Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia City of Richmond Flag of Richmond, Virginia Flag Official seal of Richmond, Virginia Richmond, Virginia is positioned in the US Richmond, Virginia - Richmond, Virginia 1742 to present Richmond, Virginia.
Richmond (/ r t m nd/ rich-m nd) is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.
It is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Travel Destination (MSA) and the Greater Richmond Region.
The Richmond Metropolitan Area has a populace of 1,260,029, the third-most crowded metro in the state.
Richmond is positioned at the fall line of the James River, 44 miles (71 km) west of Williamsburg, 66 miles (106 km) east of Charlottesville, and 98 miles (158 km) south of Washington, D.C.
Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the town/city is positioned at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64, and encircled by Interstate 295 and Virginia State Route 288.
The present town/city of Richmond was established in 1737.
During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America.
Richmond's economy is primarily driven by law, finance, and government, with federal, state, and small-town governmental agencies, as well as eminent legal and banking firms, positioned in the downtown area.
The town/city is home to both the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, one of 13 United States courts of appeals, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, one of 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
Main articles: History of Richmond, Virginia and Timeline of Richmond, Virginia See also: Richmond in the American Civil War Byrd titled the town/city "Richmond" after the English town of Richmond near (and now part of) London, because the view of the James River was strikingly similar to the view of the River Thames from Richmond Hill in England, where he had spent time amid his youth.
John's Church in Richmond, helping to ignite the American Revolution John's Church in Richmond, crucial for deciding Virginia's participation in the First Continental Congress and setting the course for revolution and independence. On April 18, 1780, the state capital was moved from the colonial capital of Williamsburg to Richmond, to furnish a more centralized locale for Virginia's increasing westerly population, as well as to isolate the capital from British attack. The latter motive proved to be in vain, and in 1781, under the command of Benedict Arnold, Richmond was burned by British troops, causing Governor Thomas Jefferson to flee as the Virginia militia, led by Sampson Mathews, defended the city. Richmond recovered quickly from the war, and by 1782 was once again a grow city. In 1786, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (drafted by Thomas Jefferson) was passed at the temporary capitol in Richmond, providing the basis for the separation of church and state, a key element in the evolution of the freedom of religion in the United States. A permanent home for the new government, the Virginia State Capitol building, was designed by Thomas Jefferson with the assistance of Charles-Louis Clerisseau, and was instead of in 1788.
After the American Revolutionary War, Richmond emerged as an meaningful industrial center.
To facilitate the transfer of cargo from the flat-bottomed James River bateaux above the fall line to the ocean-faring ships below, George Washington helped design the James River and Kanawha Canal from Westham to Richmond, in the 18th century to bypass Richmond's rapids, with the intent of providing a water route athwart the Appalachians to the Kanawha River.
As a result of this and sizeable access to hydropower due to the falls, Richmond became home to some of the biggest manufacturing facilities in the country, including iron works and flour mills, the biggest facilities of their kind in the South.
Main article: Richmond in the American Civil War The town/city was at the end of a long supply line, which made it somewhat difficult to defend, although supplies continued to reach the town/city by canal and wagon for years, since it was protected by the Army of Northern Virginia and arguably the Confederacy's best troops and commanders. It became the chief target of Union armies, especially in the campaigns of 1862 and 1864 65.
In addition to Virginia and Confederate government offices and hospitals, a barns hub, and one of the South's biggest slave markets, Richmond had the biggest factory in the Confederacy, the Tredegar Iron Works, which turned out artillery and other munitions, including the 723 tons of armor plating that veiled the Virginia, the world's first ironclad used in war, as well as much of the Confederates' heavy ordnance machinery. The Confederate Congress shared quarters with the Virginia General Assembly in the Virginia State Capitol, with the Confederacy's executive mansion, the "White House of the Confederacy", positioned two blocks away.
The Seven Days Battles followed in late June and early July 1862, amid which Union General Mc - Clellan threatened to take Richmond but ultimately failed.
