Henrico County stops funding Henricus Historical Park

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Henrico County has stopped funding Henricus Historical Park , a historical site which became the first English settlement in what is now the Richmond area in 1611.

The park announced on its Facebook page on Tuesday, April 30 that Henrico County has decided to end its annual support. The park said in the announcement that this doesn’t mean it will close, and that it will “continue to provide top quality educational, cultural, and recreational opportunities through preservation, reconstruction, and interpretation of early Virginia history.”

“While there is no denying this news presents a challenge, Henricus soldiers on, as it has for over 400 years,” said the park in the post.

The settlement of Henricus was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in the fall of 1611 with instructions to establish the second English settlement in Virginia after Jamestown was founded four years earlier. The name Henricus was chosen in honor of Prince Henry of Wales , the son of King James I.

It was in this settlement that John Rolfe cultivated the colony’s first successful tobacco crop around a year later, which would eventually become the main economic driver for the Virginia Company. Henricus became part of the City of Henrico in 1619, when the Virginia Company established the colony’s first general assembly.

The Henricus settlement was eventually abandoned after an attack by native Americans who were part of the Powhatan Chiefdom in 1622, but nearby settlements, including one founded by Dale called Bermuda Hundred in modern-day Chesterfield County, became prosperous in its wake.

Today, the site, which is now part of Chesterfield County, is a living history museum that gives visitors an idea of what life was like for the English settlers in the 17th century. The site is also surrounded by the Dutch Gap Conservation Area .

Henricus Historical Park continues to operate through the Henricus Foundation, more information on how to support the park can be found on its website .

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