Richmond
State capital and independent city
Downtown skyline along the James River St. John's Episcopal Church Monument Avenue Main Street Station Virginia State Capitol Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Flag Seal
Nickname(s):  "RVA",[1] "River City"[2][failed verification]
Motto(s):  Latin: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars)
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Coordinates: 37°32′27″N 77°26′12″W / 37.54083°N 77.43667°W / 37.54083; -77.43667
Country	United States
State	Virginia
Named for	Richmond, London
Government
• Mayor	Levar Stoney (D)
Area [3]
• City	62.57 sq mi (162.05 km2)
• Land	59.92 sq mi (155.20 km2)
• Water	2.65 sq mi (6.85 km2)
Elevation [4]	213 ft (65 m)
Population  (2020)
• City	226,610
• Rank	100th in the United States 4th in Virginia
• Density	3,782/sq mi (1,484.75/km2)
• Urban	1,059,150 (US: 44th)
• Urban density	2,067.3/sq mi (798.2/km2)
• Metro	1,339,182 (US: 44th)
Demonym	Richmonder
GDP [5]
• Richmond (MSA)	$93.615 billion (2022)
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes	23173, 23218–23242, 23249–23250, 23255, 23260–23261, 23269, 23273–23274, 23276, 23278–23279, 23282, 23284–23286, 23288–23295, 23297–23298
Area codes	804 and 686
FIPS code	51-67000[6]
GNIS feature ID	1499957[4]
Website	rva.gov
Nomenclature evolution Prior to 1071 – Richemont: a town in Normandy, France. 1071 to 1501 – Richmond: a castle town in Yorkshire, UK. 1501 to 1742 – Richmond, a palace town in London, UK. 1742 to present – Richmond, Virginia.

Richmond (/ˈrɪtʃmənd/ RITCH-mənd) is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871. The city's population in the 2020 census was 226,610, up from 204,214 in 2010,^[7] making it Virginia's fourth-most populous city.^[8] The Richmond metropolitan area, with over 1.3 million residents, is the Commonwealth's third-most populous.

Richmond is located at the James River's fall line, 44 mi (71 km) west of Williamsburg, 66 mi (106 km) east of Charlottesville, 91 mi (146 km) east of Lynchburg and 92 mi (148 km) south of Washington, D.C. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, Richmond is at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64 and encircled by Interstate 295, Virginia State Route 150 and Virginia State Route 288. Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Chesterfield to the south, Varina to the southeast, Sandston to the east, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west, and Mechanicsville to the northeast.^[9][10]

Richmond was an important village in the Powhatan Confederacy and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown from 1609 to 1611.^[11][12] Founded in 1737, it replaced Williamsburg as the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech in 1775 at St. John's Church and the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson. During the American Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America.

The Jackson Ward neighborhood is the city's traditional hub of African American commerce and culture, once known as the "Black Wall Street of America" and the "Harlem of the South."^[13] At the beginning of the 20th century, Richmond had one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems.

Law, finance, and government primarily drive Richmond's economy. The downtown area is home to federal, state, and local governmental agencies as well as notable legal and banking firms. The greater metropolitan area includes several Fortune 500 companies: Performance Food Group, Altria, CarMax, Dominion Energy, Markel, Owens and Minor, Genworth Financial, and ARKO Corp.^[14][15][16] The city is home to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and a Federal Reserve Bank (one of 13 such courts and one of 12 such banks).

History

Colonial era

After the first permanent English-speaking settlement was established at Jamestown, Virginia, in April 1607, Captain Christopher Newport led explorers northwest up the James River to an inhabited area in the Powhatan Nation.^[17]

In 1611, the first European settlement in Central Virginia was established at Henricus, where the Falling Creek empties into the James River. In 1619, early Virginia Company settlers established the Falling Creek Ironworks there. Decades of conflicts between the Powhatan and the settlers followed, including the Battle of Bloody Run, fought near Richmond in 1656, after tensions arose from an influx of Manahoacs and Nahyssans from the North. Nonetheless, the James Falls area saw more White settlement in the late 1600s and early 1700s.^[18]

In early 1737, planter William Byrd II commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the original town grid, completed in April. Byrd named the city after the English town of Richmond near (and now part of) London, because the view of the James River's bend at the fall line was similar to that of the River Thames from Richmond Hill, named after Henry VII's ancestral home in Richmond, North Yorkshire.^[19] In 1742, the settlement was incorporated as a town.^[20]

American Revolution

In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me liberty, or give me death" speech in Richmond's St. John's Church, greatly influencing Virginia's participation in the First Continental Congress and the course of the American Revolution.^[21] On April 18, 1780, the state capital was moved from Williamsburg to Richmond, providing a more centralized location for Virginia's increasing western population and theoretically isolating the capital from a British attack from the coast.^[22] In 1781, Loyalist troops led by Benedict Arnold led a raid on Richmond and burnt it, leading Governor Thomas Jefferson to flee while the Virginia militia, led by Sampson Mathews, unsuccessfully defended the city.^[23]

Early United States

Richmond recovered quickly from the war, thriving within a year of its burning.^[24] In 1786, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was enacted, separating church and state and advancing the legal principle for freedom of religion in the United States.^[25] In 1788, the Virginia State Capitol, designed by Jefferson and Charles-Louis Clérisseau in the Greek Revival style, was completed.