On April 2, 1865, General Godfrey Weitzel, commander of the 25th corps of the United States Colored Troops, accepted the city's surrender from the mayor and group of dominant citizens who remained. The Union troops eventually managed to stop the raging fires but about 25% of the city's buildings were destroyed. Richmond emerged a decade after the smoldering rubble of the Civil War to resume its position as an economic powerhouse, with iron front buildings and massive brick factories.
Canal traffic peaked in the 1860s and slowly gave way to barns s, allowing Richmond to turn into a primary barns crossroads, eventually including the site of the world's first triple barns crossing. Tobacco warehousing and refining continued to play a part , boosted by the world's first cigarette-rolling machine, invented by James Albert Bonsack of Roanoke in 1880/81.
Contributing to Richmond's resurgence was the first prosperous electrically powered street car fitness in the United States, the Richmond Union Passenger Railway.
Sprague, the street car fitness opened its first line in 1888, and electric streetcar lines quickly spread to other metros/cities athwart the country. Sprague's fitness used an overhead wire and street car pole to collect current, with electric motors on the car's trucks. In Richmond, the transition from streetcars to buses began in May 1947 and was instead of on November 25, 1949. By the early 20th century, Richmond had an extensive network of electric streetcars, as shown here crossing the Mayo Bridge athwart the James River, ca.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the city's populace had reached 85,050 in 5 square miles (13 km2), making it the most densely populated town/city in the Southern United States. In 1900, the Enumeration Bureau announced Richmond's populace as 62.1% white and 37.9% black. Freed slaves and their descendants created a grow black company community, and the city's historic Jackson Ward became known as the "Wall Street of Black America." In 1910, the former town/city of Manchester was merged with the town/city of Richmond, and in 1914, the town/city annexed Barton Heights, Ginter Park, and Highland Park areas of Henrico County. In May 1914, Richmond became the command posts of the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve Bank.
WTVR-TV (CBS 6), the first tv station in Richmond, was the first tv station south of Washington, D.C. In 1968, Virginia Commonwealth University was created by the consolidation of the Medical College of Virginia with the Richmond Professional Institute. In 1970, Richmond's borders period by an extra 27 square miles (70 km2) on the south.
After a several years of court cases in which Chesterfield County fought annexation, more than 47,000 citizens who once were Chesterfield County inhabitants found themselves inside the city's perimeters on January 1, 1970. In 1996, still-sore tensions arose amid controversy involved in placing a statue of African American Richmond indigenous and tennis star Arthur Ashe to the famed series of statues of Confederate heroes of the Civil War on Monument Avenue. After a several months of controversy, the bronze statue of Ashe was finally instead of on Monument Avenue facing the opposite direction from the Confederate Heroes on July 10, 1996. As a result, the River District businesses interval rapidly, and today the region is home to much of Richmond's entertainment, dining and eveninglife activity, bolstered by the creation of a Canal Walk along the city's former industrialized canals. The Richmond area, seen from the International Space Station in early-April 2013.
Richmond is positioned at 37 32 N 77 28 W (37.538, 77.462).
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 62 square miles (160 km2), of which 60 square miles (160 km2) is territory and 2.7 square miles (7.0 km2) of it (4.3%) is water. The town/city is positioned in the Piedmont region of Virginia, at the highest navigable point of the James River.
The Richmond-Petersburg Metropolitan Travel Destination (MSA), the 44th biggest in the United States, contains the autonomous metros/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. As of July 1, 2009, the total populace of the Richmond Petersburg MSA was 1,258,251.
Richmond is often subdivided into North Side, Southside, East End, and West End See also: Neighborhoods of Richmond, Virginia Richmond's initial street grid, laid out in 1737, encompassed the region between what are now Broad, 17th, and 25th Streets and the James River.
Modern Downtown Richmond is positioned slightly farther west, on the slopes of Shockoe Hill.
Richmond's East End contains neighborhoods like quickly gentrifying Church Hill, home to St.
West of the Boulevard is the Museum District, the locale of the Virginia Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Richmond's Northside is home to various listed historic districts. Neighborhoods such as Chestnut Hill-Plateau and Barton Heights began to precarious at the end of the 19th century when the new streetcar fitness made it possible for citizens to live on the outskirts of town and still commute to jobs downtown.
