This small urban neighborhood, incorporating one block of Franklin Street and buildings on Main and Grace streets in the city of Richmond, is a cohesive assemblage of 19th-century residential architecture. The 0-100 Block East Franklin Street Historic District is on lands once part of Rutherfoord’s Addition, property owned by cotton and tobacco manufacturer Thomas Rutherfoord, who started selling tracts there in 1795. Although some lots were developed immediately, the existing fabric dates from the 1830s into the early 1900s. Including sophisticated examples of Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Georgian Revival styles, most of the houses were built as two- or three-story side-passage town houses. A conspicuous exception is the 1845-46 Kent-Valentine House, a freestanding mansion designed by Isaiah Rogers and later remodeled. The 0-100 Block East Franklin Street Historic District’s oldest structure is the 1836 William Allen double house on Main Street. Most of the houses have been sympathetically converted to offices, shops, or apartments.
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