Discover Henrico: Parks, History, and Culture

Henrico offers parks and outdoor activities, historic sites, and cultural and nature-related attractions. If you’re looking for a hotel in Henrico, it helps to first decide what you want to focus on during your trip. The attractions range from meadows, ponds, and trails to a historic farmhouse, a theater, and exhibits about Virginia’s ecosystems. This lets you plan your stay around the topics that interest you.

Parks and Outdoor Activities

Crump Park features trails, large open meadow areas, a fishing pond, playgrounds, and picnic shelters. The open areas and trails offer a different experience from the pond or the play and picnic areas. If you’re weighing different ways to spend time outdoors, you’ll find several specific options here without having to commit to just one activity.

Dorey Park has a large pond with a walking trail and winding paths through wooded areas. It also has an 18-hole disc golf course, about five miles of horseback riding trails, and a riding arena that is open to the public on weekdays. This means different activities are available at the same park: walking, disc golf, and horseback riding. The length of the riding trails is approximate; public access to the riding arena is limited to weekdays.

The trails at Crump and Dorey also differ: Crump Park has large open meadow areas, while Dorey Park has a walking trail by the pond and winding paths through wooded areas. Cyclists can also access Dorey Park from the Virginia Capital Trail. This lets trail users ride almost three-quarters of a mile into the park. This approximate distance describes the route into Dorey Park.

At Osborne Park, an accessible fishing pier extends out into the James River. If you’re interested in boating facilities, Osborne Boat Landing has three double boat slips and a canoe launch. The launch is available from dawn to dusk.

History and Culture in Henrico

Meadow Farm Museum offers tours of the historic 1810 farmhouse year-round. The museum also has a living collection of domesticated birds and mammals representing the breeds historically kept on the Shepperd family farm. The house and the animals offer different insights into the farm’s history: one through the building, the other through the animals kept there.

Historical markers in Henrico identify significant people, places, and events and share stories about the county’s past. The James River also has a historical connection: before English settlers officially established Henrico County in 1611, it was a major trading site for Indigenous people. The markers and this early trading connection offer different perspectives on the county’s history.

Springfield Schoolhouse was built around 1920 to educate African American students from the Short Pump community. It served this purpose until the early 1950s. The details about when it was built, the school community, and the period when it was in use give the schoolhouse a distinct place in local history.

Henrico Theatre offers a wide-ranging arts program as well as movies for all ages. This cultural offering complements the historic sites and activities in the parks. At Three Lakes Nature Center, the focus is on live animal enclosures, interactive displays, digital signage, and changing exhibits about Virginia’s native ecosystems. The combination of animals and different exhibit formats makes the nature topics accessible in a variety of ways.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden explores floral design, birdwatching, and beekeeping. These topics add further perspectives to Henrico’s nature-related attractions. Together with Three Lakes Nature Center, they offer different ways to engage with native ecosystems, plants, birds, or bees.

Discover more destinations: Sandston, Dumbarton, Glen Allen, Henrico, Tuckahoe.

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