Fan district

The Fan is a district of Richmond, Virginia, so named because of the "fan" shape of the roads that extend west from N. Belvidere St., on the eastern edge of Virginia Commonwealth University's Monroe Park Campus, westward to "The Boulevard." The Fan is bordered to the north by Broad Street and to the south by Cary Street. Many cafes and locally owned restaurants are located here, as well as historic Monument Avenue. Development of the Fan district was strongly influenced by the City Beautiful movement of the late 19th century.

Architecture

The Fan is significant for having one of the longest intact stretches of Victorian architecture in the United States.

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• Primary architectural styles represented include:
  • Italianate
  • Richardson Romanesque
  • Queen Anne
  • Colonial Revival

• Other architectural styles include:
  • Tudor
  • Second Empire
  • Beaux Arts
  • Art Deco
  • Spanish
  • Gothic
  • Bungalow
  • American Arts and Crafts Movement
  • James River Georgian
  • Southern Colonial
  • Jacobean

In April of 2005, the Virginia Center for Architecture opened Branch House, an architecture museum on Monument Avenue. The Branch House was a historic Richmond home designed in 1918 by John Russell Pope as a reproduction of an English Tudor manor house.

History

In 1817, The Fan was plotted as the village of Sydney on land formerly owned by William Byrd II. Primary development of the Fan occurred from after the Civil War until about 1920. Development was influenced by streetcar lines leading from downtown, where the first in the nation electric streetcar system was inaugurated in 1888.

External links

• http://www.fandistrict.org/
• http://www.historicrichmond.com/fan.html
• http://www.australiastudy.com/geog337/papers/spring2003/fan/History2.htm