The East End of Richmond, Virginia is the quadrant of the City of
Richmond, Virginia, and more loosely the Richmond metropolitan area, east of the downtown.
Geographic boundaries
Within the city, and in Henrico County, East End is roughly defined as including the area of Richmond north of the
James River and east/northeast of the former
Virginia Central Railroad
The Virginia Central Railroad was an early railroad in the U.S. state of Virginia that operated between 1850 and 1868 from Richmond westward for to Covington. Chartered in 1836 as the Louisa Railroad by the Virginia General Assembly, the railr ...
-
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway line (now owned by
CSX Transportation and operated by the
Buckingham Branch Railroad
Buckingham Branch Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad operating over 275 miles (443 km) of historic and strategic trackage in Central Virginia. Sharing overhead traffic with CSX and Amtrak, the company's headquarters are in Dill ...
) which originated at
Main Street Station Main Street station may refer to:
Canada
* Main Street station (Toronto), a subway station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
* Main Street–Science World station, a SkyTrain station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
United Kingdom
* Main Street ...
, and south and west of
I-295 Interstate 295 is the designation for several Interstate Highways in the United States:
*Interstate 295 (Delaware–Pennsylvania), a bypass of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* Interstate 295 (Florida), a beltway around central Jacksonville
* Interstate ...
.
Within the city, this includes neighborhoods such as
Church Hill,
Fairmount,
Union Hill, Fulton, Powhatan Hill,
Fulton Hill
Fulton Hill is a neighborhood located in the East End of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. The name is used for the area stretching from Gillies Creek to the Richmond city limits. The Greater Fulton Hill Civic Association includes Fulton ...
, Montrose Heights, Fairfield Court, Creighton Court, Whitcomb Court, Mosby Court, Eastview, Brauers, Peter Paul, Woodville, North Church Hill, Chimborazo and Oakwood.
The terminology "East End" also broadly includes much of eastern
Henrico County
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 incl ...
as a portion the Richmond Metropolitan area.
Communities outside the city limits in this area include the
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...
s of
Highland Springs,
Montrose,
Sandston, and
Varina.
A portion of
Hanover County
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.
Hanover County is a part of the Greater Richmond Region.
History
Located in the wester ...
, primarily in the
Mechanicsville area also meets the above geographic description, and may be considered by some to be part of the East End of Metropolitan Richmond, though is equally considered outside of the quadrant system, due to its separation from the city by the
Chickahominy River and swamp.
History and development
In the era just before and as European settlement began at the turn of the 17th century, near Powhatan Hill, a place known as "Powhatan" which was the village or "town" that
Wahunsunacock
Powhatan ( c. 1547 – c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommacah ...
(who has become better-known as the
Chief Powhatan
Powhatan ( c. 1547 – c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommaca ...
) came from was located. An early capital of the
Powhatan Confederacy
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) 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 Powhata ...
, "Powhatan" was also the name used by the natives to refer to the
James River).
The East End contains a number of notable cemeteries, including the Confederate Cemetery of
Oakwood, the historic African-American
Evergreen Cemetery, and the
Richmond National Cemetery. The East End is also home to the famous St. John's Church, where
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first a ...
delivered his "Give Me Liberty" speech.
As of the 2020s, the area is a target for
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
and investment.
See also
*
Neighborhoods of Richmond, Virginia
This article is about the many neighborhoods and districts in the Greater Richmond, Virginia area. Note that this article is an attempt to be inclusive of the broader definitions of the areas which are often considered part of the Greater Richm ...
References
{{Virginia-stub
Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia