City Sights

Petersburg contains a wide range of historic, cultural, and recreational sites, including the Appamattuck Indian fish traps on the Appomattox River near Old Town, believed to be approximately 2,000 years old; the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, reopened in 1999 in the renovated former Petersburg High School; Battersea, a 1768 Palladian house built by Petersburg’s first mayor, John Banister, and associated with a Revolutionary War reenactment of the April 25, 1781 battle fought there; Blandford Church and Cemetery, with a 1735 church, stained-glass windows crafted by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and burials including 30,000 Confederate soldiers; Centre Hill Museum; Farmers Bank, opened in 1817; First Baptist Church, founded in 1756 and identified as the oldest African American Baptist church in America; the original building of the Ladies Confederate Hospital, used from 1862-1865; Petersburg Courthouse, a prominent landmark during the Siege of Petersburg; Petersburg National Battlefield, scene of the 9½-month siege and the Battle of the Crater; Poplar Grove National Cemetery, burial place of 6,178 Union soldiers; Poplar Lawn Park, used for War of 1812 encampments and as a hospital during the siege; Richard Bland College, site of Civil War fighting; the Siege Museum in the ca. 1839 Exchange Building; Trapezium House, built in 1817; and three Petersburg stops on the Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail, including the Anna Bolling School site, the McKenney Library, and the Peabody-Williams School.

Petersburg, Virginia · United States