Fulton Hill is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

located in the East End of Richmond,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The name is used for the area stretching from Gillies Creek to the Richmond city limits. The Greater Fulton Hill Civic Association includes Fulton Bottom, part of Montrose Heights and part of Rocketts. Fulton Hill is south of Church Hill and Shockoe Bottom, north of Varina, east of the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

, and west of Sandston. The zip code is 23231.

History

This Richmond neighborhood was named for Irish-born James Alexander Fulton, who married Eliza Mayo about 1800 and built a large estate atop current day Powhatan Park. In the 17th century the park was once home to Powhatan Village consisting of twelve dwellings. Tradition holds that

Christopher Newport Christopher Newport ( – ) was an English seaman and privateer. During the war with Spain Newport was one of the most successful ' Elizabethan Sea Dogs' to venture to the Spanish Main, making large profits. Newport is best known as the c ...

and John Smith first met with Parahunt,

Powhatan Powhatan people () are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia. Their Powh ...

's son, in May 1607 at this point. In the early 18th century, a ferry was established from a property at the bottom owned by Robert to connect the north and south sides of the

. A neighborhood of low-slung, single-story homes emerged here after the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, and the area was annexed by Richmond from Henrico County in 1905. By the 1960s, the area at the base of the hill bordering Gilies Creek was mostly home to low and middle income

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s. The housing stock was regarded as rather shabby, and after very severe flood damage in the early 1970s, many residents took

Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Act (1970) The Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act (1970) ("URA") was passed by the U.S. federal government in 1970. It was intended to ensure fair compensation and assistance for those whose property was compulsorily acq ...

money and relocated elsewhere in the city. Eventually, the entire Fulton Bottom community was completely demolished, marking Richmond's only neighborhood-wide

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

. Residents were promised rehabilitation and new construction, but the space once occupied by Fulton lay empty for a full decade before construction of moderate-income housing began. Many regard the failure to replace the razed housing in Fulton as one of the central failures of the city's

plans.

Fulton Hill Today

The area above the floodplain is an intact urban neighborhood, with a working class character and population. The area is seeing renovation and rehabilitation on the upswing after years of neglect, thanks in large part to dedicated community action to tackle criminal activity, and also to rising property prices in other parts of the city. Fulton Hill's population is primarily

, but an increasing number of

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

residents have purchased homes in the neighborhood in recent years, making the neighborhood one of Richmond's most diverse. Neighborhood businesses, most of which are located along Williamsburg Road, include a bank branch, several convenience stores and service stations, and other stores and restaurants. It also includes a longtime community nonprofit, the Neighborhood Resource Center. Fulton is home to the east coast hub for Stone Brewing. Fulton Hill has a large stock of early 20th-century vernacular homes, especially one- and -story

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...

s, but it also includes a number of increasingly trendy Sears Catalog homes and several semi-detached Federal rows that date to the earlier years of settlement. The neighborhood is also home to Richmond National Cemetery, a veteran's cemetery dating to the

with 9,322 interments. An album by the band Alabama Thunderpussy is named "Fulton Hill" after the community.

References

External links

Historic Richmond FoundationRichmond Neighborhoods Guide

The Neighborhood Resource Center of Greater Fulton HillGreater Fulton News
{{Richmond, Virginia neighborhoods Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia Hills of Richmond, Virginia