October 17, 2023
Top: “View of Richmond from the church hill” (c. 1850) by Casimir Bohn. The house in the foreground is often called the Adams-Taylor house but was more likely built for speculator James Smith in 1812, according to the blog Urban Scale Richmond.
Below: Detail of “Plan of Richmond, Manchester, and Springhill” (1848) by Charles S. Morgan. The red lines on the detail indicate the approximate field of vision of the 1850 lithograph although the lithograph has an altered perspective. The original map has indicators of prominent buildings; the map detail below with the red outlines shows the same indicators, but they have been placed in white circles to make them easier to read. The original map also had a legend with the names of the buildings which, for the below section inside the red outlines, follow underneath. The legend on the original map contains additional details about the buildings which are not provided here. Sources: Richmond map: Charles S. Morgan, 1848, acquired online from the Library of Virginia. Lithograph of Richmond: E. Sachse & Co., c. 1850, acquired online from the Library of Congress.
Key to Numbers in Ovals
- A1-6 – Capital Complex
- B 3-5 – F’s Bank, Bank of Va., American Hotel
- D2 – Shockoe Warehouse
- D5 – Seabrook’s Warehouse
- E1 – Medical College
- E2 – Richmond Academy
- E3 – Lancasterian School House
- F1 – City Hall
- F2 – City Jail
- H2 – Monumental Episcopal Church
- H6 – Christ’s Episcopal Church
- I1 – 1st Presbyterian Church
- K1 – 1st Baptist Church
- K4 – 4th Baptist Church
- K5 – 1st Negro Baptist Church
- M1 – Trinity Methodist Church
- N1 – Sycamore Church
- N2 – Unitarian Church
- N4 – Jewish Synagogue
- N5 – Jewish Synagogue
- N6 – Friends’ Meeting House
- O1 – Masonic Hall
- O2 – Odd Fellows’ Hall
- S10&11 – Foundry and Shop
- S13&14 – Gallego Mills and Corn Mill
- S17 – Future Richmond and Danville RR Depot
- T1 – Exchange Hotel and Post Office
- T3 – Union Hotel
- T4 – Columbian Hotel
- T6 – Powhatan House
- T9 – Market House
- T10 – Shockoe Hill Market and Weight House
- V1 – Hqs of Revolutionary General Lafayette
Richmond Narratives 