3300 Block Monument Avenue, Richmond, Independent City, Virginia

Significance: All along the avenue, styles and forms that suggest the beginnings of a suburban attitude have appeared; on the 3300 block, the transition is in full swing. Originally part of the Sheppard estate, the 3300 block is the first section of Monument on which houses built after 1930 become part of the essential fabric of the street. Even some built during the 1920s belong more to the burgeoning world of suburban developments than to that of urban elegance, with their side yards and porches, smaller dimensions, and vernacular-influenced design. Development on the north and south sides of the 3300 block was more or less even, with eight houses erected between 1920 and 1930, four between 1935 and 1950, and four after 1950. Larger lots and smaller houses prevail, even as some maintain high-style elements borrowed from grander buildings down the street. With houses set more or less in the middle of their lots and a lack of hospitable front porches, the suburban character of the block is more that of a later automobile suburb than that of a tightly arranged streetcar suburb. In 1924, the city condemned property to round the block corners at Monument and Roseneath; with the small bench at the southeastern corner on an open grassy lot, the intersection almost has the feel of a park.
Survey number: HABS VA-1312
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 90002098