Shockoe Slip

Richmond Times-Dispatch Archives

Published: July 25, 2008

Check our photos
of the Morgan Fountain in Shockoe Slip.

Shockoe Slip: Cary Street, between 12th and 14th streets. Established as trading post by William Byrd I in the late 17th century. Now has cobblestone streets with shops, restaurants and galleries.

HISTORY
Shockoe Slip Historic District, roughly bounded by East Main Street, South 12th Street, the Downtown Expressway and the Seaboard System Railroad tracks. Encompassing some nine city blocks on the southeastern edge of Richmond's financial quarter, Shockoe Slip consists primarily of three- and four-story Italiante brick commercial structures, many with cast-iron architectural trim. The district has served as a neighborhood of warehouses, tobacco storage buildings, wholesale outlets and mills since the 1780s. It was leveled by the Evacuation Fire of 1865 after the Civil War and it was quickly rebuilt.

The heart of the district is a trapezoidal stone-paved piazza known as Shockoe Slip, part of an early passageway between Main Street and the James River and Kanawha Canal. In the center of the piazza is an ornamental fountain donated to serve as a watering spot for teams of horses.

A Richmond traditional since 1992, the "Blessing of the Animals" recognizes Richmond's working animals including police horses, police K-9 dogs, search and rescue dogs, aid dogs, companion animals in nursing homes, horses used for therapeutic horsemanship, draft horses and all area mounted police units. The event is held at the Morgan Fountain in Shockoe Slip.
[Credit: Times-Dispatch archives, Virginia Landmarks Register]