Highland Park Plaza Historic District represents the era of Reconstruction and Growth (1866–1916), when Highland Park was founded and commercial and residential growth transformed it from a semi-developed rural locale into a dense Richmond suburb. Located on a wide ridge to the north of downtown Richmond, Highland Park Plaza typifies Richmond’s historic settlement patterns along outlying ridges and ravines. Richmond’s geography limited early expansion north into Henrico County, an area of farms and the country seats of wealthy city merchants and politicians. With the advent of efficient public transportation, however, the site of present day Highland Park Plaza drew development, as did other ridges between the city and the county farmland. The Plaza area is characterized by shallow knobs and small ravines lined with single-family dwellings. All but 27 of the 733 contributing primary resources today are domestic properties including six apartment buildings and 40 duplex dwellings. In addition, the historic district has two churches, 13 commercial buildings, five service stations, one firehouse, and one recreational building. A further period of significance extends from 1931 to 1946, when a few new structures were built, and the storefronts of several commercial buildings were modernized as the city’s business owners responded to the Great Depression and the post-World War II era. Highland Park was incorporated into Richmond in 1914.