Bon Air, VA

Bon Air is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. The population was 18,022 at the 2020 census. The community is considered a suburb of the independent city of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a part of the Southside neighborhoods. Originally developed as a resort, a central portion of Bon Air has been designated as a National Historic District with many structures of Victorian design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its name means "good air," reflecting its role as a resort getaway that wealthy Richmonders enjoyed for its fresh air as opposed to the dirty air of Richmond's industrial downtown of the late 19th century.

Definition and Boundaries

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Bon Air is located entirely within Chesterfield County, Virginia and mostly within the 23235 zip code. It is bounded to the north by Huguenot Road, to the east by the city of Richmond, to the south by Midlothian Turnpike, and to the southwest by Robious Road.

History

Pre-resort settlement

Prior to the advent of the 1877 resort in Bon Air, the area had some settlements. Brown Road and Belleau Drive each follow portions of the old Warwick Road that dates back to the 18th century Warwick plantation. The Bon Air area came to be known as Brown's Summit, probably named for the Brown family farm which was located near the southwest corner of present-day intersection of Jahnke Road and Brown Road.

In the first half of the 18th century, Anderson Edwards owned a large plantation on the current site of Bon Air. He sold parts of it to Nathaniel and James Duval in 1840. The Duvals' two portions of Anderson Edwards' land would eventually comprise large parts of modern-day Bon Air.

The R&D railway came through the area around 1850, connecting Manchester to Robious and the Coal Mines. An 1864 map shows a small cluster of buildings labeled "Pawhite Stop" on the "Railroad to Coal Mines" line near the site of historic Bon Air village. Another Civil War era map shows an area owned by "Cogbill" which is in the vicinity of the area near Buford Road near current day Bon Air Elementary School and Grand Summit subdivision. Early maps also lists a "Powhite Station" 1/2 mile east of Robiou's Station.

Bon Air: the resort era

In the 19th century, it was believed that the higher elevation and distance from the urban area of Richmond provided a more healthful atmosphere, particularly in the hot summer months in central Virginia. With its nearby location and greater elevation, Bon Air offered these features nearby, and was founded as a summer resort town about outside of Richmond by railroad. One of the founders was Colonel Algernon S. Buford, of Chatham, Virginia, who is best known for his presidency of the Richmond and Danville Railroad during its massive postwar expansion, which ended in 1894 with the formation of the Southern Railway System (now part of Norfolk Southern). Bon Air's connections with the railroad's leaders could possibly be evidenced by the fact that over many of the years until passenger service ended in 1957, the community simultaneously had three stops within of trackage.

Colonel Buford was a graduate of the University of Virginia. He became a lawyer, and represented Pittsylvania County in the Virginia House of Delegates during 1853 and 1854. During the Civil War, Buford served the Confederacy in Richmond at Virginia Depot, although the title "Colonel" is believed to have been honorary, a southern custom common in the post-slavery years. With the support of Virginia Governor Francis H. Pierpont, on September 13, 1865, Buford became president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D).

Around 1875, Buford purchased portions of a large tract of land from Nathaniel and James Duval, a tract of land on the south side of the R&D right-of-way known as the old Anderson Edwards plantation. He personally (as well as through the R&D Railroad) helped in the development of Brown's Summit, which was renamed Grand Summit, then Bon Air, after the French expression for "good air". This choice may also have been related to the earlier settlement by French Huguenots, a group of religious refugees, slightly to the west. In 1877, Richmond jeweler Lewis G. Jahnke bought the other 153-acre portion of the Edwards estate from the Duval brothers and two years later sold this farm it to his brother A. Franz Jahnke Sr. This 350-acre estate, at 7737 Jahnke Road, would be known as Shady Echo. The Jahnke family, including jeweler Minnie Jahnke, were very involved in Bon Air life, from the fledgling Bon Air Presbyterian Church to the Bon Air Chautauqua Society founded by Reverend Hazen in 1885.

In 1877, Buford was among the first investors and officers in the Bon Air Land and Improvement Company. Other R&D officials involved in the development of Bon Air were General Thomas M. Logan, Andrew Talcott, and his son, Thomas Mann Randolph Talcott. In addition to these names, other early settlers contributed their names to the roads within the old Bon Air village. Col. Buford is honored by the naming of the thoroughfare Buford Road in Bon Air. Logan Street is named for General Logan. Polk Street is named for Bon Air resident Polk Miller, a pharmacist and highly acclaimed banjo player who founded what became Sergeant's Pet Care Products while creating treatments for his favorite hunting dog, Sergeant. Other prominent residents included Dr. Hunter McGuire who was affiliated with the Medical College of Virginia and several other important hospitals and medical schools (and for whom McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center in Richmond was named), his wife Mary Stuart McGuire, and their 10 children, many of whom also went into the field of medicine.

