Oregon Hill East of Belvidere

Some local historians argue that is what is now known as Oregon Hill was actually called Belvidere Hill, and Oregon Hill was the part of the neighborhood that used to exist east of Belvidere. Of course, if you want to go further back, what is now known as Oregon Hill was outside of the old City limits and known as part of the Sydney township.

John Murden, who does the Church Hill People’s News site, has been digging around at the Library of Virginia and found the following photos and information:

From the Richmond Esthetic Survey & Historic Building Survey:

In 1964, the Historic Richmond Foundation (HRF) and the William Byrd Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) undertook an inventory of historic buildings in Richmond. The Richmond City Planning Commission assisted the APVA and HRF in underwriting the cost of the survey. Workers carried out the study in the spring of 1965 under the direction of Paul S. Delaney and Carlo Pelliccia of the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture.
The project confined the inventory to the central part of Richmond, from Boulevard east to Chimborazo Park, and from the James River north to Shockoe Cemetery. The area’s concentration of historic architecture, in addition to the amount of change and demolition going on at the time, prompted this focus.

If you are interested in researching local history, the Library of Virginia is a great place to start.

9 thoughts on “Oregon Hill East of Belvidere

  1. It blows my mind how much more of Oregon Hill there used to be. The same source has the houses that used to be on Laurel just south of Main Street (where the parking deck is now).

  2. Yeah, I remember some of that when I first came to Richmond.

    Back then, my geographical map of Richmond was based mostly on concert venues.

    I was here for the tail end of Kahootz but only know Benny’s from stories from older folks.

    https://www.oregonhill.net/2008/04/30/remembering-bennys/

    (I tried looking for a good Kahootz link but everything I saw referenced either when Phish or Blue Oyster Cult played there.)

    I vaguely remember dumpster diving for donuts from the donut shop before it was destroyed to make way for VCU.

    Of course, I can only imagine Oregon Hill way back before 195 tore through it and it shared Broad Street as a (racial) border with Jackson Ward/Carver.

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