50 Fun Facts About Richmond, Virginia

Which planter commissioned the original town grid of Richmond in 1737?

He named it after Richmond upon Thames because the view of the James at the fall line reminded him of Richmond Hill in England.

Richmond, Virginia, took its name from an English town on which river?

That English Richmond is now part of London; the Virginia settlement was incorporated as a town in 1742.

Where in Richmond did Patrick Henry deliver 'Give me liberty or give me death!' in 1775?

The church stands in Church Hill, the neighbourhood that takes its name from it.

Richmond replaced which city as the capital of Virginia in 1780?

The move came on 18 April 1780; a year later Benedict Arnold's Loyalist troops raided and burned the new capital, sending Governor Jefferson fleeing.

Thomas Jefferson modelled the Virginia State Capitol on which ancient Roman temple?

Designed with Charles-Louis Clérisseau, it was completed in 1788 and is one of only twelve US capitols without an external dome.

On 20 May 1861, the Confederate Congress voted to move its capital to Richmond from which city?

The Confederate Congress then shared the Jefferson-designed Capitol with the Virginia General Assembly.

Which Richmond foundry made the 723 tons of armour plating for the ironclad CSS Virginia?

The CSS Virginia was the world's first ironclad used in war; the works stand on the riverfront near Belle Isle today.

Roughly what proportion of Richmond's buildings were destroyed in the Evacuation Fire of April 1865?

Retreating Confederates burned tobacco warehouses and exploded the powder magazine; Lincoln toured the ruined city by launch on 4 April.

Which US president visited Richmond on 4 April 1865, the day after Confederate troops evacuated it?

He came up the James by launch from Petersburg; Jefferson Davis was meanwhile trying to reassemble his government in Danville.

Gabriel, who planned an 1800 slave rebellion around Richmond, was hanged along with how many followers?

The plot leaked before it began; Gabriel was born on the Brookfield tobacco plantation in Henrico County.

Richmond opened one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems in which year?

Frank Sprague's overhead-wire design spread rapidly to other cities; the last Richmond streetcar gave way to buses in November 1949.

Which Richmond neighbourhood was called the 'Wall Street of Black America'?

Its Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson monument was left untouched during the 2020 protests that brought down the Confederate statues.

In 1903, Maggie L. Walker of Richmond became the first African American woman to do what?

She served as president of St. Luke Penny Savings Bank; her home is now a National Historic Site.

Which two US presidents are buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery?

Jefferson Davis, J.E.B. Stuart and George Pickett are there too, along with more than 11,000 Confederate soldiers under a 90-foot granite pyramid.

Hollywood Cemetery, established in 1847, got its name from what?

Designer John Notman proposed the name; the cemetery overlooks the James River from a hill south of the Fan.

The one statue left on Monument Avenue after December 2022 honours a pioneer in which sport?

Adding the tennis champion's statue in 1996 caused months of controversy; the Lee monument was removed after the George Floyd protests of 2020.

Which Richmond-born athlete won Wimbledon in 1975 by beating defending champion Jimmy Connors?

He remains the only Black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open or the Australian Open; the city renamed the Boulevard for him in 2019.

Which Richmond-born politician was the first African American elected governor of a US state?

The grandson of enslaved people, he later became Richmond's first directly elected mayor in over 60 years, serving 2005 to 2009.

From 1835 Edgar Allan Poe was assistant editor of which Richmond magazine?

He was born in Boston but raised by Richmond merchant John Allan; the city's oldest stone house is now the Poe Museum.

Richmond is the only US city with what feature of the James River running through it?

The river reaches tidewater at Richmond and can flood in any month; a floodwall finished in 1995 protects the low-lying areas.

Belle Isle in the James River was a Powhatan fishing village, a colonial race track and what during the Civil War?

It is the larger of the two island parks; the other is Brown's Island.

Maymont, next to Byrd Park, is a Victorian estate of roughly how many acres?

It has formal gardens, native wildlife exhibits, a carriage collection and a children's farm.

Which MLB club did the Richmond Flying Squirrels join as a Double-A affiliate in 2010?

The Squirrels arrived in 2010 as the Giants' Double-A club in the Eastern League; the Braves' Triple-A club had played in Richmond for decades before leaving in 2008.

The Richmond Kickers, playing since 1993, hold what distinction in American soccer?

They left the USL in 2018 to become founding members of the third-division league.

In 2011, VCU became the first team to reach the Final Four after starting in which round?

Those opening games are known as the First Four; UCLA matched the feat in 2021. The Rams then made the tournament a state-record seven straight years through 2017.

