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Midlothian, Virginia

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Midlothian, Virginia is an unincorporated place located in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was named for the early coal mining enterprises of the Wooldridge brothers who came from the mining villages of East Lothian and West Lothian near Edinburgh, Scotland. In a compromise, the new venture was called Mid-Lothian. It produced the first commercially-mined coal in the United States.

In modern times, the widespread Midlothian area is considered a suburb of the independent city of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region. In the 20th century, as the residential area around Richmond grew, Midlothian evolved into an area of many middle class and upper-middle class neighborhoods. Midlothian was ranked #37 in CNNMoney's list of The Best Places to Live 2005.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Location of Midlothian, Virginia

Midlothian is located in the Piedmont geologic region of the state, and is made up of mainly a hilled, fertile land (it is somewhat of a plain.)

[edit] Soil problems

In recent years, controversy has arisen over a geologic phenomenon peculiar to the Midlothian area. A soil type, termed "shrink-swell" has been found to underlie many neighborhoods that have grown up throughout the area. "Shrink-swell" is the term applied to the potential for volume change in a soil with a loss or gain in moisture. Volume change occurs mainly because of the interaction of clay minerals with water and varies with the amount and type of clay minerals in the soil. The size of the load on the soil and the magnitude of the change in soil moisture content influence the amount of swelling of soils in place. Shrinking and swelling can damage roads, dams, building foundations, and other structures. It can also damage plant roots. This soil has a tendency to shrink and swell depending on the moisture content present in the soil, and tends to either shrink or swell with the change of the seasons of the year, as the weather undergoes wet and dry cycles. For many years, construction standards failed to take into account the unique requirements for building structures with foundations of sufficient depth and strength to insure against damage in so dynamic a geologic condition, with the result that many dwellings and other structures have suffered severe damage and required extensive remediation and repair to remain functional.

Additionally, a type of fill dirt, comprised in part of the ash by-product of coal burning electric power generation facilities, was used in the site grading for a number of commercial establishments in the Midlothian area. That material proved sufficiently unstable that a large national home-improvement retailer had to completely raze its new store located off Midlothian Turnpike (U.S. Route 60) within the first year of its opening for business, to completely re-do the site preparation, and construct a new building. Other major retailers in the vicinity have had to employ such techniques as concrete grinding to keep shifting floor slabs even with one another as the unstable soil of the foundation continues its shifting and heaving tendencies over time.

[edit] Watersheds

The Midlothian area serves as the headwaters to a number of creeks which ultimately contribute their waters to the flow of the James River below the fall line at Richmond. These include Swift Creek and Falling Creek. The Swift Creek Reservoir serves as the major source of fresh water for the county. In recent years, the rapid pace of residential, commercial, and light industrial development proximal to these estuaries has dramatically and negatively impacted the quality of the waters traversing their length and ultimately entering the river. Additionally, both Falling Creek and Swift Creek are home to the major waste water treatment facilities operated by Chesterfield County, situated near the mouths of both creeks at their confluence with the James. Sedimentation, and toxic element contribution from residential activities (including the predominance of private residential septic tanks versus municipal waste water handling)and lawn fertilization, as well as high volume run-off from the vast paved and roofed square footage throughout the headwaters area, impact dramatically on the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) of the waters ultimately added to the fresh water input to the James River. Consequently, the aesthetic quality of the James River, as a recreational asset to the region, has been significantly compromised in recent years. Human activities throughout the Midlothian area contribute to the continued decline of the surface water assets of the region, as may be readily seen in such phenomena as the extreme degree of siltation evident in the Falling Creek Reservoir, as that impoundment extends between State Route 10 (Ironbridge Rd) and Hopkins Rd, approximately 3 miles west of the mouth of Falling Creek as it flows eastward toward the James. Regrettably, the deterioration of the Midlothian watershed may be typical of that decline well underway in cities and their suburban areas throughout the United States. Since many cities throughout America owe their origin and evolution to the existence of significant sources of surface water as avenues of trade and in support of commerce, it seems fair to conclude that the situation underway in the greater Richmond area is being repeated time and again, and that the decline of water quality is a valid indicator of the negative impact of human activity upon the land.

[edit] Demographics

Midlothian's demographics are much like Virginia's. Its inhabitants are predominantly Caucasian. The next biggest group is African-Americans, followed by Hispanics and Asians. The median household income per year in 2005 was $80,381.

Midlothian is comprised of many neighborhoods, shopping centers, schools, and churches, and includes a major regional shopping mall. There is very little farming and only light manufacturing around the new State Route 288. Some examples of neighborhoods around the Village of Midlothian just off Route 60 include Salisbury to the north and Walton Park, Queensmill, and Stonehenge West on the east. Woodlake and Brandermill are planned communities on Route 360 which have a Midlothian address.

