Chestnut Hill-Plateau Historic District

Chestnut Hill/Plateau is a streetcar-era neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, forming the southern end of Highland Park. Developers bought the 135-acre Mount Comfort property in 1889 and laid it out as a grid of numbered avenues and tree-named cross streets. Growth was slow at first, with only about sixty houses standing in 1901, but building continued into the 1920s and later. Most of the 742 resources are two-story frame houses. Early examples include narrow side-passage dwellings and elaborate Queen Anne houses with towers and wraparound porches, while later blocks hold many American Foursquare houses and Bungalows, often built in groups by builders or real estate companies. Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival houses, a Greek Revival house predating the suburb, small commercial buildings, fraternal lodges and Gothic Revival churches add variety. Many garages also survive, some designed to match their houses. The area is recognized for its intact streetcar-suburb development and the range of house types built over several decades.