St. John's Church Historic District

Church Hill is a neighborhood of townhouses, a church and small parks on a hill east of downtown Richmond, Virginia. Its centerpiece is St. John's Church, whose transept was the first building on the hill and which hosted the 1775 Virginia Convention, where Patrick Henry delivered his "Liberty or Death" speech. The district takes in roughly 240 acres and includes the oldest frame structure and some of the oldest brick houses in the city. Most buildings are side-hall townhouses, ranging from Federal houses with Flemish bond brickwork to Carrington Row of 1818, Greek Revival homes of the 1840s and 1850s, and later houses with iron and wood porches. Settlement was slow because of steep slopes, and many residents moved west by the 1890s. The area declined for decades until Historic Richmond Foundation formed in 1956, and the city created a local historic district in 1957. Brick sidewalks, granite curbs, cobblestones and retaining walls add to the nineteenth-century character.