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This Richmond VA trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and starts with William Byrd II laying out a town grid in 1737 and naming it after a bend in the Thames, then runs through Patrick Henry at St. John's Church, Jefferson's temple of a Capitol, the four years as capital of the Confederacy and the fire that took a quarter of the city as the Confederates left. It follows the city into the streetcar age, Jackson Ward's 'Wall Street of Black America', Maggie Walker's bank and the century-long argument over Monument Avenue that ended with only Arthur Ashe still standing. There is plenty for people who live here now: the only Class IV rapids running through an American city, Belle Isle and Maymont, Carytown and the Byrd Theatre, the Flying Squirrels and the Kickers, VCU's Final Four run, the Federal Reserve tower on the skyline, the Fortune 500 firms in the suburbs and the metal bands that came out of the fan district. Early questions suit newcomers and school groups; the last stretch will test lifelong Richmonders. Every answer was checked against a reference page and shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which planter commissioned the original town grid of Richmond in 1737?
William Byrd II
He named it after Richmond upon Thames because the view of the James at the fall line reminded him of Richmond Hill in England.
Q 02Richmond, Virginia, took its name from an English town on which river?
The Thames
That English Richmond is now part of London; the Virginia settlement was incorporated as a town in 1742.
Q 03Where in Richmond did Patrick Henry deliver 'Give me liberty or give me death!' in 1775?
St. John's Church
The church stands in Church Hill, the neighbourhood that takes its name from it.
Q 04Richmond replaced which city as the capital of Virginia in 1780?
Williamsburg
The move came on 18 April 1780; a year later Benedict Arnold's Loyalist troops raided and burned the new capital, sending Governor Jefferson fleeing.
Q 05Thomas Jefferson modelled the Virginia State Capitol on which ancient Roman temple?
The Maison Carrée at Nîmes
Designed with Charles-Louis Clérisseau, it was completed in 1788 and is one of only twelve US capitols without an external dome.
Q 06On 20 May 1861, the Confederate Congress voted to move its capital to Richmond from which city?
Montgomery
The Confederate Congress then shared the Jefferson-designed Capitol with the Virginia General Assembly.
Q 07Which Richmond foundry made the 723 tons of armour plating for the ironclad CSS Virginia?
Tredegar
The CSS Virginia was the world's first ironclad used in war; the works stand on the riverfront near Belle Isle today.
Q 08Roughly what proportion of Richmond's buildings were destroyed in the Evacuation Fire of April 1865?
25%
Retreating Confederates burned tobacco warehouses and exploded the powder magazine; Lincoln toured the ruined city by launch on 4 April.
Q 09Which US president visited Richmond on 4 April 1865, the day after Confederate troops evacuated it?
Abraham Lincoln
He came up the James by launch from Petersburg; Jefferson Davis was meanwhile trying to reassemble his government in Danville.
Q 10Gabriel, who planned an 1800 slave rebellion around Richmond, was hanged along with how many followers?
Twenty-five
The plot leaked before it began; Gabriel was born on the Brookfield tobacco plantation in Henrico County.
Q 11Richmond opened one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems in which year?
1888
Frank Sprague's overhead-wire design spread rapidly to other cities; the last Richmond streetcar gave way to buses in November 1949.
Q 12Which Richmond neighbourhood was called the 'Wall Street of Black America'?
Jackson Ward
Its Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson monument was left untouched during the 2020 protests that brought down the Confederate statues.
Q 13In 1903, Maggie L. Walker of Richmond became the first African American woman to do what?
Charter a bank
She served as president of St. Luke Penny Savings Bank; her home is now a National Historic Site.
Q 21Belle Isle in the James River was a Powhatan fishing village, a colonial race track and what during the Civil War?
A prison camp
It is the larger of the two island parks; the other is Brown's Island.
Q 22Maymont, next to Byrd Park, is a Victorian estate of roughly how many acres?
100
It has formal gardens, native wildlife exhibits, a carriage collection and a children's farm.
Q 23Which MLB club did the Richmond Flying Squirrels join as a Double-A affiliate in 2010?
San Francisco Giants
The Squirrels arrived in 2010 as the Giants' Double-A club in the Eastern League; the Braves' Triple-A club had played in Richmond for decades before leaving in 2008.
Q 14Which two US presidents are buried in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery?
Monroe and Tyler
Jefferson Davis, J.E.B. Stuart and George Pickett are there too, along with more than 11,000 Confederate soldiers under a 90-foot granite pyramid.
Q 15Hollywood Cemetery, established in 1847, got its name from what?
An abundance of holly trees
Designer John Notman proposed the name; the cemetery overlooks the James River from a hill south of the Fan.
Q 16The one statue left on Monument Avenue after December 2022 honours a pioneer in which sport?
Tennis
Adding the tennis champion's statue in 1996 caused months of controversy; the Lee monument was removed after the George Floyd protests of 2020.
Q 17Which Richmond-born athlete won Wimbledon in 1975 by beating defending champion Jimmy Connors?
Arthur Ashe
He remains the only Black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open or the Australian Open; the city renamed the Boulevard for him in 2019.
Q 18Which Richmond-born politician was the first African American elected governor of a US state?
Douglas Wilder
The grandson of enslaved people, he later became Richmond's first directly elected mayor in over 60 years, serving 2005 to 2009.
Q 19From 1835 Edgar Allan Poe was assistant editor of which Richmond magazine?
The Southern Literary Messenger
He was born in Boston but raised by Richmond merchant John Allan; the city's oldest stone house is now the Poe Museum.
Q 20Richmond is the only US city with what feature of the James River running through it?
Class IV rapids
The river reaches tidewater at Richmond and can flood in any month; a floodwall finished in 1995 protects the low-lying areas.
Q 24The Richmond Kickers, playing since 1993, hold what distinction in American soccer?
Oldest continually operated pro club in the US
They left the USL in 2018 to become founding members of the third-division league.
Q 25In 2011, VCU became the first team to reach the Final Four after starting in which round?
The play-in games
Those opening games are known as the First Four; UCLA matched the feat in 2021. The Rams then made the tournament a state-record seven straight years through 2017.
Q 26VCU was created in 1968 by merging the Richmond Professional Institute with what?
The Medical College of Virginia
The University of Richmond's teams, the Spiders, play across town at the Robins Center.
Q 27How long is the Richmond Raceway oval in Henrico County that hosts NASCAR events?
0.75 miles
Its short-track length makes it one of the more physical stops on the Cup schedule.
Q 28Which 1920s movie palace in Carytown shows second-run films and hosts the French Film Festival?
The Byrd Theatre
Carytown is the stretch of Cary Street between Interstate 195 and the Boulevard.
Q 29Richmond is one of about a dozen US cities with a Court of Appeals and what other national institution?
A Federal Reserve Bank
It became headquarters of the Fifth Federal Reserve District in May 1914; the bank's Minoru Yamasaki tower dominates the skyline.
Q 30Which original World Trade Center architect designed Richmond's Federal Reserve Building?
Minoru Yamasaki
Philip Johnson did design a Richmond building, the WRVA Building; the Jefferson Hotel is by Carrère and Hastings.