The University of Richmond and the Country Club of Virginia can be found here as well, which are positioned just inside the City Limits. Much of Southside advanced a suburban character as part of Chesterfield County before being took in by Richmond, most prominently in 1970. The mountain peaks to the west act as a partial barrier to outbreaks of cold, continental air in winter; Arctic air is delayed long enough to be modified, then further warmed as it subsides in its approach to Richmond.
The coldest weather normally occurs from late December to early February, and the January everyday mean temperature is 37.9 F (3.3 C), with an average of 6.0 days with highs at or below the freezing mark. Downtown areas and suburbs to the east of Richmond are situated in USDA Hardiness zones 7b while encircling suburban and non-urban areas to the west are in the 7a Hardiness Zone. and temperatures seldom lower to 0 F ( 18 C), with the most recent subzero ( F) reading occurring on January 28, 2000, when the temperature reached 1 F ( 18 C). The July everyday mean temperature is 79.3 F (26.3 C), and high temperatures reach or exceed 90 F (32 C) roughly 43 days out of the year; while 100 F (38 C) temperatures are not uncommon, they do not occur every year. Extremes in temperature have ranged from 12 F ( 24 C) on January 19, 1940 up to 107 F (42 C) on August 6, 1918. The James River reaches tidewater at Richmond where flooding may occur in every month of the year, most incessantly in March and least in July.
Tornadoes are infrequent but some eminent occurrences have been observed inside the Richmond area.
Climate data for Richmond International Airport, Virginia (1981 2010 normals, extremes 1887 present) During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Richmond experienced a spike in overall crime, in particular, the city's murder rate.
In 2004, Morgan Quitno Press ranked Richmond as the ninth (out of 354) most dangerous town/city in the United States. In 2005, Richmond was ranked as the fifth most dangerous town/city overall and the 12th most dangerous urbane region in the United States. The following year, Richmond saw a diminish in crime, ranking as the 15th most dangerous town/city in the United States.
By 2008, Richmond's position on the list had declined to 49th. By 2012, Richmond was no longer in the 'top' 200. Richmond's rate of primary crime, including violent and property crimes, decreased 47 percent between 2004 and 2009 to its lowest level in more than a quarter of a century. Various forms of crime tend to be declining, yet remaining above state and nationwide averages. In 2008, the town/city had recorded the lowest homicide rate since 1971. FBI Uniform Crime Reports for Richmond for the year of 2013: City of Richmond only Richmond MSA Rate per 100,000 inhabitants In recent years, as in many other American cities, Richmond has witnessed a rise in homicides.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch announced 61 murders in Richmond in 2016, marking it "the city's deadliest year in a decade." In 1786, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, penned in 1779 by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond.
Richmond has a several historic churches.
Because of its early English colonial history from the early 17th century to 1776, Richmond has a number of prominent Anglican/Episcopal churches including Monumental Church, St.
Methodists and Baptists made up another section of early churches, and First Baptist Church of Richmond was the first of these, established in 1780.
In the Reformed church tradition, the first Presbyterian Church in the City of Richmond was First Presbyterian Church, ordered on June 18, 1812.
On February 5, 1845, Second Presbyterian Church of Richmond was founded, which was a historic church where Stonewall Jackson visited and was the first Gothic building and the first gas-lit church to be assembled in Richmond. St.
Peter's Church was dedicated and became the first Catholic church in Richmond on May 25, 1834. The town/city is also home to the historic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart which is the mother church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond. These include the Weinstein Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Services, Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and Richmond Jewish Foundation.
The cathedral relocated to 30 Malvern Avenue in 1960 and is noted as one of two Eastern Orthodox churches in Richmond and home to the annual Richmond Greek Festival. There are seven current masjids in the Greater Richmond area, with three more presently in construction, accommodating the burgeoning Muslim population, the first one being Masjid Bilal. In the 1950s, Muslims from the East End got ordered under Nation of Islam (NOI).
The rest of the five current masjids in the Richmond region are Islamic Center of Richmond (ICR) in the west end, Masjid Umm Barakah on 2nd street downtown, Islamic Society of Greater Richmond (ISGR) in the west end, Masjidullah in the north side, and Masjid Ar-Rahman in the east end.
