'Chesterfield County' is a
county located in the
Commonwealth of
Virginia, a
state of the
United States. As of the 2006 population estimate, the county's population has risen to 306,000. From 2000 to 2006, the county added over 35,000 new residents and Chesterfield County is now the fourth largest municipality in Virginia (behind Fairfax County, Virginia Beach and Prince William County respectively).
[1] Its
county seat is
Chesterfield6. It is located in the
Richmond-Petersburg region and is a portion of the Richmond
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Much of the northern portion of Chesterfield County accounts for what is referred to as Metropolitan Richmond's
"South Side".
History
Main articles: History of Virginia
Part of Henrico Cittie, Henrico Shire, Henrico County
Prior to English colonization, the area was occupied by
Native Americans.
During the 17th century, shortly after establishment of the settlement at
Jamestown in
1607, English settlers and explorers began settling other areas. One of the more progressive developments in the colony was
Henricus, founded under the guidance of
Sir Thomas Dale. It was to include a college to help educate Indians, as well as the children of settlers.
1619 was a watershed year for the
Virginia Colony. Four large citties (sic) were formed, one of which was
Henrico Cittie, and included what is now Chesterfield County. Also beginning in 1619,
Falling Creek Ironworks, the first in what is now the United States, were established slightly west on
Falling Creek from its confluence with the
James River. Both were was wiped out by the
Indian Massacre of 1622 and not rebuilt.
In
1634, the
King of England directed the formation of eight
shires (or
counties) in the colony of Virginia. One of these became
Henrico County, which extended to a large area on both sides of the
James River.
Chesterfield County formed
On
May 25,
1749, the
Virginia General Assembly passed the act that separated Chesterfield from Henrico County and created the new county, establishing the first
county seat at
Manchester, across the James River at the fall line from Richmond (which remained in Henrico County was soon designated its county seat).
Chesterfield County is named for the former British
Secretary of State,
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. Lord Chesterfield was famous for his "good manners and writings."
Many years later, Chesterfield Cigarettes were named after this county due to the region's historical association with the
tobacco industry.
Early ports, coal, roads, turnpikes and railroads
Prior to the
American Revolutionary War, a thriving port town named
Warwick was located at the northwestern confluence of Falling Creek and the James River. It was destroyed during that War, and not rebuilt. (It was near the current
DuPont facility at
Ampthill, and the site is not open to the public.) Another early port town was
Port Walthall on the north shore of the
Appomattox River. It was located near the current Point-of-Rocks Park.
Coal mining in the
Midlothian area of Chesterfield County began in the
18th century. Around 1701, French
Huguenot settlers to the area discovered the existence of the coalfield. In a 1709 diary entry
William Byrd II, who is credited as the founder of
Richmond, and had purchased of land in the area where coal was found, noted that "the coaler found the coal mine very good and sufficient to furnish several generations." It was first commercially mined in the 1730s, and was used to make cannon at Westham (near the present
Huguenot Memorial Bridge) during the
American Revolutionary War.
[1]
The
Manchester Turnpike in Chesterfield County was the first graveled roadway of any length in Virginia in 1807. The
toll road ran between the
coal mining area of Midlothian near the headwaters of
Falling Creek and
Manchester, generally following the path of the current
Midlothian Turnpike (
U.S. Route 60}.
Created in 1816, the
Virginia Board of Public Works was a governmental agency which oversaw and helped finance the development of Virginia's internal transportation improvements during the 19th century. In that era, it was customary to invest public funds in private companies, which were the forerunners of the
public service and utility companies of modern times.
Claudius Crozet (1789-1864), a
civil engineer and
educator who helped found
Virginia Military Institute (VMI), was Principal Engineer and later Chief Engineer for the Board of Public Works. He was involved with the planning and construction of many of the
canals,
turnpikes,
bridges and
railroads in Virginia, including the area which is now
West Virginia.
New
turnpikes, were partially engineered and funded by the Board, and operated by private companies which collected
tolls. The
Manchester and Petersburg Turnpike which generally followed the path of the current
Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. Routes 1-301), was one of these. A canal was built in Manchester section of Chesterfield. Portions are extant, and may be seen near the south end of Richmond's
Mayo Bridge, although it is not as well-known as the much larger
James River and Kanawha Canal which ran along the north bank at Richmond, and extended many miles to the west.
