Historic Designation: The Forest Hill Historic Designation Committee submitted their application for the Forest Hill Historic District to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) on Friday June 3rd. Click on the pdf to see the full application. Please plan to attend the DHR hearing on our application on Thursday, September 15th, 10:00 a.m. at the Virgina Historic Society building on the Boulevard when DHR will present the Forest Hill Nomination for approval. For more information, contact Carolyn Paulette at cmp4312@yahoo.com.
Much of our neighborhood's history revolves around Forest Hill Park. Below is a brief history of Forest Hill Park. (All of the photos on this page are courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center.)
Holden Rhodes (born Canada, 1798-99, died Richmond, 1857) built his country estate, “Boscobel,” on a bluff above the south bank of the James River around 1836-1843. The house is constructed of granite quarried on the property, which included some 140 acres. Rhodes had come to Richmond to serve as a tutor for the children of a prominent Richmond attorney, and later himself became an attorney, an industrial entrepreneur, and first president of Richmond & Petersburg Railroad Company. In 1889, the Rhodes estate was sold to the Virginia Passenger & Power Co., and became a terminus for the Forest Hill Trolley (no. 222). Power for the trolley came from a water-turbine generating plant on Belle Isle.
To attract customers to the countryside, the company built an elaborate turn-of-the-century amusement park on the grounds, complete with carousel, loop-the-loop, bath house, swimming area, fun house, and other amenities. The park remained a popular Richmond attraction until 1932.
After the land was deeded to the City of Richmond in 1933, the rides and other amusements were demolished to convert the dilapidated estate into a finely landscaped park. During the Works Progress Administration in the era of the Great Depression, unemployed craftsmen and stonemasons working under the auspices of the National Relief Act applied their skills to pave the footpaths with cobblestones, adding a stone and slate Gazebo, a Warming Hut for use by winter ice-skaters on the pond, and new landscaping.
The new Forest Hill Park quickly became a quieter, more restful place for family picnics, strolling, hiking, and bird-watching. Today, as a result of unregulated development along Reedy Creek in the Midlothian corridor upstream, and consequent deposits of sediment in the pond, the park’s lower area has become a wetlands and wildlife refuge, attracting animals rarely found in city parks -- bald eagle, river otter, and great blue heron, to name a few.
With the reinvigoration of the area’s Civic Associations, citizens have focused renewed attention on issues critical to the park’s future: whether or how much to dredge the lake, how to restore deeply eroded slopes and stream banks, improving visitor safety, building a tot lot, and ensuring the preservation of the Old Stone House and other historic man-made structures.
This is a park with both a deep past and a bright future. Greenspaces such as Forest Hill Park add to the quality of life, add value to surrounding properties, and serve as a safe haven for both people and wildlife from the bustle of urban life. Guiding it into the next century, the Friends of Forest Hill Park have been working with their affiliate, the Forest Hill Civic Association, their partner the Richmond Recreation and Parks Foundation, with other area neighborhood groups, and with the City of Richmond, to ensure that the park continues to serve the people of Richmond from all walks of life.
(More information on Forest Hill Park and surrounding neighborhoods is available in two books.)
An Illustrated History of Forest Hill Park (Softbound, 4-color cover, 40 pages, 40 illustrations, 10.5" x 8", price $5.00)
This is the first book ever to offer a comprehensive history of Forest Hill Park, one of Richmond’s oldest and most beautiful public parks. The engaging text by historian Lynne A. George, illustrated with historic photographs and antique engravings, traces the history of this exceptional property to 1768, as part of the estate of William Byrd III of Westover and Falls Plantation. The story continues through its life as “Boscobel,” a working farm and country estate under the ownership of Holden Rhodes (1799-1857), prominent Richmond and Chesterfield attorney and jurist, to its colorful past as a turn-of-the-century trolley terminal and amusement park, complete with roller coaster, carousel, dance hall, penny arcade and bowling alley. Today, Forest Hill Park lives on as one of the city’s most popular and beloved green-spaces South of the James.
Woodland Heights, Virginia (Forest Hill Park Commemorative Edition) (Softbound, 4-color cover, 32 pages, 21 duotone illustrations. 6" x 9.5", Price: $5.00)
Read your way back to 1891…and catch a glimpse of life in the Gilded Age. In publishing, “Woodland Heights, Virginia,” Friends of Forest Hill Park collaborated with the Library of Virginia to publish an updated edition of a rare, out-of-print developer’s booklet in the LVA collection. This edition’s subtitle is the “Forest Hill Park Commemorative Edition,” because it was published to mark the park’s recent official listing on the Virginia and National Registers of Historic Landmarks. Several years ago, volunteer historians for the park group discovered a rare copy of a richly illustrated pamphlet, published circa 1891 by a Manchester-area real estate developer, in the Library of Virginia’s collections. The booklet describes the park’s unspoiled green space in great detail, luring homeowners to a healthier, more comfortable life in Woodland Heights, Richmond’s newest “trolley-car suburb.” A few excerpts from the booklet were featured in the Friends’ “Illustrated History of Forest Hill Park.” This time, the rare original has been be reprinted in its entirety, and updated with a new essay that traces the growth of the park and surrounding neighborhoods of Westover Hills, Forest Hill, and Woodland Heights during the past century. This edition celebrates the park’s historic designation as it revives the elegance of Old Richmond at its finest.
Proceeds from the sale of these booklets support preservation and educational programs at historic Forest Hill Park.
Available at Forest Hill Antiques (2833 Hathaway Rd.), The Shops at the Valentine Richmond History Center (10th and East Clay St.), The Library of Virginia (8th and Broad) and Richmond Public Library’s Westover Hills Branch. To order directly from Friends of Forest Hill Park, contact Monica Rumsey, (804) 233-7361.