Seminaries in Richmond include: the school of theology at Virginia Union University; a Presbyterian seminary, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
Bishops that sit in Richmond include those of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia (the denomination's largest); the Richmond Area of the United Methodist Church (Virginia Annual Conference), the nation's second-largest and one of the earliest.
The Presbytery of the James Presbyterian Church (USA) also is based in the Richmond area.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond was canonically erected by Pope Pius VII on July 11, 1820.
Today there are 235,816 Catholics at 146 churches in the Diocese of Richmond. The town/city of Richmond is home to 19 Catholic churches. Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is home to the current bishop Most Reverend Francis Xavier Di - Lorenzo who was assigned by Pope John Paul II on March 31, 2004.
Richmond's strategic locale on the James River, assembled on undulating hills at the rocky fall line separating the Piedmont and Tidewater regions of Virginia, provided a natural hub for the evolution of commerce.
Law and finance have long been driving forces in the economy. The town/city is home to both the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, one of 13 United States courts of appeals, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, one of 12 Federal Reserve Banks, as well as offices for global companies such as Genworth Financial, Capital - One, Philip Morris USA, and various other banks and brokerages.
Richmond is also home to four of the biggest law firms in the United States: Hunton & Williams, Mc - Guire - Woods, Williams Mullen, and Le - Clair - Ryan.
Another law firm with a primary Richmond existence is Troutman Sanders, which consolidated with Richmond-based Mays & Valentine LLP in 2001.
Since the 1960s Richmond has been a prominent core for advertising agencies and advertising related businesses, including The Martin Agency, titled 2009 U.S.
Richmond is home to the quickly developing Virginia Bio - Technology Research Park, which opened in 1995 as an incubator facility for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Located contiguous to the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, the park presently[when?] has more than 575,000 square feet (53,400 m2) of research, laboratory and office space for a distinct tenant mix of companies, research institutes, government laboratories and non-profit organizations.
Richmond's revitalized downtown contains the Canal Walk, a new Greater Richmond Convention Center, and expansion on both VCU campuses.
A new performing arts center, Richmond Center - Stage, opened on September 12, 2009. The complex encompassed a renovation of the Carpenter Center and assembly of a new multipurpose hall, improve playhouse, and arts education center in parts of the old Thalhimers department store. Richmond is also fast-becoming known for its food scene, with a several restaurants in the Fan, Church Hill, Jackson Ward and elsewhere around the town/city generating county-wide and nationwide attention for their fare.
Departures periodical titled Richmond "The Next Great American Food City" in August 2014. Also in 2014, Southern Living periodical titled three Richmond restaurants Comfort, Heritage and The Roosevelt among its "100 Best Restaurants in the South", while Metzger Bar & Butchery made its "Best New Restaurants: 12 To Watch" list. Craft beer and liquor manufacturing is also burgeoning in the River City, with twelve micro-breweries in town/city proper; the earliest is Legend Brewery, established in 1994.
Additionally, Richmond is gaining consideration from the film and tv industry, with a several high-profile films shot in the metro region in the past several years, including the primary motion picture Lincoln which led to Daniel Day-Lewis's third Oscar, Killing Kennedy with Rob Lowe, airing on the National Geographic Channel and Turn, starring Jamie Bell and airing on AMC.
In 2015 Richmond will be the chief recording locale for the upcoming PBS drama series Mercy Street, which will premiere in Winter 2016.
Several organizations, including the Virginia Film Office and the Virginia Production Alliance, along with affairs like the Richmond International Film Festival and French Film Festival, continue to put draw supporters of film and media to the region.
Six Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the Richmond region The Greater Richmond region was titled the third-best town/city for company by Market - Watch in September 2007, ranking behind only the Minneapolis and Denver areas and just above Boston.
The region is home to six Fortune 500 companies: electric utility Dominion Resources; Car - Max; Owens & Minor; Genworth Financial; West - Rock Company; Mc - Kesson Medical-Surgical, Markel Corporation, and Altria Group. However, only Dominion Resources and West - Rock Company are headquartered inside the town/city of Richmond; the the rest are positioned in the neighboring counties of Henrico and Hanover.
