View source for Fan District

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{morereferences|date=January 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                           = Fan Area Historic District
| nrhp_type                      = hd
| nocat                          = yes
| designated_other1              = Virginia Landmarks Register
| designated_other1_date         = August 13, 1985<ref name=register>{{cite web|title=Virginia Landmarks Register|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_cities.htm|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=19 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053819/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_cities.htm|archive-date=21 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| designated_other1_number       = 127-0248
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
| image                          = FanDistrict-Richmond-VA.JPG
| caption                        = A street in the Fan
| location                       = Roughly bounded by N. Harrison, W. Main, W. Grace and N. Mullberry Sts., [[Richmond, Virginia]]
| coordinates                    = {{coord|37|33|9|N|77|27|56|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin                       = Virginia#USA
| architect                      = Multiple
| architecture                   = Mid 19th Century Revival, Late 19th-20th Century Revivals, [[Victorian architecture|Late Victorian]]
| added                          = September 12, 1985
| area                           = {{convert|228|acre}}
| refnum                         = 85002243<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>
}}'''The Fan''' is a district of [[Richmond, Virginia]], so named because of the "fan" shape of the array of streets that extend west from Belvidere Street, on the eastern edge of Monroe Park, westward to [[Arthur Ashe Boulevard (Richmond, Virginia)|Arthur Ashe Boulevard]].  However, the streets rapidly resemble a grid after they go through what is now [[Virginia Commonwealth University]].  The Fan is one of the easterly points of the city's West End section, and is bordered to the north by Broad Street and to the south by [[Virginia State Route 195|VA 195]], although the Fan District Association considers the southern border to be the properties abutting the south side of Main Street.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://fandistrict.org/resident-resources/area-map/ |title=Area Map ‹ Fan District Association |access-date=2013-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903005847/http://fandistrict.org/resident-resources/area-map/ |archive-date=2013-09-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The western side is sometimes called the Upper Fan and the eastern side the Lower Fan, though confusingly the Uptown district is located near VCU in the Lower Fan.{{cn|date=January 2024}}  Many cafes and locally owned restaurants are located here, as well as historic [[Monument Avenue]], a boulevard formerly featuring [[Equestrian statue|statuary]] of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]'s [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[General officers in the Confederate States Army|president and generals]].  The only current statue is a more modern one of [[tennis]] icon [[Arthur Ashe]]. Development of the Fan district was strongly influenced by the [[City Beautiful movement]] of the late 19th century.

The Fan District is primarily a residential neighborhood consisting of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century homes.  It is also home to VCU's Monroe Park Campus, several parks, and tree-lined avenues.  The District also has numerous houses of worship, and locally owned businesses and commercial establishments. The Fan borders and blends with the Boulevard, the Museum District, and the [[Carytown, Richmond, Virginia|Carytown]] district, which features the ornate [[Byrd Theatre]].

Main east-west thoroughfares include Broad Street, Grace Street, Monument Avenue, Patterson Avenue, Grove Avenue, Floyd Avenue, Main Street, Parkwood Ave, and Cary Street.

==Architecture ==
[[File:Monument at Lee Circle - Spring 2012.jpg|thumb|[[Robert E. Lee]] statue on [[Monument Avenue]] prior to September 08, 2021, when it was removed.|left]]Following a succession of owners, an architecture museum, the [[Virginia Center for Architecture]], took occupancy in 2005 of  [[Branch House]] on [[Monument Avenue]], a residence designed in the Tudor style by the firm of [[John Russell Pope]] in 1914.
The Fan is known for having one of the longest intact stretches of [[Victorian architecture]] in the United States, however much of the housing stock was actually built after the end of the Victorian era and is arguably more [[Edwardian]] and Revival in style.{{cn|date=January 2024}} While housing in the Eastern parts of the neighborhood are quintessential Victorian styles, such as Italianate and Queen Anne,  housing stock further west was constructed in the first decades of the twentieth century and exhibits the pared back victorianism of [[Edwardian architecture]]. Homes still contain gables and turrets, but detail is normally executed in a simplified classical form. [[Colonial Revival]] and [[American Craftsman]] architecture are common as well, with Revival architectural types arguably the most common (as was common to the time period) [[Revivalism (architecture)]].{{cn|date=January 2024}}
[[File:Monument Ave Jeb Stuart.jpg|thumb|[[J.E.B. Stuart]] [[J. E. B. Stuart Monument|statue]] on [[Monument Avenue]], taken down on July 7, 2020. ]]Primary architectural styles represented include: 
* [[Italianate architecture|Italianate]]
* [[Richardsonian Romanesque]]
* [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne]]
* [[Colonial Revival]]

Other architectural styles include:
* [[Tudor Revival architecture|Tudor Revival]]
* [[Second Empire architecture|Second Empire]]
* [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]]
* [[Art Deco]]
* [[Spanish architecture|Spanish]]
* [[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic Revival]]
* [[Bungalow]]
* American [[Arts and Crafts Movement]]
* [[James River Georgian]]
* [[Southern Colonial]]
* [[Jacobethan]] (Jacobean Revival)
* [[Federal architecture|Federal]]

==History ==
[[File:Fan District Richmond VA.jpg|left|thumb|The 2200 block of West Grace Street in Richmond, Virginia.]]
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 after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] through about 1920.  Streetcar lines leading from downtown influenced development; the nation's first electric streetcar system was inaugurated in Richmond in 1888.

As development increased from downtown at the turn of the 20th century, Franklin street became a fashionable "[[The West End (Richmond, Virginia)|West End]]"  address. A desire for a West End address drove rapid real estate development of the area, changing the area from rural tobacco fields in 1880 to being almost fully developed land by the 1920s. As development accelerated, the [[University of Richmond]] (then located on Lombardy Street) was moved west to a more rural location (its present Westhampton location). During the Great Depression, many of the single-family homes in the area were converted to apartments.
[[File:FanHistoricalRVA sign 1914.jpg|thumb|A plaque noting when a building in the Fan was built as part of the National Register of Historic Places.]]
The term "the Fan" was coined in the mid 20th century by a [[Richmond Times Dispatch]] editorial, as the appellation "[[The West End (Richmond, Virginia)|West End]]" no longer applied. In 1985, the Fan was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and various buildings around the Fan are adorned with plaques noting this and when the building was built.<ref>{{Cite web |title=127-0248 |url=https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/127-0248/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602190058/https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/127-0248/ |archive-date=June 2, 2023 |access-date=2023-06-02 |website=DHR |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Maps==
<gallery>
File:RichmondFanDistrictBoundaries.jpg|The boundaries of the Fan.
File:RichmondNSEW.png|Richmond is often subdivided into [[North Side (Richmond Virginia)|North Side]], [[Southside (Richmond, Virginia)|Southside]], [[East End (Richmond, Virginia)|East End]] and [[The West End (Richmond, Virginia)|West End]].
File:RichmondFanDistrict.jpg|The Fan is one of many other [[Neighborhoods of Richmond Virginia]]
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
<!-- https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/127-0248/ https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/127-0397/ -->
==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}
* [http://www.fandistrict.org The Fan District Association]
* [http://www.fandistrict.org/about/history History of the Fan: A series of historical narratives by Fan District Association Historian Gail Zwirner]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120102075221/http://fanofthefan.com/ Fan of the Fan (community news blog)]
*[http://fanofthefan.com/2012/01/the-fan-area-historic-district/ Fan of the Fan: A look at the history and architecture of the Fan Area Historic District]
*[http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=37552199&x=-77465801&z=13&l=0&m=a&v=2 Wikimapia]

{{Richmond, Virginia neighborhoods}}
{{geographic location
|Centre = Fan district
|North = [[Carver (Richmond, Virginia)|Carver]]; [[Newtowne West]]<br/>[[Monument Avenue]]
|Northeast = [[Jackson Ward]]
|East = [[Monroe Ward]]<br/>[[Virginia Commonwealth University]]
|Southeast =[[Oregon Hill]]
|South = [[Byrd Park]]
|Southwest =
|West = [[West of the Boulevard]]<br/>[[Carytown, Richmond, Virginia|Carytown]]
|Northwest = [[Scott's Addition]]
}}

{{Greater Richmond Region}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia}}

[[Category:Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia]]
[[Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia]]
[[Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia]]
[[Category:Georgian architecture in Virginia]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Richmond, Virginia]]
[[Category:Houses in Richmond, Virginia]]