Highland Springs

One of Richmond's earliest streetcar suburbs, Highland Springs was founded in 1890 by Edmund Sewell Read, a wealthy real estate developer from Winthrop, Mass. He named the community for the relatively high altitude and natural springs that suited his ailing wife. Read subdivided 1,000 acres into lots and named the streets alphabetically after his favorite flora, such as Daisy, Elm, and Fern. The Seven Pines Railway Company, chartered in 1888, operated from Church Hill in Richmond east to Seven Pines National Cemetery. One of the stops was located nearby on Oak Avenue.