Chula is a mostly rural

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the northeastern part of Amelia County just west of the

Appomattox River The Appomattox River is a tributary of the James River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in central and eastern Virginia, named for the ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The town is centered around the

T-intersection A three-way junction (or three-way intersection) is a type of road intersection with three arms. A Y junction (or Y intersection) generally has three arms of equal size coming at an acute or obtuse angle to each other; while a T junction (or T ...

of SR 636 (Lodore Road) and SR 740 (Old Chula Road) in Giles District. Chula is just west of SR 604 (Chula Road), which includes a short bypass segment built around the town in the late 20th century. The area is served by the

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

7 miles southwest at Amelia Court House, ZIP code 23002. The nearest

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...

to Chula is Amelia County

Volunteer Fire Department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respo ...

Station 4, near Mattoax, 3 miles north.

History

Origins

The word "Chula" was likely derived from a Native American word meaning "fox" or "red fox". The town apparently was founded in the 1850s as a stop on the recently completed rail line from the state capital: Chula is notably absent on a map of Amelia County circa 1850; but a postal facility using the name "Chula Depot" was established in 1857, and an 1860 map shows the town as a stop on the new

Richmond and Danville Railroad The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia, and later on of track in nine states. Chartered on March 9, 1847, the railroad completed its ...

. As of about 1900, after the R&D RR had been acquired by Southern Railway, Chula was still both a railroad stop and a post village, and "Chula Depot" and "Chula Station" continued to appear as alternative labels well into the 20th century. The Chula post office, upon closing in 1955, had been managed by the same postmaster for nearly 40 years and was the second-largest in Amelia County, after the one at the courthouse. The railroad track is still used, although in modern times only by freight trains; it crosses Route 636 at the main Tintersection in Chula and is now owned by the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

Civil War

During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, railroads formed a critical supply network for the Confederacy, and thus their destruction was a key component of Union strategy. Among the raids targeting the Richmond and Danville Railroad were those conducted in 1864 by

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

under Union general August Kautz. Federal troops destroyed Chula Depot on March 13, but it was rebuilt.

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

defenders clashed with Kautz's forces at Flat Creek Bridge, just north of Chula, on May 14.

Tornadoes

Amelia County is located in a small Central Virginia

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

alley and has had numerous tornado touchdowns. Tornadoes of note include the April 30, 1924, twister that passed east of the courthouse area, traveling from Jetersville to the Chula vicinity, killing one person and injuring seven others on the way.

Chula School

Through the mid-20th century, Chula School was among the educational facilities serving

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

children in Amelia County in the era before

desegregation Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws ...

. A structure noted as historic Chula School stood approximately 2 miles south of town on what is now SR 683 (Chula School Road).

Existing historic places

Dykeland Dykeland is a historic home located near Chula, Amelia County, Virginia. It is a two-story, wood-frame house reflecting two architectural styles and three periods of construction. It consists of a two-story vernacular section built about 1838 ...

plantation, Egglestetton plantation, Grub Hill Church, and The Wigwam are among the historic sites around Chula that are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Virginia Unincorporated communities in Amelia County, Virginia