Forest Hill Park, known for its "Stone house" called Boscobel, is a historic urban park in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. Starting as a private property, the park has had several owners and uses before its present one, the City of Richmond.

History

The first documented owner was

William Byrd III Colonel William Byrd III (September 6, 1728January 1 or January 2, 1777) was an American planter, politician and military officer who was a member of the House of Burgesses. Early life He was son of William Byrd II and Maria Taylor Byrd, and t ...

(1728–1777), son of

William Byrd II William Byrd II (March 28, 1674August 26, 1744) was an American planter, lawyer, surveyor, author, and a man of letters. Born in Colonial Virginia, he was educated in London, where he practiced law. Upon his father's death, he returned to Virgi ...

(1674–1744), founder of the city of Richmond. Like his father, the younger Byrd owned extensive properties in Richmond along the James (

James River (Virginia) The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

), and in 1768 he sought to repay his extensive gambling debts by auctioning off 100 of his lots in a

public auction In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

. As a result, some between Reedy Creek and Powhite Creek came to be owned by Bernard Markham.

Rhodes family

In 1820, Holden Rhodes (born Canada, 1798–99; died Richmond, Virginia, 1857) a graduate of

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

in Middlebury, Vermont, went to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, near Richmond, to tutor the sons of Judge Samuel Taylor. Rhodes eventually studied law and became a noted jurist in the Chesterfield County court systems, as well as a railroad entrepreneur, being one of the first presidents of the

Richmond and Petersburg Railroad The Richmond and Petersburg Railroad moved passengers and goods between Richmond and Petersburg from 1838 to 1898. It survived the American Civil War and eventually merged into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1900. History The Richmond and Pe ...

, chartered in 1836 and opened in 1838 (later the Atlantic Coast Line, now part of

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

). After Rhodes married Eliza Anne Cunliffe Heth (daughter of

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

coal mine owner John Cunliffe and widow of Henry Heth, the son of

Harry Heth Henry Heth ( not ) (December 16, 1825 – September 27, 1899) was a career United States Army officer who became a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He came to the notice of Robert E. Lee while serving briefly as his quartermaste ...

, another coal mine owner) in 1833, he purchased , known as "Dunstan's," from John N. Dunstan, Jr. Rhodes built his country estate, "Boscobel" (from the Italian word for "beautiful woods") some time between 1836 and 1843. The house, now known as the Old Stone House in Forest Hill Park, was constructed of granite that is believed to have been quarried on the property. When Rhodes died in 1857, his estate passed to his nephew and adopted son, Charles H. Rhodes, Jr. In 1862, during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

(1860–1865) young Rhodes sold the property to Richard D. Mitchell, and the estate was eventually sold, in turn, to James and Charles Labott, and later to William H. Benson, who in 1871 sold it to a group of New York investors.

Amusement park

In 1889, the former Rhodes property was sold to the Southside Land and Improvement Co., and became a terminus for the Forest Hill trolley, part of one of the first successful trolley systems in the United States. The Virginia Passenger and Power Company (later VEPCO, now

Dominion Energy Dominion Energy, Inc., commonly referred to as Dominion, is a North American power and energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and supplies natural gas t ...

) took over the enterprise in 1925. To attract passengers to the countryside, the Rhodes residence was converted into a

trolley Trolley may refer to: Vehicles and components * Tram, or trolley or streetcar, a rail vehicle that runs on tramway tracks * Trolleybus, or trolley, an electric bus drawing power from overhead wires using trolley poles ** Trolleytruck, a trolleyb ...

terminus, complete with wrap-around porch and belfry, and an elaborate turn-of-the-20th-century amusement park was built on the grounds, complete with

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

, fun house, dance hall,

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, and golf course, as well as bath house, swimming area, and boat lake in the former quarry pond. The park remained a popular Richmond attraction until it closed in 1932, due to the economic constraints of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

City park

When the land was deeded to the City of Richmond in 1933, the wooden amusement structures were demolished to convert the dilapidated estate into a landscaped urban park. The Rhodes home was renovated to serve as a community library and meeting house, and the wooded ravine that once held a quarry pond and boating lake returned to its natural state. During the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(1935–1943), unemployed craftsmen and stonemasons working under the auspices of the National Relief Act were hired to pave the old park footpaths with cobblestones, adding a stone-and-slate octagonal gazebo and a small warming hut for use by winter ice-skaters. New landscaping features included a small azalea garden that later provided plant stock for the extensive

Joseph Bryan Park Azalea Garden Joseph Bryan Park, also known as Bryan Park, is a public park in the city of Richmond, Virginia. The park was a memorial to Joseph Bryan (1845–1908), the founder and publisher of the '' Richmond Times-Dispatch'' newspaper. It was given to the c ...

, on Richmond's North Side. The new Forest Hill Park soon became a quieter, more restful place for family picnics, strolling, hiking, and bird-watching. In the 1940s, the Forest Hill Garden Club received a national garden club award for its plantings of native Virginia species in a area of the park's wooded slopes. From the 1970s until the present, due to extensive development upstream along Reedy Creek, storm sediment turned the park's pond into a de facto wetland and wildlife refuge, attracting animals rarely found in city parks – including

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

, river otter, and

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...

. The park, though a favorite for neighboring residents, suffered a long decline through lack of repair. In October, 2009, the City of Richmond completed dredging/restoration of the original lake, the creation of a managed wetlands silt capture system to both provide biodiverse habitat as well as prevent future silting of the lake, and the restoration of the park stonework and structures. Various improvements to the once neglected park are continuing for 2010, including the creation of a new trails network and the construction of a new pedestrian bridge over Reedy Creek. In 2002, Forest Hill Park was placed on the Virginia and the National Registers of Historic Places, for its distinction as an early trolley terminus, its WPA features, and its pivotal role in the development of the South Richmond neighborhoods of Forest Hill, Woodland Heights, and Westover Hills.

Present day

Since 1997, Friends of Forest Hill Park, a volunteer support group, has been working with the City of Richmond's Department of Parks and Recreation, along with the Forest Hill Neighborhood Association, the Richmond Recreation and Parks Foundation and the Richmond chapter o
M.O.R.E.
to ensure that Forest Hill Park continues to serve visitors' recreational needs for generations to come.

References

*George, Lynne Ann; ''An Illustrated History of Forest Hill Park'', ed. Monica S. Rumsey (Richmond, Virginia: Friends of Forest Hill Park, 1999).

External links

* * * {{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Virginia municipal and county parks Geography of Richmond, Virginia Greek Revival houses in Virginia American Craftsman architecture in Virginia Bungalow architecture in Virginia Works Progress Administration in Virginia Parks in Richmond, Virginia Houses in Richmond, Virginia Amusement parks in Virginia 1932 disestablishments in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Richmond, Virginia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia