East End (Richmond, Virginia) encyclopedia topics

The East End of Richmond, Virginia is actually a collection of neighborhoods. Within the city, and in Henrico County, it roughly defined as including the area of Richmond north of the James River and east/northeast of the former Virginia Central Railroad - Chesapeake and Ohio Railway line (now owned by CSX Transportation and operated by the Buckingham Branch Railroad) which originated at Main Street Station, and south and west of I-295.

Within the city, this includes neighborhoods such as Church Hill, Fairmount, Union Hill, Fulton, Powhatan Hill, Fulton Hill, Montrose Heights, Fairfield Court, Creighton Court, Whitcomb Court, Mosby Court, Eastview, Brauers, Peter Paul, Woodville, North Church Hill, Chimborazo and Oakwood. These neighborhoods are predominantly African-American.

The terminology "East End" also broadly includes much of eastern Henrico County as a portion the the Richmond Metropolitan area. Communities outside the city limits in this area include the census designated places of Highland Springs, Montrose, Sandston, and Varina.

A portion of Hanover County, primarily in the Mechanicsville area also meets the above geographic description, and may be considered by some to be part of the East End of Metropolitan Richmond. However, some of this area may also be considered part of the North Side portion.

The East End contains a number of notable cemeteries, including the Confederate Cemetery of Oakwood, the historic African-American Evergreen Cemetery, and the Richmond National Cemetery.

In the era just before and as European settlement began at the turn of the 17th century, near Powhatan Hill, a place known as "Powhatan" which was the village or "town" that Wahunsunacock (who has become better-known as the Chief Powhatan) came from was located. An early capital of the Powhatan Confederacy, "Powhatan" was also the name used by the natives to refer to the James River).

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