The North Battersea/Pride’s Field Historic District is a residential neighborhood of mostly late-19th-century dwellings and a few buildings predating the neighborhood’s establishment. The district was historically surrounded on three sides by transportation and industrial corridors (such as the Commerce Street Industrial Historic District), and on the fourth by the Battersea estate, thus visually and physically separating the neighborhood from the adjacent areas of Petersburg, resulting in a cohesive neighborhood that survives today. At the time of its listing in the registers, despite a number of vacant buildings, the district continued to retain a high degree of architectural integrity. Most of its houses are of frame construction, with front porches that display a variety of fanciful brackets, spindle friezes, unusual porch columns, and decorative balustrades that help to define the neighborhood’s character. The district also features three churches, one store, and a warehouse located near the site of the Upper Appomattox Canal basin that recalls the area’s industrial legacy around the basin. On the North Battersea/Pride’s Field Historic District’s northern edge along the Appomattox River are the ruins of various mills and their mill races. Petersburg Baseball Park, now known as the McKenzie Street Park, also is within the district.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia