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St.
John's Church District, also known as Church Hill
District
Boundaries: 21st Street to 32nd Street and Broad Street to Franklin
Street
www.churchhillrichmond.com
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St. John's Church is the center of Richmond's first historic
district. The church stands on land that Richmond's founder,
William Byrd II, donated in 1737. Major William Mayo was
commissioned to lay out the streets and plots that became
Church Hill. Overlooking downtown Richmond, Shockoe Slip
and Shockoe Bottom, Church Hill is the oldest intact neighborhood
in the city and contains the most antebellum structures
in Richmond. The historic district was established in
1957 by the efforts of the newly-formed Historic Richmond
Foundation. The Foundation started revitalization efforts
by working with one city block to show how the entire
neighborhood cound be renewed and restored.
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2401
East Broad Street
St. John's Church, Begun 1739
The church has undergone enlargements over the years, but the original structure was the site of Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. It is the only surviving colonial building in the Church Hill area. In the 1970s, the church underwent extensive restorations by the St. John's Church Foundation. Buried in the churchyard are Richmond notables including George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, the mother of Edgar Allan Poe. |
| The
Pilot Block
E. Broad St. to E. Grace St & 23rd to 24th St.
HRF gave the block chosen for its Church Hill revitalization
program in 1956, the "Pilot Block."
The building on the left was built by Hilary Baker in
the Federal-style in 1813. Note massive and unique chimneys
and original dependency in the rear. Private residence.
On
the right is the Ann Carrington house, c1813, the first
house built on the 2300 block. It is Richmond's only surviving
bowfront house from the early 1800s, and was the home
of Richmond mapmaker Micajah Bates from 1830-1856. Private
residence.
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| St.
John's Mews |
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Located in the center of the Pilot Block, the Mews was
created in 1965 as a community garden through the collaboration
of Historic Richmond Foundation and the Garden Club of
Virginia. It includes a granite spall-paved alley, a cast-iron
summer house and a brick wall with five panels of cast
iron. Some of the cast iron was rescued from junk yards
and demolished houses.
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| 2307-2309-2311
East Broad Street
Carrington Row, 1818
Neo-Classical. Built by the three sons of Ann Adams Carrington. It is the earliest extant example of connected row houses in Richmond. The facade is brick covered with stucco to simulate stone. The differing entrances reflect style changes made over the years: Federal, Greek Revival, and Victorian. Private residences. |
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| 2407
East Grace Street
Elmira Shelton House, 1844
Greek Revival. This was the home of Elmira Shelton, Edgar Allan Poe's childhood sweetheart. Her father kept them apart by intercepting letters. They reunited years late when their spouses died and became engaged here just two weeks before Poe's death in Baltimore. Private residence. |
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2209
E. Grace Street
Richmond Hill, Begun 1810
Romanesque Revival. A monastery constructed by the Sisters of the Visitation of Monte Maria from 1866-1925, now an ecumenical Christian community and retreat center. |
Adams-Taylor
House, 1810, adjacent to Richmond Hill.
Richard Adams II, the son of one of Richmond's founders
and its wealthiest citizen, built an Italianate mansion
in 1811 on the crest of Richmond Hill, now Church Hill.
The house is the only one remaining of the grand houses
which crowned the heights of Richmond in the early 19th
Century. It was a handsomely appointed one-story Federal
dwelling with a hipped roof. The interior was a classic
colonial design with two parlors, one on either side of
a central hall. The roof was topped by an open cupola. The
front porch, facing east on 22nd Street, had stone steps
and a decorative iron railing. A fresh spring was on the
hillside below.
William Taylor purchased the mansion and doubled its size.
He added the second story and the Italianate galleries on
both the south and north sides, and enclosed the cupola.
Taylor built steps down the hill to Shockoe Valley, through
what is still known as Taylor's Hill Park. |
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After
Jackson Ward, Church Hill has the largest concentration of cast-iron
work in the city. Below are some notable examples.
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2419-2405
East Franklin Street, Pohlig Brothers Building, 1853
Antebellum factory building. Built as a tobacco factory,
it later became the Pohlig Brothers Paper Box Company. During
the Civil War, it served as the Second Alabama Hospital.
It is now being developed into apartments by Stanley Shield
LLC.
2401 East Franklin Street
Superior Warehouse, circa 1850
Attached
to the Pohlig Brothers Building. Threatened by demolition
in 2000, this antebellum warehouse is being renovated as
an apartment building with business and retail space.
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Libby
Hill Park
In
1851, a Richmond City Council committee recommended this
site for a public park. The park was called Libby Hill Park
after Luther Libby whose residence was adjacent to the park.
(His name is better known for its association with his rented
warehouse that served as the Civil War Libby Prison.) The
view of the bend in the James River from this vantage point
was so reminiscent of the Thames view in Richmond, England,
that William Byrd II gave his new town the same name. The
Soldiers and Sailors Monument was erected in 1894 in honor
of Confederate enlisted men.
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3017
Williamsburg Avenue
Woodward House, 1784
Vernacular. Located below Libby Hill Park and Church Hill,
this is the last surviving structure from the once bustling
port of Rocketts Landing. Rocketts, named after the family-operated
landing, was a shipping port with a tobacco warehouse and
inspection station. Captain John Woodward's house was located
in a neighborhood of sailors, sea captains, craftsmen, laborers
and tavern owners.
Enlarged over the years from a two-room cottage, the house is believed to incorporate the oldest frame dwelling in the city. Private residence. |
| Chimborazo
Park
District Boundaries: 32nd Street to 36th Street &
Marshall Street to southern boundary of the park
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The
park was created in 1874 and named after the highest peak
in Ecuador. Chimborazo Hospital, established here during
the Civil War, cared for thousands of Confederate wounded
and was one of the world's largest military hospitals.
In 1958, the Richmond National Battlefield Park Association
moved its headquarters to this location. Surrounding the
park are houses in a variety of styles that reflect the
neighborhood's growth and expansion. Note the miniature
Statue of Liberty in the park.
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| Statue
of Liberty |
Houses
surrounding Chimborazo Park |
Other nearby neighborhoods and districts in the Church
Hill area for further explanation:
Union
Hill: Boundaries: Venable Street to Jefferson Avenue and Mosby Street to 25th Street. Established in 1805, this area was home to a working class population. The homes are mostly cottages and two story houses with verandas.
North
of Broad. This section of Church Hill encompasses the neighborhood north of Broad Street which was developed in 1867. The area contains mostly Victorian houses. |
Historic Richmond Foundation - The William Byrd Branch of APVA
Preservation Virginia
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