In 2008, Altria moved its corporate HQ from New York City to Henrico County, adding another Fortune 500 corporation to Richmond's list.
In February 2006, Mead - Westvaco reported that they would move from Stamford, Connecticut, to Richmond in 2008 with the help of the Greater Richmond Partnership, a county-wide economic evolution organization that also helped locate Aditya Birla Minacs, Amazon.com, and Honeywell International, to the region.
These include Sun - Trust Bank (based in Atlanta), Capital One Financial Corporation (officially based in Mc - Lean, Virginia, but established in Richmond with its operations center and most employees in the Richmond area), and the medical and pharmaceutical enormous Mc - Kesson (based in San Francisco).
Du - Pont maintains a manufacturing facility in South Richmond known as the Spruance Plant.
Other companies based in Richmond include chemical business New - Market; Brink's, a security and armored car company; Estes Express Lines, a freight carrier, Universal Corporation, a tobacco merchant; Cavalier Telephone, now Windstream, a telephone, internet, and digital tv provider formed in Richmond in 1998; Cherry Bekaert & Holland, a top 30 accounting firm serving the Southeast; the law firm of Mc - Guire - Woods; and Media General, a business specializing in broadcast media.
Richmond Driving Tour with Mayor Levar Stoney, 11:41, C-SPAN, January 25, 2017.
On Boulevard proper are the Virginia Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, lending their name to what is sometimes called the Museum District.
Nearby on Broad Street is the Science Museum of Virginia, homed in the neoclassical former 1919 Broad Street Union Station.
Immediately contiguous is the Children's Museum of Richmond, and two blocks away, the Virginia Center for Architecture.
Within the downtown are the Library of Virginia and the Valentine Richmond History Center.
As the major former Capital of the Confederate States of America, Richmond is home to many exhibitions and battlefields of the American Civil War.
Near the riverfront is the Richmond National Battlefield Park Visitors Center and the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, both homed in the former buildings of the Tredegar Iron Works, where much of the ordnance for the war was produced.
Lee still stands on Franklin Street in downtown Richmond.
Dedicated in 1956, the Virginia War Memorial is positioned on Belvedere overlooking the river, and is a monument to Virginians who died in battle in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
Agecroft Hall is a Tudor manor home and estate positioned on the James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond.
Richmond has a momentous arts community, some of which is contained in formal public-supported venues, and some of which is more DIY, such as small-town privately owned arcades, and private music venues, nonprofit arts organizations, or organic and venueless arts movements (e.g., home shows, busking, itinerant folk shows).
This has led to tensions, as the town/city Richmond City levied an "admissions tax" to fund large arts projects like Centre - Stage, dominant to criticism that it is financing civic initiatives on the backs of the organic small-town culture. Traditional Virginian folk music, including blues, country, and bluegrass are also prominently present, and play a large part in the annual Richmond Folk Festival.
The following is a list of the more formal arts establishments (Companies, theaters, arcades, and other large venues) in Richmond.
Richmond is also the home and place of birth of famous metal act GWAR.
GWAR is run by an art collective known as Slavepit Incorporated, which has over the years involved hundreds of Richmond locals. As of 2015 a range of murals from internationally recognized street artists have appeared throughout the town/city as a result of the accomplishments of Art Whino and RVA Magazine with The Richmond Mural Project and the RVA Street Art Festival. Artists who have produced work in the town/city as a result of these celebrations include ROA, Pixel Pancho, Gaia, Aryz, Alexis Diaz, Ever Siempre, Jaz, 2501, Natalia Rak, Pose MSK, Vizie, Jeff Soto, Mark Jenkins, Etam Cru- and small-town artists Hamilton Glass, Nils Westergard, El Kamino, Nico Cathcart, and Ed Trask.
From earliest days, Virginia, and Richmond in particular, have welcomed live thespian performances.
