Citie of Henricus Historical Park

Richmond Times-Dispatch Archives

Published: September 2, 2008

Check our photos
of the Citie of Henricus Historical Park

Slideshow
of the Godspeed’s visit to Henricus [May 2007]

Check our photos
of the views and scenery at Pocahontas Bluff

The 1611 Citie of Henricus, Virginia’s second successful English settlement, is being recreated at the 32-acre Henricus Historical Park. In 1607, Christopher Newport first explored the area where the Virginia Company of London would later direct a new seat of government to be built in an environment heathier than Jamestown.

Henricus, named for the eldest son of England’s King James, became the second successful permanent English settlement in the New World in 1611 when Thomas Dale led 300 men miles upriver from Jamestown to establish a new colony. After years of famine and disease in Jamestown, Henricus, 20 miles south of modern-day Richmond, was considered an improvement because of its high bluffs, its inland location and the fact it was surrounded by the snaking James River, which provided substantial protection.

Captains Christopher Newport and John Smith and others had been introduced to land that would become Henricus during a journey of discovery a few days after landfall at Jamestown in 1607. They remembered the spot four years later.

Henricus was far different from Jamestown. Dale ruled it with an iron fist, but it was more significant for other reasons. Among them:

• Henricus was the site of the first private ownership of land. Included among those first American landowners was the first female landowner—Pocahontas. She lived at Henricus for several years, where she converted to Christianity and was courted by John Rolfe.

• Under the leadership of Rolfe, tobacco was developed as a viable cash crop for the colony at Henricus.

• The first American hospital, Mount Malady, was established at Henricus. It hardly resembled modern-day hospitals and was more of a “rest home,“ according to Bonnie Eichler, who works in the education department at Henricus, but it was a clear first attempt at community medical care.

• The first American college was to be chartered at Henricus as 10,000 acres were set aside to create a college for children of the settlers and a school for Indian youth. As it turned out, Henricus was abandoned before the college could be constructed.

• The American iron industry was founded at nearby Falling Creek.

The actual land where the city of Henricus was built probably was shoveled away when the Dutch Gap Canal was constructed. Henricus Historical Park sits on a bluff overlooking the canal and on land that once was a pig farm.

Info: The 1611 Citie of Henricus and the Henricus Visitors Center and Museum Store are open year-round Tu - Su 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Adults: $6; seniors (62+) $5; children (3-12) $4; 2 and younger, free. Call (804)706-1340. www.henricus.org