Seeking a better method of transportation so that their markets could be expanded, in
1825, a group of mine owners, including
Nicholas Mills,
Beverley Randolph and
Abraham S. Wooldridge, resolved to build a
tramway. (The Wooldridge family hailed from
East Lothian and
West Lothian in
Scotland, and named their mining company Mid-Lothian, the source of the modern name). In
1831, the
Chesterfield Railroad was the first
railroad in Virginia, transporting
coal from mines near
Falling Creek in what is now the
Midlothian area to the docks at the
fall line at the
head of navigation of the James River. Later railroad lines included the
Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) (which put the Chesterfield Railroad out of business) and the
Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, both completed before the
American Civil War in which they each played key roles.
Another small line through Chesterfield was a
narrow gauge railroad. The
Farmville and Powhatan Railroad, later renamed the
Tidewater and Western Railroad, extended from
Farmville in
Prince Edward County to the tiny village of
Bermuda Hundred in far eastern Chesterfield, which was a port on the James River near the mouth of the Appomattox River opposite present-day Hopewell. Although long gone, portions of the old rail bed may been seen along Beach Road near the entrance to
Pocahontas State Park.
After the
Reconstruction, the R&D eventually became part of the
Southern Railway, and is now part of
Norfolk Southern Railway. The Richmond Petersburg Railroad became part of the
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. In 1900, a mostly parallel line was built by the
Seaboard Air Line Railroad, with a branch line to
Hopewell. Through the "modern merger era of US railroads" (which began around 1960), portions of each eventually became part of the
CSX Transportation system.
American Civil War
During the
American Civil War (1861-1865),
Drewry's Bluff became a key defensive point for
Confederate forces to block the
Union's vastly superior Navy from taking Richmond by way of the James River. During the
Siege of Petersburg (1864-65), a long defensive works through the county was part of the Confederacy's
Richmond-Petersburg line of land defenses. Railroad lines passing through Petersburg finally proved the key to the fall of Richmond in 1865, effectively ending the War.
A
normal school founded by the state after the
American Civil War primarily to help educate
freedmen eventually became
Virginia State University, located in the
Ettrick area near Petersburg and Colonial Heights.
Former areas lost to new independent cities
Manchester (directly across the James River from the
City of Richmond) was the
county seat of Chesterfield County until 1874, when it was moved to the present location at Chesterfield Court House. The City of Manchester left Chesterfield late in 19th century to become an
independent city, and merged with the City of Richmond by mutual agreement in 1910. It is now known as a part of South Richmond.
Colonial Heights was formerly an
incorporated town in Chesterfield County, and became an
independent city in 1948. Over half a century later, the two neighbors continued to share provision of some governmental services.
Annexation issues
Chesterfield County shares borders with four independent cities, and was long exposed to annexation suits from any of them under Virginia law. The county lost territory to the City Richmond through several annexations in the 20th century, one in 1944, and most notably, a highly controversial and complicated one in 1970.
The results of the 1970 annexation were exceptionally controversial because, while the annexation lawsuit filed by Richmond in 1965 was being heard, with the city seeking of the county, the leaders of the two jurisdictions,
Irvin G. Horner, Chairman of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, and
Phil J. Bagley, Jr. the Mayor of Richmond, met privately and agreed to a compromise.
In May 1969, the Horner-Bagley Compromise, as it came to be called, was approved by the city and Chesterfield County and incorporated in a court decree of
July 12,
1969. This effectively shut out a number of third parties attempting to block the annexation, and felt they had been excluded from the process. An example among these was a small commuter bus company holding an operating rights in the county, whereas the city granted its franchise to a competitor.
The annexation agreement resulted in Richmond receiving of the county, as well as fire stations, parks, and other infrastructure such as water and sewer lines. Under the agreement, approximately a dozen
public schools, support buildings, and future school sites were conveyed to the City of Richmond to be operated by
Richmond City Public Schools. Compounding the unhappiness of many of the residents of the annexed area was the fact that Richmond Public Schools was already involved in a
desegregation lawsuit in the Federal courts. The schools involved in the annexed area included
Huguenot High School,
Fred D. Thompson Middle School,
Elkhardt Middle School, and eight elementary schools. In 1971, these schools were included in a court-ordered
desegregation busing program, which finally ended in the 1990s.
Many of the 47,000 residents who lived in the annexed area of the 1970 compromise had been opposed to the annexation. They fought unsuccessfully for over 7 years afterwards in the courts to have it reversed, ruefully called the zone "Occupied Chesterfield."