From Lewis Hallam's early productions of Shakespeare in Williamsburg, the focus shifted to Richmond's antebellum eminence as a chief colonial and early 19th century performance venue for such jubilated American and English actors as William Macready, Edwin Forrest, and the Booth family.
In the 1960s a small renaissance or golden age accompanied the expansion of experienced dinner theaters and the fostering of theater by the Virginia Museum, reaching a peak in the 1970s with the establishment of a resident Equity business at the Virginia Museum Theater (now the Leslie Cheek) and the birth of Theatre IV, a business that continues to this day under the name Virginia Repertory Theatre.
It reopened in 1933 as the "Booker T," and served as the dominant black movie home for many years when Richmond was segregated.
Visual Arts Center of Richmond, a not-for-profit organization that is one of the biggest nongovernmental arts learning centers in the state of Virginia, established in 1963.
Richmond Center - Stage, a performing arts center that opened in Downtown Richmond in 2009 as part of an expansion of earlier facilities.
Dogwood Dell, an amphitheatre in Byrd Park, where the Richmond Department of Recreation and Parks presents an annual Festival of the Arts.
SPARC (School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community).
Classic Amphitheatre at Strawberry Hill, the former summer concert venue positioned at Richmond International Raceway.
Not-for-profit arcades include Visual Arts Center of Richmond, 1708 Gallery and Artspace.
Richmond has long been a core for literature and writers, not limited to those identified with the South.
Edgar Allan Poe was a child in the city, and the town's earliest contemporary home is now a exhibition to his life and works. The Southern Literary Messenger, which encompassed his writing, is just one of many eminent publications that began in Richmond.
Other noteworthy authors who have called Richmond home include Pulitzer-winning Ellen Glasgow, controversial figure James Branch Cabell, Meg Medina, Dean King, David L.
Tom Wolfe was born in Richmond, as was Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.
A community-based organization called James River Writers serves the greater Richmond area; it sponsors many programs for writers at all stages of their careers and puts on an annual writers' conference that draws attendees from miles away. See also: National Register of Historic Places listings in Richmond, Virginia and List of tallest buildings in Richmond Thomas Jefferson designed the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond Richmond is home to many momentous structures, including some designed by eminent architects.
Much of Richmond's early architecture was finished by the Evacuation Fire in 1865.
It is estimated that 25% of all buildings in Richmond were finished amid this fire. Even severaler now remain due to assembly and demolition that has taken place since Reconstruction.
In spite of this, Richmond includes many historically momentous buildings and districts.
Buildings remain from Richmond's colonial period, such as the Patteson-Schutte House and the Edgar Allan Poe Museum (Richmond, Virginia), both assembled before 1750.
Egyptian Building of the VCU School of Medicine (1845), Richmond, Virginia Several eminent classical architects have designed buildings in Richmond.
It is the second-oldest US statehouse in continuous use (after Maryland's) and was the first US government building assembled in the neo-classical style of architecture, setting the trend for other state homes and the federal government buildings (including the White House and The Capitol) in Washington, D.C. Robert Mills designed Monumental Church on Broad Street.
Many buildings on the University of Richmond campus, including Jeter Hall and Ryland Hall, were designed by Ralph Adams Cram, most famous for his Princeton University Chapel and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.
Richmond's urban residentiary neighborhoods also hold particular significance to the city's fabric.
Richmond's position as a center of iron manufacturing helped to fuel its popularity inside the city.
This number is seven times the number of general assembly workers being working in Richmond at the time which illustrates the importance of its iron exports. Porches and fences in urban neighborhoods such as Jackson Ward, Church Hill, and Monroe Ward are especially elaborate, often featuring ornate iron casts never replicated outside of Richmond.
Richmond is home to a several eminent instances of various styles of modernism.
The Richard Neutra-designed Rice House, a residence on a private island on the James River, remains Richmond's only true International Style home.
Richmond's City Code provides for the creation of old and historic districts so as to "recognize and protect the historic, architectural, cultural, and creative tradition of the City." Pursuant to that authority, the town/city has designated 45 districts throughout the city. The majority of these districts are also listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register ("VLR") and the National Register of Historic Places ("NRHP").
