Gambles Hill is a neighborhood near
Downtown Richmond, Virginia
Downtown Richmond is the central business district of Richmond, Virginia. It is generally defined as being bound by Belvidere Street to the west, I-95 to the north and east, and the James River to the south. The Fan district borders it to t ...
. The neighborhood contains the
Virginia War Monument,
Historic Tredegar,
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 spr ...
and the
WestRock
WestRock is an American corrugated packaging company. It was formed in July 2015 after the merger of MeadWestvaco and RockTenn. WestRock is the 2nd largest American packaging company. It is one of the world's largest paper and packaging companies ...
Corporation.
History
Modern day Gambles Hill was first occupied by
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 ...
in 1760, where he built his estate atop what is now Gambles Hill. Nine acres of his estate was donated to Gambles Hill Park, which became one of the first public parks in Richmond. In 1800,
John Harvie
John Harvie (1742 – February 6, 1807) was an American Founding Father, lawyer and builder from Virginia. He was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, where he signed the Articles of Confederation, in 1777 and 1778. He was a successful ...
commissioned the construction of a house atop a hill overlooking the James River.
Robert Gamble subsequently purchased the property from Harvie, alluding to the community's present day name. As part of the
City Beautiful Movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...
, many of the homes in the neighborhood were destroyed to make way for public parks and gardens between Gamble's estate and the James River, and so that there was a view of the river from the mansion. In 1854 architect William Pratt constructed a castle among other houses atop Gambles Hill, which became known as Pratt's Castle.
Nearly a century later, in 1957, the Ethyl Corporation purchased six acres of property atop Gambles Hill, including
Pratt's Castle. Pratt's Castle was ultimately destroyed and replaced with the Ethyl Corporation Building, a Classical Revival structure designed by Carneal and Johnston architects, and a landscape by Charles Gillette. Alluding to the history of the neighborhood the Ethyl Corporation wanted to the complex to be a campus with various landscape architecture elements. Landscape architecture Gillette designed an open lawn lined with crape myrtles and a buffer of perimeter shrubs. To the rear of the building, Gillette installed a rectilinear garden with symmetrical parterres lined by oaks, magnolias, and brick walks. The structure still stands today and takes up a majority of the neighborhood. Several empty fields around the property remain open, where old neighborhoods were demolished.
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 ...
*
Richmond, Virginia
References
External links
Gambles Hill boundaries
{{Richmond, Virginia neighborhoods
Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia