Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-04-18

colored school building. The site of the Me-
chanics' Institute ninth street. fronting
Bank. previously alluded to as the Confed-
crate War Department, has been builtup in
business-houses. The Institute has been
reorg8nized. and expects soon to have
handsome home of its own erected.
AROUND THE CITY.
The battle-fclds of Drewrv's Bluff, (Fort
Darling). Seven Pines Fair Oaks, Mechan-
icsYile, Gaines's Mills, FraZier's Farm, Saw
age Station, Malvern Hill. Cold dlHarbor, Yel-
low Tavern, and Fort Harrison are within
from FIVE TO fifteen miles of the corporate
limits, and most of them are easily accessl-
bic. Seven Pines is reached by short
ride over q narrow-gauge railroad. At Yel-
low Tavern there is already amonumentto
the Confederate cavalry leader, General
}. T. B. Stuart, and a monument IS soon 70
be erected to General A. =. Hill, just q
short distance north of the city. In the
river n few miles below the ethyl IS an
chored the United States monitor fleet
Recently the National Government com
pleted fine road. connecting Chimborazo
Park with the Federal cemetery nearest to
the city.
ELEVATION AND WEATHER.
The most elevated point in the city is
209 feet above tide. The air is dry and in
vigorating. Freezing weather seldom visits
the city, and when 1t does lasts but short
while and the Typographical features here
are such that every rain by washing the
streets and flushing the extensive system Of
sewers keeps the place remarkably clean.
Yellow-fever has never found lodgment
here. Patients have come hither from in
fected communities. but the disease has
never been communicated from them.
BUILDING OPERATIONS.
-. 4 I,
been making steady and continuous strides.
Turn where one will and he encounters
evidence Of this. The new City Hall, TO
cost more than a million dollars, will be
ready for occupancy III 1892: the MasOns
expect to GET into their grand temple this
year, the Commonwealth Club building is
progressingrapidly; ground is shortly to be
broken for the new Chamber OF Commerce
building, q seven-story structure to he
erected on the corner Of Ninth and Main
streets the Mechanics Institute building
can he regarded as n certainty the Rich
mond and Danville and the Chesapeake
and OHIO Railroad Companies Will within
a reasonable length Of time have new pas
senger depots, and Broad street especially
can point to some of the largest and finest
retail stores, recently erected, TO be found
in the entire South In 1890 there were 939
new houses put up in the city.
RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL.
Richmond can safely challenge any city
OF her size in the Union as regards re-
Iigious and educational advantages. She
has a church membership OF nearly forty
thousand souls, and the contributions to
church objects in 1890 amounted to over
three hundred thousand dollars. The
church buildings number seyenty-tiye, and
many of them are exceedingly handsome
structures. The public-schOol system ls
on the best possible basis, and the pri-
yate schools-both male and female-are
numerous and of high grade. In the Medl-
cal College, Richmond College, and the Me-
chanics' Institute respectively there are Ia
cilities for alfordiug medical, liberal, and
technical education. Along with the
churches of tho CITY should be noted the
Young Mems and the WOmen's Christian
Associations (the former has handsome
buildingand the latter soon will have); the
several orphan asyiums; the homes for
aged persons: the homes for the sick, and
the City Mission. Nowhere in the world
are the poor better taken care OF than in
Richmond.
GAS, WATER, AND ELECTRICITY.
Richmond owns her own gas and water
works the streets are well paved, the
parks kept in fine order, and nearly every
point in tho corporate limits and many
of the suburban improvements can be
reached by electrician lines. So great is
the electrician trackage. in the city, and
40 largely is electricity used for lighting
and motive-power that Richmond IS fre-
0uently termed the electric city. The total
debt OF the city is $6,O49, ,725. 60, which is
represented by salable assets of large
value. The city taxation is Sl.40 on 500
value, and She State 40 cents on 300. Gas
is furnished at $3.50 per 1000 feet. The
wear 1890 shows a large increase in revenue
from gas consumption, water rentals, and
gain in taxes over the previous year. The
census of 1880 with all its naccrucies gives
the population of Richmond at S0,3SS and
that of Manchester at 1929, but a conserya-
tive estimate places the number OF per
sons in these two cities and immediate
suburbs at over 100000.
RAILROAD CONNECTIONS.
At the close of the war Richmond had
practically no railroad connections. Now
she is the meeting point of four great sys-
tens. The Atlantic-CoaSt Line U1d the