If a time traveler had the foresight to place cameras in the South Richmond neighborhood of Forest Hill in the 1700s and keep them running for a couple centuries, a time-lapse film of the area could help us visualize Richmond’s growth as a city.
Plantations and farmhouses would give way to suburbs, dirt trails would become widened and paved, and streetcars would appear with fanfare, only to be replaced by automobiles and even more suburban houses.
The neighborhood, which runs south from the James River to Reedy Creek and Bassett Avenue and east from Southcliff Road, Cedar Lane and Westover Hills Boulevard to the east boundary of Forest Hill Park, is a microcosm of the city’s history. So let’s take a moment to slow the imaginary time traveler’s film down.
The land that would become Forest Hill was a part of the vast holdings of the William Byrd family until its sale in 1768. In the years following the sale, the land became a collection of small plantations that may have used a local canal system to transport goods downstream to Manchester, which was a bustling port city and commercial center in the early 1800s.
The Forest Hill historic designation committee, which prepared an application to declare the neighborhood a historic district, is researching the area’s two extant canals. (The National Park Service is considering the committee’s application and is expected to make its decision in December.)
Improved roads also connected the small agrarian village to Manchester. Today’s Forest Hill Avenue, the neighborhood’s longest road, follows the path of a road that was first recorded on a map in 1804.
The creation of the Richmond and Danville Railroad in the mid-1800s eventually shifted the land we now call Forest Hill (it acquired the name sometime around 1890) into more suburban usage, as did the Richmond & Manchester Railway Co., which brought electric streetcars to the eastern edge of the neighborhood.
By the early 1900s, Forest Hill had become a streetcar suburb. The streetcar system also helped create a local amusement park, which the railway company built on the land that is now Forest Hill Park to boost streetcar usage. The City of Richmond acquired the amusement park in 1933 and converted the site into today’s lush, 105-acre park.
With such a long history, it’s not surprising to see a wide range of architectural styles in Forest Hill, from Federalist houses dating back to the early days of the nation to two houses built in the mid-20th century by nationally recognized modernist architects. Among the oldest houses in the neighborhood is Maple Crest, a plantation house that was built around 1815.
Most of Forest Hill’s approximately 700 homes were built between 1890 and 1960, and the styles are wide-ranging, said Jim Donohue, a real estate agent with Long & Foster and a Forest Hill resident. "The neighborhood has American foursquares, Colonials, bungalows, Capes, Victorians and a few ranchers."
Forest Hill has been home to famous Richmond residents, including Frederick William Sievers (the artist who sculpted the statues of Stonewall Jackson and Matthew Fontaine Maury on Monument Avenue) and Lewis F. Powell Jr. (an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court).
Today, the neighborhood is home to a diverse population. "We still have the World War II generation, and at the other end, we have young families," Donohue said. They’re drawn by the neighborhood’s natural setting, said Carolyn Paulette, chairwoman of the Forest Hill historic designation committee. "The river and the park are two of the　major attractions for residents, both old and young."
The neighborhood’s restaurants and coffee shops are powerful draws, too, as is its vibrant social life, which includes a neighborhood Christmas party and an annual 4k run through Forest Hill Park.
But it’s the homes themselves that might prove most attractive to homebuyers, Donohue said. "They like the older homes for their charm and detail and the quality of their construction. These homes were built to last."
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