Rockett's Landing (or simply Rocketts) is a

new urbanist New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually inf ...

neighborhood in southeastern

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 ...

on the border of

Henrico County, Virginia 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 ...

and the north bank of the

James River 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 ...

. It was named after Baldwin Rockett, an 18th-century ship's captain born in April 1681 in Exeter, Devonshire, England. The neighborhood was originally a factory and water tower and has been converted into

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

with brick streets. It is served by the

GRTC Pulse The GRTC Pulse (often abbreviated as The Pulse) is a bus rapid transit line in Richmond, Virginia, United States. The line runs along U.S. Route 250, Broad Street and U.S. Route 33, Main Street in central Richmond, between The Shops at Willow La ...

Rocketts Landing Rockett's Landing (or simply Rocketts) is a new urbanist neighborhood in southeastern Richmond, Virginia on the border of Henrico County, Virginia and the north bank of the James River. It was named after Baldwin Rockett, an 18th-century ship' ...

station.

Civil War

Map of Richmond 1864 with burnt districts small

In 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 ...

, and still a suburban hamlet of Richmond at the time, the northern fringes of Rockett's Landing were chosen to become one of the two sites in the Richmond area to serve as a

Confederate Navy The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the Navy, naval branch of the Confederate States Armed Forces, established by an act of the Confederate States Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the Amer ...

shipyard as compensation for the loss of the

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, often called the Portsmouth Navy Yard, is a United States Navy shipyard in Kittery on the southern boundary of Maine near the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Founded in 1800, PNS is U.S. Navy's oldest continuo ...

in May 1862 (the other one having been William Armistead Graves' smaller "Graves's Yard" further upstream), with yard installations eventually straddling both sides of the James River. During the remainder of the war, the yard, at the time simply known as the "Navy Yard", serviced and built vessels for the

James River Squadron The James River Squadron was formed shortly after the secession of Virginia during the American Civil War. The squadron was part of the Virginia Navy before being transferred to the Confederate States Navy. The squadron is most notable for its r ...

, most notably its

casemate ironclad The casemate ironclad was a type of iron or iron-armored gunboat briefly used in the American Civil War by both the Confederate States Navy and the Union Navy. Unlike a monitor-type ironclad which carried its armament encased in a separate a ...

s such as , and . The yard ceased operations and was partially burnt by retreating Confederate troops, when Richmond fell to

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

troops the next day on April 3, 1865, though the hamlet itself was spared according to the contemporary map, featured on the left. When President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

started his tour of the fallen city the following day, he came ashore at Rockett's Landing.

References

External links

Rocketts Landing
Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia {{Virginia-stub