Richmond, Virginia

Colonial era

William Byrd II, considered the founder of Richmond

After the first permanent English-speaking settlement was established in April 1607, at Jamestown, Virginia, Captain Christopher Newport led explorers northwest up the James River to an inhabited area within the Powhatan Nation.^[12]

The earliest European settlement in Central Virginia was in 1611 at Henricus, where the Falling Creek empties into the James River. In 1619 early Virginia Company settlers struggling to establish viable moneymaking industries established the Falling Creek Ironworks. After decades of conflicts between the Powhatan and the settlers, the Falls of the James saw more White settlement in the late 1600s and early 1700s.^[13]

The Battle of Bloody Run was fought near Richmond in 1656, after an influx of Manahoacs and Nahyssans from the North.

In 1737 planter William Byrd II commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the original town grid. Byrd named the city after the English town of Richmond near (and now part of) London, because the view of the bend in the James River at the fall line was similar to the view of the River Thames from Richmond Hill in England (which was in turn named after Henry VII's ancestral town of Richmond, North Yorkshire^[14]), where he had spent time during his youth. The settlement was laid out in April 1737 and incorporated as a town in 1742.^[15]

Revolution

In 1775 Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me liberty, or give me death" speech in St. John's Church in Richmond, crucial for deciding Virginia's participation in the First Continental Congress and setting the course for revolution and independence.^[16] On April 18, 1780, the state capital was moved from the colonial capital of Williamsburg to Richmond, to provide a more centralized location for Virginia's increasing westerly population, as well as to isolate the capital from British attack.^[17] 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.^[18]

Early United States

Patrick Henry delivered his "Liberty or Death" speech at St. John's Church in Richmond, helping to ignite the American Revolution.

Richmond recovered quickly from the war, and by 1782 was once again a thriving city.^[19] In 1786 the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (drafted by Thomas Jefferson, 1743–1826) was passed at the temporary capitol in Richmond, providing the basis for the separation of church and state, a key element in the development of freedom of religion in the United States.^[20] A permanent home for the new government, the Greek Revival style of the Virginia State Capitol building, was designed by Jefferson with the assistance of Charles-Louis Clérisseau and completed in 1788.

After the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), Richmond emerged as an important 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 east to Richmond, to bypass Richmond's rapids on the upper James River with the intent of providing a water route across the Appalachian Mountains to the Kanawha River flowing westward into the Ohio then eventually to the Mississippi River. The legacy of the canal boatmen is represented by the figure in the center of the city flag. As a result of this and ample access to hydropower due to the falls, Richmond became home to some of the country's largest manufacturing facilities, including iron works and flour mills, the largest of their kind in the South. The resistance to the slave trade was growing by the mid-19th century; in one famous 1849 case, Henry "Box" Brown made history by having himself nailed into a small box and shipped from Richmond through Baltimore's President Street Station northward on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (a well-used "Underground Railroad" route for escaping disguised slaves) to abolitionists in Philadelphia, in the free state of Pennsylvania, escaping slavery.^[21] By 1850 Richmond was connected by the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad to Port Walthall, where ships carrying over 200 tons of cargo could connect to Baltimore or Philadelphia and passenger liners could reach Norfolk, Virginia, through the Hampton Roads harbor.^[22] In the 19th century Richmond was connected to the North by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, which was later replaced by CSXT.

American Civil War

On April 17, 1861, five days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the state legislature voted to secede from the United States and join the newly created Confederate States of America. Official action came in May, after the Confederacy promised to move its national capital to Richmond from its temporary home in Montgomery, Alabama. However, the new capital was at the end of a long supply line, which made it difficult to defend. For four years its defense required the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederacy's best troops and commanders.^[23] It became the main target of Union armies, especially in the campaigns of 1862 and 1864–65.

Richmond held local, state and national government offices. hospitals, a railroad hub, and one of the largest slave markets. It also had the largest arms factory during the war, the Tredegar Iron Works. It produced artillery and other munitions, including the 723 tons of armor plating that covered the CSS Virginia the world's first ironclad warship used in war, as well as much of the Confederates' heavy ordnance machinery.^[24] The Confederate States Congress shared quarters with the Virginia General Assembly in Jefferson's designed Virginia State Capitol, with the Confederacy's executive mansion, known as the "White House of the Confederacy", two blocks away on Clay Street. The Seven Days Battles followed in late June and early July 1862, during which commanding Union General-in-Chief George B. McClellan threatened to take Richmond in the Peninsula campaign but failed.

Three years later, in March 1865, Richmond became indefensible after nearby Petersburg and several remaining rail supply lines to the south and southwest were broken. On March 25 Confederate General John B. Gordon's desperate attack on Fort Stedman east of Petersburg failed. On April 1 Federal Cavalry General Philip Sheridan, assigned to interdict the Southside Railroad, met brigades commanded by Southern General George Pickett at the Five Forks junction, smashing them, taking thousands of prisoners, and encouraging Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant to order a general advance. When the Union Sixth Corps broke through Confederate lines on the Boydton Plank Road south of Petersburg, Confederate casualties exceeded 5,000, about a tenth of Lee's defending army. Lee then informed President Jefferson Davis that he was about to evacuate Richmond.^[25]

The White House of the Confederacy

The Confederate Army began the evacuation of Richmond on April 2, 1865. Davis and his cabinet, along with the government archives and Treasury gold, left the city by train that night, as government officials burned documents and departing Confederate troops burned tobacco and other warehouses to deny their contents to the victors. In the early a.m. of the following day, Confederate troops exploded the gunpowder magazine, resulting in the death of several paupers residing in the temporary Almshouse.^[26] It was on April 3, 1865, General Godfrey Weitzel, commander of the 25th Corps of the United States Colored Troops, accepted the city's surrender from the mayor and a group of leading citizens who remained.^[27][28] The Union troops eventually stopped the raging fires but about 25% of the city's buildings were destroyed.^[29]

President Abraham Lincoln visited Grant at Petersburg on April 3, and took a launch to Richmond up the James River the next day, while Davis attempted to organize his remaining Confederate government further southwest at Danville. Lincoln met Confederate assistant secretary of War John A. Campbell, and handed him a note inviting Virginia's state legislature to end their rebellion. After Campbell spun the note to Confederate legislators as a possible end to the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln rescinded his offer and ordered Weitzel to prevent the former Confederate state legislature from meeting. Union forces killed, wounded or captured 8,000 Confederate troops at Sayler's Creek southwest of Petersburg on April 6, as the Southerners continued a general retreat southwestward. Lee continued to reject Grant's surrender suggestions until Sheridan's infantry and cavalry moved around the shrinking Army of Northern Virginia and appeared in front of his withdrawing forces on April 8, cutting off the line of further retreat southwest. He surrendered his remaining approximately 10,000 troops at Appomattox Court House, meeting Grant the following morning at the McLean Home.^[30] Davis was captured on May 10 near Irwinville, Georgia, and taken back to Virginia, where he was imprisoned for two years at Fort Monroe until freed on bail.^[31]

Postbellum

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 railroads, allowing Richmond to become a major railroad crossroads,^[32] eventually including the site of the world's first triple railroad crossing. Tobacco warehousing and processing continued to play a role, 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 country's first successful electrically powered trolley system, the Richmond Union Passenger Railway. Designed by electric power pioneer Frank J. Sprague, the system opened its first line in 1888, and electric streetcar lines rapidly spread to other cities.^[33] Sprague's system used an overhead wire and trolley pole to collect current, with electric motors on the car's trucks.^[34] Transition from streetcars to buses began in May 1947 and was completed on November 25, 1949.^[35]

Retreating Confederates burned one-fourth of Richmond in April 1865.

20th century

By the early 20th century Richmond had an extensive network of electric streetcars, as shown here crossing the Mayo Bridge across the James River, c. 1917.

By the beginning of the 20th century the city's population had reached 85,050 in 5 sq mi (13 km²), making it the most densely populated city in the Southern United States.^[36] In 1900 the Census Bureau reported Richmond's population as 62.1% white and 37.9% black.^[37] Freed slaves and their descendants created a thriving African-American business community, and the city's historic Jackson Ward became known as the "Wall Street of Black America". In 1903 African-American businesswoman and financier Maggie L. Walker chartered St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and served as its first president.^[38] Charles Thaddeus Russell was Richmond's first black architect and he designed the building for Walker.^[39] Walker was the first female bank president in the United States. Today the bank is called the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company and is the country's oldest surviving African-American bank.^[38] Other figures from this time included John Mitchell Jr. In 1910 the former city of Manchester consolidated with Richmond, and in 1914 the city annexed Barton Heights, Ginter Park, and Highland Park in Henrico County.^[40] In May 1914 Richmond became the headquarters of the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Several major performing arts venues were constructed during the 1920s, including what are now the Landmark Theatre, Byrd Theatre, and Carpenter Theatre. The city's first radio station, WRVA, began broadcasting in 1925. WTVR-TV (CBS 6), Richmond's first television station, was the first TV station south of Washington, D.C.^[41]

Between 1963 and 1965 there was a "downtown boom" that led to the construction of more than 700 buildings. In 1968 Virginia Commonwealth University was created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia with the Richmond Professional Institute.^[42] In 1970 Richmond's borders expanded by an additional 27 sq mi (70 km²) on the southside. After several years of court cases in which Chesterfield County fought annexation, more than 47,000 former Chesterfield County residents found themselves within the city's perimeters on January 1, 1970.^[43] In 1996 still-sore tensions arose amid controversy involved in adding a statue of African American Richmond native and tennis star Arthur Ashe to the series of statues of Confederate generals on Monument Avenue.^[44] After several months of controversy Ashe's bronze statue was finally completed, facing the opposite direction from the Confederate generals, on July 10, 1996.^[45]

A multimillion-dollar flood wall was completed in 1995 to protect low-lying areas of city from the oft-rising James River. As a result, the River District businesses grew rapidly, and today the area is home to much of Richmond's entertainment, dining and nightlife activity, bolstered by the creation of a Canal Walk along the city's former industrial canals.^[46][47]

Discover more about History related topics

History of Richmond, Virginia

History of Richmond, Virginia

The history of Richmond, Virginia, as a modern city, dates to the early 17th century, and is crucial to the development of the colony of Virginia, the American Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. After Reconstruction, Richmond's location at the falls of the James River helped it develop a diversified economy and become a land transportation hub.

Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, Virginia

The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S., and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island, later part of North Carolina. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. Despite the dispatch of more settlers and supplies, including the 1608 arrival of eight Polish and German colonists and the first two European women, more than 80 percent of the colonists died in 1609–10, mostly from starvation and disease. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.

Christopher Newport

Christopher Newport

Christopher Newport (1561–1617) was an English seaman and privateer. He is best known as the captain of the Susan Constant, the largest of three ships which carried settlers for the Virginia Company in 1607 on the way to found the settlement at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, which became the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was also in overall command of the other two ships on that initial voyage, in order of their size, the Godspeed and the Discovery.

Powhatan

Powhatan

The Powhatan people may refer to any of the Indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan may refer to one of the leaders of the people. This is most commonly the case in historical records from English colonial accounts. The Powhatans have also been known as Virginia Algonquians, as the Powhatan language is an eastern-Algonquian language, also known as Virginia Algonquian. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 Powhatan people in eastern Virginia, when English colonists established Jamestown in 1607.

Henricus

Henricus

The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. It was named for Henry, Prince of Wales (1594–1612), the eldest son of King James I.

Falling Creek (James River tributary)

Falling Creek (James River tributary)

Falling Creek is a tributary of the James River located near Richmond, Virginia. Approximately 23 miles (37 km) in length, it varies in width between 10 feet (3.0 m) at its source to several hundred feet in the Falling Creek Reservoir. Falling Creek rises in the Salisbury section of northwestern Chesterfield County, flows through Southside Richmond and empties into the James River roughly one mile south of the Richmond city limits. A dam located in the Meadowbrook section of the county at Hopkins Road forms the Falling Creek Reservoir, formerly used as northern Chesterfield's drinking water supply.

Falling Creek Ironworks

Falling Creek Ironworks

Falling Creek Ironworks was the first iron production facility in North America. It was established by the Virginia Company of London in Henrico Cittie (sic) on Falling Creek near its confluence with the James River. It was short-lived due to an attack by Native Americans in 1622.

Anglo-Powhatan Wars

Anglo-Powhatan Wars

The Anglo–Powhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy in the early 17th century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The second war lasted from 1622 to 1632. The third war lasted from 1644 until 1646 and ended when Opechancanough was captured and killed. That war resulted in a defined boundary between the Indians and colonial lands that could only be crossed for official business with a special pass. This situation lasted until 1677 and the Treaty of Middle Plantation which established Indian reservations following Bacon's Rebellion.

Battle of Bloody Run (1656)

Battle of Bloody Run (1656)

The Battle of Bloody Run was fought in March or April of 1656 near Richmond, Virginia.

Manahoac

Manahoac

The Manahoac, also recorded as Mahock, were a small group of Siouan-language Native Americans in northern Virginia at the time of European contact. They numbered approximately 1,000 and lived primarily along the Rappahannock River west of modern Fredericksburg and the Fall Line, and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They united with the Monacan, the Occaneechi, the Saponi and the Tutelo. They disappeared from the historical record after 1728.

Richmond, London

Richmond, London

Richmond is a town in south-west London, 8.2 miles (13.2 km) west-southwest of Charing Cross. It stands on a meander of the River Thames, and features many parks and open spaces, including Richmond Park, and many protected conservation areas, which include much of Richmond Hill. A specific Act of Parliament protects the scenic view of the River Thames from Richmond.

Richmond Hill, London

Richmond Hill, London

Richmond Hill in Richmond, London, is a hill that begins gently in its townside through the former fields, orchards and vineyard to a point just within Richmond Park, the deer park emparked and enclosed by Charles I.

The Richmond area, seen from the Sentinel-2 satellite in mid-August 2022.

Richmond is located at 37°32′N 77°28′W / 37.533°N 77.467°W / 37.533; -77.467 (37.538, −77.462). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62 sq mi (160 km²), of which 60 sq mi (160 km²) is land and 2.7 sq mi (7.0 km²) of it (4.3%) is water.^[48] The city is in the Piedmont region of Virginia, at the James River's highest navigable point. The Piedmont region is characterized by relatively low, rolling hills, and lies between the low, flat Tidewater region and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Significant bodies of water in the region include the James River, the Appomattox River, and the Chickahominy River.

The Richmond-Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 44th largest in the United States, includes the independent 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.^[49] On July 1, 2009, the Richmond—Petersburg MSA's population was 1,258,251.

Richmond is located 21.69 miles north of Petersburg, Virginia, 66.10 miles southeast of Charlottesville, Virginia, 79.24 miles northwest of Norfolk, Virginia, 96.87 miles south of Washington, D.C., and 138.72 miles northeast of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Cityscape

Richmond is often subdivided into the North Side, Southside, East End, and West End.

Richmond's original street grid, laid out in 1737, included the area between what are now Broad, 17th, and 25th Streets and the James River. Modern Downtown Richmond is slightly farther west, on the slopes of Shockoe Hill. Nearby neighborhoods include Shockoe Bottom, the historically significant and low-lying area between Shockoe Hill and Church Hill, and Monroe Ward, which contains the Jefferson Hotel. Richmond's East End includes neighborhoods like rapidly gentrifying Church Hill, home to St. John's Church, as well as poorer areas like Fulton, Union Hill, and Fairmont, and public housing projects like Mosby Court, Whitcomb Court, Fairfield Court, and Creighton Court closer to Interstate 64.^[50]

The area between Belvidere Street, Interstate 195, Interstate 95, and the river, which includes Virginia Commonwealth University, is socioeconomically and architecturally diverse. North of Broad Street, the Carver and Newtowne West neighborhoods are demographically similar to neighboring Jackson Ward, with Carver experiencing some gentrification due to its proximity to VCU. The affluent area between the Boulevard, Main Street, Broad Street, and VCU, known as the Fan, is home to Monument Avenue, an outstanding collection of Victorian architecture, and many students. West of the Boulevard is the Museum District, which contains the Virginia Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. South of the Downtown Expressway are Byrd Park, Maymont, Hollywood Cemetery, the predominantly black working-class Randolph neighborhood, and white working-class Oregon Hill. Cary Street between Interstate 195 and the Boulevard is a popular commercial area called Carytown.^[50]

Richmond's Northside is home to numerous listed historic districts.^[51] Neighborhoods such as Chestnut Hill-Plateau and Barton Heights began to develop at the end of the 19th century when the new streetcar system made it possible for people to live on the outskirts of town and still commute to jobs downtown. Other prominent Northside neighborhoods include Azalea, Barton Heights, Bellevue, Chamberlayne, Ginter Park, Highland Park, and Rosedale.^[50]

Farther west is the affluent, suburban West End. Windsor Farms is among its best-known sections. The West End also includes middle- to low-income neighborhoods such as Laurel, Farmington and the areas surrounding the Regency Mall. More affluent areas include Glen Allen, Short Pump, and the areas of Tuckahoe away from Regency Mall, all north and northwest of the city. The University of Richmond and the Country Club of Virginia are located on this side of town near the Richmond-Henrico border.^[50]

The portion of the city south of the James River is known as the Southside. Southside neighborhoods range from the affluent and middle-class suburban Westover Hills, Forest Hill, Southampton, Stratford Hills, Oxford, Huguenot Hills, Hobby Hill, and Woodland Heights to the impoverished Manchester and Blackwell areas, the Hillside Court housing projects, and the ailing Jefferson Davis Highway commercial corridor. Other Southside neighborhoods include Fawnbrook, Broad Rock, Cherry Gardens, Cullenwood, and Beaufont Hills. Much of Southside developed a suburban character as part of Chesterfield County before being annexed by Richmond, most notably in 1970.^[50]

Climate

Flooding of Old Manchester during Hurricane Agnes, 1972

According to the Köppen climate classification, Richmond has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa), with hot, humid summers and moderately cold winters.^[52] The Trewartha classification defines Richmond as Temperate Oceanic Climate due to winter chill.^[53] The mountains 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 open waters of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean contribute to the humid summers and cool winters. The coldest weather normally occurs from late December to early February, and the January daily mean temperature is 37.9 °F (3.3 °C), with an average of 6.0 days with highs at or below the freezing mark.^[54] Richmond's Downtown and areas south and east of downtown are in USDA Hardiness zones 7b. Surrounding suburbs and areas to the north and west of Downtown are in Hardiness Zone 7a.^[55] Temperatures seldom fall below 0 °F (−18 °C), with the most recent subzero reading on January 7, 2018, when the temperature reached −3 °F (−19 °C).^[54] The July daily mean temperature is 79.3 °F (26.3 °C), and high temperatures reach or exceed 90 °F (32 °C) approximately 43 days a year; 100 °F (38 °C) temperatures are not uncommon but do not occur every year.^[56] Extremes in temperature have ranged from −12 °F (−24 °C) on January 19, 1940, up to 107 °F (42 °C) on August 6, 1918.^[a] The record cold maximum is 11 °F (−12 °C), set on February 11 and 12, 1899. The record warm minimum is 81 °F (27 °C), set on July 12, 2011.^[54]

Precipitation is rather uniformly distributed throughout the year. Dry periods lasting several weeks sometimes occur, especially in autumn, when long periods of pleasant, mild weather are most common. There is considerable variability in total monthly amounts from year to year so that no one month can be depended upon to be normal. Snow has been recorded during seven of the 12 months. Falls of 4 in (10 cm) or more within 24 hours occur once a year on average.^[54] Annual snowfall is usually moderate, averaging 10.5 in (27 cm) per season.^[54][58] Snow typically remains on the ground for only one or two days, but remained for 16 days in 2010 (January 30 to February 14). Ice storms (freezing rain or glaze) are not uncommon, but are seldom severe enough to do considerable damage.

The James River reaches tidewater at Richmond, where flooding may occur in any month of the year, most frequently in March and least in July. Hurricanes and tropical storms have been responsible for most of the flooding during the summer and early fall months. Hurricanes passing near Richmond have produced record rainfalls. In 1955, three hurricanes brought record rainfall to Richmond within a six-week period. The most noteworthy were Hurricane Connie and Hurricane Diane, which brought heavy rains five days apart. In 2004, the downtown area suffered extensive flood damage after the remnants of Hurricane Gaston dumped up to 12 in (300 mm) of rain.^[59]

Damaging storms occur mainly from snow and freezing rain in winter, and from hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms in other seasons. Damage may be from wind, flooding, rain, or any combination of these. Tornadoes are infrequent but some notable ones have been observed in the Richmond area.

Downtown Richmond averages 84 days of nighttime frost annually. Nighttime frost is more common in areas north and west of Downtown and less common south and east of downtown.^[60] From 1981 to 2010 the average first temperature at or below freezing was on October 30 and the average last one on April 10.^[61]

Discover more about Geography related topics

Piedmont region of Virginia

Piedmont region of Virginia

The Piedmont region of Virginia is a part of the greater Piedmont physiographic region which stretches from the falls of the Potomac, Rappahannock, and James Rivers to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The region runs across the middle of the state from north to south, expanding outward to a width of nearly 190 miles at the border with North Carolina. To the north, the region continues from Virginia into central Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania.

Blue Ridge Mountains

Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.

Appomattox River

Appomattox River

The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately 157 miles (253 km) long, in central and eastern Virginia in the United States, named for the Appomattocs Indian tribe who lived along its lower banks in the 17th century. It drains a cotton and tobacco-growing region of the Piedmont and coastal plain southwest of Richmond.

Chickahominy River

Chickahominy River

The Chickahominy is an 87-mile-long (140 km) river in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Virginia. The river, which serves as the eastern border of Charles City County, rises about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Richmond and flows southeast and south to the James River. The river was named after the Chickahominy Indian tribe who lived near the river when it was claimed by English colonists in 1607. Chickahominy descendants live in Charles City County today.

Colonial Heights, Virginia

Colonial Heights, Virginia

Colonial Heights is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,170. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the City of Colonial Heights with Dinwiddie County for statistical purposes. Brazilian philosopher, Olavo de Carvalho, used to live in this city.

Hopewell, Virginia

Hopewell, Virginia

Hopewell is an independent city surrounded by Prince George County and the Appomattox River in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 23,033. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Hopewell with Prince George County for statistical purposes.

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg, Virginia

Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg with Dinwiddie County for statistical purposes. The city is 21 miles (34 km) south of the commonwealth (state) capital city of Richmond.

Charles City County, Virginia

Charles City County, Virginia

Charles City County is a county located in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated southeast of Richmond and west of Jamestown. It is bounded on the south by the James River and on the east by the Chickahominy River.

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County is located just south of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its county seat is Chesterfield Court House.

Dinwiddie County, Virginia

Dinwiddie County, Virginia

Dinwiddie County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,947. Its county seat is Dinwiddie.

Goochland County, Virginia

Goochland County, Virginia

Goochland County is a county located in the Piedmont of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its southern border is formed by the James River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,727. Its county seat is Goochland.

Hanover County, Virginia

Hanover County, Virginia

Hanover County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 109,979. Its county seat is Hanover Courthouse.

The population of Richmond City, currently 226,000, may be misleading as Richmond is a continuous metropolitan area in the Greater Richmond region that has an estimated population of about 1.3 million. Richmond City is surrounded by Henrico County which has a population of about 334,000.

2020 census

Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.

2010 Census

As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 204,214 people living in the city. 50.6% were Black or African American, 40.8% White, 2.3% Asian, 0.3% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 3.6% of some other race and 2.3% of two or more races. 6.3% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race).^[74]

Map of racial distribution in Richmond, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤ White ⬤ Black ⬤ Asian ⬤ Hispanic ⬤ Other

As of the census^[75] of 2000, there were 197,790 people, 84,549 households, and 43,627 families living in the city. The population density was 3,292.6/sq mi (1,271.3/km²). There were 92,282 housing units at an average density of 1,536.2/sq mi (593.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 57.2% African American, 38.3% White, 0.2% Native American, 1.3% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.5% from other races, and 1.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.6% of the population.

There were 84,549 households, out of which 23.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.1% were married couples living together, 20.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.4% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.21 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 21.8% under the age of 18, 13.1% from 18 to 24, 31.7% from 25 to 44, 20.1% from 45 to 64, and 13.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $31,121, and the median income for a family was $38,348. Males had a median income of $30,874 versus $25,880 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,337. About 17.1% of families and 21.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.9% of those under age 18 and 15.8% of those age 65 or over.

Crime

Richmond experienced a spike in overall crime, in particular the city's murder rate, during the 1980s, 1990s, and the early 2000s. It was consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States during that time.^{[76][77][78][79]}

From the late 2000s to present, various forms of crime have significantly decreased in the city.^[80] Its major crime rate, including violent and property crimes, decreased 47 percent between 2004 and 2009 to its lowest level in more than a quarter of a century.^[81] In 2008, Richmond had fallen to 49th on a Morgan Quitno Press ranking of the most dangerous cities in the United States and the city had recorded the lowest homicide rate since 1971.^[82][83] By 2012, Richmond was no longer in the 'top' 200.^[84]

In recent years, as in many other American cities, Richmond has witnessed a slight rise in homicides though violent crime and other forms of crime remain below the national average.^[85][86]

Religion

In 1786, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, penned in 1779 by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond. The site is now commemorated by the First Freedom Center.

Richmond has 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. Paul's Episcopal Church and St. John's Episcopal Church. 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, organized on June 18, 1812. On February 5, 1845, Second Presbyterian Church of Richmond was founded, which was a historic church where Stonewall Jackson attended and was the first Gothic building and the first gas-lit church to be built in Richmond.^[87] St. Peter's Church was dedicated and became the first Catholic church in Richmond on May 25, 1834.^[88] The city is also home to the historic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart which is the mother church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond.^[89]

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, dedicated in 1906

The first Jewish congregation in Richmond was Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalom. Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalom was the sixth congregation in the United States. By 1822 K.K. Beth Shalom members worshipped in the first synagogue building in Virginia. They eventually merged with Congregation Beth Ahabah, an offshoot of Beth Shalom. There are two Orthodox Synagogues, Keneseth Beth Israel and Chabad of Virginia.^[90] There is an Orthodox Yeshivah K–12 school system known as Rudlin Torah academy, which also includes a post high-school program. There are two Conservative synagogues, Beth El and Or Atid. There are two Reform synagogues, Beth Ahabah and Or Ami. Along with such religious congregations, there are a variety of other Jewish charitable, educational and social service institutions, each serving the Jewish and general communities. These include the Weinstein Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Services, Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and Richmond Jewish Foundation.

Due to the influx of German immigrants in the 1840s, St. John's German Evangelical church was formed in 1843. Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral held its first worship service in a rented room at 309 North 7th Street in 1917. 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.^[91]

There are seven current masjids in the Greater Richmond area, with three more currently in construction,^[92][93][94] accommodating the growing Muslim population, the first one being Masjid Bilal.^[95][96] In the 1950s, Muslims from the East End got organized under Nation of Islam (NOI). They used to meet in Temple #24 located on North Avenue. After the NOI split in 1975, the Muslims who joined mainstream Islam, start meeting at Shabaaz Restaurant on Nine Mile Road. By 1976, the Muslims used to meet in a rented church. They tried to buy this church, but due to financial difficulties the Muslims instead bought an old grocery store at Chimbarazoo Boulevard, the present location of Masjid Bilal. Initially, the place was called "Masjid Muhammad #24". Only by 1990 did the Muslims renamed it to "Masjid Bilal". Masjid Bilal was followed by the Islamic Center of Virginia, ICVA^[97] masjid. The ICVA was established in 1973 as a non profit tax exempt organization. With aggressive fundraising, ICVA was able to buy land on Buford road. Construction of the new masjid began in the early 1980s. The rest of the five current masjids in the Richmond area are Islamic Center of Richmond (ICR)^[98] in the west end, Masjid Umm Barakah^[99] on 2nd street downtown, Islamic Society of Greater Richmond (ISGR)^[100] in the west end, Masjidullah^[101] in the north side, and Masjid Ar-Rahman^[102] in the east end.

Watts Hall at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Hinduism is actively practiced, particularly in suburban areas of Henrico and Chesterfield. Some 6,000 families of Indian descent resided in the Richmond Region as of 2011. Hindus are served by several temples and cultural centers. The two most familiar are the Cultural Center of India (CCI) located off of Iron Bridge Road in Chesterfield County and the Hindu Center of Virginia in Henrico County which has garnered national fame and awards for being the first LEED certified religious facility in the commonwealth.

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. The McCollough Theological Seminary of the United House of Prayer For All People is located in the Church Hill neighborhood of the city.

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 oldest. 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 parishes in the Diocese of Richmond.^[103] The city of Richmond is home to 19 Catholic parishes.^[104] Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is home to the current bishop, Most Reverend Barry C. Knestout, who was appointed by Pope Francis on December 15, 2017.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has three stakes in the greater Richmond area (a stake is an organizational unit that is made up of multiple congregations. As of December 31, 2017, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported 95,379 members in 200 congregations within 22 stakes across the state of Virginia).^[105] In April 2018, church president Russell M. Nelson announced a new temple to be built in Virginia. The first temple of the church to be built in the state, the temple is located in Glen Allen, Virginia, a northwest suburb of Richmond.^[106]

Discover more about Demographics related topics

1790 United States census

1790 United States census

The United States census of 1790 was the first census of the whole United States. It recorded the population of the United States as of Census Day, August 2, 1790, as mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution and applicable laws. In the first census, the population of the United States was enumerated to be 3,929,214.

1800 United States census

1800 United States census

The United States census of 1800 was the second census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 4, 1800. It showed that 5,308,483 people were living in the United States, of whom 893,602 were enslaved. The 1800 census included the new District of Columbia. The census for the following states were lost: Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia.

1810 United States census

1810 United States census

The United States census of 1810 was the third census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 6, 1810. It showed that 7,239,881 people were living in the United States, of whom 1,191,362 were slaves.

1820 United States census

1820 United States census

The United States census of 1820 was the fourth census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 7, 1820. The 1820 census included six new states: Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama and Maine. There has been a district wide loss of 1820 census records for Arkansas Territory, Missouri Territory and New Jersey.

1830 United States census

1830 United States census

The United States census of 1830, the fifth census undertaken in the United States, was conducted on June 1, 1830. The only loss of census records for 1830 involved some countywide losses in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Mississippi.

1840 United States census

1840 United States census

The United States census of 1840 was the sixth census of the United States. Conducted by the Census Office on June 1, 1840, it determined the resident population of the United States to be 17,069,453 – an increase of 32.7 percent over the 12,866,020 persons enumerated during the 1830 census. The total population included 2,487,355 slaves. In 1840, the center of population was about 260 miles (418 km) west of Washington, near Weston, Virginia.

1850 United States census

1850 United States census

The United States census of 1850 was the seventh census of the United States. Conducted by the Census Office, it determined the resident population of the United States to be 23,191,876—an increase of 35.9 percent over the 17,069,453 persons enumerated during the 1840 census. The total population included 3,204,313 slaves.

1860 United States census

1860 United States census

The United States census of 1860 was the eighth census conducted in the United States starting June 1, 1860, and lasting five months. It determined the population of the United States to be 31,443,322 in 33 states and 10 organized territories. This was an increase of 35.4 percent over the 23,069,876 persons enumerated during the 1850 census. The total population included 3,953,762 slaves.

1870 United States census

1870 United States census

The United States census of 1870 was the ninth United States census. It was conducted by the Census Bureau from June 1, 1870, to August 23, 1871. The 1870 census was the first census to provide detailed information on the African American population, only five years after the culmination of the Civil War when slaves were granted freedom. The total population was 38,925,598 with a resident population of 38,558,371 individuals, a 22.6% increase from 1860.

1880 United States census

1880 United States census

The United States census of 1880 conducted by the Census Bureau during June 1880 was the tenth United States census. It was the first time that women were permitted to be enumerators. The Superintendent of the Census was Francis Amasa Walker. This was the first census in which a city—New York City—recorded a population of over one million.

1890 United States census

1890 United States census

The United States census of 1890 was taken beginning June 2, 1890, but most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in 1921 when a building caught fire and in the subsequent disposal of the remaining damaged records. It determined the resident population of the United States to be 62,979,766—an increase of 25.5 percent over the 50,189,209 persons enumerated during the 1880 census. The data reported that the distribution of the population had resulted in the disappearance of the American frontier.

1900 United States census

1900 United States census

The United States census of 1900, conducted by the Census Office on June 1, 1900, determined the resident population of the United States to be 76,212,168, an increase of 21.01% from the 62,979,766 persons enumerated during the 1890 census.

Richmond tobacco warehouse c. 1910s

Richmond's strategic location on the James River, built on undulating hills at the rocky fall line separating the Piedmont and Tidewater regions of Virginia, provided a natural nexus for the development of commerce. Throughout these three centuries and three modes of transportation, the downtown has always been a hub, with the Great Turning Basin for boats, the world's only triple crossing of rail lines, and the intersection of two major interstates.

Law and finance have long been driving forces in the economy.^[107] Richmond is particularly known for its bankruptcy court.^[108] The 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 international companies such as Genworth Financial, Capital One, Philip Morris USA, and numerous other banks and brokerages. Richmond is also home to three of the largest law firms in the United States: Hunton & Williams, McGuireWoods, and Williams Mullen. Another law firm with a major Richmond presence is Troutman Sanders, which merged with Richmond-based Mays & Valentine LLP in 2001.

Since the 1960s Richmond has been a prominent hub for advertising agencies and advertising related businesses. One of the most notable Richmond-based agencies is The Martin Agency, founded in 1965 and currently employing 500 people. As a result of local advertising agency support, VCU's graduate advertising school (VCU Brandcenter) is consistently ranked the No. 1 advertising graduate program in the country.^[109]

Richmond is home to the rapidly developing Virginia BioTechnology Research Park,^[110] which opened in 1995 as an incubator facility for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Located adjacent to the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, the park currently has more than 575,000 sq ft (53,400 m²) of research, laboratory and office space for a diverse tenant mix of companies, research institutes, government laboratories and non-profit organizations. The United Network for Organ Sharing, which maintains the nation's organ transplant waiting list, occupies one building in the park. Philip Morris USA opened a $350 million research and development facility in the park in 2007. Once fully developed, park officials expect the site to employ roughly 3,000 scientists, technicians and engineers.

