Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia and one of the oldest continuously inhabited English-speaking settlements in North America. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871. It is the fourth-most populous city in Virginia, with a population of 226,610 at the 2020 Census. The Richmond metropolitan area, with over 1.37 million residents, is the third-most populous metropolitan area in Virginia and the 44th-largest in the United States. Richmond is located at the James River’s fall line, 44 miles west of Williamsburg, 66 miles east of Charlottesville, and 92 miles south of Washington, D.C.

Founding and History

The land on which Richmond sits has been inhabited for millennia. Richmond was an important village in the Powhatan Confederacy and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown from 1609 to 1611. The city was formally laid out in 1737 by William Byrd II, who envisioned a trading post at the falls of the James River. It was incorporated in 1742 and grew rapidly as a commercial hub for tobacco and other agricultural goods moving through the Virginia interior.

Richmond replaced Williamsburg as the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. The shift was driven in part by Thomas Jefferson, who argued that the interior location provided greater protection from British naval raids — a calculation that proved prescient when British forces under Benedict Arnold sacked the city in 1781. During the Revolutionary War era, Richmond witnessed pivotal moments in the founding of the nation: Patrick Henry delivered his “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech in 1775 at St. John’s Church, and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson, was passed in the city.

Richmond’s darkest chapter and most historically complex identity derives from the Civil War. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, Richmond was selected as the capital of the Confederate States of America, making it the political, symbolic, and military nerve center of the rebellion. As the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War, it was a central target for the Union Army. The city withstood years of siege and assault, including the Seven Days Battles of 1862 on its outskirts. In April 1865, as Union forces finally broke through Confederate lines, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his government fled south. Retreating Confederate troops set fire to warehouses and bridges in what became known as the Evacuation Fire, which destroyed much of the city’s commercial district before Union forces arrived to help extinguish the blaze.

Reconstruction and the late nineteenth century brought both remarkable African American achievement and severe racial oppression. Freed slaves and their descendants created a thriving African American business community, and the city’s historic Jackson Ward became known as the “Wall Street of Black America.” In 1903, African American businesswoman and financier Maggie L. Walker chartered St. Luke Penny Savings Bank and was the first Black female bank president in the United States. At the same time, Jim Crow laws enforced rigid segregation throughout the city.

The twentieth century brought industrialization, suburban flight, and ultimately significant demographic and political transformation. On November 2, 2004, former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder was elected as the city’s first directly elected mayor in over 60 years. The 2020 racial justice protests following George Floyd’s murder produced a landmark reckoning with Richmond’s Confederate heritage. Most of the statues honoring Confederate leaders on Monument Avenue were removed during or after the protests in June 2020. The city removed the last Confederate statue — honoring General A. P. Hill — on December 12, 2022. The only statue remaining on Monument Avenue is of Arthur Ashe, the pioneering Black tennis player.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 62 square miles, of which 60 square miles is land. The city is in the Piedmont region of Virginia, at the James River’s highest navigable point. As an independent city, Richmond is entirely surrounded by Henrico County to the north and east and Chesterfield County to the south and west, but is administered separately from both. Richmond is at the intersection of I-95 and I-64 and encircled by I-295. The James River flows through the southern portion of the city, where Class III and IV whitewater rapids make Richmond one of the few American cities with urban whitewater kayaking within its boundaries.

Richmond’s neighborhoods are strongly defined and culturally distinct. The Fan District, west of downtown, features 85 blocks of Victorian townhomes fanning out from the city center. The Museum District adjoins the Fan to the west. Church Hill to the east is the city’s oldest neighborhood. Jackson Ward, just north of downtown, is the historic heart of Black Richmond. Scott’s Addition, once an industrial zone, has emerged as a thriving brewery and entertainment corridor. Oregon Hill and Carytown are additional residential and commercial anchors.

Demographics

The racial composition of Richmond is approximately 42.77% White, 40.98% Black or African American, 5.74% other race, and smaller percentages for Asian, Native American, and multiracial populations. The median household income is $64,587 with a poverty rate of 18.2%. The median age is 34.7 years. The city’s population has been growing modestly since 2010, reversing several decades of post-World War II decline driven by suburbanization. As of 2024, about 8.3% of Richmond residents were born outside of the United States.

Government

Richmond operates under a strong mayor–city council form of government. The current Mayor of Richmond and 81st in the sequence of regular officeholders is Democrat Danny Avula, who has served in the office since January 1, 2025. Avula, a pediatrician and former public health director who led Richmond and Henrico County’s health district and directed Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination effort, succeeded Levar Stoney, who was term-limited after two terms. The Richmond City Council consists of nine members, each representing one of the city’s nine geographic districts. As an independent city, Richmond is not part of any county government, and its city council functions as the equivalent of both a city council and a county board of supervisors. Richmond is home to both a U.S. Court of Appeals (the Fourth Circuit) and a Federal Reserve Bank — Richmond is one of about a dozen cities to have both.

