Shockoe Slip Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Shockoe Slip is a downtown Richmond district of roughly twelve blocks, filled with three- and four-story brick warehouses and commercial buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its center is a small stone-paved triangular piazza off East Cary Street, with an Italian Renaissance-style fountain given in 1904. Most buildings are modest, modified Italianate designs, and many keep ornate cast-iron storefronts, some made by Richmond foundries such as Tredegar. The area has housed warehouses, tobacco storage and mills since 1780. The Evacuation Fire of April 1865 destroyed it, but it was rebuilt within a few years. After decades of decline, restoration work turned many warehouses into restaurants, shops, offices and housing. The boundary was enlarged to take in the south side of East Main Street and blocks east of South 14th Street, which are architecturally harmonious and historically tied to the Slip. A local zoning ordinance controls new construction, and the district stands in contrast to the modern bank towers to the west.