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Neighborhoods
History of Richmond
In the spring of 1607 a band of settlers landed on Jamestown Island and established the first English colony in America. Eight days later, Captain Christopher Newport led an exploration party up the James River, arriving at the river falls on May 24 and visiting an Indian village where Richmond now stands.
Although one hundred and thirty years went by before the Town of Richmond was staked out just below the James River fall line, this excursion in a sense marks the beginning of the city’s history. Settlement of the Virginia Colony was generally not by town building, as in New England, but by plantations, which had direct water access to the mother country. The earlier plantations were mostly along the banks of the James and the other rivers. The river was the artery of transport; its falls marked the end point of this transport, and for many years they marked the frontier of the colony. This was a strategic place for two reasons: as an outpost for trade on the
edge of the inland wilderness and for the purposes of defense View of James River Falls
in an alien environment. VCU Library, Rarely Seen Richmond
In 1679, Captain William Byrd was granted land near the falls of the James on the condition that he establish a settlement there. The settlement did not materialize in any formal way for nearly sixty years; not until 1737 did his son William Byrd II lay out a town along the north bank of the river, just east of Shockoe Creek. Richmond was incorporated five years later. The town grew slowly at first. When it was chosen as the state capital in 1779, it was a mere village of less than seven hundred people.
Nevertheless, it had already achieved a certain prominence in the affairs of the emerging nation. The second Virginia Convention was called together in March 1775 for the purpose of deciding on a course of action to counter the oppressive acts of the British Parliament. The place of the meeting was Richmond, in modest St. John’s Church, which is still standing in Church Hill; this location was chosen to be out of reach of Governor Dunmore in Williamsburg. Here, following the impassioned plea by Patrick Henry, the motion was carried to arm the colony against the Royal government.
St. John's Church
VCU Library, Rarely Seen Richmond
Within two months the Royal Governor withdrew from Williamsburg; the third convention met there, instructed the Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress to obtain independence, then went about the business of establishing a state government and elected Patrick Henry as the first governor. The decision to move the capital from Williamsburg to Richmond was made in 1779. Security from the British troops and the need for a more central location were both factors in the selection of Richmond, which was considered to be more safe and central than any other town on navigable water.
Virginia State Capitol, Photo by Maurice Duke
Several buildings still stand today as evidence of the beginnings of Richmond: St. John’s Church on East Broad Street, the Old Stone House on East Main Street - now the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, the Virginia state Capitol - designed by Thomas Jefferson, the John Marshall house, Masons’ Hall and the Craig house in Shockoe Bottom are a few examples. These buildings are more than bricks and mortar; they are physical structures that link residents of modern day to the beginnings of the Capital of Virginia.
Old Stone House, Poe Museum
VCU Library, Rarely Seen Richmond
As with the buildings mentioned above, all of the vacant houses shown on this web site are a potential means of insuring that we don’t erase the marks left on our city by the many groups of people who have helped shape it.
Links to additional Richmond History Resources:
Library of Virginia: http://www.lva.lib.va.us/
Museum of the Confederacy: http://www.moc.org/
Valentine Richmond History Center: http://www.richmondhistorycenter.com/
Virginia Historical Society: http://www.vahistorical.org/index.htm