Explore Richmond’s epic story! Join our 7hr guided tour of the Capitol, St. John's, Church Hill, Canal Walk & Hollywood Cemetery.

Historic Tour - River City Loop, Historic Richmond

Welcome to the River City! If you are looking to spend a day exploring the unique history and beautiful sights of Richmond, this is the perfect route. We have put together a relaxed, 4-hour journey designed to show you some of the most iconic and meaningful landmarks in town.

Instead of a formal lecture, think of this as a shared road trip through Richmond’s past and present. We will handle the logistics and navigation so you can focus entirely on enjoying the sights, snapping photos, and soaking in the incredible stories behind each historic stop.

A Quick Local Tip

We highly recommend comfortable, closed-toe shoes! Discover the rich history and vibrant culture of Richmond (known as the River City) on this special FMWR-sponsored guided tour. Walk in the footsteps of American history,

explore iconic landmarks, and experience the unique

stories of this remarkable city along the James River.

Where We're GoingWhat We'll See & Do

1. The Virginia State Capitol

The Capitol is the seat of Virginia's state government and home to the Virginia General Assembly, the oldest continuously operating legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, tracing its roots to the House of Burgesses formed in 1619 in Jamestown.

2. Adam Craig House (Drive-By)

Built between roughly 1784 and 1787 by Adam Craig, clerk of Richmond's Hustings Court, Henrico County Court, and General Court, this wood-frame house is considered the second-oldest surviving structure in Richmond, after the Old Stone House (now the Poe Museum). It's a rare surviving example of a "plantation-in-town" — a small in-city complex with a main house and outbuildings.

3. St. John's Episcopal Church

Completed in 1741 on land and timber donated by William Byrd II, St. John's is Richmond's oldest church and the anchor point around which the entire Church Hill neighborhood grew — in fact, local tradition holds that Byrd named the city itself "Richmond" because the view of the James River from this hill reminded him of the view of the Thames from Richmond Hill outside London.

4. Chimborazo Hospital / Park (Drive-By)

Chimborazo sat on a hill in Church Hill overlooking the James River, on land that briefly served as a Confederate training camp before Surgeon General Samuel Preston Moore ordered a hospital built there in October 1861. Named for Mount Chimborazo, a dormant volcano in Ecuador, it grew into the largest military medical facility in the Confederacy — essentially its own small town, complete with a bakery, soap factory, and bathhouses, spread across roughly 120 buildings with room for about 3,000 patients at a time.

5. Libby Hill Park (Drive-By)

Libby Hill sits atop one of Richmond's seven hills and offers the view many historians point to as the reason the city is named Richmond. The park was laid out in the 1850s as one of Richmond's first public parks, designed to give residents a healthy outdoor "breathing place" overlooking the James River and the industrial wharf district below. The neighborhood takes its name from the Libby family, early settlers here

6. Canal Walk / Great Shiplock Park (Drive-By)

This stretch traces the path of the James River and Kanawha Canal, a project championed by George Washington himself, who served as honorary president of the James River Company when it was chartered in 1785. Washington's vision was a continuous water route connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio River, opening trade with the growing western territories. The canal expanded over the decades and by 1854 stretched roughly 197 miles inland. It reached its commercial peak in the late 1850s before railroads made canal transport obsolete; the canal company sold out to a railroad in 1880.

Great Shiplock Park itself preserves a stone lock from the canal system, built in the 1850s, along with a rail trestle overhead.

7. Rockett's Landing

Rockett's Landing takes its name from Robert Rockett, who began operating a cross-river ferry here in the 1730s. The site's history goes back even further — this stretch of riverbank is where Captain Christopher Newport is said to have landed in 1607 while exploring the James River for the Jamestown colonists.

8. Edgar Allan Poe Museum (Drive-By)

The museum is built around the Old Stone House, constructed around 1740 by German immigrant Jacob Ege — the oldest surviving residential building in Richmond. Poe never lived in this specific house, but the museum uses it and two adjoining buildings to tell the story of his formative years in Richmond, where he grew up after his mother's death (though he was born in Boston).

9. Lumpkin's Jail — "The Devil's Half Acre" (Drive-By, on the return from lunch)

Lumpkin's Jail was one of the largest slave-trading complexes in Richmond, which by the mid-1800s had become the second-largest slave market in the country after

Description supplied by the event organiser.