Page Title
Barton Heights
Born as a speculative venture in the late 19th century, the suburb of Barton Heights was built through a novel financing arrangement. It was Richmond’s first suburb to the north, and retains large numbers of ornate Victorian homes on spacious city lots. Once reliant on the streetcar for the short commute to downtown, Barton Heights remains a unique zone of period architecture convenient to the city’s center.
In 1889, a real estate developer from Arkansas named James Barton saw the rolling hills and high plateau of what would become Barton Heights and pronounced it the finest piece of suburban land he had seen. Two hundred lots were made available for a small down payment. Barton then built a house for the buyer and let him take possession of for small monthly payments. The construction of a viaduct over the valley of Bacon’s Quarter branch connected Barton Heights with Richmond’s First Street. Later, streetcar service across the new bridge ensured the success of this early commuter community. An 1893 publication noted that more than a hundred houses had been built on the popular Barton Heights tract and it now featured “churches, schools, electric lights, spring water, stores, and all other conveniences of a metropolitan district of Richmond.”
The predominate architectural style in Barton Heights during the period 1889 to 1896 was spacious Queen Anne dwellings on large lots. The balloon framing technique used with these homes allowed varied building plans. Expanded railroad transportation during the period made possible specialty materials and the widely varied decoration and trim characteristic of the Queen Anne style. Variety in the architectural flavor of Barton Heights was introduced in the period around World War I. American Four-Square and Bungalow styles appeared along the side streets and among the earlier Victorian homes. Due to the generous division of lots by the original developer, houses built in the early twentieth century are detached buildings with front, side, and rear yards.
In 1914 Barton Heights was annexed by the city of Richmond. Up until the 1940s it remained a white, middle-class neighborhood. Demolition of areas of the Jackson Ward neighborhood for the Richmond - Petersburg Turnpike forced many black families to look elsewhere for convenient and affordable housing. Many came to Barton Heights, finding the neighborhood a desirable and comfortable place to make their home.
The Southern Barton Heights Community Association and the City of Richmond have embarked on a land use and redevelopment plan to reverse the physical decline since the 1970s of the buildings in the neighborhood. It remains a source of highly affordable, solid, and architecturally unique homes. The recent renovation of some Victorian homes in the area again has demonstrated the desirability of Barton Heights for many of the same reasons promoted by James Barton over a hundred years ago.