English Village is a 1920s Tudor Revival cooperative community in the 3400 block of Grove Avenue, Richmond, Virginia — seventeen attached dwellings arranged in a U around a central courtyard, in the heart of the Museum District.
A pioneering plan
Designed by Richmond architect Bascom J. Rowlett, built by the local contracting firm Davis Brothers, and completed in 1927, English Village was an imaginative plan for multi-family living, unique in Richmond at the time. Where three-or-more-story apartment complexes were rising on Monument Avenue and traditional rowhouses lined the new suburbs, Rowlett grouped low Tudor-styled buildings around a central courtyard set back from the street — an innovative arrangement that gave every family access to both communal and private outdoor space.
The Village was also a social innovation: it was one of the first cooperative housing ventures in the city, and among the earliest cooperative planned communities in the nation — a direct precursor of the modern condominium. Each of the seventeen dwellings was designed for economy and efficiency without sacrificing beauty: brick walls laid in Flemish bond, half-timbering, prominent gables, slate roofs, and tall ornamental chimneystacks, all composed with the asymmetry of an English country village.
Built for modern life, preserved by covenant
The homes were thoroughly modern for 1927: a centralized coal-fired boiler supplied heating and hot water to every unit, each dwelling had its own detached garage, and the grounds were fully landscaped with a central fountain, brick-paved circular drive, and a community playground. The Village was even advertised in its day as “Richmond’s most modern building achievement.”
What makes English Village remarkable today is how little it has changed. A restrictive covenant in the corporation’s by-laws has long prohibited owners from altering their homes’ exteriors, preserving the Village’s architectural integrity for nearly a century. That integrity earned the community a place on the Virginia Landmarks Register (No. 127-0374, designated 1983) and the National Register of Historic Places (Reference No. 83003302, listed 1983).
The Village today
English Village is now run as the English Village Corporation, governed by an elected board serving as the homeowners’ association. Residents enjoy the central courtyard and common grounds, and each home retains its detached garage behind the Village, off the alley between Grove and Hanover Avenues.
To learn more, explore the architectural analysis, read about the properties, or see how to purchase a unit.