A City of History: Museums and Sites

Take a walking tour of historic Church Hill, site of the Edgar Allen Poe Museum, Elmira Shelton House, St. John's Church and many beautifully restored homes. Its the oldest neighborhood in Richmond.

Walk through the Fan (so called because the streets are actually fan-shaped on a map). Take in its tree lined streets and lovely old homes, each architecturally astonishing.

Picnic on Capitol Hill, a favorite local spot. Take a post-lunch tour through the majestic columns and marble floors of the Capitol Building, then the Governors' Mansion - both are free.

Quick Tips:

Suggestion: The cobbled streets of Shockoe Bottom are enchanting, however, combined with the hills of downtown, they make walking in all but the most sensible of shoes unpleasant. Forgo fashion for comfort.

A Richmond Pass enables you to visit your choice of five of 19 attractions for . You can get one at the Richmond Visitors Center, 1710 Robin Hood Road (804) 358-5511, Richmond National Battlefield Park, 470 Tredgar St. (804) 226-1981 and at participating museums.

Best Way To Get Around:

Public transportation in Richmond is not at all adequate. During rush hours you can count on a bus every 30 minutes, but only at those times.

Accomodation that offers transportation: If you can, stay at the Jefferson Hotel (101 W. Franklin). Weekend packages are availabe for .00. The hotel is not only an architecturally astounding five-star establishment, but offers free transportation around town and to outlying areas (the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C., Monticello and historic Williamsburg).

Considering the fact that renting a car costs around a day and that a lesser hotel would be around a night, why not have an elegent experience and visit attractions around and outside of Richmond for, essentially, the same price?

If you drive here, your options are both more flexible and more economical.

This is a charming restored home with beautiful rooms in historic Churchill. You'll feel like you're staying in a museum. From here you can walk to St. John's Church, the Poe Museum, the Hill Cafe, Shockoe Bottom and the Canal.

Dig the digs of Davis. The former executive Mansion of the Confederate President has been beautifully restored and features 11 rooms decorated with Victorian furniture.

In the summer its live! Living history is performed on the museum steps. Inside is the largest collection of Civil War exhibits and artifacts in the country and living history is performed on the steps in the summer.

Mon.-Sat., 10-5, Sun. noon-5. Combined tour of both Museum and Presidential Mansion is $9.00.

Poe is 'Nevermore' but you can still see the original draft of 'The Raven' at the Poe Museum, housed inside Richmond's oldest structure (1740). Other artifacts and memorabilia on display include the furniture from his childhood bedroom.

Nearby is the Elmira Shelton House (remains a private residence), the former home of, guess who, Elmira Shelton, Poes' childhood sweetheart and inspirer of 'Annabelle Lee'. It was on her porch that he was last seen before he was discovered near death in Baltimore.

Two churches central to his life are nearby as well. St. Pauls, where he attended services with his adoptive parents, the Allens is not too far away; (Poe left a valise containing? Somewhere in there - it's never been found). St. John's Churchyard, where his mother is buried, is across the street from Elmiras'.

Tue-Sat 10-5, Sun-Mon noon-5, $5.00

It was in this building, (one of the oldest wooden structures in Virginia), that the Virginia Convention of 1775 met in secret to discuss revolution. At the meeting, Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech crying, "Give me liberty or give me death!". The presentation was so powerful that a man watching through the window declared he wished to be buried on the spot. On the spot he lies.

Join the Delegates (re-enactors include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) and bang your fist on the pews to indicate a vote of yes or no for freedom.

Memorial Day-Labor Day, 1:30pm (re-enactments)

Hollywood is filled with incredible monuments to the city's most noted residents. It also has the best view to be found of the James River; (when Hollywood was first established, neighbors declared that the rushing of the falls would, literally, wake the dead).

18,000 Confederate soldiers (11,000 unknown), Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General J.E.B. Stuart, Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler, novelists James Branch Cabel and Ellen Glasgow are just a few of many historical figures buried here.

Also here is V.V. Poole, rumored to be a vampire because of his eccentric behavior. His fang-like initials confirmed the accusation in the minds of those who feared him.

Inspired by a 1st Century Roman Temple, Thomas Jefferson designed Richmonds' Capitol Building. The site surivived the Civil War when Lincoln ordered Union troops to leave it alone. It is now the oldest working capitol in the Western World.

It was here that Robert E. Lee announced his decision to decline Lincoln's offer of leadership of the U.S. Army and to accept a lesser post with the Confederate Army. A statue of him has been placed on the spot where he stood to deliver the speech.

Another intersting event occurred shortly after the Civil War. When the city government was moving from military to civilian rule, the current Mayor refused to give up his post, although another had been elected. The issue was brought to trial at the Capitol Building. The weight of spectators (everyone who was anyone crowded in to see who would win) collapsed a gallery. This sent many to their death, including the grandson of Patrick Henry.

Beneath a splendid Rotunda (on the floor where the spectators once fell), a statue of George Washington by Jean Antoine Houdon greets all who enter. The statue is the only one in existence for which Washington posed. Surrounding it are busts of the eight U.S. Presidents from Virginia and the Marquis de Lafayette, who aided the Continental Army during the Revoloutionary War.

Free guided tours are available.

The only avenue in the country declared a historic landmark, Monument lends majestic splendor to a drive or stroll downtown. Statues fill the center of this cobbled street for blocks. Their subjects include Richmond native Arthur Ashe, 'Stonewall' Jackson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart and Matthew Maury.

Salvadore Dali was almost commissioned to add a statue here in the 60's. He envisioned a monument to women of the Civil War, which he conceptualized as a famous confederate woman battling the 'germ' (literally a germ) of war. Sadly (and shortsightedly), Richmond wasn't quite ready for surrealism.

George Washington imagined a connection between Tidewater and the Ohio River Valley through the James River and Kanawha Canal. The project began in 1787. Although it was never completed, the canal project led to Richmond's docks becoming bustling commercial areas.

A park has been constructed around the downtown canal system with photographs and markers describing the history of the site. Guided boat tours and private boat rentals are available.