Normal and Record High and Low Temperatures |
| Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Rec High °F |
81 |
83 |
94 |
96 |
100 |
104 |
105 |
107 |
103 |
99 |
86 |
81 |
| Norm High °F |
45 |
49 |
58 |
69 |
76 |
84 |
88 |
86 |
70 |
69 |
60 |
50 |
| Norm Low °F |
28 |
30 |
37 |
45 |
55 |
63 |
68 |
67 |
60 |
47 |
38 |
31 |
| Rec Low °F |
-12 |
-10 |
11 |
19 |
31 |
40 |
51 |
39 |
35 |
21 |
10 |
-2 |
| Precip (in) |
3.55 |
2.98 |
4.09 |
3.18 |
3.96 |
3.54 |
4.67 |
4.18 |
3.98 |
3.60 |
3.06 |
3.12 |
| Source: The Weather Channel[42] |
Demographics
City of Richmond
Population by year[18] |
| 1790 |
3,761 |
| 1800 |
5,737 |
| 1810 |
9,735 |
| 1820 |
12,067 |
| 1830 |
16,060 |
| 1840 |
20,153 |
| 1850 |
27,570 |
| 1860 |
37,910 |
| 1870 |
51,038 |
| 1880 |
63,600 |
| 1890</ |
