A Citie of Beginnings

Voted "2012 Best Park"
by readers of
Richmond.com

 

COMING EVENTS

• September 18-19 - Amazing Raise
• September 21-22 - Publick Days with Godspeed from Jamestown Settlement

Henricus Historical Park Documentary - Short Version (6:15)
Video presentation featuring the history and significance of Henricus Historical Park, a living history museum located in Chester, Virginia. 

Imagine it is 1611

You are one of 300 settlers led by Sir Thomas Dale to build the Citie of Henricus, a settlement that the Virginia Company of London hopes will become the principal seat of the colony, replacing the unhealthy environment of Jamestown.  You leave Jamestown to travel 80 miles up the James River and begin to build the city named for the eldest son of King James I, Prince Henry.  You are going into an unknown wilderness where there is the constant threat of attack by Indians and Spaniards who seek to destroy the young struggling English colony.

Today, Henricus Historical Park is re-creating the second successful English settlement in the New World.  Four hundred years ago the opportunity ofproperty ownership by the common man was a unique concept in the world. This innovative idea combined with the development of the first English hospital, the chartering of the first college in the New World, the English home of Pocahontas, the establishment of tobacco as the first cash crop in the New World, as well as other important events that occurred at Henricus, contributed to the successful permanent colonization of North America and the eventual establishment of the United States of America. Visit Henricus Historical Park and relive America's beginnings. Historical interpretation and reenactments pay tribute to Virginia's Indians and the English settlers who carved a nation out of what was then Virginia's western frontier.

Henricus Historical Park is a living history museum operating as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in partnership with the Henricus Foundation and counties of Chesterfield and Henrico.