Boulevard Historic District

Boulevard Historic District is a tree-lined, thirteen-block corridor in Richmond, Virginia, running along North and South Boulevard on either side of Main Street. Laid out as Clover Street and renamed Boulevard by 1890, it served as a direct route from the Main Street trolley line to Reservoir Park, now Byrd Park. It stayed a minor road until the turn of the century, when nearby land was subdivided for speculative housing. Most building took place between 1910 and 1935, producing town houses, apartment buildings and churches in Colonial Revival, Spanish Eclectic and Tudor Revival styles. Three large public buildings stand on the former grounds of a Confederate veterans' home: Battle Abbey, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the United Daughters of the Confederacy headquarters. Tuscan Villas, built in 1928-29, is a major Mediterranean-influenced apartment complex. The district has 145 contributing buildings and only five noncontributing ones, and it keeps a cohesive appearance, with street trees, lamps and a grassy median.