Byrd Park, Byrd Park Court, and Carillon Neighborhood declared historic

History is everywhere.

December 23, 2015; 9:34 AM • by Richard Hayes

It’s no easy task to have an area declared historic by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources but three spots in our area were up to the task and were voted into this December’s batch of historical spots.

Below are our three historic stars and small portion of their respective slideshow and reasoning for selection.

William Byrd Park

Byrd Park’s design reflects the influence of the American Parks and the City Beautiful movements, and general picturesque landscaping principles developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The park’s designed and natural areas include tennis courts and ballfields, hiking and biking paths, picnic areas, open spaces and lakes. It also contains the Sheilds-Robinson Cemetery, a reminder of the families who lived on the Poplar Vale property that became the eastern side of Byrd Park.

Byrd Park Court

The court complex’s variety of architectural styles reflect popular trends in Richmond’s then fast-developing West End and includes Beaux Arts Classical, Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival/Mediterranean Revival, Craftsman and Tudor Revival.

Carillon Neighborhood

Spurred by the ongoing development of adjoining William Byrd Park, the neighborhood took shape during sequential real estate campaigns in the first half of the 20th century beginning with an upscale enclave of revival-style residences in the 1920s, followed by a sprinkling of middle-class dwellings during the Great Depression, and then the rapid growth of hundreds of modest-sized residences and an elementary school during the post-World War II housing boom of the 1940s and 1950s.

Image: Library of Virginia