At the same time, black plaintiffs who had lived in the city prior to the annexation claimed a violation of the
National Voting Rights Act of 1965. The claim was that their voting power had been deliberately diminished by the attempts of city leaders to add white voters and dilute to black vote. The pre-annexation population of the city as of 1970 was 202,359, of which 104,207 or 52% were black citizens. The annexation added to the city 47,262 people, of whom 1,557 were black and 45,705 were non-black. The post-annexation population of the city was therefore 249,621, of which 105,764 or 42% were Negroes. The plaintiffs prevailed in court by creation of a ward system which guaranteed a majority of wards had a predominance of black voters.
[2]
Revisions in state annexation laws
Virginia's annexation laws have long been felt by many leaders to be a barrier to regional cooperation among localities. The problems and hard feelings which arose from the Richmond-Chesterfield case were used as prime examples of obstacles to regional cooperation as the state legislators considered changes.
In 1979, the
Virginia General Assembly adopted legislation that allowed any county meeting certain population and density standards to petition the local circuit court to declare the county permanently immune from annexation. In 1981, Chesterfield County and several other counties in the state subsequently sought and received such immunity from further annexation by Richmond.
In 1987, the General Assembly, recognizing the controversy surrounding annexations in Virginia, placed a moratorium on future annexations of any county by any city. However, even when this moratorium expires, as it is currently scheduled to do in 2010, Chesterfield County will remain immune from annexation by Richmond because of the 1981 grant of immunity.
[3] However, unless new legislation or revenue sharing or other agreements are reached, the county will potentially be exposed to annexation suits by any of the smaller independent cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, and Petersburg which adjoin it.
Highways, transportation, tolls
Beginning especially in the second half of the
20th century, Chesterfield grew exponentially, most of all as a
bedroom community of Richmond. The Richmond-Petersburg
Interurban Electric Railway, local
streetcar service, and commuter rail service of the Southern Railway to
Bon Air had all ended by 1957.
Even though some routes extended in to the county from both cities,
transit bus service was not funded by the county as the large systems in Richmond and Petersburg converted to governmentally-subsidized operations in the 1970s. Privately-owned suburban bus services, such as that operated by
Virginia Overland Transportation could not operate profitably, even when funded with start-up money through state demonstration program grants. Instead, the citizens of Chesterfield were perceived by their county leaders as heavily committed to automobile transportation for most local, commuter, and through transportation of people. The issue of possible county funding for commuter bus services was continuing as of the early 21st century.
During this same time, the interstate, primary and secondary highways which were built by the
Virginia Department of Transportation VDOT (and its predecessor agencies) through the customary funding sources were proving insufficient. Additional roads were built, and funded through collection of
tolls.
Opened in
1958, and funded through
toll revenue bonds, the
Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike was a toll
highway which paralleled
U.S. Route 1 and
U.S. Route 301 between the northern edge of
Richmond, Virginia and the southern limits of
Petersburg, Virginia, cutting through Chesterfield which had the largest portion of its mileage. Conceived prior to the creation of the
Interstate Highway System. Tolls were removed completely in
1992. Today, the former Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike forms a vital portion of
Interstate 95 in central Virginia, including the northernmost portion of
Interstate 85 near Petersburg.
The Powhite Parkway Extension of the
Powhite Parkway in
Richmond, Virginia (a
toll road operated by the
Richmond Metropolitan Authority) also tolled and completed in 1973, was built and opened in 1988. The extension in Chesterfield County is operated by and the tolls are collected by VDOT. (The entire route in Richmond and Chesterfield is signed as Virginia State Route 76). The county extension begins at the exit for
State Route 150 (Chippenham Parkway), and includes major exits for
U.S. Route 60 west of Richmond, and
State Route 288 in the
Midlothian area. The southern terminus of State Route 76 is near the
Brandermill development.
Another toll road, the Pocahontas Parkway, also known as
State Route 895, connects the junction of
Interstate 95 and
State Route 150 in Chesterfield County, with
Interstate 295 near
Richmond International Airport in
Henrico County, forming part of a southeastern bypass of
Richmond. Due to a quirk in the evolution of the road, the long-planned designation of "Interstate 895" could not be used. The roadway features the costly high-level
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge over the shipping channel of the navigable portion of the tidal James River downstream from the deep water Port of Richmond to allow ample clearance for ocean-going vessels to pass under.
