{"nrhp_refnum":"71000981","name":"Flood Marker of 1771","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"0.8 mi. SE of jct. of VA 5 and VA 156","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond","county":"Henrico County","state":"VA","lat":37.395300949000045,"lon":-77.26806642099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-09-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A stone obelisk on an inscribed block, about eighteen feet high and six feet square at the base, at Turkey Island near Richmond in Henrico County, Virginia. It was raised in 1771-1772 by Ryland Randolph as a memorial to his parents.","why_significant":"The monument is tied to the great flood of May 27, 1771, Virginia's worst natural disaster up to that time. Tradition holds that it marks the highest point the flood waters reached in the area, about forty-five feet above the normal river level, though its inscription does not claim this. It also memorializes Richard Randolph, a burgess and Treasurer of Virginia, and his wife Jane Bolling Randolph.","narrative":"Rising eighteen feet from a six-foot-square inscribed base, this stone obelisk at Turkey Island, near Richmond, commemorates both a family and a disaster. Ryland Randolph raised it in 1771-1772 as a memorial to his parents, Richard Randolph, a burgess and Treasurer of Virginia from 1736 to 1748, and Jane Bolling Randolph. The east inscription recalls the calamitous year 1771, when the great rivers of the country were swept by unprecedented inundations. A flood on May 27, 1771, followed ten to twelve days of heavy rain in the central Blue Ridge and was Virginia's worst natural disaster up to that time. Tradition says the monument marks the flood's highest point in the vicinity, some forty-five feet above the normal river level, though its inscriptions make no such claim. Gun boats on the James River damaged the obelisk during the Civil War. A twentieth-century restoration replaced the top two courses and gave it an awkward shape. The lower two courses remain original.","period_of_significance":"1771-1772","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is listed as fair and altered, on its original site. The obelisk was partially destroyed by gun boats on the James River during the Civil War and restored in the twentieth century.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.767496-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/54/6812/41681254/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/71000981.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000981/dc8497913e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000981/dc8497913e-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turkey_Island_toward_Flood_Marker_of_1771.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turkey_Island_toward_Flood_Marker_of_1771.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681254","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_Marker_of_1771","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5460050"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/henrico-county/flood-marker-of-1771-71000981/"}