January 2025 Richmond water crisis

Powhite Creek is an 8.0-mile-long (12.9 km) stream rising near the unincorporated community of Bon Air in Chesterfield County and flowing into the independent city of Richmond in central Virginia. The creek empties into the James River in the region of the Fall Line, where the rapids of the James are located upstream from the head of navigation. The name is usually pronounced "PO-White" by area residents although it is alternatively pronounced "Pow-Hite." References to Powhite Creek are included in the Vestry Book of Henrico Parish, Virginia, 1730–1773, and in Chesterfield County records of the latter time period. It is mentioned in land records as early as 1687, according to research on the Bratcher family (Margaret Bradshaw). The nearby Powhite Parkway of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority (RMA) was named for the creek. The toll road (Virginia State Route 76) crosses over the creek and under the Norfolk Southern Railway near the former unincorporated town of Granite. About a mile north, the toll road crosses the river on a bridge just downstream from the mouth of the creek.

Powhite Parkway Bridge crosses the James River in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia. It carries the Powhite Parkway, also known as Virginia State Route 76. The bridge is owned and maintained by the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, and was funded with revenue bonds which are repaid from user tolls. There is no bridge toll to cross the Powhite Parkway Bridge, however the toll plazas located south of the bridge prohibit drivers from crossing the bridge without paying a Powhite Parkway toll.

Virginia House is a manor house on a hillside overlooking the James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, United States. The house was constructed from the materials of the 16th-century Priory House, Warwick in Warwickshire, England, and shipped over and reassembled, completed several months before the stock market crash of 1929. Virginia House is in the Tudor architectural style but incorporates a range of designs from other English houses and has modern facilities such as ten baths and central heating. Virginia House was built by Alexander and Virginia Weddell, salvaging many materials from the Priory and other old English manor houses and adding further elegant English and Spanish antiques, oriental carpets, silks, and silver. Today Virginia House is operated by the Virginia Historical Society as a house museum, although it largely remains as it was in the 1940s during the Weddells’ tenancy. Immediately to the west of the property is Agecroft Hall.

Agecroft Hall is a Tudor manor house and estate located at 4305 Sulgrave Road on the James River in the Windsor Farms neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, United States. The manor house was built in the late 15th century, and was originally located in the Irwell Valley at Agecroft, Pendlebury, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England, but by the 20th century it was unoccupied and in a state of disrepair. Mr. Thomas C. Williams, Jr. of Richmond, Virginia, a wealthy entrepreneur, purchased Agecroft Hall upon the advice of his architect, Henry G. Morse. During the Country Place Era, when many wealthy American families were building extensive country estates emulating those they had seen in Europe, Mr. Williams, whose business interests included tobacco, banking and shipping wished to build a true English manor house on his 23-acre estate overlooking the James River. The manor house was dismantled, crated, transported across the Atlantic, and reconstructed in Richmond's Windsor Farms neighborhood - then a fashionable new neighborhood being developed by Mr. Williams on the Williams' family farm site, which had long been known as 'Windsor.' The architect, Mr. Morse, was retained to oversee the reconstruction. The intention was not to replicate Agecroft as it had stood in Lancashire, but rather to create a functional and comfortable mansion reminiscent of its English predecessor. The original floor plan was abandoned and many 20th century conveniences were included. Reconstruction took two years and cost approximately $250,000, a considerable sum for that time. The project was completed during the spring of 1928. The following year Mr. Williams died, having stipulated in his will that upon his widow's death or relocation, Agecroft Hall would become a house museum.

Windsor Farms is a 20th-century neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, of primarily Colonial Revival design. Designed in 1926, Windsor Farms is one of Richmond's first planned neighborhoods. It was designed to look like an English village, with curvy streets and English names like Dover, Canterbury, Berkshire, and so on. There are a variety of architectural styles, the most common being Colonial Revival and Cape Cod. Lots are anywhere from half an acre to 23 acres (93,000 m2). Windsor Farms has a couple of historical buildings, including Virginia House and Agecroft Hall. Windsor Farms borders Cary Street Road to the north, the Downtown Expressway to the east, the James River and several areas to the south, and the neighborhoods of Lockgreen and Westmoreland Place to the west. Historic houses in the neighborhood include Virginia House and Agecroft Hall, both moved from England in the 20th century. Another is "The Oaks" which was built by Benjamin Harrison IV in 1745 and moved from nearby Amelia County, Virginia in 1927. Several high-end, architecturally significant houses were designed by Virginia-born Duncan Lee and William Lawrence Bottomley of New York.

