Richmond, Va. [Named from Richmond-on-the-Thames, a suburb of London; the name suggested owing to analogy in situation.]
It is the capital of Virginia, on the left bank of the James River, at the head of tide water, one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, and one hundred and sixteen miles by rail south of Washington. It is a port of entry, and vessels drawing sixteen feet of water can come up to the lower end of the city, where there are large docks. Richmond is picturesquely situated on a group of hills, and fine water power is afforded by the James River, which descends one hundred and sixteen feet in nine miles.
Near the center of the city, on Shockoe Hill, is Capitol Square, a tree-shaded area of twelve acres. The Capitol, or State House, partly designed after the Maison Carrée at Nîmes, France, occupies the highest point of the square and dates from 1785. The wings were added in 1906.
In the Central Hall, surmounted by a dome, are Houdon’s statue of Washington (which Washington himself is said to have seen in its present position) and a bust of Lafayette by the same artist. The Senate Chamber, to the right, was used as the Confederate House of Representatives during the Civil War. The House of Delegates, to the left, contains portraits of Chatham and Jefferson, and was the scene of Aaron Burr’s trial for high treason in 1807, and of the State Secession Convention in 1861.
Capitol Square also contains a fine equestrian statue of Washington, with figures of Patrick Henry, George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, Andrew Lewis, and Chief Justice Marshall round the pedestal; a statue of Stonewall Jackson; a statue of Hunter Holmes McGuire, the most noted surgeon of the South; and a statue of Henry Clay. At the northeast corner of the square stands the Governor’s Mansion.
On the north side, in Broad Street, is the City Hall, a handsome Gothic structure with a clock-tower. To the east of the Capitol is the State Library. In Twelfth Street, at the corner of Clay Street, a little to the north of Capitol Square, is the Jefferson Davis Mansion, or “White House of the Confederacy,” occupied by Mr. Davis as President of the Southern Confederacy. It is now fitted up as a Museum of Confederate Relics.
St. John’s Church, erected in 1740, but since much enlarged, is at the corner of Broad and Twenty-fourth Streets. The Virginia Convention was held in this church in 1775, and it was here that Patrick Henry made his famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech.
On Monument Avenue (a prolongation of Franklin Street) is the equestrian statue of General Lee. Adjacent is an equestrian statue of General J. E. B. Stuart, and a half mile farther on, at the west end of the avenue, is the Jefferson Davis Monument, consisting of a semi-circular colonnade with a pillar supporting an allegorical female figure and inscribed “Deo Vindice,” with a heroic statue of the ex-president in front. A little to the east of the Lee Statue is Richmond College, a leading educational institution of Virginia.
Among other points of interest in Richmond are the Westmoreland Club, at the corner of Grace and Sixth Streets; the Commonwealth Club, at the corner of Franklin and Madison Streets; the Virginia Club, 2311 East Grace Street; Chief Justice Marshall’s House; the Tobacco Exchange, Shockoe Slip; the University College of Medicine; the Medical College of Virginia; the National Cemetery, two miles to the northeast of the city; the Sheltering Arms Hospital, and Idlewood Park, a favorite summer-resort, close to the city on the west.
Hollywood Cemetery is the most interesting of the cemeteries. Near the west gate of the cemetery is the Confederate Monument, a rude pyramid of stone ninety feet high, erected as a memorial to the sixteen thousand Confederate soldiers buried here. On President’s Hill, in the southwest corner of the cemetery, overlooking the river, are the graves of Monroe and Tyler, two of the seven presidents born in Virginia. John Randolph, Jefferson Davis, General Pickett, General J. E. B. Stuart and Commodore Maury are also buried here. Patrick Henry is buried in St. John’s Churchyard.