Richmond

Richmond is the capital of Virginia.

During the Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy, for which the Northerners flattened its downtown to the ground in 1862.

The city itself is quite small. Only 230,000 people live there, about half of whom are black and only 40% are white.

Once, Richmond was a major industrial center. Dozens of plants and factories operated in the city, especially tobacco factories. The city is best known for the Philip Morris tobacco brand, which produced cigarettes under a dozen labels, including L&M, Marlboro, and Parliament.

However, towering over the city more than anything else is the old brick chimney of another tobacco brand — Lucky Strike.

Richmond is a true brick dystopia. The author has only ever seen this much 19th‑century red brick in Manchester.

Many buildings preserved traces of old advertisements.

You often come across graffiti that’s actually quite good quality.

The streets, as is often the case in the southern states, are patrolled not only by the police but also by the sheriff.

A notice on a lamppost announces a sale of items left behind by deceased people.

The city really gives you the feeling that it’s the 19th century again and the Industrial Revolution is underway. Richmond doesn’t seem to have changed much since then.

Even the fire station has preserved authentic signs.

There are some more recent examples too. On one building was found a gorgeous sign from the 1950s.

Other examples came from the time of the Great Depression, though slightly updated.

Was found a fantastic colonial church dated back to 1741, even with a cemetery in the yard.

Nearby was found an advertisement for some religious sect that held seminars about God, Satan, and psychology.

One of the best neighborhoods in Richmond is Church Hill. Here, one can find gorgeous wooden houses that appear to have preserved their original look since the early days of America’s settlement.

Not far away you can also find more modern townhouses, similar to those that occupy the wealthy neighborhoods around Central Park in New York City.

For the red brick lovers, there are, for sure, red-brick houses.

But skyscrapers enthusiasts will be disappointed: there are almost no such thing in Richmond, and the whole city is rather low-rise.

Downtown Richmond is drab and unkempt. Crime in the city is relatively high, but still within reasonable limits.

Somewhere in the downtown area is hiding a local capitol, but on the day of my visit it turned out to be under restoration.

In the main part of the city was found a house of Edgar Allan Poe, the famous writer who left behind a couple dozen houses in which he had once rented an apartment.

Finally, just outside the city lies a cemetery where President Monroe is buried — the author of the famous Monroe Doctrine, according to which the entire Western Hemisphere of this unfortunate planet is a zone under U.S. control.