Shockoe Bottom, historically known as Shockoe Valley, is an area in Richmond, Virginia, just east of downtown, along the James River. Located between Shockoe Hill and Church Hill, Shockoe Bottom contains much of the land in Colonel William Mayo’s 1737 plan of Richmond, making it one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
History
Shockoe was named in the 1730 Tobacco Inspection Act as the site of a tobacco inspection warehouse on land owned by William Byrd II. The area’s development in the late 18th century was aided by the move of the state capital to Richmond, VA, and the construction of Mayo’s bridge in 1788 across the James River (ultimately succeeded by the modern 14th Street Bridge), as well as the siting of key tobacco industry structures, such as the public warehouse, tobacco scales, and the Federal Customs House in or near the district. Throughout the 19th Century, Shockoe Bottom was the center of Richmond’s commerce, with ships pulling into port from the James River. Goods coming off these ships were warehoused and traded in Shockoe Valley.
Between the late 17th century and the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the area played a significant role in the history of slavery in the United States, serving as the second largest slave trading center in the country, second to New Orleans. Profits from the trade in human beings fueled wealth creation for Southern whites. They drove the economy in Richmond, leading 15th Street to be known as Wall Street in the antebellum period, with the surrounding blocks home to more than 69 slave dealers and auction houses. In 2006, archaeological excavations began on Lumpkin’s jail’s former site. Nearby, located at 15th and E Broad St. is the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground, long used as a commercial parking lot, most recently by Virginia Commonwealth University, a state institution. It was reclaimed in 2011 after a decade-long community organizing campaign, and today it is a memorial park, though part of the burial ground lies beneath Interstate Highway 95. Bed Bug Exterminator Richmond
Redevelopment
After centuries of periodic flooding by the James River, development was greatly stimulated by completing Richmond’s James River Flood Wall and the Canal Walk in 1995. Unfortunately, the next flooding disaster came not from the river but from Hurricane Gaston, which brought extensive local tributary flooding along the basin of Shockoe Creek and did extensive damage to the area in 2004, with businesses being shut down many buildings condemned.
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