In 1889, the tract (with an antebellum farmhouse which was earlier known as "The Old Burton Place") was purchased by J.R.F. Burroughs, a Confederate civil war veteran from Lynchburg, (then in Campbell County), and his wife Lucy. A childless couple, a few years later the Burroughs opened an orphanage which was originally called "The Home for Friendless Children", and was incorporated in 1898. Religiously devout, the couple never solicited for funds for the orphanage, but there are tales of the support they received anyway. When Mr. Burroughs died in 1915, he was buried at a site now surrounded by neighboring apartments, where his tombstone reads "Faithful unto Death". Burroughs Street in Bon Air was named for the couple.

Rail continued to serve as the primary means of transportation to and from Bon Air until the automobile era. The original Southern Railway Station was a building brought to Bon Air from the International Cotton Exposition which had been held in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1881. (This station was replaced in 1917, and portions of the original station were used in an old home on the south side of the tracks, still existent in 2005). Other early stops in the Bon Air area include "The Steps", located on the north side of the tracks near the current Buford Road Bridge, a stop for the Bon Air Inn south of the Inn site on Burroughs Street, and a stop near the current subdivision of Woodmont for the Wherry Farm. This latter station was the only private station on this section of the railroad and was known as Lee Park. The early railroad alignment through Bon Air may have been to take advantage of a kaolin clay mine said to have been located on the south side of the tracks near the current Buford Road bridge. A plant built in Manchester to process the clay from Bon Air burned before it could go into production, ending the project.

Village period

In the 20th century, as the residential area around Richmond grew, Bon Air evolved into a middle-class neighborhood, occupied year round versus just being a summer resort.

The oldest lending Library in Chesterfield County was built in 1902 by the Bon Air Association as a Memorial to Dr. James K. Hazen, minister of Bon Air Presbyterian Church and a literary and educational leader of the community.

In 1911, the new Westham Bridge crossed the James River between Henrico County and Chesterfield County about upstream from Richmond. Built as a toll bridge, it was named for the nearby Westham Station of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1911. The privately owned Westham Bridge was financed by a group headed by developer George Craghead Gregory, who resided at Granite Hall, an estate about a mile from Williams Dam, where he had a mansion erected which was faced with stone quarried nearby. Gregory was also involved with plans to extend a streetcar line from an existing line at Westhampton Park (now the University of Richmond) to Bon Air, which he saw as becoming a "bedroom community" of Richmond. Between the James River and Bon Air, Gregory controlled large land areas along the proposed rail line which he hoped to develop. However, despite his plans, aside from grading of right-of-way all the way from the Westham Bridge to Bon Air, Gregory's planned streetcar line did not materialize. This may have been due to weight issues at the Westham Bridge and/or right-of-way matters in Henrico County. However, portions of the planned and partially improved route can be seen in modern times with the gentle slopes found on present-day Southampton Road and along Mohawk Drive.

After Burroughs died in 1915, the Bethany Home was taken over by others, including Bon Air Presbyterian Church, until the home closed for good during the 1940s. Over a thousand children had known the farm as "home", maintaining an average of 50 boys and girls at a time.

After 1933, State Route 147 was routed across the Westham Bridge. It connected River Road and Westham Parkway in Henrico with Southampton Road and the new Huguenot Road in Chesterfield. In 1950, the Westham Bridge, which had been subject to flooding and was inadequate for traffic in the growing suburban area, was replaced by the new Huguenot Memorial Bridge (named in honor of the French Huguenot settlers who came to the area in the eighteenth century to escape religious persecution in France).

The old bridge was dismantled, but the abutments were still visible at each end, and overhead power and telephone lines continued to mark the route for many years. Traces of the old streetcar right-of-way may be seen along gently sloped Southampton Road and Mohawk Drive near Forest Hill Avenue (which was formerly known as Granite Road), and on Logan Street and Hazen Street in Bon Air, where a washboard surface was long rumored by local lore to be the remnants of the streetcar project. Gregory's old mansion, Granite Hall, now located in the Cherokee Estates subdivision near Williams Dam, was still in use as a private residence in 2008. The C&O's Westham Station was relocated to a Richmond city park at Robin Hood Road and Hermitage Road in 1961.

1950s Suburban Development Boom

Suburbanization