The Seven Hills of Lynchburg
College Hill, Garland Hill, Daniel's Hill, Federal Hill, Diamond Hill, White Rock Hill, and Franklin Hill were the original "Seven Hills" of the City of Lynchburg.
Lynchburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2006 census, the city had a total population of 67,720, but is at about 70,000 residents as of 2007. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" Lynchburg, Virginia is nicknamed the Hill City due to its piedmont location proximate to the Blue Ridge Mountains bordering the Shenandoah Valley.
"The Hill City" and sometimes described as "A City Unto Itself" because it is not located within any county limits, but a city in the middle of Amherst, Bedford, Campbell and Appomattox Counties. The 2,122 square mile Metropolitan Statistical Area of Lynchburg is near the geographic center of Virginia and encompasses Amherst County, Appomattox County, Bedford County, Campbell County, City of Bedford, and City of Lynchburg.
It is the fifth largest MSA in Virginia with a population of 239,510. Other nearby cities include Roanoke, Charlottesville and Danville. Lynchburg's sister cities are Rueil-Malmaison, France and Glauchau, Germany. Lynchburg is the home of Central Virginia Community College, Christ College, Liberty University, Lynchburg College, Randolph College, and Virginia University of Lynchburg. The Lynchburg MSA also includes Sweet Briar College.
The city had the highest percentage of freed slaves in the South at the commencement of the Civil War and at that time also enjoyed the second highest per capital income in the United States.Thomas Jefferson after his presidency made Poplar Forest outside Lynchburg his retirement home and called Lynchburg “the most interesting spot in Virginia.” Today, except for Richmond, Lynchburg has the largest treasure trove of historic and architecturally significant buildings in the Commonwealth.
Lynchburg was awarded a ranking of 15th best city in America. For metropolitan areas over 100,000 population, Justice Department statistics rank the city the eighth safest in America and EPA ranks the city environmentally as having the second cleanest air and water quality.
Here are the link to Part 1-4 of the History of Lynchburg
History of Lynchburg Va Part 1
History of Lynchburg Va Part 2
History of Lynchburg Va Part 3
History of Lynchburg Va Part 4
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IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL A HOME IN THE LYNCHBURG OR SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE FOR ALL THE CURRENT LISTINGS OR GIVE ME A CALL AT
(434)832-1100X320
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History of Lynchburg-Part 3
Hello Everybody-I hope you are enjoying this series of the history of Lynchburg as much I am doing it. Lynchburg is definitely a HISTORY BUFF"S DREAM. If you missed the first 2 parts here are the links BELOW
Lynchburg HISTORY Part 1 Lynchburg HISTORY Part 2
The 1850's also saw the arrival of telegraph service to Richmond, along with a gas works for lighting, and a sewer system. More importantly, Lynchburg achieved full status as a city on August 27, 1852. In 1854, the South Side railroad began operation with the arrival of the first train from Petersburg at the Island depot.
Lynchburg would see its third railroad, the Orange and Alexandria (a northern route), in a few more years. In the summer of 1855, Lynchburg served as a refuge from the yellow-fever-plagued cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and in the following year, a series of back-to-back snowstorms dumped 58 inches of snow on Lynchburg.
During the Civil War, Lynchburg served primarily as a supply and hospital center, and was spared most of the destruction that befell other Virginia cities and towns. Lynchburg did see battle action, however, in June of 1864, when Confederate forces successfully fought off a Union attack. On June 17, Union General David Hunter approached the city from the west after moving down the Shenandoah Valley burning farms and towns.
After a series of delaying actions by Confederate General John McCausland, the Union troops managed to force back a Confederate line positioned at the old Quaker Meeting House, and took the nearby Sandusky House (1808, pic left) for use as a temporary headquarters. Sandusky today(pic right)
On June 18 following the fallback, Confederate forces, now reinforced by General Jubal Early, maintained positions along a 3-mile line west of the town (extending from what is now Fort Early to McCausland Ridge).
After inconclusive fighting, the Union troops withdrew under the false impression they were facing a larger Confederate force. Part of the deception arose from a continuous series of train movements on several rail lines, giving the impression that reinforcements were arriving at a steady pace. The following day, General Early chased the Union troops back towards Liberty (now Bedford), overtaking them and inflicting heavy casualties.
The Battle of Lynchburg is reenacted each year at Berkley, an antebellum estate in Bedford county. Over 3,000 Confederate dead are buried in the Old Confederate Cemetery, located just west of the southern end of Fifth St.).
In late September of 1870, Lynchburg experienced its worst flood in history when the James rose 26 feet out of its banks. The flood destroyed all bridges across the river, all railroad property in the river basin and on the island, the main gas pipe across Blackwater Creek and the water works pump house, leaving the city without light or water for months, and without a bridge across the James. In 1877, yet another flood wreaked similar havoc, once again destroying all bridges.
Lynchburg 1875
In this view from Amherst County, one can see the
court house (top middle), the Va. & Tennessee depot
and train shed (center/left), the V&T roundhouse (right)
and covered wooden bridge across the James River
(destroyed by flood in 1877).
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IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL A HOME IN THE LYNCHBURG OR SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE FOR ALL THE CURRENT LISTINGS OR GIVE ME A CALL AT
(434)832-1100X320
MY WEBSITE
CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO FEED A HUNGRY FURBABY
CLICK ON THE BREAST CANCER SITE TO DONATE A MAMMOGRAM
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/
Proud supporter of
CMN and Susan G. Komen as well as the SPCA.
A portion of every one of my real estate transactions goes to CMN
PROUD MEMBER OF THE LYNCHBURG MLS, DANVILLE MLS & CREA
This is part #2 of the series of "THE HISTORY OF LYNCHBURG" Lynchburg is indeed rich in history and I will try and capture some of the best of it in this series. If you missed Part 1, here is the link. HISTORY OF LYNCHBURG PT 1
THE HISTORY OF LYNCHBURG PART 2
In the late 1820's, the town accomplished a major engineering feat with the construction of a water works system which drew its supply from the river below. Plagued by continual problems with a spring and well-based water supply, a reservoir was constructed (at the corner of 7th and Clay St.) along with wooden pipes and a pump house at the river (near the base of 7th).
In 1830 at the height of the Lynchburg tobacco trade, over 50 tons of the regions cash crop were processed a year. As a result, Lynchburg became one of the wealthiest cities in the nation per capita income, second only to the whaling town of New Bedford, Massachusetts
The decade brought with it some unusual phenonema to Lynchburg, including an earthquake, an all-night meteor storm, a hailstorm that broke almost every window in the town, and a rare auroral display in the northern sky. By the end of the 1830's, Lynchburg's population topped 6000.
By 1840, the James River and Kanawha Canal was completed(the town had in 1832 dropped a planned railroad in favor of the canal system), and packet boats began regular operation between Lynchburg and Richmond (a lock from the Kanawha canal is preserved on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Rte. 501 intersection about 15 miles west of the city).
1842 and 1847 brought two floods, the latter one wreaking havoc with the canal system and destroying the water works dam, leaving the town without water for several months
Early Va & Tennessee RR Locomotive
On March 24, 1848, Lynchburg incorporated the Lynchburg and Tennessee (soon to be named Virginia & Tennessee) Railroad, following the refusal of the state to fund its construction. By June 1, sufficient funds had been raised to retain the charter, and by October, property at the old ferry site had been purchased to build a depot, and contractors were solicited for the first segment from Lynchburg to Salem.
Construction began in 1850, and on February 18, 1852, the railroad's first locomotive (the "Virginia") was tested when it climbed out of the river basin, disappeared into a tunnel and then returned (By 1881, the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad would be a part of the Norfolk & Western RR).
(The "Roanoke," as photographed in 1854. A sister
locomotive, the "Lynchburg," had blown up two years
earlier in Forest, Virginia, killing two people)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL A HOME IN THE LYNCHBURG OR SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE FOR ALL THE CURRENT LISTINGS OR GIVE ME A CALL AT
(434)832-1100X320
IMPORTANT LINKS
MY WEBSITE
CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO FEED A HUNGRY FURBABY
CLICK ON THE BREAST CANCER SITE TO DONATE A MAMMOGRAM
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/
Proud supporter of
CMN and Susan G. Komen as well as the SPCA.
A portion of every one of my real estate transactions goes to CMN
PROUD MEMBER OF THE LYNCHBURG MLS, DANVILLE MLS & CREA
THE HISTORY OF LYNCHBURG VIRGINIA-AN OVERVIEW
In the mid-1750's, the colonial village of New London in Central Virginia was an important trading center, however, it was difficult to reach from northern towns (such as Charlottesville) due to the necessity of fording the Fluvanna (now James) River, which passed twelve miles north of the village. John Lynch, son of land-owner Charles Lynch and Quaker Sarah Clark Lynch, decided to remedy this problem, and in 1757, established a ferry service on the James a few hundred yards upstream from the ford, on property owned by his father.
The ferry service remained profitable for many years, and by the end of the American Revolution, the village at Lynch's Ferry had itself become an important center of trade. Lynch saw the possibilities of establishing a town on the hill overlooking the ferry site, and in late 1784 petitioned the General Assembly of Virginia for a town charter. In October, 1786, the charter was granted, founding the town of Lynchburg.
The year in which Lynch began operation of his ferry (1757) also saw the beginning of regular meetings of the South River Society of Friends (Quakers) in which John's mother Sarah played a key role. The third and last South River meeting house was built in 1798, and served the Quakers until 1839 when it was abandoned (most Quakers had left the area in the 1820's due to their opposition to slavery).
The building soon fell into ruins (pictured to the left), but was restored in the early 1900's after the land was purchased by area Presbyterians (across from the intersection of Fort Avenue and Sandusky Drive). The town of Lynchburg grew slowly between 1786 and the turn of the century, with the addition of a tobacco warehouse, a few stores, homes, taverns, a Masonic Lodge and one small church. 1798 saw the creation of the town's first newspaper, and the following year saw initial efforts to supply the town with water from springs and wells.
By the early 1800's, tobacco was the city's major economy, with numerous warehouses processing and shipping the product east to Richmond by river batteaux. 1817 saw the beginnings of construction of the Salem Turnpike (the roadbed of what is now U.S. 460 between Lynchburg and Roanoke) as well as a toll bridge across the James River (this bridge was at 9th street, at the original ferry site).
John Lynch (founder of the ferry, the town, and who also headed the toll bridge project) died on October 31, 1820, and was buried in the cemetery beside the Quaker Meeting House
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL A HOME IN THE LYNCHBURG OR SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE FOR ALL THE CURRENT LISTINGS OR GIVE ME A CALL AT
(434)832-1100X320
IMPORTANT LINKS
MY WEBSITE
EAT A DAIRY QUEEN BLIZZARD AUGUST 13
Indulging your sweet tooth can be a rewarding experience. On Thursday, Aug. 13, your personal indulgence can become a treat for your whole community.
Proceeds from every Blizzard purchased at a participating Dairy Queen store will help children at your local Children's Miracle Network hospital.
Visit miracletreatday.com to find a participating DQ location near you. You also can make an online donation directly to Children's Miracle Network or promise to buy a blizzard for a friend.
When you submit your promise online, a floating balloon will be added to the Miracle Treats Day Web site.
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