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RVAnews and the Valentine Richmond History Center post a picture every week and ask a question. If you get the answer right you have a chance of being picked and then you get an option to choose between an 8×10 print of the featured image or a two-pack of tickets to any 2010 walking tour (valued at $20). This weeks image is of Pony Pasture of which I grabbed just a piece. Click on the image below to see the full image and let RVAnews and VRHC what year the picture was taken.

HFHN has a post up about the Brookside Estate that was located in the Reedy Creek neighborhood. The image below came from  Forest Hill Neighborhood Flickr set and was shared by the Friends of Forest Hill Park.

This is from the Times Dispatch June 17, 1906. In the same paper there is not so good news about the real estate market but Forest Hill is doing well. The full article used language that puts current newspapers (and this blog) to shame. “Some private sales were made here and there, but they were very private, and the parties to the same, including the real estate agents who engineered them, are as reticent as if they were carved out of Egyptian rock to play the part of the sphinx.”  A tad more descriptive than “the real estate agents had no comment”.

If you enjoyed the information above you are a prime candidate to help a group of neighbors who are working to make Forest Hill neighborhood declared historic. Historic Forest Hill Neighborhood is currently looking for folks to help with research, including the above mentioned Forest Hill Park Land Company. The process to be declared historic is lengthy and will take a lot of work so any help is appreciated. Thanks goes out to Carolyn Paulette who pointed out these articles to me.

Previous Richmond Past Posts

John M. from CHPN sent us an ad from the Chronicling of America website with some details on the growth of Woodland Heights. “For safe investments or for ideal homesites, the best are found in Woodland Heights. This is no speculative proposition. It is solid and substantial, and values are based on Present conditions; not Distant Future possibilities.” The ad originally ran on Sunday August 6th, 1910 in the Times Dispatch. Below is a screen shot (click on the image to see full size) the whole newspage can be found here.

Previous Richmond Past Articles

Big thanks to John M. at Church Hill People News for this post from which I learned about Redlining Richmond.

“Redlining Richmond” is the work of the  Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. They have put online The Residential Security Map for Richmond which graded the Richmond neighborhoods from A to D on a number of factors.

The Hills and Heights regions runs the gamut A thru D.

The original map was produced by Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). Race plays a pivotal role in the grading process. As seen in this description from the website:

With the HOLC holding hundreds of thousands of long-term mortgages that would not be paid off until the late 1940s or 1950s, in 1935 the parent organization of the HOLC, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, launched a City Survey Program to gauge trends in housing values in American cities, charging the HOLC to execute the program. Working with local realtors and lenders, the HOLC amassed data about different neighborhoods and areas in American cities. They would record information about the terrain, about the type and age of buildings, about sales and rental demand, about the “threat of infiltration of foreign-born, negro, or lower grade population,” among other factors. Using this data, each area was assigned one of four grades. “A” areas were “‘hot spots’ … where good mortgage lenders … are willing to make their maximum loans.” “B” areas were not as desirable but “still good.” “C” areas had reached “the transition period” where they were in decline due to factors such as “age, obsolecence, and change of style” and “infiltration of a lower grade population.” Finally, “D” areas had fully declined and were “characterized by detrimental influence in a pronounced degree.”

The site is excellent and the map allows you to see specifics on each neighborhood. For example I live in B8 and in 1937 the estimated family income was $2,500 and houses went for an average of $8,500. There were no foreign born citizens or “negroes” and in fact it states “restricted against negroes”. I would like to think things have improved and they have to a certain extent but many of the same racial boundaries remain today.

Previous Richmond Past posts.

Interesting description and detail about Forest Hill Park from the July 9th 1901 issue of the Richmond Dispatch.

Full page can be found here: Richmond Dispatch July 9, 1901

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K.C. Howell former resident of Woodland Heights has done some marvelous research into a civil war fort that was right in our midst. Italicized text are my additions as are the images. Thanks K.C. for doing the research and letting us share this with the Hills and Heights Community. Click on any of the images to enlarge.

In the waning days of the Civil War, the confederate capital prepared defensive batteries around the city. Battery 14 was located in right here in Woodland Heights!

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The land that we know as Forest Hill Park was purchased by the Richmond & Manchester Railway Co. in 1890. This was part of a general movement of the various Richmond trolley companies to spread out from the city core and service the housing developments the trolley companies had built outside of the city. The Forest Hill trolley built a terminus, amusement park and made dramatic changes to the Stone House. As you can see from the map below it was our own little Busch Gardens right here in the hills. The men were charged $.50 admission and ladies free on Wednesdays and only $.25 on Saturday. The booths listed would have sold food or been games including shooting galleries and bingo. Not shown on the map but mentioned in other documents is an airplane ride.

Below is the Dip the Dip roller coaster and penny arcade on the right.

Original image courtesy of Cook Collection, The Valentine Museum

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