Welcome to our corner of Richmond! Ours is a small neighborhood on the south side of the Lee Bridge between Manchester and Woodland Heights. We enjoy convenient access to the James River Park System including the 22nd Street Dry Rocks, Belle Isle, Buttermilk Trail, the Riverbed Trails and Canoe Run Park, with other attractions in close proximity and downtown minutes away. Our neighborhood also includes several convenient GRTC bus stops as well as apartments and housing for the elderly. Richmond Police considers us in the Third Precinct, Sector 312.

We also take an active role in city planning decisions. We’ve opposed several projects that would have changed the character of our community, such as Manchester on the James. However, we’ve worked with developers to realize the vision of a vibrant community and continue to enhance our neighborhood.

Photo credit: deadrichmond

Part of our neighborhood is located in the Springhill Old & Historic District. Here is some information about the district from FEMA:

Springhill was designated as a historic district in 2006. The Springhill Historic District is currently made up of 52 properties and is approximately 28 acres. District boundaries include 19th to 22nd Streets and Riverside Drive to Semmes Avenue. The Springhill neighborhood also includes two apartment buildings along W. 20th Street closest to the river but neither building is included in the Springhill Old and Historic District.

Springhill was an early twentieth century working class suburb of Manchester, at a time when the south
bank of the James River was still mainly farms and woodlands along Old Manchester’s edge. Richmond
was home to an abundance of millwork companies, some of which constructed their own buildings.
There is a strong likelihood that some of Springhill’s “pre-fabricated” bungalow-style homes were the
result of speculative building by a single developer using identical purchased components, or an in-house
millworks/builder operation. Naturally isolated by the

geographic barrier of Canoe Run, Springhill’s
combination of compact size, unique characteristics and property owner interest make it the first Old and
Historic District south of the James River.

From the Richmond Commission for Architectural Review’s Old & Historic Districts of Richmond, Virginia Handbook and Design Review Guidelines pamphlet comes this historical note:

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has on file a record of a Civil War battery located in the basement of 1906 Stonewall Ave. This is presumably the same battery, referred to by Manchester historian Dr. Benjamin Weisiger, which was almost leveled in 1887 along with plans to build a park at the crest of the hill. There are no individual historic site listings within the area, although Woodland Heights to the immediate west and Blackwell to the southeast have both been flagged by the City as potential historic districts south of the James River.

Early twenthieth-century Richmond was home to an abundance of millwork companies, some of which constructed their own buildings as well. There is a strong liklihood that some of Springhill’s “pre-fab” bungalow-style homes were the result of either speculative building by a single developer using identical purchased components, or an in-house millworks/builder operation. Naturally isolated the geographic barrier of Canoe Run, Springhill’s combination of compact size, unique characteristics and property owner interest make it the first Old and Historic District south of the James River.

Photos by T. McKelvey unless otherwise noted