Richmond's revitalized downtown includes the Canal Walk, a new Greater Richmond Convention Center, and expansion on both VCU campuses. A new performing arts center, Richmond CenterStage,^[111] opened on September 12, 2009.^[112] The complex included a renovation of the Carpenter Center and construction of a new multipurpose hall, community playhouse, and arts education center in parts of the old Thalhimers department store.^[113]

Craft beer, cider and liquor production is also growing in the River City, with twelve micro-breweries in city proper; the oldest is Legend Brewery, founded in 1994. Two cideries, Buskey Cider and Blue Bee Cider, are located in the popular beverage neighborhood of Scott's Addition,^[114] and are joined by nine breweries, one meadery, and one distillery.^[115] Three distilleries, Reservoir Distillery, Belle Isle Craft Spirits and James River Distillery, were established in 2010, 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Additionally, Richmond is gaining attention from the film and television industry, with several high-profile films shot in the metro region in the past few years, including the major 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. Richmond was the main filming location for the PBS drama series Mercy Street, which premiered in Winter 2016. Several organizations, including the Virginia Film Office and the Virginia Production Alliance, along with events like the Richmond International Film Festival and French Film Festival, continue to draw supporters of film and media to the region.

Fortune 500 companies and other large corporations

Six Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the Richmond area.

The Greater Richmond area was named the third-best city for business by MarketWatch in September 2007, ranking behind only the Minneapolis and Denver areas and just above Boston. The area is home to six Fortune 500 companies: electric utility Dominion Resources; CarMax; Owens & Minor; Genworth Financial, MeadWestvaco/ WestRock, and Altria Group.^[9] However, only Dominion Resources is headquartered within the city of Richmond; the others are located in the neighboring counties of Henrico and Hanover.^[116] 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, MeadWestvaco announced that they would move from Stamford, Connecticut, to Richmond in 2008 with the help of the Greater Richmond Partnership,^[117] a regional economic development organization that also helped locate Aditya Birla Minacs,^[118] Amazon.com,^[119] and Honeywell International,^[120] to the region. In July 2015, MeadWestvaco merged with Georgia-based Rock-Tenn Company creating WestRock Company.

Other Fortune 500 companies, while not headquartered in the area, do have a major presence. These include SunTrust Banks (based in Atlanta), Capital One (officially based in McLean, Virginia, but founded in Richmond with its operations center and most employees in the Richmond area), and medical and pharmaceutical giant McKesson Corporation (based in Las Colinas, Texas). Capital One and Philip Morris USA are two of the largest private Richmond-area employers. DuPont maintains a production facility in South Richmond known as the Spruance Plant. UPS Freight, the less-than-truckload division of United Parcel Service has its corporate headquarters in Richmond.

Other companies based in Richmond include engineering specialists CTI Consultants, chemical company NewMarket; 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 television provider formed in Richmond in 1998; Cherry Bekaert & Holland, a top 30 accounting firm serving the Southeast; the law firm of McGuireWoods; Elephant Insurance, an insurance company subsidiary of Admiral Group and Media General, a company specializing in broadcast media.

Poverty

As of 2016, 24.8% of Richmond residents live below the federal poverty line, the second-highest among the 30 largest cities and counties in Virginia.^[121] An Annie E. Casey Foundation report issued in 2016 also determined that Richmond had a child poverty rate of 39%, more than double the rate for Virginia as a whole.^[122] As of 2016, Richmond had the second-highest rate of eviction filings and judgments of any American city with a population of 100,000 or more (in states where complete data was available).^[123] Some Richmond neighborhoods, such as the Creighton Court public-housing complex, are particularly well known for concentrations of poverty.^[124][125]

Discover more about Economy related topics

James River

James River

The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows 348 miles (560 km) to the Chesapeake Bay. The river length extends to 444 miles (715 km) if the Jackson River is included, the longer of its two headwaters. It is the longest river in Virginia. Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia's first colonial capitals, and Richmond, Virginia's current capital, lie on the James River.

Piedmont region of Virginia

Piedmont region of Virginia

The Piedmont region of Virginia is a part of the greater Piedmont physiographic region which stretches from the falls of the Potomac, Rappahannock, and James Rivers to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The region runs across the middle of the state from north to south, expanding outward to a width of nearly 190 miles at the border with North Carolina. To the north, the region continues from Virginia into central Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania.

Triple Crossing

Triple Crossing

Triple Crossing in Richmond, Virginia is one of two places in North America where three Class I railroads cross at different levels at the same spot, the other being Santa Fe Junction in Kansas City.

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor.

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:District of Maryland Eastern District of North Carolina Middle District of North Carolina Western District of North Carolina District of South Carolina Eastern District of Virginia Western District of Virginia Northern District of West Virginia Southern District of West Virginia

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond is the headquarters of the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve located in Richmond, Virginia. It covers the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and most of West Virginia excluding the Northern Panhandle. Branch offices are located in Baltimore, Maryland and Charlotte, North Carolina. Thomas I. Barkin became president of the Richmond Fed following the retirement of Jeffrey M. Lacker in April 2017. The previous president, J. Alfred Broaddus, retired in 2004.

Genworth Financial

Genworth Financial

Genworth Financial is an S&P 400 insurance company. The firm was founded as The Life Insurance Company of Virginia in 1871. In 1986, Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance, which became Aon plc in 1987. In 1996, Life of Virginia was sold to GE Capital. In May 2004, Genworth Financial was formed out of various insurance businesses of General Electric in the largest IPO of that year. Genworth Financial is incorporated in Virginia.

Capital One

Capital One

Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in McLean, Virginia with operations primarily in the United States. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States and has developed a reputation for being a technology-focused bank.

Philip Morris USA

Philip Morris USA

Philip Morris USA is the American tobacco division of the American tobacco corporation Altria Group.

McGuireWoods

McGuireWoods

McGuireWoods LLP is a US-based international law firm. Their largest offices are in Richmond, Virginia, Charlotte, North Carolina and Chicago, Illinois.

Troutman Sanders

Troutman Sanders

Troutman Sanders LLP was an American law firm founded in 1897. The firm had about 650 attorneys before merging with the Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton in July 2020 to become Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP d/b/a Troutman Pepper. Troutman Sanders was organized into 17 areas of legal practice within five departments: Corporate, Real Estate & Finance, Business Litigation, Specialized Litigation, and Energy and Regulatory. Stephen E. Lewis was the firm's managing partner and became chair of Troutman Pepper after the merger in 2020. Carl E. Sanders, the former Governor of Georgia, served as chairman emeritus until his death in 2014.

The Martin Agency

The Martin Agency

The Martin Agency American advertising agency based in Richmond, Virginia, that is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies. The company's CEO is Kristen Cavallo.

Museums and monuments

1936 entrance to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

A focal point of Monument Avenue, the Robert E. Lee Monument. It was graffitied by protesters in 2020 and then removed by the Stoney government

Several of the city's large general museums are located near the Boulevard. 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, housed in the neoclassical former 1919 Broad Street Union Station. Immediately adjacent 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. Elsewhere are the Virginia Holocaust Museum and the Old Dominion Railway Museum.

Richmond is home to museums 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 housed in the former buildings of the Tredegar Iron Works, where much of the ordnance for the war was produced. In Court End, near the Virginia State Capitol, is the Museum of the Confederacy, along with the Davis Mansion, also known as the White House of the Confederacy; both feature a wide variety of objects and material from the era. The temporary home of General Robert E. Lee still stands on Franklin Street in downtown Richmond. The history of slavery and emancipation are also increasingly represented: there is a former slave trail along the river that leads to Ancarrow's Boat Ramp and Historic Site which has been developed with interpretive signage, and in 2007, the Reconciliation Statue was placed in Shockoe Bottom, with parallel statues placed in Liverpool and Benin representing points of the Triangle Trade.

Other historical points of interest include St. John's Church, the site of Patrick Henry's famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, and the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, features many of his writings and other artifacts of his life, particularly when he lived in the city as a child, a student, and a successful writer. The John Marshall House, the home of the former Chief Justice of the United States, is also located downtown and features many of his writings and objects from his life. Hollywood Cemetery is the burial grounds of two U.S. Presidents as well as many Civil War officers and soldiers. Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives collects, preserves and exhibits materials that focus on Jewish history and culture specifically connected to Richmond, VA.^[126]

The city was home to many monuments and memorials, most notably those along Monument Avenue. Many of the monuments on Monument Avenue were removed after the Floyd (George) riots of 2020.^[127] On June 9, 2020, protesters tore down the Columbus monument and threw it in Fountain Lake.^[128] Located near Byrd Park is the famous World War I Memorial Carillon, a 56-bell carillon tower. Dedicated in 1956, the Virginia War Memorial is located 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. One other very important monument which was left standing is the Bill "Bojangles" Robinson monument in Jackson Ward. On December 12, 2022 the General A. P. Hill's monument and remains were removed by authorities, being the last of the Confederate general's statues in the city.^[129]

Agecroft Hall is a Tudor manor house and estate located on the James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond. The manor house was built in the late 15th century, and was originally located in the Agecroft area of Pendlebury, in the historic county of Lancashire in England.

Visual and performing arts

Musicians of note associated with Richmond include Jason Mraz, Jimmy Dean, Agents of Good Roots, Aimee Mann, Alabama Thunderpussy, Avail,^[130] Broadside, Carbon Leaf, Cannabis Corpse, Cracker, D'Angelo, Denali, Down to Nothing, Engine Down, Four Walls Falling, Iron Reagan,^[131] Lamb of God, Lil Ugly Mane, Lucy Dacus, Municipal Waste, Nickelus F, River City High, Sparklehorse, Strike Anywhere, Chris Brown, Eric Stanley, and Fighting Gravity.^[132] Richmond is also home of GWAR, a heavy metal art collective based in a Scott's Addition warehouse.^[133]

Murals

With the advent of the Richmond Mural Project (RMP) by RVA Mag and Art Whino; as well as the RVA Street Art Festival in 2013, the city quickly gained more than 100 murals from international mural artists such as Aryz, Roa, Ron English, and Natalia Rak. While the RMP focused on international talent, the RVA Street Art festival helmed by long-time local mural artist Ed Trask focused largely on regional artists (although it also brought in PoseMSK, Jeff Soto, and Mark Jenkins.) After some criticism the RMP included its first local artist, Nils Westergard, who was already on the international circuit; following the next year with Jacob Eveland. The two festivals are unrelated, with the RMP being defunct, and the RVA Street Art festival happening sporadically due to funding issues. With the advent of the Summer of Floyd riots across America, local artist Hamilton Glass spearheaded the Mending Walls Project featuring walls by pairs of local artists. Many of the murals are unrelated to any project, and are done under the impetus of the artists alone.

Professional performing companies

From earliest days, Virginia, and Richmond in particular, have welcomed live theatrical performances. From Lewis Hallam's early productions of Shakespeare in Williamsburg, the focus shifted to Richmond's antebellum prominence as a main colonial and early 19th century performance venue for such celebrated American and English actors as William Macready, Edwin Forrest,^[134] and the Booth family. In the 20th century, Richmonders' love of theater continued with many amateur troupes and regular touring professional productions. In the 1960s a small renaissance or golden age accompanied the growth of professional dinner theaters and the fostering of theater by the Virginia Museum, reaching a peak in the 1970s with the establishment of a resident Equity company at the Virginia Museum Theater (now the Leslie Cheek) and the birth of Theatre IV, a company that continues to this day under the name Virginia Repertory Theatre.

