By New Year’s Day of 1960, Richmond remained a segregated city. Most aspects of daily life for African Americans, from education to entertainment to shopping, were governed by restrictive rules. These rules also dictated where Richmonders of color could eat. Restaurants maintained…
In 1944, the U.S. Army built a hospital on the south side of Richmond to serve as the first stop for injured World War II soldiers returning home from England. With more than three miles of corridors, a gym, movie…
In 1844, evangelicals in England founded an organization meant to attract young, often wayward men into Christianity through social events and Bible study groups. A decade later, in 1854, a branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association, or YMCA, was established…
In 1929, a fantastic Richmond holiday tradition was born: the Christmas Toy Parade. Every year, just after Thanksgiving, crowds gathered on Broad Street to watch floats, bands, clowns, and drill teams herald the arrival of the holiday season. The highlight of the…
In 1871, lines were drawn around a new voting ward. Before the Emancipation, the area had been home to German, Italian, and Jewish immigrants, in addition to a large population of free blacks. After Emancipation, freed enslaved persons, unwelcome elsewhere…
In 1646, two now-Virginia tribes signed a peace treaty with the British powers, ending the Third Anglo-Powhatan War. With this, the first reservations (the legal designation for an area of land managed by a Native American tribe rather than the…
In 1916, the famous New York architect, John Russell Pope, designed one of the largest private residences ever built in Richmond. On Monument Avenue, the 27,000 square foot Tudor-Revival house was remarkable not only for its size, but for its purpose.…
In 1892, Major Lewis Günter decided to build the finest hotel in America, in Richmond. Some would say he succeeded, considering its impressive guest list, which included Teddy Roosevelt, Bette Davis, Henry Ford, Gertrude Stein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John D.…
On November 20, 1909, the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia voted itself into existence. It was the first women’s voting rights organization in Richmond and it had just eighteen members, including Adele Clark, Nora Houston, the novelist Ellen Glasgow, and…
In 1874, an international order of Roman Catholic nuns came to Richmond. Founded in 1839 by a French woman who welcomed a blind, starving wanderer into her home, the Little Sisters of the Poor were dedicated to serving the indigent elderly throughout…
