Bon Air, Virginia

Bon Air is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, situated immediately southwest of the independent City of Richmond. The population was 18,022 at the 2020 Census. The community is considered a suburb of the independent city of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region and is a part of the Southside neighborhoods. Originally developed as a resort, a central portion of Bon Air has been designated as a National Historic District with many structures of Victorian design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its name means “good air,” reflecting its role as a resort getaway that wealthy Richmonders enjoyed for its fresh air as opposed to the dirty air of Richmond’s industrial downtown of the late 19th century.

Founding and History

The land that became Bon Air was sparsely settled for much of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The area was known informally as Brown’s Summit, named after the Brown family farm that occupied the high ground near the present-day intersection of Jahnke and Brown roads. The Richmond and Danville Railroad laid tracks through the area by the 1850s, connecting the site to Manchester (later absorbed by Richmond) and the coal mining regions to the southwest, but significant development did not begin until after the Civil War.

In June of 1877, Colonel Thomas Mann Talcott, who served with General Robert E. Lee, became president of the Bon Air Land and Improvement Company. It was Colonel Talcott who decided the name should be changed to Bon Air to reflect the quality of the fresh air enjoyed there. The area’s appeal was straightforward: at roughly 328 feet above sea level — significantly higher than most of Richmond, just eight miles to the east — Bon Air offered the perception of purer, cooler air that nineteenth-century Richmonders craved as an escape from the city’s industrial pollution and summer heat.

A grand three-story hotel was constructed in 1880 to attract summer residents and visitors from Richmond. The resort complex offered a range of amenities including croquet and jousting, with bowling and billiards added later. The Richmond and Danville Railway inaugurated direct service to Bon Air in 1882, offering multiple daily departures at 25 cents and even providing live music on the trains. The south side of the railroad tracks became known as the “cottage side,” where wealthy Richmonders built private vacation homes. Bon Air’s principal artery, Buford Road, is still lined with gaily ornamented Victorian cottages.

The Bon Air hotel burned to the ground in 1889, reinforcing the shift from resort village to bedroom community. The 1881 hotel annex — the only surviving piece of the original resort complex — still stands at the corner of Rockaway Road and Buford Road and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After the fire, permanent year-round settlement accelerated as families who had built summer cottages decided to make Bon Air their primary home. Financial problems in the late 1910s ended Bon Air’s role as a resort, but its proximity to the city and the ascendancy of the automobile enabled it to evolve into a distinctive residential suburb.

The twentieth century brought steady suburbanization. The Bethany Home — an orphanage opened in 1898 by Civil War veteran J.R.F. Burroughs and his wife Lucy on a 165-acre tract — operated for several decades and shaped the community’s philanthropic character before closing in the 1940s. Its former grounds later became the site of Huguenot High School (opened 1960) and Fred D. Thompson Middle School (completed 1965). In 1970, portions of the historical Bon Air area were annexed by the City of Richmond, relocating those schools into the Richmond city school system, while the original core CDP remained part of Chesterfield County.

In 1988, the Bon Air Historical Society assisted in generating an application for the Bon Air Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places — marking the centennial of the streetcar’s arrival. The district is also listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 8.36 square miles, of which 8.32 square miles is land. Just west of the fall line, which divides Virginia’s Tidewater and Piedmont geological regions, the average elevation in the Bon Air area is approximately 200 feet above sea level, which is significantly higher than most of Richmond, only 8 miles to the east. The two branches of Powhite Creek originate nearby, which flows into the James River just upstream from downtown Richmond.

Bon Air is located entirely within Chesterfield County, Virginia, and mostly within the 23235 ZIP code. It is bounded to the north by Huguenot Road, to the east by the city of Richmond, to the south by Midlothian Turnpike, and to the southwest by Robious Road. The Powhite Parkway and Chippenham Parkway form major eastern and southern traffic arteries, giving residents quick highway access to downtown Richmond, the West End, and points south. Bon Air has no incorporated government of its own; as a CDP, it is administered entirely through Chesterfield County.

Demographics

The population’s racial and ethnic makeup in 2020 was predominantly non-Hispanic White at 74.1%, followed by Black or African American at 12.0%, Hispanic or Latino (of any race) at 7.7%, and Asian at 3.9%. As of the 2019–2023 American Community Survey estimates, the median household income in Bon Air was $97,620, exceeding the Virginia state median of approximately $87,900 during the same period. The poverty rate was 6.24%. About 54% of residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 41.5% statewide. The homeownership rate is approximately 70%, consistent with the community’s identity as a stable, family-oriented residential suburb. The median home value is approximately $420,000.