To bypass Richmond's rapids on the upper James River and provide a water route across the Appalachian Mountains to the Kanawha River, which flows westward into the Ohio River and converges with the Mississippi River, George Washington helped design the James River and Kanawha Canal.^[26] The canal started in Westham and cut east to Richmond, facilitating the transfer of cargo from flat-bottomed James River bateaux above the fall line to the ocean-faring ships below.^[26] The canal boatmen legacy is represented by the figure in the center of the city flag.^[27]

Because of the canal and the hydropower the falls generated, Richmond emerged as an important industrial center after the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). It became home to some of the largest manufacturing facilities, including iron works and flour mills, in the South and the country.

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. Passenger liners could reach Norfolk, Virginia, through the Hampton Roads harbor.^[28] In the 19th century, Richmond was connected to the North by the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad, later replaced by CSXT.

The railroad also was used by some to escape slavery in the mid-19th century. In 1849, Henry "Box" Brown famously had himself nailed into a small box and shipped from Richmond to abolitionists in Philadelphia through Baltimore's President Street Station on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, often used by the Underground Railroad to assist escaping disguised slaves reach the free state of Pennsylvania.^[29]

American Civil War

Five days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the Virginia legislature voted to secede from the United States and join the newly created Confederate States of America on April 17, 1861. The action became official in May, after the Confederacy promised to move its national capital to Richmond from Montgomery, Alabama.

Richmond held local, state and national Confederate government offices, hospitals, a railroad hub, and one of the largest slave markets. It also had the largest Confederate arms factory, the Tredegar Iron Works. The factory produced artillery and other munitions, including heavy ordnance machinery and the 723 tons of armor plating that covered the CSS Virginia, the world's first ironclad ship used in war.^[30] The Confederate States Congress shared quarters in the Jefferson-designed Virginia State Capitol with the Virginia General Assembly. The Confederacy's executive mansion, known as the "White House of the Confederacy," was two blocks away on Clay Street.

Located about 100 mi (160 km) from the national capital in Washington, D.C., Richmond was at the end of a long supply line and 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.^[31] The Union army made Richmond a main target in the campaigns of 1862 and 1864–65. In late June and early July 1862, Union General-in-Chief George B. McClellan threatened but failed to take Richmond in the Seven Days Battles of the Peninsula campaign. Three years later, Richmond became indefensible in March 1865 after nearby Petersburg fell 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, Union Cavalry General Philip Sheridan, assigned to interdict the Southside Railroad, met brigades commanded by Southern General George Pickett at the Five Forks Junction, defeated them, took thousands of prisoners, and advised 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 intended to evacuate Richmond.^[32]

On April 2, 1865, the Confederate Army began Richmond's evacuation. Confederate President Davis and his cabinet, Confederate government archives, and its treasury's gold, left the city that night by train. Confederate officials burned documents and troops burned tobacco and other warehouses to deny the Union any spoils. In the early morning of April 3, Confederate troops exploded the city's gunpowder magazine, killing several paupers in a temporary Almshouse and igniting raging fires.^[33] Later that day, General Godfrey Weitzel, commander of the 25th Corps of the United States Colored Troops, accepted Richmond's surrender from the mayor and a group of leading citizens who did not evacuate.^[34][35] Union troops eventually contained the fires, but about 25% of the city's buildings were destroyed.^[36]

On April 3, President Abraham Lincoln visited Grant at Petersburg and took a launch up the James River to Richmond on April 4. While Davis attempted to organize the Confederate government in Danville, Lincoln met Confederate Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell, handing 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 General Weitzel to prevent the state legislature from meeting.

On April 6, Union forces killed, wounded, or captured 8,000 Confederate troops at Sayler's Creek, southwest of Petersburg. The Confederate Army continued a general retreat southwestward, and General Lee continued to reject General Grant's surrender entreaties until Sheridan's infantry and cavalry encircled the shrinking Army of Northern Virginia and cut off its ability to retreat further on April 8. Lee surrendered his remaining approximately 10,000 troops the following morning at Appomattox Court House, meeting Grant at the McLean Home.^[37]

Davis was captured on May 10 near Irwinville, Georgia and taken back to Virginia, where he was imprisoned two years at Fort Monroe until freed on bail.^[38]

Postbellum

A decade after the Civil War, Richmond resumed its position as a major urban center of economic productivity with iron front buildings and massive brick factories. Canal traffic peaked in the 1860s, with railroads becoming the dominant shipping method. Richmond became a major railroad crossroads,^[39] showcasing the world's first triple railroad crossing. Tobacco warehousing and processing continued to play a central economic role, advanced by the world's first cigarette-rolling machine that James Albert Bonsack of Roanoke invented between 1880 and 1881.

Another important contributor to Richmond's resurgence was the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, a trolley system developed by electric power pioneer Frank J. Sprague. The system opened its first Richmond line in 1888, using an overhead wire and a trolley pole to connect to the current and electric motors on the car's trucks.^[40] The success led to electric streetcar lines rapidly spreading to other cities.^[41] A post-World War II transition to buses from streetcars began in May 1947 and was completed on November 25, 1949.^[42]

20th century

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.^[43] In the 1900 Census, Richmond's population was 62.1% white and 37.9% black.^[44] 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, served as its president, and was the first black female bank president in the United States.^[45] Charles Thaddeus Russell was Richmond's first black architect, and he designed the bank's office.^[46] Today, the bank is called the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company and is the country's oldest surviving African-American bank.^[45] Another prominent African-American from this time was John Mitchell Jr., a newspaper editor, civil rights activist, and politician.

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.^[47] 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 also the first TV station south of Washington, D.C.^[48]

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 and the Richmond Professional Institute.^[49]

On January 1, 1970, Richmond's borders expanded south by 27 sq mi (70 km²) and its population increased by 47,000 after several years of court cases in which Chesterfield County unsuccessfully fought annexation.^[50]

In 1995, a multimillion-dollar flood wall was completed, protecting the city's low-lying areas from the oft-rising James River. Consequently, the River District businesses grew rapidly, bolstered by the creation of a Canal Walk along the city's former industrial canals.^[51][52] Today the area is home to much of Richmond's entertainment, dining, and nightlife activity.

In 1996, racial tensions grew amid controversy about adding the statue of African American Richmond native and tennis star Arthur Ashe to the series of statues of Confederate generals on Monument Avenue.^[53] After several months of controversy, Ashe's bronze statue was finally completed on July 10, 1996.^[54]

Geography

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) (4.3%) is water.^[55] 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, and the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, New Kent, Powhatan, and Prince George.^[56] On July 1, 2009, the Richmond—Petersburg MSA's population was 1,258,251.

Richmond is located 21.69 mi (34.91 km) north of Petersburg, Virginia, 66.1 mi (106.4 km) southeast of Charlottesville, Virginia, 79.24 mi (127.52 km) northwest of Norfolk, Virginia, 96.87 mi (155.90 km) south of Washington, D.C., and 138.72 mi (223.25 km) northeast of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Cityscape

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 the rapidly gentrifying Church Hill, home to St. John's Church, 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.^[57]

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.Carver has seen 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.^[57]

Richmond's Northside is home to numerous listed historic districts.^[58] Neighborhoods such as Chestnut Hill-Plateau and Barton Heights began to be developed at the end of the 19th century when the new streetcar system made it possible for people to live on the city's outskirts and commute downtown. Other prominent Northside neighborhoods include Azalea, Barton Heights, Bellevue, Chamberlayne, Ginter Park, Highland Park, and Rosedale.^[57]

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 around 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.^[57]

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.^[57]

Climate

Richmond has a humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa) or oceanic (Trewartha: Do) climate, with hot, humid summers and moderately cold winters.^[59][60] 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 and 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.^[61] 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.^[62] 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).^[61] 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.^[63] Extremes in temperature have ranged from −12 °F (−24 °C) on January 19, 1940, 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.^[61] The warmest months recorded were July 2020 and August 1900, both averaging 82.9°F (28.3 °C). The coldest, January 1940, averaged 24.2 °F (-4.3 °C).^[65]

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 precipitation amounts from year to year, so no one month can be depended 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.^[61] Annual snowfall is usually moderate, averaging 10.5 in (27 cm) per season.^[61][66] Snow typically remains on the ground for only one or two days, but it remained for 16 days in 2010 (January 30 to February 14). Ice storms (freezing rain or glaze) are not uncommon, but they are seldom severe enough to cause 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 flooding during the summer and early fall months. Hurricanes passing near Richmond have produced record rainfalls. In 1955, three hurricanes, including Hurricane Connie and Hurricane Diane, which brought heavy rains five days apart, produced record rainfall in a six-week period. In 2004, the downtown area suffered extensive flood damage after the remnants of Hurricane Gaston dumped up to 12 in (300 mm) of rain.^[67]

Damaging storms occur mainly from snow and freezing rain in winter, and from hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms in other seasons. Damage can come from wind, flooding, rain, or a combination of the three. 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.^[68] From 1981 to 2010, the average first temperature at or below freezing was on October 30 and the average last one on April 10.^[69]