Welcome to Historic Rivermont Avenue
Welcome to the Rivermont Avenue Heritage Trust, the official website of the Friends of Rivermont Historical Society.
The Rivermont Avenue subdivision was planned as a residential suburb of Lynchburg in the early 1890s. The name "Rivermont" can be traced to the 1850s' property of William Daniel, Jr. and his wife Elizabeth Hannah Cabell. This original property stretched from near Point of Honor to the current Rivermont Avenue.
Our neighborhood traces its beginning to the opening of the Rivermont Bridge over Blackwater Creek in 1891. The Rivermont Bridge, considered in its day to be an engineering marvel, connected downtown Lynchburg with the Rivermont Avenue neighborhood. Unlike the rest of Lynchburg, which was laid out on a grid, the developers let the topographical curves dictate the route of Rivermont Avenue. Although our gently rolling hills and curves parallel the James River, Rivermont Avenue was carefully planned and was, in fact, one of the nation's earliest planned communities. Requirements for building type, size, set back, and minimum cost were written into the deeds when lots were sold.
Unique Architectural Design
From its beginning, the Rivermont neighborhood has consisted primarily of single-family detached residences, usually two stories in height, with gable or hipped roofs often covered with metal standing seam sheets or slate shingles. Houses always faced the street and had auxiliary buildings such as garages and sheds located to the rear of the yard. Building materials included both wood and brick (stone was almost never used as a construction material). Most of the buildings dating from the 1890-1910 period were of frame construction. This was true even of the houses of the wealthy—such as expansive Queen Anne-style residences like the George and Mary Jones House at 456 Rivermont. Houses from this 1890-1910 period also share other characteristics, regardless of their size and degree of architectural sophistication. Most were built on raised brick basements, had prominent porches along the front, interior brick chimneys, and double-hung sash windows. Interior plans generally consisted of either a side hall or central passage plan, although the more elaborate Queen Anne-style houses of this period featured the asymmetrical free-flowing plans characteristic of this style. Most houses were given some form of individuality by decorative exterior woodwork such as brackets, shingles, vents, cornices, and porch columns.
Gerard Sherayko
2500 Rivermont Avenue
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