• Virginia Repertory Theatre is Central Virginia's largest professional theatre organization. It was created in 2012 when Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV, which had shared one staff for over a decade, merged to become one company. With an annual budget of over $5 million, the theatre employs over 240 artists each year, presenting a season at the November Theatre and Theatre Gym at Virginia Rep Center, as well as productions at the Hanover Tavern and The Children's Theatre in The Shops at Willow Lawn. The historic November Theatre opened in 1911 as the Empire Theatre, offering stock and vaudeville performances. In 1915 it changed its name from the Empire to the Strand and continued under that name until damaged by fire in 1927. It reopened in 1933 as the "Booker T," and served as the leading black movie house for many years when Richmond was segregated. It closed in 1974 and was idle until real estate developer Mitchell Kambis rescued and renovated it. Kambis restored the Empire name and in 1979 leased it to Keith Fowler, artistic director of the American Revels Company. Revels restored live professional theater to downtown Richmond. Revels was succeeded by Theatre IV in 1984. On its 100th anniversary in 2011 the theatre was further restored when Sara Belle and Neil November made a $2 million gift to Theatre IV and Barksdale.[1] The November now serves as Virginia Rep's headquarters and home and anchors the Arts District. It is currently under the leadership of Artistic Director Bruce Miller and Managing Director Phil Whiteway.^[135]
• Richmond Ballet, founded in 1957.
• Richmond Triangle Players, founded in 1993, delivers theater programs exploring themes of equality, identity, affection and family across sexual orientation and gender spectrums.
• Richmond Symphony
• Virginia Opera, the Official Opera Company of the Commonwealth of Virginia, founded in 1974. Presents eight mainstage performances every year at the Carpenter Theater.

Other venues and companies

The Carpenter Theatre

Other venues and companies include:

• The Altria Theater, the city-owned opera house.
• The Leslie Cheek Theater, after lying dormant for eight years, re-opened in 2011 in the heart of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at 200 N. Boulevard. The elegant 500-seat proscenium stage was constructed in 1955 to match then museum director Leslie Cheek's vision of a theater worthy of a fine arts institution.^[136] Operating for years as the Virginia Museum Theater (VMT),^[137] it supported an amateur community theater under the direction of Robert Telford. When Cheek retired, he advised trustees on the 1969 appointment of Keith Fowler as head of the theater arts division and artistic director of VMT. Fowler led the theater to become the city's first resident Actors Equity\LORT theater, adding major foreign authors and the premieres of new American works to the repertory. Under his leadership VMT reached a "golden age," gaining international recognition^[138] and more than doubling its subscription base. Successive artistic administrations changed the name of the theater to "TheatreVirginia". Deficits caused TheatreVirginia to close its doors in 2002.^[139] Now, renovated and renamed for its founder, the Leslie Cheek is restoring live performance to VMFA and, while no longer supporting a resident company, it is available for special theatrical and performance events.
• The National Theater is Richmond's premier music venue. It holds 1500 people and has shows regularly throughout the week. It opened winter of 2007 and was built in 1923. It features a state-of-the-art V-DOSC sound system, only the sixth installed in the country and only the third installed on the East Coast.
• Visual Arts Center of Richmond, a not-for-profit organization that is one of the largest nongovernmental arts learning centers in the state of Virginia, founded in 1963. Serves 28,000 individuals annually.
• Richmond CenterStage, a performing arts center that opened in Downtown Richmond in 2009 as part of an expansion of earlier facilities. The complex includes a renovation of the 1,700-seat Carpenter Theater and construction of a new multipurpose hall, community playhouse, and arts education center in the location of the old Thalhimers department store.
• The Byrd Theatre in Carytown, a movie palace from the 1920s that features second-run movies, as well as the French Film Festival.
• Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation.^[140]
• Dogwood Dell, an amphitheatre in Byrd Park, where the Richmond Department of Recreation and Parks presents an annual Festival of the Arts.
• School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community). SPARC was founded in 1981, and trained children to become "triple threats", meaning they were equally versed in singing, acting, and dancing. SPARC has become the largest community-based theater arts education program in Virginia and it offers classes to every age group, during the summer and throughout the year.
• Classic Amphitheatre at Strawberry Hill, the former summer concert venue located at Richmond International Raceway.

Commercial art galleries include Metro Space Gallery and Gallery 5 in a newly designated arts district. Not-for-profit galleries include Visual Arts Center of Richmond, 1708 Gallery and Artspace.

In addition, in 2008, a new 47,000 sq ft (4,400 m²) Gay Community Center opened on the city's north side, which hosts meetings of many kinds, and includes a large art gallery space.

Literary arts

Richmond has long been a hub for literature and writers. Edgar Allan Poe was a child in the city, and the town's oldest stone house is now a museum to his life and works.^[141] The Southern Literary Messenger, which included his writing, is just one of many notable 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. Robbins, and MacArthur Fellow Paule Marshall. Tom Wolfe was born in Richmond, as was Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. David Baldacci graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, where the creative writing faculty has included Marshall, Claudia Emerson, Kathleen Graber, T. R. Hummer, Dave Smith, David Wojahn, and Susann Cokal. Notable graduates include Sheri Reynolds, Jon Pineda, Anna Journey and Joshua Poteat.^[142] A community-based organization, James River Writers, serves the Greater Richmond Region, 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.^[142]

Architecture

Richmond is home to many significant structures, including some designed by notable architects. The city contains diverse styles, including significant examples of Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Neoclassical, Egyptian Revival, Romanesque Revival, Gothic Revival, Tudor Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Art Deco, Modernist, International, and Postmodern buildings.

Much of Richmond's early architecture was destroyed by the Evacuation Fire in 1865. It is estimated that 25% of all buildings in Richmond were destroyed during this fire.^[143] Even fewer now remain due to construction and demolition that has taken place since Reconstruction. In spite of this, Richmond contains many historically significant 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 built before 1750.

Virginia Commonwealth University's Egyptian Building (1845)

Architectural classicism is heavily represented in all districts of the city, particularly in Downtown, the Fan, and the Museum District. Several notable classical architects have designed buildings in Richmond. The Virginia State Capitol was designed by Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clérisseau in 1785. It is the second-oldest US statehouse in continuous use (after Maryland's) and was the first US government building built in the neo-classical style of architecture, setting the trend for other state houses and the federal government buildings (including the White House and The Capitol) in Washington, D.C.^[144] Robert Mills designed Monumental Church on Broad Street. Adjoining it is the 1845 Egyptian Building, one of the few Egyptian Revival buildings in the United States.

The Science Museum of Virginia, housed in Broad Street Station, designed by John Russell Pope

The firm of John Russell Pope designed Broad Street Station as well as Branch House on Monument Avenue, designed as a private residence in the Tudor style, now serving as the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design. Broad Street Station (or Union Station), designed in the Beaux-Arts style, is no longer a functioning station but is now home to the Science Museum of Virginia. Main Street Station, designed by Wilson, Harris, and Richards, has been returned to use in its original purpose. The Jefferson Hotel and the Commonwealth Club were both designed by the classically trained Beaux-Arts architects Carrère and Hastings. 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 residential neighborhoods also hold particular significance to the city's fabric. The Fan, the Museum District, Jackson Ward, Carver, Carytown, Oregon Hill and Church Hill (among others) are largely single use town homes and mixed use or full retail/dining establishments. These districts are anchored by large streets such as Franklin Street, Cary Street, the Boulevard, and Monument Avenue. The city's growth in population over the last decade has been concentrated in these areas.

Among Richmond's most interesting architectural features is its cast-iron architecture. Second only to New Orleans in its concentration of cast-iron work, the city is home to a unique collection of cast iron porches, balconies, fences, and finials. Richmond's position as a center of iron production helped to fuel its popularity within the city. At the height of production in the 1890, 25 foundries operated in the city employing nearly 3,500 metal workers. This number is seven times the number of general construction workers being employed in Richmond at the time which illustrates the importance of its iron exports.^[145] Porches and fences in urban neighborhoods such as Jackson Ward, Church Hill, and Monroe Ward are particularly elaborate, often featuring ornate iron casts never replicated outside of Richmond. In some cases cast were made for a single residential or commercial application.

Richmond is home to several notable instances of various styles of modernism. Minoru Yamasaki designed the Federal Reserve Building which dominates the downtown skyline. The architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has designed two buildings: the Library of Virginia and the General Assembly Offices at the Eighth and Main Building. Philip Johnson designed the WRVA Building. The Richard Neutra-designed Rice House, a residence on a private island on the James River, remains Richmond's only true International Style home. The W.G. Harris residence in Richmond was designed by famed early modern architect and member of the Harvard Five,^[146] Landis Gores. The VCU Institute for Contemporary Art, designed by Steven Holl, opened in 2018. Other notable architects to have worked in the city include Rick Mather, I.M. Pei, and Gordon Bunshaft.

Many of Richmond's historic properties were documented in books and 1970s era black and white photographs by John G. Zehmer, an architectural historian and preservationist.

Richmond has been described by former mayor Dwight C. Jones as the tacky light capital of the world.^[147]

Historic districts

Richmond's City Code provides for the creation of old and historic districts so as to "recognize and protect the historic, architectural, cultural, and artistic heritage of the City".^[148] Pursuant to that authority, the city has designated 45 districts throughout the city.^[149] The majority of these districts are also listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register ("VLR") and the National Register of Historic Places ("NRHP").

Fifteen of the districts represent broad sections of the city:^[150]

Monument Avenue

The Jefferson Hotel

The remaining thirty districts are limited to an individual building or group of buildings throughout the city:

Food

Richmond has been recognized in recent years for being a "foodie city", particularly for its modern renditions of traditional Southern cuisine.^{[151][152][153]} The city also claims the invention of the sailor sandwich, which includes pastrami, knockwurst, Swiss cheese and mustard on rye bread.^[154] Richmond is also where, in 1935, canned beer was made commercially available for the first time.^[155]

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Monument Avenue

Monument Avenue

Monument Avenue is a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic in Richmond, Virginia, originally named for its emblematic complex of structures honoring those who fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Between 1900 and 1925, Monument Avenue greatly expanded with architecturally significant houses, churches, and apartment buildings. Four of the bronze statues representing J. E. B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and Matthew Fontaine Maury were removed from their memorial pedestals amidst civil unrest in July 2020. The Robert E. Lee monument was handled differently as it was owned by the Commonwealth, in contrast with the other monuments which were owned by the city. Dedicated in 1890, it was removed on September 8, 2021. The last remaining statue on Monument Avenue is the Arthur Ashe Monument, memorializing the African-American tennis champion, dedicated in 1996.

Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee

Robert Edward Lee was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Northern Virginia—the Confederacy's most powerful army—from 1862 until its surrender in 1865, earning a reputation as a skilled tactician.

Levar Stoney

Levar Stoney

Levar Marcus Stoney is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the 80th mayor of Richmond, Virginia. He served as the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2014 through 2016, the youngest member of Governor Terry McAuliffe's administration.

Virginia Historical Society

Virginia Historical Society

The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, non-profit organization, supported almost entirely by private contributions. In 2004, it was designated the official state historical society of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Science Museum of Virginia

Science Museum of Virginia

The Science Museum of Virginia is a science museum located in Richmond, Virginia. Established in 1970, it is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is housed in the former Broad Street Station, built in 1917.

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was born in Rome largely thanks to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, at the time of the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but its popularity spread all over Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th and up to the 21st century.