Although Route 895 had been planned for many years, sufficient state and federal construction funds were not available when the road was finally desired. However, the highway was built without the use of
toll revenue bonds. In 1995, the
Virginia General Assembly passed the Public-Private Transportation Act allowing private entities to propose innovative solutions for designing, constructing, financing and operating transportation improvements. An acceptable proposal was submitted through an innovative
public-private partnership and an agreement was reached, with tolls collected to recover costs. The toll collection facility features the Richmond area's only high-speed open lanes, allowing vehicles to travel through the toll facility at highway speeds with a
Smart Tag or other compatible
electronic toll collection transponder.
Geography
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,132
km² (437
mi²). 1,103 km² (426 mi²) of it is land and 29 km² (11 mi²) of it (2.57%) is water.
Chesterfield County is largely bordered by two rivers which define miles of its boundaries. The major adjoining cities each originated at the head of navigation of these river, called the
fall line. There, the sandy and mostly flat eastern
coastal plain region of Virginia turns into the hillier and rockier Piedmont region to the west. Portions of Chesterfield County extend across both regions.
At fall line of the
James River, Richmond and Manchester were formed. Most of the northern portion of Chesterfield County accounts for what is referred to as Metropolitan Richmond's
"South Side". However, due to the geography in which the
James River approaches Richmond from almost due west, and turns almost due south below the
fall line for about before turning east again, the land within
Henrico County encompasses much of Metropolitan Richmond's
West End, its
North Side, and
East End areas.
Chesterfield County also borders on the
Appomattox River to its south. Much of the southern and eastern portions of the county are considered part of the
Tri-Cities area, which centers on the lower Appomattox River, where the neighboring independent city of
Petersburg was founded on the fall line.
Demographics
As of the
census² of 2000, there were 259,903 people, 93,772 households, and 72,110 families residing in the county. The
population density was 236/km² (610/mi²).
A more recent 2006 estimate puts the population of Chesterfield County at 306,000 - a growth of over 35,000 people since 2000
[1].
There were 97,707 housing units at an average density of 89/km² (230/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 67.44%
White, 30.23%
Black or
African American, 0.33%
Native American, 2.37%
Asian, 0.04%
Pacific Islander, 1.34% from
other races, and 1.41% from two or more races. 2.93% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 93,772 households out of which 40.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.20% were
married couples living together, 11.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.10% were non-families. 18.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.11.
In the county, the population was spread out with 28.30% under the age of 18, 7.70% from 18 to 24, 31.20% from 25 to 44, 24.90% from 45 to 64, and 8.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 95.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.30 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $58,537, and the median income for a family was $65,058. Males had a median income of $43,030 versus $30,518 for females. The
per capita income for the county was $25,286. About 3.30% of families and 4.50% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 5.60% of those under age 18 and 3.40% of those age 65 or over.
Town twinning
On
11 October 2005 the agreement will be signed to join the Borough of
Gravesham in
Kent,
England with Chesterfield County in a link up between the two communities. The town of
Gravesend, on the
River Thames is part of the borough, and it was here that Princess
Pocahontas was buried after she had died on board a ship in the river. The village of Matoaca is believed to be her home village. The link is part of the 400th anniversary celebrations in 2007 to mark the founding of
Jamestown, Virginia.
Recognition
In May of 2004, Chesterfield was named the "17th Best Place to Live in America" by the
American City Business Journals.
Chesterfield County is also noted as the home town of NASCAR superstar Denny Hamlin. He spent years racing at many local short tracks, including
Southside Speedway in
Midlothian.
Roy F. Hoffmann, Chairman of
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, owns a home in Chesterfield County.
Unincorporated towns and communities
★
Bellwood
★
Bensley
★
Bermuda Hundred
★
Bon Air
★
Centralia
★
Chester
★
Chesterfield Court House
★
Enon
★
Ettrick
★
Matoaca
★
Meadowbrook
★
Midlothian
★
Mosley
★
Winterpock
Schools
Chesterfield County Public Schools is the local school system, and has received the U.S.
Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Award.
Main articles: Chesterfield County Public Schools
See also
★
USS ''Chesterfield County'' (LST-551)
External links
★
Village News
★
Chesterfield Connections
★
Western Chesterfield Exchange
1. http://www.inRich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-07-20-0159.html
2. http://www.inRich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-07-20-0159.html
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