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Huguenot Springs, Virginia

Powhatan County, Virginia geography stubsUnincorporated communities in Powhatan County, VirginiaUnincorporated communities in VirginiaUse mdy dates from July 2023

Huguenot Springs is an unincorporated community in Powhatan County, in the U.S. state of Virginia. This community is bordered by Chesterfield county, Virginia. People live on SR 607 (Huguenot Springs Rd) and on other subdivision roads. The Huguenot Springs community takes its name from the former Huguenot Springs Hotel Resort and Spa. It was initially planned by the two brothers Abraham S. and Archibald L. Wooldridge. They also owned the prosperous Midlothian Coal Mining Company located 5 miles distant in Chesterfield County. A large three-story hotel was designed by architect John Notman. In addition to the hotel, multiple cottages were built to accommodate guests. Opened on July 1, 1847, the resort became very popular with the eastern Virginia planters and businessman, as before 1847, the nearest springs with a resort were located at least one hundred miles away in the western parts of the state. Huguenot Springs was only 17 miles away. When the Civil War broke out, the hotel building was converted to a convalescent hospital for Confederate soldiers. Around 250 soldiers are buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery there. In 1890, the hotel burned down. Today, the only remains of the resort are the foundation of the hotel and the old cemetery. Visitors can visit the cemetery, accessible by Old Confederate Cemetery Road (SR 640).

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Huguenot Springs, Virginia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Huguenot Springs, Virginia
Old Confederate Cemetery Road,

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Latitude Longitude
N 37.558888888889 ° E -77.701944444444 °
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Old Confederate Cemetery Road 906
23113
Virginia, United States
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Summerville Plantation
Summerville Plantation

Summerville Plantation was a farm in northwestern Chesterfield County, Virginia. Established around the 1760s by Robert Moseley, Summerville was home to many prominent Chesterfield families until its decay following the American Civil War. In the late 1900s the tract was built over by new housing developments. The Summerville site was originally part of a 17,653-acre tract granted by the British crown to John Tullit. From 1705 to 1760, the tract was owned by numerous people with the names of Page, Digges, Cary, Price, and Lacy. In 1760, the original 200-acre parcel was bought by Robert Moseley (1732–1804) and Magdalene Guerrant Moseley (1740–1826), a young couple, from Thomas Lacy for 65 pounds. Two additional purchases in 1762 and 1763 of 228 and 100 acres, respectively, brought the total acreage of the farm to 528 acres. The Moseley's built a small house at Summerville in the early 1760s which was soon enlarged on account of the number of children they had: Thomas, Arthur, John, Magdalene, Judith, William, and Peter. The site of the Summerville house was on a ridge overlooking the Michaux Creek valley and "it is said that the westward view was unsurpassed in that area of Virginia." In 1777, Summerville was sold to Colonel William Fleming of "Mount Pleasant" in neighboring Powhatan County, while Robert, Magdalene, and their family moved to a much larger plantation in Buckingham County called "Willow Lake." William Fleming (1736–1824) was a man with distinguished Virginia heritage. His father, John Fleming, married in 1727 Mary Bolling, daughter of John Bolling and Mary Kennon, two scions of rich and powerful tidewater Virginia families. When William was 36 years old, in 1772, he became a member of the House of Burgesses for Virginia. During the next couple decades, he was part of a group of Virginia politicians that crafted and ran the early state's government. In 1789, Fleming was chosen to be part of the new Virginia Supreme Court. He served in that duty until 1809, when he was elevated to become the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. This role took up the last 15 years of his life until his death in 1824. An interesting note about William Fleming and Summerville is that in early 1781, Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, spent a night at Summerville with Fleming while Richmond was being burned by Benedict Arnold. Fleming and Jefferson had both attended and known each other at the College of William and Mary. During Fleming's tenure at Summerville, the plantation's acreage was expanded from 528 acres to 906 acres. An 1815 tax list indicates that there were 8 horses or mules and 21 cows on the plantation. In 1820, he owned 13 slaves (9 males and 4 females). On February 15, 1824, William Fleming died at Summerville and was buried in the burial grounds there. In 1825, Colonel Higgison Hancock (1794–1866) bought Summerville. He was the son of Rev. Francis Hancock, a Baptist preacher when it was not always safe to be one. Higgison served as High Sheriff for Chesterfield in 1846–47 and as a member of the House of Delegates in 1847–48. When Col. Hancock came to Summerville, he was not a man of great means but over time, he became one of the richest men in Chesterfield County. At the time of his purchase of the estate, he had two slaves over 16 years old. By 1830, he had 16 slaves (8 male and 8 female) and just before the Civil War he had 31 slaves over 12. He also owned two carriages, three watches, and a piano (things that were very uncommon back then except for the extremely wealthy). Higgison and Hannah Walthall Hancock had three sons (Dr. Francis W. Hancock, Dr. William G. Hancock, and Dr. Philip S. Hancock) who all attended Jefferson Medical College and all became physicians. After the Civil War, the plantation system of farming collapsed as a result of the emancipation of the slaves and numerous plantations across the south fell into ruin, among them Summerville. Higgison Hancock died in 1866 at the Ballard House hotel in Richmond, where he was living with his son Francis. In 1885, the 786+1⁄2-acre Summerville was split into four lots, one of which was the "305 acre 'House Lot' containing the homestead."In the 1900s, part of Summerville was farmed, or at least the fields were kept up. During the 1960s, the fields of Summerville were planted over with trees and in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the entire former tract north of Michaux Creek was built over by housing developments. Today, nothing remains of the once grand plantation Summerville.

Midlothian, Virginia
Midlothian, Virginia

Midlothian ( mid-LOH-thee-ən) is an unincorporated area and Census-designated place in Chesterfield County, Virginia, U.S. Settled as a coal town, Midlothian village experienced suburbanization effects and is now part of the western suburbs of Richmond, Virginia south of the James River in the Greater Richmond Region. Because of its unincorporated status, Midlothian has no formal government, and the name is used to represent the original small Village of Midlothian and a vast expanse of Chesterfield County in the northwest portion of Southside Richmond served by the Midlothian post office. The Village of Midlothian was named for the early 18th-century coal mining enterprises of the Wooldridge family. Incorporated in 1836, their Mid-Lothian Mining and Manufacturing Company employed free and enslaved people to do the deadly work of digging underground. Midlothian is the site of the first commercially-mined coal in the Colony of Virginia and North America.By the early 18th century, several mines were being developed in Chesterfield County by French Huguenots and others. The mine owners began to export the commodity from the region in the 1730s. Midlothian-area coal from Harry Heth's Black Heath mines heated the U.S. White House for President Thomas Jefferson. The transportation needs of coal shipping stimulated construction of a paved toll road (Virginia's first), the Manchester Turnpike in 1807; and the Chesterfield Railroad, Virginia's first, in 1831; each traveled the 13 miles (21 km) from the mining community to the port of Manchester, just below the Fall Line of the James River. In 1850, the Richmond and Danville Railroad built Coalfield Station, a freight and later passenger depot, near the mines. In the 1920s, the old turnpike was straightened and became part of the new east-west U.S. Route 60. A few decades later, residential neighborhoods were developed in Southside Richmond near Midlothian, including the large Salisbury community and the Brandermill planned development sited on Swift Creek Reservoir. In the 21st century, Midlothian extends many miles beyond the original village area. State Route 288 connects the community with Interstate 64 and the State Route 76 "Powhite Parkway" toll road, and Interstate 95 in the Richmond metropolitan area's southwestern quadrant.