Children's Museum of Richmond

Children's Museum of Richmond

The Children's Museum of Richmond began in 1977 as the Richmond Children's Museum in the Navy Hill School building in downtown Richmond, Virginia. In 2000, the museum moved to its current location on Broad Street in Richmond. In 2010 The Children's Museum of Richmond became the first in the country to open a satellite location, at West Broad Village in Short Pump, located in the West End of Richmond. The Children's Museum of Richmond opened two other satellites in 2012 and 2014 in Chesterfield, Virginia and Fredericksburg, Virginia. On July 11, 2015, The Short Pump location moved from West Broad Village to Short Pump Town Center. The Short Pump & Fredricksburg locations closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Short Pump Town Center location was replaced by Draftcade. The museum is also home of Commonwealth Parenting and the Central Virginia Book Bank.

Library of Virginia

Library of Virginia

The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and is located at 800 East Broad Street, two blocks from the Virginia State Capitol building. It was formerly known as the Virginia State Library and as the Virginia State Library and Archives.

Virginia Holocaust Museum

Virginia Holocaust Museum

The Virginia Holocaust Museum (VHM) is a public history museum located in Richmond, Virginia, United States. The museum is dedicated to depicting the Holocaust through the personal stories of its victims.

Richmond National Battlefield Park

Richmond National Battlefield Park

The Richmond National Battlefield Park commemorates 13 American Civil War sites around Richmond, Virginia, which served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for most of the war. The park connects certain features within the city with defensive fortifications and battle sites around it.

Tredegar Iron Works

Tredegar Iron Works

The Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, was the biggest ironworks in the Confederacy during the American Civil War, and a significant factor in the decision to make Richmond its capital.

Court End

Court End

Court End is a neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, that sits to the north of the Capitol Square and East Broad Street. It developed in the Federal era, after Virginia's capital moved from Williamsburg.

Richmond is not home to any major league professional sports teams, but since 2013, the Washington Commanders of the National Football League have held their summer training camp in the city.^[156] There are also several minor league sports in the city, including the Richmond Kickers of USL League One and the Richmond Flying Squirrels of the Class AA Double-A Northeast of Minor League Baseball (an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants).^[157][158] The Kickers began playing in Richmond in 1993, and currently play at City Stadium. In 2018 the Richmond Kickers left the USL to become founders in Division 3 Soccer. The Squirrels opened their first season at The Diamond on April 15, 2010.^[159] From 1966 through 2008, the city was home to the Richmond Braves, a AAA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball, until the franchise relocated to Georgia.^[160]

It is also the home to the Richmond Black Widows, the city's first women's football team, founded in 2015 by Sarah Schkeeper. They are a part of the Women's Football Alliance. Their game season begins in April, with preseason beginning in January.

Another significant sports venue is the 6,000-seat Arthur Ashe Athletic Center, a multi-purpose arena named for tennis great and Richmond resident Arthur Ashe. This facility hosts a variety of local sporting events, concerts, and other activities. As the home of Arthur Ashe, the sport of tennis is also popular in Richmond, and in 2010, the United States Tennis Association named Richmond as the third "Best Tennis Town", behind Charleston, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia.^[161]

Auto racing is also popular in the area. The Richmond Raceway (RR) has hosted NASCAR Cup Series races since 1953, as well as the Capital City 400 from 1962 − 1980.^[162] RIR also hosted IndyCar's SunTrust Indy Challenge from 2001 − 2009. Another track, Southside Speedway, has operated since 1959 and sits just southwest of Richmond in Chesterfield County. This .333 mi (0.536 km) oval short-track has become known as the "Toughest Track in the South" and "The Action Track", and features weekly stock car racing on Friday nights.^[163] Southside Speedway has acted as the breeding grounds for many past NASCAR legends including Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip, and claims to be the home track of NASCAR superstar Denny Hamlin.^[164][165]

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.^[166] The course used for the championships was the first real-world location to be recreated within the indoor cycle training application, Zwift, and has been subsequently joined within the game by the UCI world championships courses from 2018 (Innsbruck) and 2019 (Harrogate).

College basketball has also had recent success with the Richmond Spiders and the VCU Rams, both of the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Spiders' men's and women's teams play at Robins Center and the Rams' men's and women's teams play at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

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National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins with a three-week preseason in August, followed by the 18-week regular season which runs from early September to early January, with each team playing 17 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament that culminates in the Super Bowl, which is contested in February and is played between the AFC and NFC conference champions. The league is headquartered in New York City.

Minor league

Minor league

Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in various sports. They generally have lesser fan bases, much smaller revenues and salaries, and are used to develop players for bigger leagues.

Richmond Kickers

Richmond Kickers

Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL-1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional Soccer League expansion team, which at the time, was the fourth tier of soccer in the United States.

Richmond Flying Squirrels

Richmond Flying Squirrels

The Richmond Flying Squirrels are a Minor League Baseball team based in Richmond, Virginia. The team, which is a part of the Eastern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants major league club, and plays at The Diamond. The Flying Squirrels have been affiliated with the Giants since 2010, making it the longest-running active affiliation in the Giants organization among teams not owned by the Giants. The Squirrels were previously known as the Connecticut Defenders.

Minor League Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is professional baseball below Major League Baseball (MLB), including teams affiliated with MLB clubs and independent baseball leagues consisting of unaffiliated teams.

San Francisco Giants

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, the team was renamed the New York Giants three years later, eventually relocating from New York City to San Francisco in 1958.

City Stadium (Richmond)

City Stadium (Richmond)

City Stadium is a sports stadium in Richmond, Virginia. It is owned by the City of Richmond and is located south of the Carytown district off the Downtown Expressway. The stadium was built in 1929 and seats approximately 22,000 people when both stands are used. It has been used by the Richmond Kickers of USL League One since 1995, at a capacity of 6,000.

Richmond Braves

Richmond Braves

The Richmond Braves were an American minor league baseball club based in Richmond, Virginia, the Triple-A International League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to 2008. Owned by the parent Atlanta club and colloquially referred to as the R-Braves, they played their home games at a stadium called The Diamond on Richmond's Northside built for them in 1985, and before then Parker Field on the same site. The franchise moved to Gwinnett County, Georgia in 2009 to play in the newly built Coolray Field as the Gwinnett Braves.

Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1871, as the Boston Red Stockings. The club was known by various names until the franchise began operating as the Boston Braves in 1912. The Braves are the oldest continuously operating professional sports franchise in America."

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Formed in 1876 and 1901 respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903. They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina; to the northeast by South Carolina; to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean; to the south by Florida; and to the west by Alabama. Georgia is the 24th-largest state in area and 8th most populous of the 50 United States. Its 2020 population was 10,711,908, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Atlanta, a "beta(+)" global city, is both the state's capital and its largest city. The Atlanta metropolitan area, with a population of more than 6 million people in 2021, is the 8th most populous metropolitan area in the United States and contains about 57% of Georgia's entire population.

Richmond Black Widows

Richmond Black Widows

The Richmond Black Widows are a women's American football team playing out of Richmond, Virginia. They are a member of the Women's Football Alliance (WFA). They are the first women's football team in Richmond, and currently the only team in Virginia. They played their inaugural season in April 2016.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

The city operates one of the oldest municipal park systems in the country. The park system began when the city council voted in 1851 to acquire 7.5 acres (30,000 m²), now known as Monroe Park.^[167] Today, Monroe Park sits adjacent to the Virginia Commonwealth University campus and is one of more than 40 parks comprising a total of more than 1,500 acres (610 ha).

Several parks are located 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.^[168] The trails are used as part of the Xterra East Championship course for both the running and mountain biking portions of the off-road triathlon.^[169]

There are also parks on two major islands in the river: Belle Isle and Brown's Island. Belle Isle, at various former times a Powhatan fishing village, colonial-era horse race track, and Civil War prison camp, is the larger of the two, and contains many bike trails as well as a small cliff that is used for rock climbing instruction. One can walk the island and still see many of the remains of the Civil War prison camp, such as an arms storage room and a gun emplacement that was used to quell prisoner riots. Brown's Island is a smaller island and a popular venue of a large number of free outdoor concerts and festivals in the spring and summer, such as the weekly Friday Cheers concert series or the James River Beer and Seafood Festival.

Japanese Garden at Maymont

Two other major parks in the city along the river are Byrd Park and Maymont, located near the Fan District. Byrd Park features a one mi (1.6 km) running track, with exercise stops, a public dog park, and a number of small lakes for small boats, as well as two monuments, Buddha house, and an amphitheater. Prominently featured in the park is the World War I Memorial Carillon, built in 1926 as a memorial to those that died in the war. Maymont, located adjacent to Byrd Park, is a 100-acre (40 ha) Victorian estate with a museum, formal gardens, native wildlife exhibits, nature center, carriage collection, and children's farm. Other parks in the 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 renowned as one of the best in the country for urban white-water rafting/canoeing/kayaking. Several rafting companies offer complete services. There are also several easily accessed riverside areas within the city limits for rock-hopping, swimming, and picnicking.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is located adjacent to the city in Henrico County. Founded in 1984, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is located on 80 acres (320,000 m²) and features a glass conservatory, a rose garden, a healing garden, and an accessible-to-all children's garden. The Garden is a public place for the display and scientific study of plants. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is one of only two independent public botanical gardens in Virginia and is designated a state botanical garden.^[170]

Several theme parks are also located near the city, including Kings Dominion to the north, and Busch Gardens to the east, near Williamsburg.

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Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is a 50 acres (200,000 m2), botanical garden in Henrico County, just outside of Richmond, Virginia. It features over a dozen themed gardens, a conservatory, library, and café. Regular daily admission is $17 for adults, $14 for seniors, $8 for children, under age 3 are free. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is part of the Museums for All program offering $1 adult admission and $5 annual membership to those with a SNAP/EBT card. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden also hosts select days, typically July 4 and Labor Day, where admission is free to the community. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden offers an indoor butterfly exhibit Butterflies LIVE!, seasonal exhibitions, art exhibitions, special events and seasonal evening hours with live music. Leashed dogs are permitted on select Thursday evenings for Fidos After 5. Tours, classes and select special events typically have an additional fee.

Monroe Park

Monroe Park

Monroe Park is a 7.5 acres (3.0 ha) landscaped park 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest of the Virginia State Capitol Building in Richmond, Virginia. It is named after James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States (1817–1825). The park unofficially demarcates the eastern point of the Fan District and is Richmond's oldest park. It occupies the center of the Virginia Commonwealth University Monroe Park Campus.

Brown's Island

Brown's Island

Brown's Island is an artificial continental island on the James River in Richmond, Virginia, formed by the Haxall Canal. Part of the city's James River Park, it is the popular venue of a large number of outdoor concerts and festivals in the spring and summer, such as the weekly Friday Cheers concert series or Dominion Riverrock. The Rivanna Subdivision Trestle crosses over the island.

Rock climbing

Rock climbing

Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and mentally demanding sport, one that often tests a climber's strength, endurance, agility and balance along with mental control. Knowledge of proper climbing techniques and the use of specialized climbing equipment is crucial for the safe completion of routes.

Maymont

Maymont

Maymont is a 100-acre Victorian estate and public park in Richmond, Virginia. It contains Maymont Mansion, now a historic house museum, an arboretum, formal gardens, a carriage collection, native wildlife exhibits, a nature center, and Children's Farm.

