Woodland Heights and Forest Hill are often referred to as “trolley car or streetcar suburbs” by historians as it was hoped that extending the trolley lines out here would also encourage folks to buy land and houses. Thanks to this post by Church Hill People News we saw this map of all the Richmond trolley [...]
The image was taken in Forest Hill Park showing the local police that patrolled the area. Image credit goes to City of Richmond, Dept. Of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities via Larry Miller and was posted to the James River Parks Facebook page. Thanks for sharing. PS – Kudos to the badasses on their motorcycles in that snow.
Vintage Richmond posted this reminder that we got lucky that we didn’t have severe flooding. I realize that is little solace to those of you without power or with an oak in your living room.
This map comes from an interesting post discussing the canals in the area. Historic Forest Hill Neighborhood has been updating their site recently. Its definitely worth checking out.
Belle Isle is such a natural oasis now that it is easy to forget the industry on the island as recently as the 70′s. This latest photo from Vintage Richmond really highlights the change from industry to greenery and dovetails nicely with this Belle Isle photo from 1965. Great work as always from Vintage Richmond.
Kathy Wright sent me a copy of an article from July 28, 1943. Her mother received the article over the weekend from a life long family friend. The picture shows Kathy’s mother (Phyllis) and Phyllis’ parents Ralph and Page Godfrey working in the backyard of their house. Kathy currently lives in that same house, so [...]
Another great image by Vintage Richmond. Crazy to see all the industry there. For a small piece of land that island has an amazing past.
Historic Forest Hill Neighborhood is a group of Forest Hill residents that have been doing extensive research into the history of Forest Hill. They have now gathered all their findings and sent in their application for the Forest Hill Historic District to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) on Friday June 3rd. I have checked out [...]
Learn the story about this tin license plate on Out of the Box – Notes from the Archives of the Library of Virginia.
Earlier this I week had the pleasure of getting a sneak peek at the Virginia Historical Society’s new exhibit “An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia“. The exhibit is a signature program of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission. To put it mildly the exhibit is stunning. I do have a [...]
I just recently found the Southampton Citizen’s Association website and it’s a great resource for anyone in the Southampton neighborhood. Today they posted some old ads from their “Directory to Southampton” which was published every 2 years. I’m picked my favorite to post. Click here or on the image below to check some other ads [...]
Historic Forest Hill (working to have Forest Hill declared historic) has posted an amazing piece of local history. A copy of the memoir of Benjamin B. Weisiger whose family lived in the area as Forest Hill developed is located on the FHNA Resources page. If you live in the Forest Hill neighborhood or are a [...]
This picture is part of the Adolph B. Rice Studio collection on Flickr.
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 [...]
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. [singlepic id=579 w=420 h=340 float=]
[singlepic id=555 w=420 h=340 float=] 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Interesting description and detail about Forest Hill Park from the July 9th 1901 issue of the Richmond Dispatch. [singlepic id=197 w=420 h=340 float=] Full page can be found here: Richmond Dispatch July 9, 1901
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 [...]
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 [...]