[edit] History

Before the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century, the area was populated by Native Americans. Manakintown was located nearby. French "Huguenot" settlers came to the area to escape religious persecution in Europe. The location above the head of navigation on the James River at Richmond offered some desired isolation for them. With the coming of the Europeans, although there was some farming, the terrain was hilly and largely wooded, and shipping of farm products such as tobacco crops was not easy. However, there was a greater natural resource than farmland as Midlothian history became largely one of coal mining and railroads. Coal mining in the Midlothian area of Chesterfield County began early in the 18th century.

[edit] Coal mining

The Village area of today's Midlothian started as a settlement of coal miners in the 1700s. In 1709, Midlothian produced the first commercially-mined coal in the United States. Some of the first coal mines were controlled by the wealthy Wooldridge family. About 1745, two Wooldridge brothers came to Virginia from Scotland. They built their home nearby. The brothers came from separate mining villages, one from East Lothian, the other from West Lothian. They compromised on the name, thus calling it "Mid-Lothian". The name was also given to the mines the family owned, and later to the unincorporated town which grew around the property. Somewhere along the way, the name became one unhyphenated word: "Midlothian."

During the American Revolution, coal produced in the Midlothian coal pits supplied the cannon factory on the James River at Westham, upstream from Richmond, where it was used to produce shot and shells for the Continental Army. By the end of the Revolutionary War, coal mined in Chesterfield County was being shipped to Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Thomas Jefferson noted the mines in operation in his "Notes on Virginia" and said the coal produced there was of "excellent quality". He also ordered coal from the Black Heath Mine in Midlothian for use in the White House in Washington DC.

By 1835, there were seven or eight major mines in the Midlothian area. Coal was the basis of the Midlothian area until the late 1800s when mining ended. Later attempts to reopen the mines were unsuccessful, but thanks to rail access to Richmond, the village became a commuter town.

[edit] Early roads, first turnpike, and railroads

In 1804, a toll road, then called Buckingham, or Manchester, Road, was built from Falling Creek to Manchester to ease traffic on what is now Old Buckingham Road. It was paved in 1808, making it Virginia's first paved road. That road's descendant is known as Midlothian Turnpike.

By 1824, an estimated 70 to 100 wagons, each of which was loaded with four or five tons of coal, made a daily trip on the turnpike, transporting to the docks at the river near Manchester the million or more bushels (30,000 metric tons) of coal that were produced in Chesterfield County each year.

The heavily-loaded coal wagons tended to cut deep ruts in the turnpike between the mines at Midlothian and the docks at Manchester, raising clouds of dust in summer and churning the road into mud in the rainy season. As there were few options for shunpiking, citizens whose faster buggies dawdled along behind the lumbering wagons kept urging the state legislature to do something about it—a canal, a better road, but something.

The result was the Chesterfield Railroad, a 13 mile (21 km) mule- and gravity-powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves that were located at Manchester, directly across from Richmond. Partially funded by the Virginia Board of Public Works, it began operating in 1831, was Virginia's first railroad, and was the second commercial railroad to be built in the United States. By 1850, though, the newer, steam-driven Richmond and Danville Railroad began operation to Coalfield Station, later renamed Midlothian, and the slower Chesterfield Railroad was quickly supplanted.

According to the 1895 Virginia atlas, the population of Midlothian was 375.

[edit] 20th century: village becomes suburban area

In the 20th century, coal mining died out, and the area became less populated, remaining largely wooded with farms scattered along mostly rural and dirt roads. Gradually, the highway network and the growth of metropolitan Richmond brought subdivisions. When the Swift Creek Reservoir was created, water and sewer service accelerated residential growth. The expansion of the area assigned to the Midlothian post office caused a much larger area to be considered "Midlothian" than the village area along Midlothian Turnpike, now designated U.S. Route 60. An extension of the Powhite Parkway in 1988 and widening of Midlothian Turnpike and Hull Street Road (U.S. Route 360) provided much-needed highway infrastructure as the area continued to grow in population, and forests were turned into subdivisions.

[edit] 21st century: growth issues

Completion of State Route 288 in 2004 essentially brought Midlothian into the circumferential highway network of greater Richmond. Debate continues regarding whether the few remaining farms and forest areas will be developed with more subdivisions, allowing the western end of Chesterfield County to be essentially "built-out" in the manner that has occurred in other Virginia localities such as Fairfax and Arlington counties in Northern Virginia. In March 2006, that debate was settled when the county approved, after long debate, zoning for the Watkins Centre, a large office complex and retail "lifestyle center" at the intersection of Route 288 and U.S. 60, just two miles west of the Village of Midlothian. Midlothian's High School, part of Chesterfield County Public Schools is one of the finest in the state of Virginia.

[edit] Historic landmarks

Chesterfield County Historic Landmarks in the Midlothian area include:

  • Bellgrade, 11500 West Huguenot Road
  • Trabue’s Tavern, 11940 Old Buckingham Road
  • Hallsborough Tavern, 16300 Midlothian Turnpike
  • Ivymount, 14111 Midlothian Turnpike

[edit] Chesterfield Museum

An exhibit on local mining history in the Chesterfield Museum includes a length of iron rail from the incline railway, first in Virginia.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Midlothian%2C_Virginia"
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