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Midlothian, Virginia is an unincorporated place located in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was named for the early coal mining enterprises of the Wooldridge brothers who came from the mining villages of East Lothian and West Lothian near Edinburgh, Scotland. In a compromise, the new venture was called Mid-Lothian. It produced the first commercially-mined coal in the United States. In modern times, the widespread Midlothian area is considered a suburb of the independent city of Richmond in the Richmond-Petersburg region. In the 20th century, as the residential area around Richmond grew, Midlothian evolved into an area of many middle class and upper-middle class neighborhoods. Midlothian was ranked #37 in CNNMoney's list of The Best Places to Live 2005.
History
Before the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century, the area was populated by Native Americans. Among these were the Monacan tribe, and they were often in conflict with the members of the Powhatan Confederacy of Virginia Algonquins located to the east. In the 18th century, French Huguenot settlers came to the area in the Virginia Colony to escape religious persecution in Europe. After the Monacan tribe of Native Americans left the area, the Huguenot settlers chose Manakintown for their new community. The location about 20 miles above the head of navigation on the James River at Richmond offered some desired isolation for them. With the coming of the Europeans, although there was some farming, the terrain was hilly and largely wooded, and shipping of farm products such as tobacco crops was not easy. However, there was a greater natural resource than farmland as Midlothian history became largely one of coal mining and railroads. Coal mining in the Midlothian area of Chesterfield County began early in the 18th century. Coal miningThe Village area of today's Midlothian started as a settlement of coal miners in the 1700s. In 1709, Midlothian produced the first commercially-mined coal in the United States. Some of the first coal mines were controlled by the wealthy Wooldridge family. About 1745, two Wooldridge brothers came to Virginia from Scotland. They built their home nearby. The brothers came from separate mining villages, one from East Lothian, the other from West Lothian. They compromised on the name, thus calling it "Mid-Lothian". The name was also given to the mines the family owned, and later to the unincorporated town which grew around the property. Somewhere along the way, the name became one unhyphenated word: "Midlothian." During the American Revolution, coal produced in the Midlothian coal pits supplied the cannon factory on the James River at Westham, upstream from Richmond, where it was used to produce shot and shells for the Continental Army. By the end of the Revolutionary War, coal mined in Chesterfield County was being shipped to Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Thomas Jefferson noted the mines in operation in his "Notes on Virginia" and said the coal produced there was of "excellent quality". He also ordered coal from the Black Heath Mine in Midlothian for use in the White House in Washington DC. By 1835, there were seven or eight major mines in the Midlothian area. Coal was the basis of the Midlothian area until the late 1800s when mining ended. Later attempts to reopen the mines were unsuccessful, but thanks to railroad access to Richmond, the village became a commuter town. Early roads, first turnpike, and railroadsIn 1804, a toll road, then called Buckingham Road, or Manchester and Falling Creek Turnpike was built from Manchester to Falling Creek to ease traffic on what is now Old Buckingham Road. It was paved in 1808, making it Virginia's first paved road. That road's descendant is known as Midlothian Turnpike and carries U.S. Route 60. By 1824, an estimated 70 to 100 wagons, each of which was loaded with four or five tons of coal, made a daily trip on the turnpike, transporting to the docks at the river near Manchester the million or more bushels (30,000 metric tons) of coal that were produced in Chesterfield County each year. The heavily-loaded coal wagons tended to cut deep ruts in the turnpike between the mines at Midlothian and the docks at Manchester, raising clouds of dust in summer and churning the road into mud in the rainy season. As there were few options for shunpiking, citizens whose faster buggies dawdled along behind the lumbering wagons kept urging the state legislature to do something about it—a canal, a better road, but something. The result was the Chesterfield Railroad, a 13 mile (21 km) mule- and gravity-powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves that were located at Manchester, directly across from Richmond. Partially funded by the Virginia Board of Public Works, it began operating in 1831, was Virginia's first railroad, and was the second commercial railroad to be built in the United States. By 1850, though, the newer, steam-driven Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) began operation to Coalfield Station, later renamed Midlothian, and the slower Chesterfield Railroad was quickly supplanted. In a financial reorganization, the R&D line through Midlothian became part of the Southern Railway system in 1894, and is now part of Norfolk Southern Railway. According to the 1895 Virginia atlas, the population of Midlothian was 375. 20th century: village becomes suburban areaIn the 20th century, coal mining died out, and the area became less populated, remaining largely wooded with farms scattered along mostly rural and dirt roads. Gradually, the highway network and the growth of metropolitan Richmond brought subdivisions. When the Swift Creek Reservoir was created, water and sewer service accelerated residential growth. The expansion of the area assigned to the Midlothian post office caused a much larger area to be considered "Midlothian" than the village area along Midlothian Turnpike, now designated U.S. Route 60. An extension of the Powhite Parkway in 1988 and widening of Midlothian Turnpike and Hull Street Road (U.S. Route 360) provided much-needed highway infrastructure as the area continued to grow in population, and forests were turned into subdivisions. 21st century: growth issuesCompletion of State Route 288 in 2004 essentially brought Midlothian into the circumferential highway network of greater Richmond. Debate continues regarding whether the few remaining farms and forest areas will be developed with more subdivisions, allowing the western end of Chesterfield County to be essentially "built-out" in the manner that has occurred in other Virginia localities such as Fairfax and Arlington counties in Northern Virginia. In March 2006, that debate was settled when the county approved, after long debate, zoning for the Watkins Centre, a large office complex and retail "lifestyle center" at the intersection of Route 288 and U.S. 60, just two miles west of the Village of Midlothian. One of Midlothian's high schools, James River High School, is part of Chesterfield County Public Schools and has won the President's Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award. Historic landmarksChesterfield County Historic Landmarks in the Midlothian area include:
Chesterfield MuseumAn exhibit on local mining history in the Chesterfield Museum includes a length of iron rail from the incline railway, first in Virginia. Research Tips
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