Colonial Heights, Virginia

Colonial Heights, along with Hopewell and Petersburg, its neighbor directly across the Appomattox River, is a part of the Richmond Tri-Cities Area. Located roughly 20 miles south of Richmond on I-95, Colonial Heights is 30 minutes from Richmond International Airport, and about 90 minutes from Williamsburg International in Newport News. Colonial Heights is a historic city and the site of famous Revolutionary and Civil War Battles. Colonial Heights is home to Violet Bank, a plantation house that served as a base of operations for General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. Violet Bank now houses the Violet Bank Museum, which includes artifacts and home furnishings from Civil War times. The design for the building itself came from the American Builder's Companion, a historic pattern book written by Asher Benjamin in 1806 and used by many Virginia real estate developers and home builders of the antebellum period.

Colonial Heights has an extensive system of five parks. Among the amenities provided for Colonial Heights residents and visitors are picnic areas, playgrounds, sporting facilities, and horseshoe pits. Shepherd Stadium is a 1,300 seat youth facility, and Colonial Heights also houses nine baseball diamonds and softball fields, eleven tennis courts with night lighting, eight basketball courts and a half a dozen playgrounds. Lakeview Park, located on beautiful Swift Creek Lake, is the newest park in Colonial Heights, and has a boat ramp, fishing pier, picnic area, tennis courts, and a playground. White Bank Park is a 21-acre facility that includes a public boat landing. Colonial Heights is also home to Fort Clifton, a National Historic Landmark that resides on 24 acres of city real estate. Fort Clifton includes a fishing pier, an outdoor amphitheater and band stage, a playground for children and sporting green for young adults, four picnic areas, extensive hiking trails and beautiful views overlooking the Appomattox River. Annually, the traditional Fort Clifton Festival attracts Civil War buffs from all over the US. The festival is geared toward families and historians alike, and includes a popular arts and crafts market, along with Civil War artifacts and memorabilia, demonstrations and reenactments.

Today's Colonial Heights is a lovely riverfront city with shopping and dining destinations galore. Homeowners in Colonial Heights have a variety of excellent malls within city limits, including Southpark Mall, and the Pickwick, Town Hall, and Colonial Square shopping centers. The Bowling Alley is a popular spot for families, and Wagstaff's on Boulevard is an excellent steak house located on Boulevard. The Swift Creek Mill Theater & Restaurant in Colonial Heights is a fine dining restaurant and live theater venue that puts on musicals that are wildly popular with the locals. The venue itself is converted space; it sits on real estate that is the site of the oldest grist mill in America, a building dating back to the 1650s.

Home owners in Colonial Heights enjoy its peaceful, natural atmosphere and convenient location. It is within an easily commutable distance to Richmond, and is exactly halfway between the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains to the west, and Atlantic beaches to the east. Colonial Heights has a reputation as a growing yet quiet town with outstanding schools and extremely affordable housing, and should be on your short list of excellent places to invest in real estate in Central Virginia.