Granite was an unincorporated community in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was originally located along the Richmond and Danville Railroad five miles west of Manchester and about a mile south of the rapids of the James River along Powhite Creek. Most of the Granite area of Chesterfield County was annexed by the independent city of Richmond on January 1, 1970.

Marburg is a historic home located in the Carillon/Byrd Park area of Richmond, Virginia. It is the oldest standing residence in this area of Richmond, predating nearby Maymont by 4 years. The house was slated for demolition in 2013 to make way for 6 new homes but was saved by an ardent group of preservationists and the Historic Richmond Foundation. The redesigned development will now incorporate and encircle the existing house. An exterior restoration was completed in 2015 returning the house to its original colors after being stark white for many years. The barn red roof color was also restored. Two antebellum structures survive on this property: a 2-room servant cottage and a kitchen, both of which pre-date the house itself by over 30 years (see below). As of February 2021, the house and dependencies have been repainted white with green shutters and roof, retaining a classic feel amongst the newer homes built around it.

City Stadium is a sports stadium in Richmond, Virginia. It is owned by the City of Richmond and is located south of the Carytown district off the Downtown Expressway. The stadium was built in 1929 and seats approximately 22,000 people when both stands are used. It has been used by the Richmond Kickers of USL League One since 1995, at a capacity of 6,000.The stadium was used by the University of Richmond for American football from 1929 to 2009. The University of Richmond's final home football game at the stadium was played on December 5, 2009, against Appalachian State University in the quarterfinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. From 1964 through 1967, the stadium was home to the Richmond Rebels of the Atlantic Coast Football League and the Continental Football League. The Rebels left the Continental Football League in 1967 to become the Richmond Mustangs of the United American Football League.The stadium then hosted the Richmond Roadrunners of the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1968 and 1969, and their successor, the Richmond Saints, in 1970. University of Richmond Stadium served as the site of the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship from 1995 to 1998. The venue broke an attendance record when 21,319 visited the semifinals of the 1995 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, with matches between the Virginia Cavaliers and Duke Blue Devils, and the Portland Pilots and Wisconsin Badgers. For a time in the mid-2000s, the stadium also hosted Virginia's high school football state championship games.

The Carillon Neighborhood Historic District encompasses a residential area of western Richmond, Virginia, USA. It is located about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of downtown Richmond, and is roughly bounded on the north and west by the Powhite Expressway and the Downtown Expressway, on the south by the Kanawha Canal, and on the east by Byrd Park. Although this area has a residential history dating back to the 19th century (when it was mainly country estates), its present architecture is reflective of its development first as a streetcar suburb, and then as a post-World War II housing development area.The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Byrd Park, also known as William Byrd Park, is a public park located in Richmond, Virginia, United States, north of the James River and adjacent to Maymont. The 200-acre (0.81 km2) park includes a mile-long trail with exercise stops, monuments, an amphitheatre, and three small lakes: Shields (sometimes spelled Sheilds), Swan, and Boat Lake. Boat Lake (also called Fountain Lake) has a lighted fountain at its center. Visitors can rent pedal boats there in season. The park includes tennis courts, Little League baseball fields, and a children's playground. The historic round house and Poplar Vale Cemetery are also located in the park. It is named after William Byrd II, whose family owned much of the area when Richmond was founded in 1737. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Carillon is a neighborhood in the West End of Richmond that is situated in between Virginia State Routes 146 and 161. Adjacent to Maymont and Byrd Park, the middle-class neighborhood is home to the Dogwood Dell Amphitheater. Pump House Drive and Rugby Road are the arteries of the southern tier of the community, while Douglasdale Avenue and South Belmont Drive form the spin of the northern portions of Carillon. The neighborhood is named after the city's carillon (built 1932), which is the 20th-tallest structure in the city limits.

Williams Island Dam is located on the James River in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia. Just below the dam, seven miles (11 km) of rapids mark the descent of the river downstream through the geological Fall Line region to the navigable tidal portion below Richmond, which extends southeast to Hampton Roads. Williams Island Dam was built in 1905 as part of a drinking water project of the City of Richmond which made use of a portion of the former James River and Kanawha Canal along the north shore of the river west of Richmond. A gravity dam, its height is 7 feet (2.1 m). Its normal storage capacity is estimated to be 50 acre-feet (62,000 m3). It was connected with an early waterworks building which is located on Pumphouse Drive just west of the city's Boulevard Bridge. Williams Island Dam is wholly located within the city's James River Park System. Williams Island, which separates the two sections of the dam, is a 95-acre (380,000 m2) wildlife preserve and has the nest of a bald eagle. According to the James River Park website, Richmond is the only capital city in the lower 48 states to have an eagle nesting inside the corporate limits.