Oakwood-Chimborazo Historic District

Oakwood-Chimborazo is a linear historic district on Richmond's east side, joining the Chimborazo, Oakwood and Glenwood Park neighborhoods. Its streets follow a grid of wide blocks, with mature trees, concrete sidewalks and asphalt street paving blocks tying the areas together. Chimborazo Park and the Oakwood and Evergreen cemeteries provide open green space at its edges. Development was slow because a few families held most of the land, and it accelerated after trolley lines arrived by 1897, with major building periods in 1907 to 1913 and 1923 to 1926. Glenwood Park was subdivided in 1927. The district contains over a thousand primary buildings, mainly brick and frame houses that blend Italianate, Queen Anne, Late Victorian and Colonial Revival features, plus cottages, bungalows, apartment blocks, schools, churches and corner stores. The oldest surviving houses date from the 1840s to about 1860 and are Greek Revival. Builders such as John T. J. Melton shaped much of the housing. Despite some deterioration and alteration, the neighborhood keeps a high level of integrity.