Laburnum Park Historic District

Laburnum Park is a residential suburb of about 116 acres in northwest Richmond, planned around 1919 on a grid of wide avenues. Grassy medians with mature shade trees, deep setbacks, half-acre lots and original cast-metal street signs give it a designed character. Most of its roughly 230 houses are two stories, in brick or frame, and Colonial Revival dominates, with many Craftsman and Tudor Revival examples and a few Mission and French Renaissance designs. Notable buildings include the 1908 Laburnum House, the 1911 Hermitage mansion and Laburnum Court, 24 cooperatively owned houses designed by Charles M. Robinson in 1919 to promote lot sales. Institutions along Westwood Avenue include a nursing home, a school campus and the former Richmond Memorial Hospital, completed in 1957. Two markers recall the area's earlier history: a turnpike mile marker and a Civil War defenses plaque. The district was listed for its intact suburban landscape and architectural variety.