Richmond has been recognized in recent years for being a "foodie city", especially for its undivided renditions of traditional southern cuisine. The town/city also claims the invention of the sailor sandwich, which contains pastrami, knockwurst, Swiss cheese and mustard on rye bread. Richmond is also where, in 1935, canned beer was made commercially available for the first time. Several parks are positioned along the James River, and the James River Parks System offers bike trails, hiking and nature trails, and many scenic overlooks along the river's route through the city.
Two other primary parks in the town/city along the river are Byrd Park and Maymont, positioned near the Fan District.
Other parks in the town/city include Joseph Bryan Park Azalea Garden, Forest Hill Park (former site of the Forest Hill Amusement Park), Chimborazo Park (site of the National Battlefield Headquarters), among others.
The James River itself through Richmond is famous as one of the best in the nation for urban white-water rafting/canoeing/kayaking.
Main article: Sports in Richmond, Virginia Richmond is not home to any primary league experienced sports teams, but since 2013, the Washington Redskins of the National Football League have held their summer training camp in the city. There are also a several minor league sports in the city, including the Richmond Kickers of the United Soccer League (joint second tier of American soccer) and the Richmond Flying Squirrels of the Class AA Eastern League of Minor League Baseball (an partner of the San Francisco Giants). The Kickers began playing in Richmond in 1993, and presently play at City Stadium.
The Squirrels opened their first season at The Diamond on April 15, 2010. From 1966 through 2008, the town/city was home to the Richmond Braves, a AAA partner of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball, until the charter relocated to Georgia. It is also the home to the Richmond Black Widows, the city's first women's football team, established in 2015 by Sarah Schkeeper.
Another momentous sports venue is the 6,000-seat Arthur Ashe Athletic Center, a multi-purpose arena titled for tennis great and Richmond resident Arthur Ashe.
As the home of Arthur Ashe, the sport of tennis is also prominent in Richmond, and in 2010, the United States Tennis Association titled Richmond as the third "Best Tennis Town", behind Charleston, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia. The Richmond International Raceway (RIR) has hosted NASCAR Sprint Cup competitions since 1953, as well as the Capital City 400 from 1962 1980. RIR also hosted Indy - Car's Suntrust Indy Challenge from 2001 2009.
Another track, Southside Speedway, has directed since 1959 and sits just southwest of Richmond in Chesterfield County.
In 2015, Richmond hosted the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, which had cyclists from 76 countries and an economic impact on the Greater Richmond Region estimated to be $158.1 million, from both event staging and visitor spending. College basketball has also had recent success with the Richmond Spiders and the VCU Rams, both of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Main article: Media in Richmond, Virginia The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the small-town everyday journal in Richmond with a Sunday circulation of 120,000, is owned by BH Media, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company.
The Richmond Free Press and the Voice cover the news from an black perspective.
The Richmond metro region is served by many small-town tv and airways broadcasts.
There are also a wide range of airways broadcasts in the Richmond area, catering to many different interests, including news, talk radio, and sports, as well as an eclectic mix of musical interests.
Richmond City Hall See also: List of mayors of Richmond, Virginia Main article: Government of Richmond, Virginia Richmond town/city government comprises of a town/city council with delegates from nine districts serving in a legislative and supervision capacity, as well as a popularly voted for, at-large mayor serving as head of the executive branch.
Within the year the town/city council switched from majority white to majority black, reflecting the city's populace.
This new town/city council voted for Richmond's first black mayor, Henry L.
In 1990 religion and politics intersected to impact the outcome of the Eighth District election in South Richmond.
With the endorsements of black power brokers, black clergy and the Richmond Crusade for Voters, South Richmond inhabitants made history, electing Reverend A.
Carl Prince to the Richmond City Council.
As the first African American Baptist Minister voted for to the Richmond City Council, Prince's election paved the way for a political paradigm shift in politics that persist today.
Prior to Prince's election black clergy made political endorsements and served as appointees to the Richmond School Board and other boards throughout the city.
Jones, a prominent Baptist pastor and former Chairman of the Richmond School Board and Member of the Virginia House of Delegates serves as Mayor of the City of Richmond.
