Forest Hill Historic District

Forest Hill is a hilly residential neighborhood on the south side of the James River in Richmond, Virginia. It grew around the turn of the twentieth century after a streetcar line ran along Forest Hill Avenue to Forest Hill Park, and it later developed as an automobile suburb. The district includes more than 1,100 contributing resources, most of them single-family houses of one to two-and-a-half stories. Colonial Revival and Bungalow/Craftsman dominate, alongside Queen Anne, Federal, Tudor Revival and mid-century modern examples. Brick is the main building material, and many roofs are Buckingham slate. Older landmarks include Maple Crest, a Federal-style house from about 1815, and Boscobel, a stone dwelling thought to date from 1836 to 1843 within Forest Hill Park. Some nineteenth-century mansions were demolished for subdivision, apartments and churches. The neighborhood is recognized for its varied architecture, its park-like streets shaped by irregular terrain, and its record of suburban growth through the mid-twentieth century.