Fifth and Main Downtown Historic District

Richmond's Fifth and Main Downtown Historic District sits in the central business district and covers parts of East Franklin and East Main streets and the nearby cross streets. From about 1800 to 1920, Franklin and Fifth streets formed one of the city's most fashionable residential neighborhoods, lined with mansions and row houses. In the early twentieth century, most of those homes were demolished and replaced by small shops and office buildings, some rising as high as eleven stories, in revival styles drawn from Italy, Spain and the early United States. A few older buildings survive, including the Federal-style Hancock-Wirt-Caskie House of 1808, the Greek Revival Barret House of 1844 and Second Presbyterian Church of 1848, designed by Minard Lafever. Richmond firms such as Noland and Baskervill and Carneal and Johnson designed several of the commercial buildings. Street trees, wide sidewalks and closely set buildings give the district an intimate scale and much of its early twentieth century character.