Government

Bon Air has no incorporated municipal government. As an unincorporated CDP, all governmental services — police, fire, roads, parks, schools — are provided by Chesterfield County. Bon Air falls within Chesterfield County’s Midlothian Magisterial District for county supervisor representation. The community maintains a strong civic identity through the Bon Air Community Association, which offers nine tennis courts, three swimming pools, and a clubhouse for social events, and through the Bon Air Historical Society, which was founded in 1978 and is the oldest historical society in Chesterfield County.

Economy

Bon Air functions primarily as a residential bedroom community. Because Bon Air is a suburb of Richmond, there are plenty of employment opportunities in that city. Some of the most popular employers in Bon Air and the surrounding area include VCU Health System, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Chesterfield County Public Schools. Local retail activity is centered on a cluster of suburban shopping centers along Buford Road and the surrounding corridors, including Stony Point Shopping Center (opened 1985) and the Shoppes at Bellgrade (opened 1990). The Arboretum and The Boulders office park developments, both south of Bon Air, provide professional employment within a short commute.

In some cases, these shopping centers house independent businesses — butchers, coffee shops, restaurants — that are spinoffs from downtown Richmond’s thriving independent business and restaurant scene. As families from the Fan District and other Richmond neighborhoods leave the city in search of a better school system and affordable housing, many settle in the inner suburb of Bon Air with 10-minute access to the city or the West End via the Powhite Parkway and/or Chippenham Parkway.

Education

Bon Air is served entirely by Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS). The Chesterfield County Public Schools serving the area are Bon Air Elementary School, Crestwood Elementary School, Greenfield Elementary School, Robious Middle School, and James River High School. Several private schools also serve the community, including St. Michael’s Episcopal School and St. Edward-Epiphany Catholic School. Bon Air Elementary School earned a whimsical footnote in American cultural history as the inspiration for Patricia Reilly Giff’s beloved The Kids of the Polk Street School children’s book series, set at a fictional elementary school modeled after it.

Higher education is easily accessible via Richmond’s many institutions — VCU, the University of Richmond, Virginia Union University, and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College — all within a short commute.

Culture and Landmarks

Bon Air’s most distinctive cultural asset is its surviving Victorian architecture, centered on Buford Road in the Bon Air Historic District. The 1881–82 Bon Air Hotel annex is a reminder of the former resort character. Though now surrounded by modern suburban sprawl, Bon Air maintains its village ambience. Walking Buford Road today, visitors encounter a concentration of Queen Anne and Stick Style cottages — large wraparound porches, floor-to-ceiling windows, decorative gingerbread trim — that represent some of the most intact late-Victorian domestic architecture in the Richmond metro area.

The community’s annual Victorian Day Festival and Parade, held each May on the first weekend, is the signature community event. The festival begins with a parade of antique cars and bands marching along Buford Road, lined with flag-waving spectators. It is a daylong celebration where families, neighbors, and friends gather for food, games, and family-oriented entertainment. The Bon Air Historical Society, organized in 1978, maintains the community’s collective memory and offers periodic historic house tours.

The original Bon Air “Hazen Memorial” Library, built in 1902 as Chesterfield County’s first lending library, stands as a private museum today. It was built by the Bon Air Association as a memorial to Dr. James K. Hazen, minister of Bon Air Presbyterian Church and a literary and educational leader of the community.

Notable People

Bon Air’s notable historical figures are largely associated with its resort-era founding. Colonel Algernon S. Buford, president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, was among the principal founders and developers of the resort; Buford Road is named in his honor. Colonel Thomas Mann Talcott, former aide to General Robert E. Lee, served as the first president of the Bon Air Land and Improvement Company in 1877 and gave the community its name. Polk Miller — pharmacist, Confederate veteran, banjo player, and early entrepreneur — was an early Bon Air resident who went on to found what became the Sergeant’s pet care company while developing remedies for his dogs. Streets in Bon Air like Buford Road and Logan Street are named after these early leaders. Hunter McGuire, a prominent surgeon affiliated with the Medical College of Virginia and personal physician to Stonewall Jackson, was a prominent resident of Bon Air; the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center in Richmond was named in his honor.

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