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GPRA
P.O. Box 25374
Richmond, VA 23260
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Ginter Park History |
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GINTER PARK – THE QUEEN OF THE SUBURBS
THE DREAM:
Major
Lewis W. Ginter, wealthy Richmond
industrialist and
entrepreneur, conceived and planned Ginter Park in the late 19th
century. Ginter, the founder of the American Tobacco Company, visited
Melbourne, Australia where he was impressed by the business men’s
retreating home to the country at the end of each work day. Thus was
born Ginter’s dream for a Richmond suburb where according to legend, a
gentleman could ride to and from work without the sun’s glare in his
face.
IMPLEMENTATION:
Ginter
began implementation of his
state-of-the-art community plan by purchasing several hundred
acres of farm land in northern Henrico county.
He
designed residential subdivisions organized in an extended grid pattern
with varied fine single-family dwellings. He improved the existing road
surfaces on Laburnum and Melrose Avenues with crushed stone from
quarries on Hermitage Road. Then Ginter turned his attention to
constructing new roads according to the plan with tile sewer lines laid
in the roadbeds.
Ginter
enticed Union Theological Seminary to move from Hampden-Sydney in
Farmville to the heart of the new community with a gift of land.
Ginter
enhanced the beauty of the new community landscaping with thousands of
deciduous shade trees and miles of hedges. Newly drilled artesian wells
provided fresh drinking water for the community.
As if
these enticements to new residents were not enough, Ginter negotiated
the extension of the first electric trolley system, established in
Richmond in 1888, to Ginter Park in 1895. For a nickel residents of
Ginter Park could travel either to or from downtown Richmond in
fifteen-minutes.
FRUITION:
Following
Lewis Ginter’s death in 1897, Grace
Arents, his niece and heiress,
sponsored the establishment of St. Thomas Episcopal Church and supported
the implementation of his dream. The only completed residences at this
time were the: workmen’s cottages on Chamberlayne and Hawthorne
Avenues, waterworks houses on Westwood Avenue, and faculty residences on
and around the Seminary Quadrangle.
In 1906 Thomas Jeffress,
former business partner and co-executor of Ginter’s estate, founded the
Lewis Ginter Land and Improvement Company to promote the sale of
residential lots. Construction boomed from 1908 until the beginning of
the First World War. A second building boom occurred in the twenties
and lasted until the Great Depression.
Ginter Park features a
variety of late 19th and early 20th century
architectural styles ranging from the modest builders’ cottages to large
Colonial Revival mansions. Other styles include: Tudor Revival,
Spanish Colonial, Bungalow, American Foursquare, modified Queen Anne,
and Shingle Style.
Ginter Park was
incorporated as a town from 1912 to 1914 when it was annexed by the City
of Richmond. Its mayor was John Garland Pollard who went on to become
Governor of Virginia.
CHANGES:
With the increase of automobile
traffic, the effects of the Depression, and the need
for commercial viability, residents of Ginter Park welcomed the
designation of Chamberlayne Avenue as U.S. Route 1. This designation,
however, was a mixed blessing that brought about unanticipated changes
to the community.
By the
1950’s there were thirteen tourist homes within the area and many of the
large houses had been converted into nursing homes. U.S. route 1 became
the preferred route for heavy traffic including large trucks. Eventually
multi-family apartment complexes replaced some of the grandest historic
structures ever built in Ginter Park.
Fortunately,
most of this development and re-zoning was limited to Chamberlayne
Avenue, thereby, leaving the rest of
the historic neighborhood largely untouched.
TODAY:
Today the Ginter Park Residents’ Association, founded in 1909, actively
promotes the neighborhood with the common
mission of defining, articulating, representing, and
advancing the interests of the community with
respect to public safety, education, social
activities and historical preservation.
These are
just a few of the many accomplishments the association has achieved
since 1977:
-Continuing programs
to: save and replace City trees in the neighborhood; and maintain
neighborhood watch and car patrols;
-Worked with the school
board on the design, etc. of Holton School; and with Richmond Memorial
Hospital on proposed uses of the property;
-Obtained Ginter Park Historic designation in June 1986; and
-Conducted house and garden tours, annual Holiday parties, spring
clean-up and “Seen From The Street” garden contest.
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