Byrd Park

Byrd Park

Byrd Park, also known as William Byrd Park, is a public park located in Richmond, Virginia, United States, north of the James River and adjacent to Maymont. The 200-acre (0.81 km2) park includes a mile-long trail with exercise stops, monuments, an amphitheatre, and three small lakes: Shields, Swan, and Boat Lake. Boat Lake has a lighted fountain at its center. Visitors can rent pedal boats there in season. The park includes tennis courts, Little League baseball fields, and a children's playground. The historic round house and Poplar Vale Cemetery are also located in the park. It is named after William Byrd II, whose family owned much of the area when Richmond was founded in 1737. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Dog park

Dog park

A dog park is a park for dogs to exercise and play off-leash in a controlled environment under the supervision of their owners.

Carillon

Carillon

A carillon ( KERR-ə-lon, kə-RIL-yən) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are cast in bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniously together. They are struck with clappers connected to a keyboard of wooden batons played with the hands and pedals played with the feet. Often housed in bell towers, carillons are usually owned by churches, universities, or municipalities. They can include an automatic system through which the time is announced and simple tunes are played throughout the day.

Carriage

Carriage

A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping and, on those made in recent centuries, steel springs. Two-wheeled carriages are informal and usually owner-driven.

Chimborazo Park

Chimborazo Park

Chimborazo Park is a park and historic land site in Richmond, Virginia, United States. Created in 1874, the park was the site of Chimborazo Hospital, one of the world's largest military hospitals.

Kings Dominion

Kings Dominion

Kings Dominion is an amusement park located in Doswell, Virginia, 20 miles (30 km) north of Richmond and 75 miles (120 km) south of Washington, D.C. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the 280-acre (1.1 km2) park opened to the public on May 3, 1975, and features more than 60 rides, shows and attractions including 13 roller coasters and a 20-acre (81,000 m2) water park. Its name is derived from the name of its sister park, Kings Island, and the nickname for the state of Virginia, "Old Dominion."

Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens

Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The original park is in Tampa, Florida, and the second park is in Williamsburg, Virginia. There were also previously Busch Gardens parks in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California (1964–1979) and Houston, Texas (1971–1973). The "Busch Gardens" name was earlier used to refer to the gardens developed by Adolphus Busch near his home in Pasadena, California, which were open to the public from 1906 to 1937.

Richmond City Hall

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Richmond city government consists of a city council with representatives from nine districts serving in a legislative and oversight capacity, as well as a popularly elected, at-large mayor serving as head of the executive branch. Citizens in each of the nine districts elect one council representative each to serve a four-year term. Beginning with the November 2008 election Council terms was lengthened to 4 years. The city council elects from among its members one member to serve as Council President and one to serve as Council Vice President. The city council meets at City Hall, located at 900 E. Broad St., 2nd Floor, on the second and fourth Mondays of every month, except August.

In 1977, a federal district court ruled in favor of Curtis Holt Jr. who had claimed the council's existing election process — an at large voting system — was racially biased. The verdict required the city to rebuild its council into nine distinct wards. Within the year the city council switched from majority white to majority black, reflecting the city's populace. This new city council elected Richmond's first black mayor, Henry L. Marsh.

Richmond's government changed in 2004 from a council-manager form of government with a mayor elected by and from the council to an at-large, popularly elected mayor. Unlike most major cities, in order to be elected, a mayoral candidate must win a plurality of the vote in five of the city's nine council districts. If no one crosses that threshold, a runoff is held between the two top finishers in the first round. This was implemented as a compromise in order to address concerns that better-organized and wealthier white voters could have undue influence.^[172] In a landslide election, incumbent mayor Rudy McCollum was defeated by L. Douglas Wilder, who previously served Virginia as the first elected African American governor in the United States since Reconstruction. The current mayor of Richmond is Levar Stoney who was elected in 2016.^[173] The mayor is not a part of the Richmond City Council.

As of 2021^[update], the Richmond City Council consisted of:

• Andreas D. Addison, 1st District (West End)
• Katherine Jordan, 2nd District (North Central)
• Ann-Frances Lambert, 3rd District (Northside)
• Kristen Nye, 4th District (Southwest)
• Stephanie A. Lynch, 5th District (Central)
• Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District (Gateway), Council Vice President
• Cynthia I. Newbille, 7th District (East End), Council President
• Reva M. Trammell, 8th District (Southside)
• Michael J. Jones, 9th District (South Central)

^[174]

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2008 United States presidential election in Virginia

2008 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 2008 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 4, 2008, which was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

2004 United States presidential election in Virginia

2004 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 2004 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

2000 United States presidential election in Virginia

2000 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 2000 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 7, 2000, and was part of the 2000 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1996 United States presidential election in Virginia

1996 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1996 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 5, 1996, as part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1992 United States presidential election in Virginia

1992 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1992 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 3, 1992, as part of the 1992 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1988 United States presidential election in Virginia

1988 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1988 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

1984 United States presidential election in Virginia

1984 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1984 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1980 United States presidential election in Virginia

1980 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1980 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 4, 1980. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1980 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1976 United States presidential election in Virginia

1976 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1976 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 2, 1976. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1976 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1972 United States presidential election in Virginia

1972 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1972 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 7, 1972. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1972 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States. This was also the first presidential election after the passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment, which decreased the voting age from 21 to 18.

1968 United States presidential election in Virginia

1968 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1968 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1964 United States presidential election in Virginia

1964 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1964 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 3, 1964. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1964 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

The Art Deco-styled Thomas Jefferson High School in the near West End

The Romanesque Revival-style of the former Benedictine College Preparatory in the Museum District

The University of Richmond School of Business

Public schools

The city of Richmond operates 28 elementary schools, nine middle schools, and eight high schools, serving a total student population of 24,000 students.^[175] There is one Governor's School in the city − the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies. In 2008, it was named as one of Newsweek magazine's 18 "public elite" high schools,^[176] and in 2012, it was rated #16 of America's best high schools overall.^[177] Richmond's public school district also runs one of Virginia's four public charter schools, the Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts, which was founded in 2010.^[178] The class of 2020 saw an on-time graduation rate of 71.6% putting it at least 20 percentage points behind most other school divisions and making it the worst in the state.^[179]

Private schools

As of 2008, there were 36 private schools serving grades one or higher in the city of Richmond.^[180] Some of these schools include: Banner Christian School, Benedictine College Preparatory, St. Bridget School, Brook Road Academy, Collegiate School, Grace Christian School, Grove Christian School, Guardian Christian Academy, St. Christopher's School, St. Gertrude High School, St. Catherine's School, Southside Baptist Christian School, Northstar Academy, The Steward School, Trinity Episcopal School, The New Community School, and Veritas School.

Colleges and universities

The Richmond area has many major institutions of higher education, including Virginia Commonwealth University (public), University of Richmond (private), Virginia Union University (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). Several community colleges are found in the metro area, including J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College and Brightpoint Community College (Chesterfield County). In addition, there are several Technical Colleges in Richmond including ITT Technical Institute, ECPI College of Technology and Centura College. There are several vocational colleges also, such as Fortis College and Bryant Stratton College.

Virginia State University is located about 20 mi (32 km) south of Richmond, in the suburb of Ettrick, just outside Petersburg. Randolph-Macon College is located about 15 mi (24 km) north of Richmond, in the incorporated town of Ashland.

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Art Deco

Art Deco

Art Deco, short for the French Arts Décoratifs, and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s, and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s. Through styling and design of the exterior and interior of anything from large structures to small objects, including how people look, Art Deco has influenced bridges, buildings, ships, ocean liners, trains, cars, trucks, buses, furniture, and everyday objects like radios and vacuum cleaners.

Richmond Public Schools

Richmond Public Schools

Richmond Public Schools is a public school district located in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia. It is occasionally described locally as Richmond City Public Schools to emphasize its connection to the independent city rather than the Richmond-Petersburg region at large or the rural Richmond County, Virginia.

Middle school

Middle school

A middle school is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. The concept, regulation and classification of middle schools, as well as the ages covered, vary between and sometimes within countries.

Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies

Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies

The Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies (MLWGSGIS) is a public regional magnet high school in Richmond, Virginia.

Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at Newsweek. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century, and had many notable editors-in-chief. The magazine was acquired by The Washington Post Company in 1961, and remained under its ownership until 2010.

Charter school

Charter school

A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autonomy for accountability, that it is freed from the rules but accountable for results.

Benedictine College Preparatory

Benedictine College Preparatory

Benedictine College Preparatory is a private Roman Catholic military high school in Goochland, Virginia. It is owned and operated by the Benedictine Society of Virginia, part of the American-Cassinese Congregation. Benedictine offers education through a private military institute model, which has long been a traditional form of education for young men in Virginia.

Brook Road Academy

Brook Road Academy

Brook Road Academy was a private school in Richmond, Virginia, United States.

Collegiate School (Richmond, Virginia)

Collegiate School (Richmond, Virginia)

Collegiate School is a preparatory school for boys and girls located in Richmond, Virginia. The student body of Collegiate comprises about 1,600 total students from Junior Kindergarten through 12th Grade. The Lower School and Upper School are coeducational and the Middle School is coordinated with boys and girls in separate classes.

Saint Gertrude High School

Saint Gertrude High School

Saint Gertrude High School is an independent Catholic college preparatory day school for young women grades 9–12 in Richmond, Virginia. It was founded in 1922 by the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia, of Bristow Monastery, and is still owned and governed by the order, although the day-to-day operations are run by lay administrative and teaching staff. The school's goal is to provide young women with an academic education in an environment of Christian values and cultural diversity.

Northstar Academy (Richmond, Virginia)

Northstar Academy (Richmond, Virginia)

Northstar Academy is a private, non-profit, K-12 school located in Richmond, Virginia for students with learning challenges. The school serves students who experience a broad range of disabilities as identified under I.D.E.A. such as Specific Learning Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Other Health Impairment (ADHD). Northstar Academy is an inclusive school that provides both academic and social instruction.

List of colleges and universities in the Greater Richmond Region

List of colleges and universities in the Greater Richmond Region

The Greater Richmond Region is a region and metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Virginia, centered on Richmond, the state capital. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines the area as the Richmond, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) used by the U.S. Census Bureau and other entities. The OMB defines the area as comprising 17 county-level jurisdictions, including the independent cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights. As of 2016, it had a population of 1,263,617, making it the 45th largest MSA in the country.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Richmond, Virginia" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the local daily newspaper in Richmond with a Sunday circulation of 120,000, is owned by Lee Enterprises, Inc. Style Weekly, an online alternative local publication covering popular culture, arts, and entertainment, is owned by VPM Media Corporation. RVA Magazine is the city's only independent art music and culture publication, was once monthly, but is now issued quarterly. The Richmond Free Press and the Voice cover the news from an African-American perspective.

The Richmond metro area is served by many local television and radio stations. As of 2010^[update], the Richmond-Petersburg designated market area (DMA) is the 58th largest in the U.S. with 553,950 homes according to Nielsen Market Research.^[181] The major network television affiliates are WTVR-TV 6 (CBS), WRIC-TV 8 (ABC), WWBT 12 (NBC), WRLH-TV 35 (Fox), and WUPV 65 (CW). PBS stations include WCVE-TV 23 and WCVW 57. There are also a wide variety of radio stations 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 enjoys a low power FM Station, WRIR, which features all volunteer community supported radio at all hours.

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Media in Richmond, Virginia

Media in Richmond, Virginia

According to nielsen media statistics for 2015–2016, the Richmond, Virginia market area is the 56th largest Designated Market Area in the United States, with 549,730 TV households. Richmond is served by a variety of communication media:

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond, the capital of Virginia, and the primary newspaper of record for the state of Virginia.

Lee Enterprises

Lee Enterprises

Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is based in Davenport, Iowa.

Style Weekly

Style Weekly

Style Weekly is an online alternative media outlet that was previously an alternative weekly newspaper started in November 1982 for news, arts, culture and opinion in Richmond, Virginia.

RVA Magazine

RVA Magazine

RVA Magazine is a magazine, launched in April 2005 as a full color publication with a focus on street art, trendsetting local music and counter culture ideas coming from the Richmond, Virginia area. It was founded by R. Anthony Harris and Jeremy Parker. The mission of RVA Magazine is to cross-pollinate cultures and encourage the spread of new ideas in Richmond, VA. The magazine was the first to use and has been credited with popularizing the term "RVA", which became the city's official moniker around 2012, and stands for a progressive, diverse and creative city. In 2017 it began to take on a more political bent.

Richmond Free Press

Richmond Free Press

The Richmond Free Press is an independent newspaper in Richmond, Virginia. Published on a weekly basis, it is mainly targeted at the city's African-American community and its poorest residents. Raymond H. Boone, its founder, started the paper in part because he felt these groups were underrepresented in the mainstream media.

CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainment Group division of Paramount Global.

American Broadcasting Company

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California, on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building. The network's secondary offices, and headquarters of its news division, are in New York City, at its broadcast center at 77 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are located at Comcast Building in New York City. The company also has offices in Los Angeles at 10 Universal City Plaza and Chicago at the NBC Tower. NBC is the oldest of the traditional "Big Three" American television networks, having been formed in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network," in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting.

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company

The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations and additional offices at the Fox Network Center in Los Angeles and the Fox Media Center in Tempe. Launched as a competitor to the Big Three television networks on October 9, 1986, Fox went on to become the most successful attempt at a fourth television network. It was the highest-rated free-to-air network in the 18–49 demographic from 2004 to 2012 and again in 2020, and was the most-watched American television network in total viewership during the 2007–08 season.

The CW

The CW

The CW Television Network is an American English-language commercial broadcast television network that is controlled, through The CW Network, LLC, by Nexstar Media Group with a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the first letters of the names of its two founding co-owners CBS Corporation and Warner Bros.. Nexstar closed its acquisition of a controlling interest in The CW on October 3, 2022, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each retaining a 12.5% ownership stake.

PBS

PBS

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Arthur, Sesame Street, and This Old House.

Transportation

The Greater Richmond area is served by the Richmond International Airport (IATA: RIC, ICAO: KRIC), located in nearby Sandston, seven mi (11 km) southeast of Richmond and within an hour drive of historic Williamsburg, Virginia. Richmond International is now served by ten passenger and four cargo airlines with over 200 daily flights providing non-stop service to major destination markets and connecting flights to destinations worldwide. A record 3.3 million passengers used Richmond International Airport in 2006, a 13% increase over 2005.

Richmond is a major hub for intercity bus company Greyhound Lines, with its terminal at 2910 N Boulevard. Multiple runs per day connect directly with Washington, D.C., New York, Raleigh, and elsewhere. Direct trips to New York take approximately 7.5 hours. Discount carrier Megabus also provides curbside service from outside of Main Street Station. Direct service is available to Washington, D.C., Hampton Roads, Charlotte, Raleigh, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Most other connections to Megabus served cities, such as New York, can be made from Washington, D.C.^[182]

Local transit and paratransit bus service in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield counties is provided by the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC). The GRTC, however, serves only small parts of the suburban counties. The far West End (Innsbrook and Short Pump) and almost all of Chesterfield County have no public transportation despite dense housing, retail, and office development. According to a 2008 GRTC operations analysis report, a majority of GRTC riders utilize their services because they do not have an available alternative such as a private vehicle.^[183] Richmond, and the surrounding metropolitan area, was granted a roughly $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2014^[184] to support the GRTC Pulse bus rapid transit system, which opened in June 2018, running along Broad Street from Willow Lawn to Rocketts Landing, in the first phase of an improved public transportation hub for the region.

The Richmond area also has two railroad stations served by Amtrak. Each station receives regular service from north of Richmond including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. The region's main station, Staples Mill Road Station, is located just outside the city on a major north–south freight line and receives all service to and from all points south including Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Savannah, Newport News, Norfolk and Florida. Richmond's only railway station located within the city limits, the historic Main Street Station, was renovated in 2004.^[185] As of 2010, the station only receives trains headed to and from Newport News due to track layout.

Richmond also benefits from an excellent position in reference to the state's transportation 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 several major rail lines.

Major highways

Utilities

Electricity in the Richmond Metro area is provided by Dominion Energy. The company, based in Richmond, is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, serving retail energy customers in nine states. Electricity is provided in the Richmond area primarily by the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station and Surry Nuclear Generating Station, as well as a coal-fired station in Chester, Virginia. These three plants provide a total of 4,453 megawatts of power. Several other natural gas plants provide extra power during times of peak demand. These include facilities in Chester, and Surry, and two plants in Richmond (Gravel Neck and Darbytown).^[186]

Natural gas in the Richmond Metro area 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 largest water producers in Virginia, with a modern plant that can treat up to 132 million gallons of water a day from the James River.^[187] The facility also provides water to the surrounding area through wholesale contracts with Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover counties. Overall, this results in a facility that provides water for approximately 500,000 people.

The wastewater treatment plant and distribution system of water mains, pumping stations and storage facilities provide water to approximately 62,000 customers in the city. There is also a wastewater treatment plant located on the south bank of the James River. This plant can treat up to 70 million gallons of water per day of sanitary sewage and stormwater before returning it to the river. The wastewater utility also operates and maintains 1,500 mi (2,400 km) of sanitary sewer and pumping stations, 38 mi (61 km) of intercepting sewer lines, and the Shockoe Retention Basin, a 44-million-gallon stormwater reservoir used during heavy rains.

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IATA airport code

IATA airport code

An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a three-character alphanumeric geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The characters prominently displayed on baggage tags attached at airport check-in desks are an example of a way these codes are used.

ICAO airport code

ICAO airport code

The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators, are used by air traffic control and airline operations such as flight planning. ICAO codes are also used to identify other aviation facilities such as weather stations, international flight service stations or area control centers, whether or not they are located at airports. Flight information regions are also identified by a unique ICAO-code.

Bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for charter purposes, or through private ownership. Although the average bus carries between 30 and 100 passengers, some buses have a capacity of up to 300 passengers. The most common type is the single-deck rigid bus, with double-decker and articulated buses carrying larger loads, and midibuses and minibuses carrying smaller loads. Coaches are used for longer-distance services. Many types of buses, such as city transit buses and inter-city coaches, charge a fare. Other types, such as elementary or secondary school buses or shuttle buses within a post-secondary education campus, are free. In many jurisdictions, bus drivers require a special large vehicle licence above and beyond a regular driving licence.

Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines, Inc. (Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America. Services include Greyhound Mexico, charter bus services, and Amtrak Thruway services. Greyhound operates 1,700 coach buses produced mainly by Motor Coach Industries and Prevost serving 230 stations and 1,700 destinations. The company's first route began in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914 and the company adopted the Greyhound name in 1929. The company is owned by Flix North America, Inc., an affiliate of Flixbus, and is based in Downtown Dallas.

Megabus (North America)

Megabus (North America)

Megabus, branded as megabus.com, is an intercity bus service of Coach USA/Coach Canada operating in the eastern, southern and midwestern United States and in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is the North American service equivalent to the European Megabus.

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and the surrounding metropolitan region located in the southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater Region.

Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, the fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a estimated population of 595,218 in 2023. Baltimore was designated an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and today it is the most populous independent city in the nation. As of 2023, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,921,051, making it the nation's 20th largest metropolitan area. Baltimore is located about 40 miles (64 km) north northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the third-largest CSA in the nation, with a 2023 estimated population of 10,042,122.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. It is one of the most historically significant cities in the United States and served as the nation's capital until 1800. Philadelphia is the nation's sixth-largest city with a population of 1,603,797 as of the 2020 census. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of the world's largest metropolitan regions with 6.245 million residents. Philadelphia is known for its extensive contributions to American history, especially the American Revolution, and for its contemporary influence in business and industry, culture, sports, and music.

Paratransit

Paratransit

Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport (UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. Paratransit services may vary considerably on the degree of flexibility they provide their customers. At their simplest they may consist of a taxi or small bus that will run along a more or less defined route and then stop to pick up or discharge passengers on request. At the other end of the spectrum—fully demand responsive transport—the most flexible paratransit systems offer on-demand call-up door-to-door service from any origin to any destination in a service area. In addition to public transit agencies, paratransit services may be operated by community groups or not-for-profit organizations, and for-profit private companies or operators.

Henrico County, Virginia

Henrico County, Virginia

Henrico County, officially the County of Henrico, is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is included in the Greater Richmond Region. There is no incorporated community within Henrico County; therefore, there is no incorporated county seat either. Laurel, an unincorporated CDP, serves this function.

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County, Virginia

Chesterfield County is located just south of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its county seat is Chesterfield Court House.

GRTC Pulse

GRTC Pulse

The GRTC Pulse is a bus rapid transit line in Richmond, Virginia, United States. The line runs along Broad Street and Main Street in central Richmond, between The Shops at Willow Lawn and Rockett's Landing. It opened on June 24, 2018, and is the third bus rapid transit service to be constructed in Virginia. The Pulse is the first regional rapid transit system to serve Richmond since 1949.

Richmond's sister cities are:^[188]

• Richmond upon Thames, United Kingdom
• Saitama, Japan
• Ségou, Mali
• Windhoek, Namibia
• Zhengzhou, China

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Sister city

Sister city

A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.

United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is 242,495 square kilometres (93,628 sq mi), with an estimated 2023 population of over 68 million people.

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. It is governed by Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council and is divided into nineteen wards. The population is 198,019 and the major settlements are Barnes, East Sheen, Mortlake, Richmond, Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton.

Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands, with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Saitama (city)

Saitama (city)

Saitama is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance. Being in the Greater Tokyo Area and lying 15 to 30 kilometres north of central Tokyo, many of its residents commute into Tokyo. As of 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 1,324,854, and a population density of 6,093 people per km². Its total area is 217.43 square kilometres (83.95 sq mi).

Mali

Mali

Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over 1,241,238 square kilometres (479,245 sq mi). The population of Mali is 21.9 million. 67% of its population was estimated to be under the age of 25 in 2017. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. The sovereign state of Mali consists of ten regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert. The country's southern part is in the Sudanian savanna, where the majority of inhabitants live, and both the Niger and Senegal rivers pass through. The country's economy centres on agriculture and mining. One of Mali's most prominent natural resources is gold, and the country is the third largest producer of gold on the African continent. It also exports salt.

Ségou

Ségou

Ségou is a town and an urban commune in south-central Mali that lies 235 kilometres (146 mi) northeast of Bamako on the right bank of the River Niger. The town is the capital of the Ségou Cercle and the Ségou Region. With 130,690 inhabitants in 2009, it is the fifth-largest town in Mali.

Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations.

Windhoek

Windhoek

Windhoek is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 2020 was 431,000 which is growing continually due to a continued migration from other regions in Namibia.

China

China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions. The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai.

Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou, also spelt Zheng Zhou and alternatively romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and largest city of Henan Province in the central part of the People's Republic of China. Located in north-central Henan, it is one of the National Central Cities in China, the centre of Central Plains area, and serves as the political, economic, technological, and educational center of the province. The Zhengzhou metropolitan area is the core area of the Central Plains Economic Zone.