What are Some Tourist Attractions in Richmond, Virginia?

It's not surprising that Richmond, Virginia, a city steeped in American history, has many historical tourist attractions. The Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom areas date back to the early 1800s and the slave trade and are now tourist attractions in Richmond. There are also cultural museums and theater types of tourist attractions in Richmond, as well as interesting landmarks such as the giant milk bottles.

Richmond's giant milk bottles are at the corner of Marshall and Adams in the downtown area where the Old Curles' Neck Dairy once stood. The dairy was destroyed except for the bottles and in the mid-1980s the building provided studio space for artists. The three milk bottle shaped building sections are fitted with windows and now form part of the Richmond Dairy Apartments.

If you like movies and grand old theaters, the Byrd Theater is probably one of the tourist attractions in Richmond that you would enjoy. The Byrd Theater also goes by the name "Richmond's Movie Palace" and dates back to 1928. It was the first movie theater in Virginia to have a sound system, and in 2007 the sound system was updated to Dolby Digital. What really makes the Byrd Theater a sight to see is its design as it was designed with luxury in mind. The Byrd Theater, which became a National Historic Landmark in 1978, features imported marble, fountains, a central vacuum and crystal chandeliers.

Edgar Allen Poe resided and wrote in Richmond in the nineteenth century and the Edgar Allen Poe Museum is one of the tourist attractions in Richmond that those familiar with his works would probably enjoy. The Museum has a collection of Poe's first editions, manuscripts, his personal possessions and other memorabilia. The Enchanted Garden is an outdoor feature of the Edgar Allen Poe Museum and the Garden was inspired by Poe's poem "To One in Paradise," in which he mentions "a fountain and a shrine all wreathed in fruit and flowers."

Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom are areas that are considered tourist attractions in Richmond even though much of the older buildings have been turned into popular restaurants and nightclubs as well as housing and office space. The warehouses and industrial buildings were originally used for manufacturing and industry including tobacco manufacturing. The remaining Shockoe Slip Fountain dates back to 1909 and was used as a drinking trough for horses. Today, it serves the horses from Richmond's mounted police. Shockoe Bottom was known as a major center for slave trading in the early and mid-1800s and many Africans were buried here.