Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 10/15/1985
NRHP Listing Date 06/13/1986
NRHP Reference Number 86001277
In one of Petersburg’s four original wards, the Centre Hill Historic District is an architecturally distinctive enclave of residential buildings surrounded on all sides by commercial, industrial, and municipal development. The district takes its name from the 1823 mansion of Robert Bolling, a noted Petersburg landmark. Centre Hill‘s grounds were sold by Charles Hall Davis in 1910 to the Centre Hill Development Corporation. The setting of the stately Bolling residence was thus radically changed. Between 1914 and 1923, the estate’s front lawn was transformed into a tightly-knit residential development, called Centre Hill Court, a visually lively collection of primarily bungalow-style houses. The houses contrast architecturally with the great Federal mansion and reflect the early-20th-century interest in creating small planned neighborhoods. The district also includes a collection of earlier dwellings east of Centre Hill Court.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: June 29, 2021
