The transformation of North Richmond from farmland into organized suburban neighborhoods was inseparable from the arrival of the electric streetcar in the late nineteenth century. By the 1890s, the extension of streetcar lines across the First Street Viaduct opened up tracts of Henrico County land that had previously been regarded as remote and impractical for residential use. Developers recognized an opportunity: what had been a two-hour journey into the city could now be accomplished in a fraction of the time, making suburban living both possible and desirable for Richmond’s growing middle class.

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Among the earliest and most ambitious of these developers was James H. Barton, a Pennsylvania native who had served in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, Barton worked as a newspaperman in Little Rock, Arkansas, before turning to real estate ventures there and later in Memphis. His sister Hattie encouraged him to relocate to Richmond in 1889, at a moment when the city’s northern suburbs were just beginning to take shape. He purchased a twenty-acre parcel overlooking the ravine of Bacon’s Quarter Branch and began construction of a large brick mansion at 2112 Monteiro Street.

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Barton’s project, soon known as Barton Heights, became the first streetcar suburb on the city’s North Side. More than simply laying out lots, Barton personally played a role in securing and promoting infrastructure. He was instrumental in advancing the construction of the First Street Viaduct, which bridged the ravine and carried the streetcar line into his development.⁶ [6 The viaduct ensured that his new community was physically and symbolically connected to the city center, a necessary precondition for suburban success.

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The story of Barton Heights illustrates both the optimism and the risk of early suburban speculation. Barton’s twenty acres, perched above a deep ravine and initially regarded as difficult to access, became the nucleus of a community that demonstrated the feasibility of electric streetcar suburbs. This experiment in speculative development provided a model for other projects just to the east, including the more extensive subdivision of Brookland Park, which followed within a generation.

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The book captures the personalities and places of the Boulevlard. Throughly researched, around 450 references, lavishly illustrated and indexed.