Southside (Richmond)

The Southside of Richmond is an area of the Metropolitan Statistical Area surrounding Richmond, Virginia. It generally includes all portions of the City of Richmond that lie south of the James River, and includes all of the former city of Manchester. Depending on context, the term "Southside of Richmond" can include some northern areas of adjacent Chesterfield County, Virginia in the Richmond-Petersburg region. With minor exceptions near Bon Air, VA, the Chippenham Parkway forms the border between Chesterfield County and the City of Richmond portions of Southside, with some news agencies using the term "South Richmond" to refer to the locations in Southside located in the city proper.

Definition

Since there is no one municipal organization that represents this specific region, the boundaries are loosely defined as being south of the James River and west of Interstate 95 (formerly Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike) with a southern border extending approximately to Chester, Virginia and extending west along Virginia State Route 288 beltway. Some portions of the Southside of Richmond closest to the downtown area north of the river are also considered part of Downtown Richmond.

North Chesterfield

SR 288. With minor exceptions, Chippenham Parkway (State Route 150) forms the border between the City of Richmond and the County of Chesterfield." width=445 height=450 zoom=11 latitude=37.46 longitude=-77.55>

Several ZIP codes on the Southside have a preferred place name of "Richmond Virginia" even though in some cases that land falls under the completely separate municipal authority of Chesterfield County. For example, the 23235 ZIP code (Bon Air) straddles the city-county boundary.

In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service approved Chesterfield County's request to refer to ZIP codes 23224, 23225, 23234, 23235, 23236 and 23237 as "North Chesterfield, VA," when they are in Chesterfield county, even though the Post Office's preferred place name for the entire ZIP code remains as "Richmond Virginia." The rationale for this change was that some Chesterfield County residents were confused, and paying taxes to the City of Richmond given their street address included a Richmond ZIP code.

Chesterfield residents in the 23235 ZIP code continue to have the option of using "Bon Air" as their preferred place name, although they can also use "North Chesterfield 23235" or "Richmond, Virginia 23235."

History

Early settlements along the river

A primary feature defining the Southside of Richmond is the James River and the limited means to cross it to get to other parts of metro Richmond. The oldest bridge across the James River in Richmond was Mayo Bridge (1788). Before that, commerce was limited to individual enterprises passing their goods in boats, bateau, and ferries over the James River as well as to fixed port areas with tobacco inspection warehouses established north of the river at Shockoe's and south of the river at Warwick.

1600s: Conflicts between English settlements and Native tribes

When the English arrived, there were two main groups of natives occupying Central Virginia, separated by the Fall Line of the James: (1) the Manakins controlled the southern Virginia Piedmont west of the fall line from Richmond to the Blue Ridge Mountains; and (2) the Powhatan Confederacy (led by leader named Wahunsonacock) who controlled land in the Richmond area below the Fall Line towards the Virginia Tidewater region.

The earliest European settlement in the Central Virginia area was in 1611 at Henricus, where the Falling Creek empties into the James River. In 1619, early Virginia Company settlers struggling to establish viable moneymaking industries established the Falling Creek Ironworks. Between 1622 and 1646, a series of generational Anglo-Powhatan Wars resulted in the death of Opchanacanough and the established boundaries on the Powhatan Confederacy. After Bacon's Rebellionin 1676, Cockacoeske signed the Treaty of 1677, and several central Virginia tribes accepted their de facto position as subjects of the British Crown, and gave up their remaining claims to their ancestral land, in return for protection from the remaining hostile tribes and a guarantee of a limited amount of reserved land. The Powhatan Confederacy effectively ended. By 1699, the Manakins/Monacans had abandoned their settlements, and English freely settled land claims in the entire Richmond area. In part to serve as a buffer, the English allotted a large portion of land for French Huguenot refugees to settle in the old Manakin village on the south side of the James River.

1700s: Warwick and River Commerce

After completing prominent construction jobs at the state capitol in Williamsburg, Henry Cary built Ampthill plantation in 1730 near Warwick. From 1750 to 1781, his son Archibald operated Falling Creek Ironworks at Warwick. Owing to port traffic, Warwick Road became a major thoroughfare through Southside for the next two centuries, especially as it enabled passage around the falls at the James.

On the part of the James River west of the Fall Line, the descendants of the 1700 Huguenot refugee settlement in Manakintown began to intermingle with the English and settle across Powhatan and western Chesterfield county. They established family coal mining enterprises such as Black Heath. One of these Huguenot descendants, Abraham Salle, built Salisbury Plantation and, in 1777, sold it to the Randoph Family who lived across the river at Tuckahoe and used Salisbury as a hunting grounds. Patrick Henry rented Salisbury and lived there with his family during his second term as governor in 1786.

Early 1800s: The Rise of Manchester and Rail Lines to the Coal Mines

After the port of Warwick was destroyed by Benedict Arnold in the Revolutionary War, Warwick Road continued in use, but the port of Manchester took over Warwick's role as a major port. Further, water navigation to estates above the falls of the James River was enabled by the 1790 opening of the James River and Kanawha Canal that stretched from Richmond, Virginia to Westham, Virginia on the north side of the river and paralleling the James for .

In 1804, Virginia built the precursor to the Midlothian Turnpike from the port of Manchester headed westward to the mouth of the Falling Creek to access the coal mines at Midlothian. This enabled industrial sites such as the Black Heath coal mines and Bellona Arsenal to ship goods down the James river without having to go through Warwick.

Rail enabled the rapid export of coal from the coal mines in western Chesterfield County. The Clover Hill Railroad Company was chartered in 1841 by the Virginia General Assembly, enabling the Clover Hill Railroad to open in 1845 between Chester and the Clover Hill Pits near Winterpock.

Late 1800s: Development along the rail lines

During the Civil War, the Confederacy was generally able to keep the Union troops west of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, with the main exception being the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. Until the end of the war, Drewry's Bluff prevented the Union army from accessing Richmond over water.

While the Clover Hill Railroad went bankrupt in 1877, it was reconstituted in 1881 as the Brighthope Railway and operated until World War I when it was disassembled and sent to France for the World War I effort.

The city of Manchester rose to prominence through its 1831 Chesterfield Railroad and its 1853 successor the Richmond and Danville Railroad.

Suburban rail stations along the R&D led to development in Granite, Virginia (a mining quarry whose post office opened in 1872), Bon Air (the resort colony established 1877), Robious and Midlothian. These stops became industrial and residential centers in otherwise rural areas that often moved people and goods through Manchester and Richmond.

Manchester also benefited from being a station along the North-South Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. Manchester briefly served as the seat of Chesterfield County after the Civil War, from 1870 to 1876. In 1874, Manchester voted to become an independent City. In 1876, the Chesterfield County seat was moved to Chesterfield Courthouse.

1900s: Development and Annexation in the Automobile Era

Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike