Midlothian, Virginia Midlothian, Virginia Midlothian, Virginia is positioned in Virginia Midlothian, Virginia - Midlothian, Virginia Location of Midlothian, Virginia Midlothian, Virginia (/m d lo i n/) is an unincorporated town in Chesterfield County, Virginia, U.S.
Founded over 300 years ago as a coal town, it is now a suburban improve positioned west of Richmond, Virginia and south of the James River in the Greater Richmond Region. They called their new venture the Mid-Lothian Mining and Manufacturing Company. Midlothian is the site of the first commercially mined coal in the Colony of Virginia and in what became the United States. White House for President Thomas Jefferson. The transit needs of coal shipping stimulated assembly of an early toll road, the Manchester Turnpike in 1807; and the Chesterfield Railroad, the state's first in 1831; each to travel the 13 miles (21 km) from the quarrying improve to the port of Manchester, just below the fall line of the James River.
In the 1920s, the old turnpike was retitled the Midlothian Turnpike and became part of the new east-west U.S.
A several decades later, residentiary neighborhoods were advanced near Midlothian, including the large Salisbury improve and the Brandermill prepared evolution sited on Swift Creek Reservoir.
In the 21st century, Midlothian extends many miles beyond the initial village area.
State Route 288 joins the improve with Interstate 64 and the State Route 76 toll road, and Interstate 95 in the Richmond urbane area's southwestern quadrant.
Midlothian is positioned in the Piedmont geologic region of the state, and is made up of mainly a hilled, fertile territory (it is somewhat of a plain.) It is positioned on the Richmond Basin which is one of the Eastern North America Rift Basins which includes some sedimentary modern and bituminous coal.
The Midlothian region serves as the headwaters to a number of creeks which ultimately contribute their waters to the flow of the James River below the fall line at Richmond.
Midlothian's demographics are much like Virginia's.
The greater natural resource in the Midlothian region was coal, and the region was ultimately advanced with coal quarrying and barns s.
About 10 miles (16 km) west of the fall line of the James River at present-day Richmond is a watershed of coal, which was one of the earliest mined in the Virginia Colony.
Many coal-related enterprises in the Midlothian region of Chesterfield County began early in the 18th century.
The Village region of today's Midlothian started as a settlement of coal miners in the 18th century.
In 1709, Midlothian produced the first commercially mined coal in the United States.
During the American Revolution, coal produced in the Midlothian coal pits supplied the cannon factory on the James River at Westham, upstream from Richmond; it produced shot and shells for the Continental Army.
By the end of the War, developers shipped Chesterfield coal to Philadelphia, New York, Boston and to every town/city in Virginia.
Commenting on the area's coal in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1781 82), then-Governor Thomas Jefferson stated: "The nation on James river, from 15 to 20 miles above Richmond, and for a several miles northward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very excellent character." During his presidency, Jefferson organized coal from the Black Heath Mine in Midlothian for use in the White House.
Coal was the economic basis of the Midlothian region until the late 19th century when quarrying ended.
In 1804, a toll road, Manchester and Falling Creek Turnpike, was assembled from Manchester to Falling Creek to ease traffic on what is now Old Buckingham Road.
That road's descendant is known as Midlothian Turnpike, present-day U.S.
By 1824, an estimated 70 to 100 wagons, each of which was loaded with four or five tons of coal, made a everyday trip on the turnpike, transporting to the harbors near Manchester the million or more bushels (30,000 metric tons) of coal that were produced in Chesterfield County each year.
The result was the Chesterfield Railroad, a 13 miles (21 km) mule- and gravity-powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves positioned at Manchester, directly athwart from Richmond.
By 1852, the newer, steam-driven Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) began operation to Coalfield Station, later retitled Midlothian; it quickly supplanted the slower Chesterfield Railroad.
According to the 1895 Virginia atlas, the populace of Midlothian was 375. The expansion of the region appointed to the Midlothian postal service caused a much larger region to be considered "Midlothian" than the village along the turnpike, now designated U.S.
In 1988 an extension of the Powhite Parkway and widening of Midlothian Turnpike and Hull Street Road (U.S.
In 2004, culmination of State Route 288 connected Midlothian to the circumferential highway network of greater Richmond.
Francis, Midlothian now has a primary hospital inside five minutes of Midlothian's highest concentration of residents.
James River High School, part of Chesterfield County Public Schools positioned in Midlothian, won the President's Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award in 2000.
At the turn of the 21st century, a group of region company professionals formed an autonomous organization called the Western Chesterfield Business Alliance, which in 2013 was retitled the Midlothian Business Alliance.
Chesterfield County Historic Landmarks in the Midlothian region include: Chesterfield Railroad, portion of roadbed (visible off Sturbridge Drive south of Midlothian Turnpike behind Pocono Green Shopping Center) Midlothian is the inspiration for the fictional town of Middlesex, Virginia in the cult film Donnie Darko.
"It's meant to be a stylized, satirical, comic book, fantasyland version of what I remember Midlothian, Virginia to be, I guess," filmmaker Richard Kelly has explained. "County of Chesterfield, VA | Midlothian District - Leslie Haley - Midlothian District".
"Historic Overview Mid-Lothian Mines and Railroad Foundation - Midlothian, Virginia".
(1954) Chesterfield, An Old Virginia County, William Byrd Press, Inc., Richmond, Virginia.
(1983) Chesterfield County: Early Architecture and Historic Sites, Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Chesterfield, Virginia.
Scarburgh, of Accomac, Virginia, in the cases between the Chesterfield Railroad Company and the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company, Richmond, VA: H.
Municipalities and communities of Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States
Categories:
Unincorporated communities in Chesterfield County, Virginia - Unincorporated communities in Virginia - Geography of Richmond, Virginia - Populated places on the James River (Virginia)
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