Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Preferred Citation

Richmond Comprehensive Planning Slide Collection, Collection Number M 387, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va.

Historical Information

In 1948 the City of Richmond created the Department of Planning following the adoption of its first master plan in 1946. The department staffed the Planning Commission, prepared community plans, and updated the city's Master Plan. Over the years, the city changed the department's name and some of its functions and responsibilities. For at least three decades the department was known as the Department of Community Development and focused on outreach to the community as a major component of the planning process. In 2010 the name of the department changed to the Department of Planning and Development Review. Headed by Rachel Flynn since 2006, the department currently oversees building permits and inspections, compliance with the property codes, long-range city planning, enforcement of zoning ordinances, and historic preservation.

The staff of the Department of Community Development began compiling an image library in the 1980s. The collection functioned as a pre-digital archives of planning imagery used for presentations to the public and community groups; Richmond Comprehensive Planning Slide Collection illustration of the Richmond Master and Downtown Plans, as well as neighborhood plan documents; and presentations to the Planning Commission and City Council.

David Sacks, a longtime city planner who headed the Comprehensive Planning Division for a number of years, shot a large number of slides in the collection. He developed the organizational scheme for the images and assigned many of the binder headings. Additional images came to the collection from various municipal departments, Richmond libraries, and other sister cities. With the advent of digital photography and online images libraries, the department no longer required a slide library. It was phased out in the 2000s and donated to Virginia Commonwealth University.

Scope and Contents

30 albums of color slides, dating from the 1960s through the 1990s. There are some 7,500 slides (30 albums of slides).

Scope and Contents

The Richmond Comprehensive Planning Slide Collection consists of 35mm slides of buildings, streets, aerial views, parks, people, events, and other images that captured life in Virginia's capital city. The images date primarily from the 1960s until 2000 when the Richmond Master Plan of 2000 was adopted. The bulk of the images are from the 1990s. The collection is an important resource for understanding the larger context of planning as practiced in Richmond during the second half of the twentieth century. The images document the changes in numerous Richmond neighborhoods, in the city's architecture and streetscape, and other various aspects of the built environment.

The approximately 8,125 slides are stored in 29 binders. All but five of the binders are labeled with subject headings assigned to them by Planning and Preservation Division department staff. The subject are: Aerials, Art and Entertainment Buildings, Commercial Buildings Encroachments, Environmental Plan, Fire and Police, Housing, Industrial Buildings, Monuments, Neighborhoods, Non-Richmond Slides, Office Buildings, Parks, Past Slide Presentations, People, Plans and Graphics, Plazas, Public Buildings Schools, Streetscapes, and Transportation. Twelve of the binders are labeled "Archived Slides."

Arrangement

The original order and organization of the slides has been maintained. The slide labels and notations were created by the Planning and Preservation staff.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• City planning -- Virginia -- Richmond.
• Richmond (Va.) -- Pictorial works -- Buildings, structures, etc.
• Richmond (Va.) -- Pictorial works -- History -- 20th century
• Richmond (Va.) -- Pictorial works.
• Richmond (Va.). Department of Community Development