Short Pump – Richmond’s “Frontier”

When one thinks of the frontier, the first images that come to mind are cowboys and saloons, gunfights and gold prospectors.  While these are all amusing to imagine, you aren’t likely to find them in Short Pump.  Now considered the far West End of Richmond, this area has long served as the wild west of the more “civilized” city to the east.  Generally considered to be located at the intersections of Broad Street, Pouncey Tract Road and Three Chopt Road, it is only in the last decade that real industry and commerce have sprung to life in the rolling hills of Short Pump.

The village was named for an unusual water pump found under the porch of a tavern built in the area in the early 1800’s.  The structure is a believed to have been built facing Three Notched Road (Now Three Chopt), in western Henrico County, and remains a fixture in local legend.  The community is now a far cry from the dusty roadside stop it used to be.  Although historically the site doesn’t hold much significance, it has been visited by a few notables traveling from Richmond to western parts of Virginia, including Thomas Jefferson, Stonewall Jackson and the Marquis de Lafayette.

What started as a rural backwater has become one of the most heavily developed and prosperous communities in the Metro Richmond area.  Beginning in the early 1930’s, the only real landmarks to be found in Short Pump were a garage, a grocery store and a general store.  The 1990’s saw the first true burst of development when it was decided that Broad Street needed to be widened to accommodate the traffic brought in by a newly built Wal-Mart.  Sadly, this saw the end of several of the older businesses that had persevered over several decades as room had to be cleared for the expansion.

This was only the beginning of what would prove to be a startling surge of commerce for the area.  In 2003 Short Pump Town Center, a massive open-air shopping mail, opened, attracted records numbers of visitors to the site and paving the way for even more businesses – grocery stores, car dealerships, upscale restaurants, an expansive movie theater and a wide variety of others.  With the commerce came the people.  Short Pump is now home to some of the most well-to-do neighborhoods in the Richmond metro area.

Easy accessibility from I-64, Highway 288 and Broad Street have contributed to the growth of community, allowing for continued expansion and almost constant building.   The Innsbrook area, located just east of Short Pump, seems to have jump started the progress west.  As the Glen Allen area began to prosper, the need for growth demanded more available space and greater opportunities for commerce.  Largely disregarded in the past, Short Pump provided the area needed to meet those demands.  While an elaborate shopping mall, an expansive movie theater and fancy restaurants may not seem like the most fascinating of frontiers, the tremendous development of the area can rival that of any gold-mining town.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Twitter Spotlight: Trevor Dickerson (sociallyrichmond.com)
• Why We Love CMoR (Children’s Museum of Richmond) (richmondforkids.com)
• Beautiful Things are Always Blooming at Strange’s (richmondvabusiness.com)

Get your Richmond business or service reviewed on RichmondVAPresents.com. Email us at marketing (at) richmondvapresents dot com
–
Contact Big Oak SEO, a Richmond SEO company, to help your website get found in Google’s search results.

Sister Sites About Richmond

Here at Richmond VA Presents, we try to bring you information on a variety of subjects.  We bring you the best of Richmond, be it restaurants, places to go, bands, or whatever strikes our fancy.

While this format has worked out pretty well on this site, we’ve realized that, at times,  some people want more specific information.  Sometimes people need a little more than the grab-bag of wonderfulness they get on this site (and the remarkable humility of its writer) and want a site they can go to for something specific.  Well, don’t say we don’t listen, Richmond.

If you want only restaurant reviews and information about food in our fair city, check out Eating in Richmond, a site managed by one Mr. David Mattera – a guy who knows his stuff when it comes to food.  Not only does David mention and review specific restaurants, he also chooses a subject and gives you an overview of what the city has to offer.  Check it out.  He’ll make you hungry.

For a look at the business side of the Richmond mullet, take a look at Richmond VA Business, a site managed by one Mr. Michael Fletcher, a local writer and consultant.  He tells you all the things you want to know about businesses in Richmond.  From posts about local celebrities (they chuckle when I call them that) to posts about 101-year old companies, Fletcher speaks with intelligence and authority.

When you want to read about things to do around Richmond, you can scoot over to Richmond VA Life, a site devoted to the funner things in town.  One cool thing about this site is that it is always accepting submissions from readers.  If you have an interesting picture of something Richmond-related, you can email it to the site admin and he might very well post it.

If you have young ‘uns, add Richmond For Kids to the list of sites you read.  It covers good places to take the kids out to eat, cool places kids want to go, and pretty much all things Richmond kids.

And, finally, for those social media peeps out there, we bring you Socially Richmond.  Socially Richmond is a group effort by a bunch of people that I don’t know.  You might or might not know them.  But you will (if you ever poke a toe in the Twitter pool) know the people featured on the site.

These (and many other) sites are supported by Big Oak Inc., an ethical SEO Company located in Richmond, Virginia.  Not only are they ethical, they are also awesome, and super-nice.  And I don’t just say that because they let me write on this website.  I’m a card-carrying fan.

If you have ideas or suggestions for any of these sites (including this one right here) you can contact me at marketing@richmondvapresents.com and I’ll get the word out.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sands Anderson Moves Up (vabizlawyers.com)
• What is SEO? (seorichmondvirginia.com)
• About Big Oak SEO (seorichmondva.com)

Get your Richmond business or service reviewed on RichmondVAPresents.com. Email us at marketing (at) richmondvapresents dot com
–
Contact Big Oak SEO, a Richmond SEO company, to help your website get found in Google’s search results.

RichmondMom.Com – Kate Hall’s Labor of Love

When you talk to Kate Hall, it is hard to decide if you’re talking to a small-business owner, a devoted Mom – o – three, a social media guru, a Mommy Blogger, a philanthropist, or a children’s book author.  Actually, it’s not really that hard, because within a couple of minutes you realize that she really is all of the above.

I was lucky enough to know Kate when we both worked at the now-deceased local title insurance titan, LandAmerica.  Kate showed up at the company with loads of corporate experience and even more charisma.  Unfortunately (at the time) for both of us, the titan fell and we were both looking for work.

Kate started RichmondMom while she was still in the corporate world.  It was a sort of for fun, sort of experimental thing.  She was learning about web marketing and social media and saw a real need for some solidarity among parents in the Richmond community.  Kate, being Kate, decided to do something about it and started the website.

As she went through grueling interview processes at some of the biggest companies in Richmond (including The Fed), more and more of Kate’s Richmondmom.com customers, readers, and fans were urging her to take it to the next level.  With a deep breath and a giant leap of faith, she did so, and the site has been rockin’ ever since.

In addition to running a business that has more than doubled its client base within a short year, Kate has also jumped in to the social media scene here in Richmond, and through it has participated in many, many (did I say many?) charitable events and causes.  If that wasn’t enough, she actually wrote and self-published an educational kid’s book about Richmond history.

I asked her what gave her the idea for Richmond Rocks, and she told me that she was on Brown’s Island with her family and. her eldest son (age eight) started asking her questions about the area, and she realized that there was LOTS he didn’t know about Richmond history.  So she decided to do something about that, too.

Self-publishing is no easy task, but Kate pulled it off with a team of folks (illustrator, editor, etc) that she simply raves about.  With her customary good cheer and wicked (but great) sense of humor, Kate told me about the whole thing – from finding and hiring Knox Hubard for the illustrations, to working with Hayes and Fisk for photographs of Richmond, to the printing and distribution of the books, to how scary it is to foot the bill for a project like this and hope that it makes enough to even pay for itself.

Through hard work, tenacity, and the fact that the book is fantastic, the book is a success.  Richmond schools teach Virginia history in the 5th grade, so teachers are going to use it as a teaching aid.  Kate’s done signings all over Richmond, and you can check the site for upcoming signings.

Kate keeps up with her many online and networking responsibilities via Facebook, Twitter, and even 4Square (according to which she is the Mayor of Chick Fil A) and she attends the SMCRVA events.  She’s a ball of fire, a whirlwind of wit and energy, and one of the People To Know in our fair city.  And to top it off, she’s super-nice.

Get hooked in with her network on www.richmondmom.com and introduce yourself next time you see her out and about in Richmond.  You’ll be glad you did.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 5 Simple Ways SMB’s Can Adopt Social Media (socialmediatoday.com)
• Tips for Engaging Your Social Network Followers (socialmediatoday.com)

Get your Richmond business or service reviewed on RichmondVAPresents.com. Email us at marketing (at) richmondvapresents dot com
–
Contact Big Oak SEO, a Richmond SEO company, to help your website get found in Google’s search results.

« Previous Page — Next Page »