I have a couple of comments. Back in the '80s, for a grad school report on city planning and historic preservation in Church Hill, I interviewed a city planner (name forgotten) who expressed the opinion that Church Hill's demographic change was most likely caused by the construction if I-95 which effectively cut it off from the rest of the city and caused many residents to relocate to the new suburbs. I'm sure that is debatable and I have nothing to back it up other than his statement.

Regarding North Church Hill, I have been looking for information, as well, while doing genealogical research on my grandmothers family, the Creerys, who came in the early 19th c. when it was part of Henrico County. This may be a little far north for your interests. They lived on 19th Street extended. Census records show that a number of streets along the valley have had name changes beginning in the early 20th century. I have some 1898 newpaper articles regarding a horrific fire that killed two of my great uncles as children. Also, old maps show that there was an insane asylum and a race track in the area in the mid-19th century.

That part of Church Hill, it seems, was working class and was populated by European immigrants, my great great Irish immigrant grandfather married a German immigrant. Looking at neighbors in census records shows free blacks living there as well during the Antebellum and a mix of black and immigrant living in the area post war. 

I agree that is is an overlooked area in studies of Richmond social and economic histories and hope that someone will take it on some day.
Bruce Terrell

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