Page 9 - Demo

Before the Park was a Park
Before anyone “owned” Riverside
Park, this area of Virginia was part of Monacan Indian territory. There was a big encampment of Monacan Indians several miles up the James River, not far from Holcomb Rock, but on the Amherst County side, in Bethel. There is now a park and public river access on that site called Monacan Park. It is easy to imagine Monacan Indians fishing in the river and spending time on the small islands just off what would eventually become Riverside Park.
In 1624, when Virginia became The Colony and Dominion of Virginia, the land belonged to England. Ownership next passed to John Bolling, a descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. At this point in time, the upper James River at Lynchburg was called the Fluvanna River, named for Anne, the daughter of King James II, who became Queen of England from 1702-1714.
On June 1, 1750, Charles Lynch,
an immigrant from Ireland, acquired 1,590 acres of the Bolling lands. When Lynch died in 1753, he left some of his property, including the portion that
later became Riverside Park, to his son, Christopher Lynch. Christopher’s brother John inherited the land that later became downtown Lynchburg.
Christopher Lynch willed the land to his daughter Nancy. She was married to Methodist minister Samuel Mitchell, who organized the first Methodist Society in Lynchburg in 1802. The Mitchells sold one thousand acres to Lewellin Jones on March 16, 1803, including the future park land and the islands in the James. A few years later, on June 1, 1805, George Cabell became the next owner when he bought 737 acres of the one-thousand- acre tract from Lewellin Jones for $15,000.
When Cabell bought the land, it was all woods and farmland. In 1815 he built Point of Honor on the tip of his extensive property with a view of the river and downtown Lynchburg. By then, the river was busy with batteau traffic between Lynchburg and Richmond, and turnpikes were being improved to make travel on land easier. The Lexington Pike ran along Dr. Cabell’s property right past the future Riverside Park on the way to Lexington,
Virginia. (Portions of the pike were later incorporated into Rivermont Avenue). Dr. Cabell died in 1823 and left his
estate to his son, William Lewis Cabell. William was married to Eliza Daniel and, because they had no heirs when they both died of tuberculosis in 1830, the land
was left to Eliza’s father, Judge William Daniel. He moved to Point of Honor and managed the farmlands until 1839, when he died and left the majority of his estate to his son William Daniel, Jr.
William Daniel, Jr. served as a judge
of Lynchburg’s general court in the 1820s and was elected to the House of Delegates in 1831. In 1846 he was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia and served until the Civil War. Daniel was instrumental in organizing the Lynchburg-based Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (a fact that will prove pertinent later in the history of Riverside Park).
In 1845 he offered his land and Point of Honor for sale, either as one piece or as lots. It ended up being sold as lots and Daniel’s Hill was created, with Cabell Street its main thoroughfare.
In 1852 William built a new house up the hill from Point of Honor which his second wife, Elizabeth Cabell, named “Rivermont.” It stands on F Street, between Cabell and Norwood streets in the Daniel’s Hill Historic District. He retained ownership of the stretch of land running from his Rivermont house up to Riverside Park. According to a map by the Confederate Engineers Bureau, dated 1864, there were no other significant dwellings on this property. During the Civil War, the land where the park sits may have been used as a Confederate Camp. Relics of the Civil War that have been found on the grounds of the park lend credence to the idea.
After William Daniel, Jr. died insolvent in 1873, attorneys for his estate hired Edward Sixtus Hutter and his brother,
J. R. Hutter, to divide the large tract of land into more than 100 lots, which were offered for sale. Edward bought several lots, including Rivermont house, in 1874. He obviously liked the name. He later formed the Rivermont Company, built the Rivermont Bridge, named Rivermont Avenue, and turned the old Daniel
estate into a new neighborhood called Rivermont—a neighborhood complete with street lights, street cars, and a twenty- acre park called Rivermont Park.
Rivermont Park opened in 1893. It
Two postcards of Rivermont Park, which opened in 1893 and closed shortly before Riverside Park was established. The top view shows the casino. In the bottom view the young Randolph-Macon Woman’s College is seen at the left.
was not a public park, but was owned and operated by the Rivermont Street Railway Company. It was located where the First Church of Christ Scientist, the Mayflower, Cavalier, and Rivermont Park apartments now stand. The park had a bandstand, a penny arcade, a dance pavilion, and a casino featuring summer performances by troupes from as far away as New York. The park closed shortly before Riverside Park was established.
In 1876, before the neighborhood named Rivermont was created, city council asked the board of health to find a suitable lot outside the city limits for
a proposed new smallpox hospital. On February 3, 1881, the city agreed to tear down the old smallpox hospital. Unsafe parts of the building were burned. Safe parts were sold and the proceeds were used to improve a new lot and build “two wards for each colour... at a cost not to exceed $1,500.” By June 4, 1881, the new smallpox hospital was completed within an area later encompassed by Riverside Park. The “City Infirmary” appears on a map that dates between 1873 and 1891. It is located at the end of Oxford Street, which juts to the right off of what is
now Columbia Avenue. Oxford Street no longer exists, but it appears that the smallpox hospital was located where the swimming pool was later placed in Riverside Park.
FALL/WINTER 2007 
Photos courtesy of Joy Graybill