{"nrhp_refnum":"06000977","name":"Pocahontas Island Historic District","other_names":["123-0114"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Pocahontas, Witten, Rolfe, Logan, and Sapony Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Petersburg (Independent City)","county":"Petersburg","state":"VA","lat":37.23946391050006,"lon":-77.39913369306389,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-11-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Archeology-Historic Aboriginal","Archeology-Historic Non-Aboriginal","Ethnic Heritage-Black","Ethnic Heritage-Native American","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic residential district on Pocahontas Island, on the northern edge of Petersburg, Virginia, laid out in 1749 in a grid. It holds 47 contributing buildings, 6 contributing sites and 14 noncontributing buildings, mostly frame dwellings from the turn of the twentieth century.","why_significant":"The nomination presents Pocahontas as a community that shifted from a white-dominated eighteenth-century town to a largely African American neighborhood in the early nineteenth century. Its surviving houses, including double houses and shotgun houses, represent housing built for African Americans. The district also holds archaeological sites such as the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad depot and a distillery, and it shows the long involvement of free Black residents in Petersburg's history.","narrative":"Pocahontas Island, on the northern edge of Petersburg, Virginia, is a small residential neighborhood laid out in 1749 on a grid of streets. A channel cut in 1915 now separates it from Chesterfield County. Most of its frame, one-story houses date from the turn of the twentieth century, and only two buildings are known to predate the Civil War: the brick Federal-style Jarratt House, built about 1819-1820, and a frame double house known locally as the Underground Railroad House. Shotgun houses, side-gable houses and double houses reflect housing built for African Americans. A 1993 tornado destroyed or damaged many homes, leaving more open space than the once densely built area had historically, and newer replacement houses are counted as noncontributing. The district also includes the site of the 1830s Richmond and Petersburg Railroad depot and a former distillery site. It was listed because it records the island's change from a white-dominated town to a largely African American community.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"William Edward Lee, Jr. (designed the house at 208 Witten Street, 1920s)","architectural_style":"Early Republic/Federal; Late 19th & Early 20th Century American Movements/Bungalow/Craftsman","criteria":[],"status_note":"Primarily a quiet residential neighborhood; many homes were damaged or destroyed by a 1993 tornado and replaced by noncontributing houses. The Jarratt House is in poor condition with boarded windows and doors.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.169876-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/40/6825/41682540/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/06000977.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000977/deacd56508-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000977/deacd56508-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Taber Andrew Bain from Richmond, VA, USA","credit_html":"Taber Andrew Bain from Richmond, VA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pocahontas_Island_(1541379387).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682540","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas_Island","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7206274"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/petersburg/pocahontas-island-historic-district-06000977/"}