Economy

Law, finance, and government primarily drive Richmond’s economy. The downtown area is home to federal, state, and local governmental agencies as well as notable legal and banking firms. The greater metropolitan area includes several Fortune 500 companies: Performance Food Group, Altria, CarMax, Dominion Energy, Markel, Owens & Minor, Genworth Financial, and ARKO Corp.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond is one of twelve Federal Reserve district banks in the country and a significant employer and economic institution. Capital One, while headquartered in nearby McLean, maintains a major presence in the Richmond region and is among the largest private employers in the metro area. Within the city itself, VCU Health and Virginia Commonwealth University together employ more than 20,000 people combined. The tobacco industry, which was central to Richmond’s economy for centuries through companies including Philip Morris (now Altria), remains a presence, though employment has contracted significantly. The craft brewery industry has become a defining economic and cultural feature of modern Richmond, with Scott’s Addition evolving into one of the densest brewery districts on the East Coast.

Education

The City of Richmond operates 28 elementary schools, seven middle schools, and eight high schools, serving a total student population of 24,000. The city has one Governor’s School, the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies.

Higher education anchors significant portions of the city’s economy and cultural life. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), with campuses in the heart of the city, is one of Virginia’s largest universities. VCU awarded 7,409 degrees in 2023, and its medical school and hospital system (VCU Health) make it a major research and healthcare institution. VCU’s School of the Arts is consistently ranked among the top art programs in the country. The University of Richmond, a private liberal arts institution founded in 1830, sits on a campus in the city’s west end. Virginia Union University, a historically Black university founded in 1865, is one of the oldest HBCUs in the South. Union Presbyterian Seminary and the T.C. Williams School of Law (part of the University of Richmond) round out the city’s higher education landscape.

Culture and Landmarks

Richmond’s cultural life is layered with colonial, Civil War, African American, and contemporary histories, all of which can be encountered within a compact urban core.

The Virginia State Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1785 in consultation with French architect Charles-Louis Clérisseau, remains in use by the Virginia General Assembly and is one of the oldest working capitol buildings in the country. The Virginia Executive Mansion is the oldest continuously occupied governor’s mansion in the United States. Hollywood Cemetery, designed in 1847 and perched above the James River, is the burial site of U.S. Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts contains the largest collection of Fabergé objects outside of Russia and is one of the premier art museums in the South. The American Civil War Museum at Historic Tredegar, housed in the surviving structures of the ironworks that produced much of the Confederacy’s artillery, offers a comprehensive examination of the conflict from Union, Confederate, and African American perspectives.

Jackson Ward hosted a thriving entertainment district centered on the famed Hippodrome Theatre, where performers including Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and James Brown appeared during the segregation era. Maggie L. Walker became the first woman in America to found and lead a bank when she opened the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank; her home in Jackson Ward is now a National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service. Monument Avenue, once lined with Confederate monuments, now features a single statue — that of Arthur Ashe — alongside its historic Victorian mansions and churches. The Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School and Arthur Ashe Boulevard further embed Richmond’s most celebrated figures into the city’s daily geography.

The James River is a recreational centerpiece of city life, with Belle Isle — a 65-acre island accessible by pedestrian bridge — offering mountain biking, running, and swimming. Maymont, a Victorian estate with formal Italian and Japanese gardens, a mansion museum, and a wildlife center, sits on 100 acres along the river’s north bank. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, in the city’s north, is recognized nationally for its conservatory and rose gardens. The Richmond Folk Festival each October transforms the riverfront into a celebration of regional and world music. The city was named CNN’s Best Town to Visit in 2024 in recognition of its food scene, outdoor recreation, history, and arts culture.

Notable People

Richmond has produced a remarkable concentration of figures significant to American history. Maggie L. Walker (1864–1934), born and raised in Jackson Ward, became the first Black woman in the United States to charter and serve as president of a bank, and spent her life advocating for Black economic and civic advancement. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (1878–1949), also a Jackson Ward native, became America’s most celebrated tap dancer and starred in Broadway productions and Hollywood films; he paid out of his own pocket to install a traffic light near his home after witnessing a child nearly struck by a car. Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) learned tennis on segregated Richmond public courts and went on to become the first Black man to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open singles titles, before devoting his final years to AIDS awareness. L. Douglas Wilder (born 1931), a Church Hill native, became the first African American elected governor in U.S. history (1990) and later served as Richmond’s mayor. Max Robinson (1939–1988) became the first African American broadcast journalist to co-anchor a major network national news program, at ABC News. In arts and entertainment, Richmond produced Warren Beatty (born 1937), the acclaimed actor, director, and producer; D’Angelo (born 1974), the influential neo-soul musician; and Vince Gilligan (born 1967), creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Thriller novelist David Baldacci was born and raised in Richmond and attended VCU.

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