The current mayor of Richmond is Levar Stoney who was voted for in 2016. The mayor is not a part of the Richmond City Council.
As of 2017, the Richmond City Council consisted of: Main article: Richmond Public Schools The town/city of Richmond operates 28 elementary schools, nine middle schools, and eight high schools, serving a total pupil populace of 24,000 pupils. There is one Governor's School in the town/city the Maggie L.
In 2008, it was titled as one of Newsweek magazine's 18 "public elite" high schools, and in 2012, it was rated #16 of America's best high schools overall. Richmond's enhance school precinct also runs one of Virginia's four enhance charter schools, the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts, which was established in 2010. As of 2008, there were 36 private schools serving grades one or higher in the town/city of Richmond. Some of these schools include: Benedictine High School, St.
The Richmond region has many primary establishments of higher education, including Virginia Commonwealth University (public), University of Richmond (private), Virginia Union University (private), Virginia College (private), South University Richmond (private, for-profit), Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education (private), and the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond (BTSR private).
In addition, there are a several Technical Colleges in Richmond including ITT Technical Institute, ECPI College of Technology and Centura College.
Virginia State University is positioned about 20 miles (32 km) south of Richmond, in the suburb of Ettrick, just outside Petersburg.
Randolph-Macon College is positioned about 15 miles (24 km) north of Richmond, in the incorporated town of Ashland.
Richmond's downtown Main Street Station Main article: Transportation in Richmond, Virginia The Greater Richmond region is served by the Richmond International Airport (IATA: RIC, ICAO: KRIC), positioned in close-by Sandston, seven miles (11 km) southeast of Richmond and inside an hour drive of historic Williamsburg, Virginia.
Richmond International is now served by nine airlines with over 200 everyday flights providing non-stop service to primary destination markets and connecting flights to destinations worldwide.
Richmond is a primary hub for intercity bus business Greyhound Lines, with its terminal at 2910 N Boulevard.
Most other connections to Megabus served cites, such as New York, can be made from Washington, D.C. Richmond, and the encircling urbane area, was granted a approximately $25 million grant from the U.S.
Local transit and paratransit bus service in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield counties is provided by the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC).
The Richmond region also has two barns stations served by Amtrak.
Each station receives regular service from north of Richmond including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York.
Richmond's only stockyards station positioned inside the town/city limits, the historic Main Street Station, was renovated in 2004. As of 2010, the station only receives trains headed to and from Newport News and Williamsburg due to track layout.
Richmond also benefits from an excellent position in reference to the state's transit network, lying at the junction of east-west Interstate 64 and north-south Interstate 95, two of the most heavily traveled highways in the state, as well as along a several major rail lines.
Electricity in the Richmond Metro region is provided by Dominion Virginia Power.
The company, based in Richmond, is one of the nation's biggest producers of energy, serving retail energy customers in nine states.
Electricity is provided in the Richmond region primarily by the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station and Surry Nuclear Generating Station, as well as a coal-fired station in Chester, Virginia.
These include facilities in Chester, and Surry, and two plants in Richmond (Gravel Neck and Darbytown). Natural gas in the Richmond Metro region is provided by the city's Department of Public Utilities and also serves portions of Henrico and Chesterfield counties.
Water is provided by the city's Department of Public Utilities, and is one of the biggest water producers in Virginia, with a undivided plant that can treat up to 132 million gallons of water a day from the James River. The facility also provides water to the encircling area through wholesale contracts with Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover counties.
Richmond maintains the following five sister town/city relationships: National Register of Historic Places listings in Richmond, Virginia Official records for Richmond kept January 1887 to December 1910 at downtown, Chimborazo Park from January 1911 to December 1929, and at Richmond Int'l since January 1930.
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Detailed descriptions of these districts are provided by the town/city in Old & Historic Districts of Richmond, Virginia, Handbook and Design Review Guidelines (1st Edition, December, 2006, updated January, 2015), p.
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Categories:
Richmond, Virginia - Cities in Virginia - Greater Richmond Region - Populated places on the James River (Virginia)Populated places established in 1737 - 1737 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies - Capitals of former nations
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