VCU was created in 1968 by merging the Richmond Professional Institute with what?

The University of Richmond's teams, the Spiders, play across town at the Robins Center.

How long is the Richmond Raceway oval in Henrico County that hosts NASCAR events?

Its short-track length makes it one of the more physical stops on the Cup schedule.

Which 1920s movie palace in Carytown shows second-run films and hosts the French Film Festival?

Carytown is the stretch of Cary Street between Interstate 195 and the Boulevard.

Richmond is one of about a dozen US cities with a Court of Appeals and what other national institution?

It became headquarters of the Fifth Federal Reserve District in May 1914; the bank's Minoru Yamasaki tower dominates the skyline.

Which original World Trade Center architect designed Richmond's Federal Reserve Building?

Philip Johnson did design a Richmond building, the WRVA Building; the Jefferson Hotel is by Carrère and Hastings.

Tobacco magnate Lewis Ginter built which grand landmark on Richmond's Franklin Street?

His firm Allen & Ginter was one of the world's largest tobacco companies, and his name lives on at the botanical garden.

James Bonsack, inventor of the first cigarette-rolling machine around 1880, came from which Virginia city?

Philip Morris USA still runs a $350 million research centre in the city, and Altria is among the metro area's Fortune 500 firms.

Which of these Fortune 500 companies is headquartered in the Richmond metro area?

Altria, Dominion Energy, Markel, Genworth and Performance Food Group are also based there; Capital One has big offices but is headquartered in McLean.

With 226,610 residents at the 2020 census, Richmond ranks where among Virginia's cities by population?

Its metro area of over 1.37 million is the state's third-largest and the 44th-largest in the US.

Richmond has been an independent city, not part of any county, since which year?

It is now surrounded by Henrico County, which has about 334,000 people of its own.

George Washington helped design which Richmond waterway built to bypass the rapids?

It moved cargo from flat-bottomed bateaux above the fall line to ocean-going ships below.

Richmond's Reconciliation Statue has matching statues in Benin and which English city?

Shockoe Bottom, the low ground between Shockoe Hill and Church Hill, held one of the largest slave markets in the country.

Which grotesquely costumed heavy metal band was formed in Richmond in 1984?

Lamb of God, Municipal Waste, D'Angelo, Jason Mraz and Lucy Dacus are among the other acts associated with the city.

Which Breaking Bad creator was born in Richmond, as was the author Tom Wolfe?

Pulitzer winner Ellen Glasgow and James Branch Cabell also called Richmond home.

The 2012 film Lincoln, which won Daniel Day-Lewis his third Oscar, was largely shot where?

AMC's Turn and National Geographic's Killing Kennedy were also filmed in the region.

Richmond's GRTC Pulse bus rapid transit line runs from Willow Lawn to Rocketts Landing along which street?

It runs from Willow Lawn to Rocketts Landing; the restored Main Street Station is the city's only railway station.

Which Richmond neighbourhood, between the Boulevard, VCU and the expressway, is known for Monument Avenue?

West of the Boulevard lies the Museum District, home to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Virginia Historical Society.

Which Jamestown captain led explorers up the James River in 1607 to the falls at today's Richmond?

The Powhatan name Pawat-hanne means 'falls in a stream', and the tribe's village stood at today's Powhatan Hill.

Which 1611 settlement at Falling Creek was the first European settlement in Central Virginia?

The Virginia Company set up the Falling Creek Ironworks there in 1619, years before Richmond itself was laid out.

Which surveyor did planter Byrd hire to lay out Richmond's original town grid in 1737?

The grid, finished that April, covered the land between today's Broad, 17th and 25th Streets and the river.

Which Confederate general's statue, removed on December 12, 2022, was the last to go in Richmond?

Most Confederate monuments had come down during or after the George Floyd protests of June 2020.

Which tap-dancing star's monument in Jackson Ward stayed untouched throughout the 2020 protests?

Jackson Ward was long known as the 'Wall Street of Black America' and Robinson was a Richmond native.

In which year was Richmond's flood wall completed, spurring growth in the riverside district?

A Canal Walk along the old industrial canals followed, and the area became a hub for nightlife and dining.

Richmond's Science Museum of Virginia occupies which former 1919 neoclassical building?

It sits on Broad Street beside the Children's Museum, near the Museum District along Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

Downtown Richmond has one of only two of which railway features in North America?

Boats, rail and two intersecting interstates all converge at the fall line between Piedmont and Tidewater.