Henricus Historical Park is a living-history museum that’s dedicated to the Citie of Henricus, an English settlement founded in 1611 shortly after colonists established Jamestown. (Photos courtesy Henricus Historical Park)
A nonprofit dedicated to sharing the history of Henrico’s earliest days will not be getting funding support from the county in the coming fiscal year.
Henricus Historical Park is short roughly a third of its annual operating budget after the Henrico Board of Supervisors approved its fiscal year 2025 spending plan without money earmarked for the riverfront attraction.
The decision came as a surprise to George Drumwright, board chairman of the Henricus Foundation, which runs the 10-acre historical site and its recreated 1600s-era English fort and Powhatan village at 251 Henricus Park Road near Chester.
Drumwright said the group’s $1 million annual budget has for years been covered by a roughly three-way split between funding allocations from Henrico, Chesterfield and the foundation’s own revenues.
Drumwright said in an interview last week that the shortfall, even with the foundation’s reserves, will be challenging to work around.
“It puts us on the ropes, no doubt about it,” Drumwright said. “It will be felt tremendously, but there are things the foundation can do.”
A former deputy county manager, Drumwright worked at Henrico for decades until his retirement in 2012. He said Henrico had consistently provided funding support to the Henricus foundation since it was founded in the 1980s.
Henrico provided $356,000 as part of the current fiscal year 2024 budget, and the county’s proposed budget for the upcoming year initially included the same amount for FY25. However, that line item had been removed by the time the budget was adopted in early April.
That’s because Henrico supervisors, juggling multiple budget priorities, decided it didn’t have the funds to give Henricus in light of those other pressures, Henrico Board Chairman Tyrone Nelson told BizSense.
Among those priorities, Nelson cited the increased costs that Henrico has shouldered to keep a regional curbside recycling contract going after Chesterfield opted out of the agreement’s curbside pickup in 2023, among other budget priorities.
Tyrone Nelson
“We had to take on a greater financial commitment with the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority when it comes to how to handle recycling pickups,” Nelson said. “Chesterfield made a decision to pull out there and that affected us financially. Continuing that relationship with CVWMA is important.”
Other competing priorities included Henrico’s desire to provide funding for a Richmond-based regional homeless shelter, as well as plans for a 2,100-acre former plantation the county acquired in Varina earlier this year. Nelson said the county intends to use the property as a historical education site.
“We’re going to be investing in telling our story at Varina Farms,” Nelson said, referring to that property, which served as the county’s seat from 1632 to 1752 and is across the James River from Henricus.
The annual budget approval process in Henrico, as well as in other localities, involves receiving and considering multiple funding requests from local nonprofits that are engaged in work ranging from social services to cultural and sports programming. Nelson noted that the original FY25 budget proposal created by County Manager John Vithoulkas included a line item for Henricus, but that ultimately the board decided to eliminate the funding.
“We adopt the budget, but we also make modifications in the budget and that was one of the modifications. The county manager’s proposed budget included Henricus. The Board of Supervisors made the decision (not to fund Henricus),” Nelson said, adding that the board could potentially choose to provide funding for Henricus in a future budget.
Henricus Historical Park features a recreated 1600s English fort and Powhatan village on a historical site near Chester.
Drumwright said he was informed of the county’s decision not to give Henricus money in an April 16 letter from Vithoulkas.
In the letter, which was shared with BizSense, Vithoulkas wrote that there would be no funding earmarked for Henricus in light of the pending expiration of an operating agreement for the site between the nonprofit, Henrico and Chesterfield, as well as what the letter described as an unforeseeable future.
“As you know, the Operating Agreement for the park is set to expire on September 1, 2024, and it is unclear what the future holds for the park. Coinciding with the expiration of the Agreement, Henrico County’s approved annual fiscal plan for FY2024-2025 does not include funding for the operation of the park in the new fiscal year,” the letter read.
“Please accept my sincere gratitude for everything the Foundation has done to enlighten residents, visitors and school children about the history of the region.”
The letter didn’t mention any other reasons driving the county’s funding decision.
Drumwright said he didn’t know what was “unclear” about the historical site’s future. He said that prior to that letter, he received a resignation letter from Henrico’s representative on the Henricus board of trustees earlier in April.
The operating agreement for the site had been in effect in one form or another for more than 20 years, according to Henricus Executive Director Charlie Grant. He said he was under the impression up until recently that the agreement would be renewed with Henrico’s participation.
Chesterfield County Administrator Joe Casey said the foundation informed him that Henrico pulled its funding for the nonprofit. He said Chesterfield continues to support the historical site.
“We’re a continued supporter and funder of Henricus,” Casey said. “We’re vested in the foundation being successful. We have a lot of time to figure that out because they have been fiscally well managed.”
In addition to providing direct cash to Henricus, Chesterfield also provides back-office services like payroll for the historical site’s 16 workers, who are employees of the county. The site is a program of the Chesterfield parks and recreation department.
Casey said municipal governments have to make tough decisions during budget season when it comes to funding requests from local groups, and didn’t have any criticism for Henrico’s move.
“I’m not here to opine on what Henrico is or isn’t doing,” he said. “I respect what other localities have to go through to balance a budget. It’s not an easy job.”
Henricus is a living-history museum that depicts the Citie of Henricus, which was established in 1611 and was the second successful English settlement in Virginia following Jamestown.
The foundation reported $1.1 million in expenses and about $888,500 in revenue in its FY22 tax filing, which was the latest available tax filing on a nonprofits database maintained by news outlet ProPublica.
While Henricus doesn’t intend to end its operations in light of Henrico’s decision not to fund the organization, it remains to be seen how it’ll address the shortfall. In addition to general admissions and event programming, the site hosts visits from school tour groups.
Grant, the executive director of Henricus, said the nonprofit had been interested in constructing an indoor museum to expand its offerings but that the decision by Henrico to pull its funding complicates those plans.
“We get tens of thousands of school kids, and it will impact how we serve them and how we serve the public. There’s no way around that,” Grant said. “We’re either going to need other partners to come in or we’re going to have to adjust operations here to meet the revenue.”
Henricus Historical Park is a living-history museum that’s dedicated to the Citie of Henricus, an English settlement founded in 1611 shortly after colonists established Jamestown. (Photos courtesy Henricus Historical Park)
A nonprofit dedicated to sharing the history of Henrico’s earliest days will not be getting funding support from the county in the coming fiscal year.
Henricus Historical Park is short roughly a third of its annual operating budget after the Henrico Board of Supervisors approved its fiscal year 2025 spending plan without money earmarked for the riverfront attraction.
The decision came as a surprise to George Drumwright, board chairman of the Henricus Foundation, which runs the 10-acre historical site and its recreated 1600s-era English fort and Powhatan village at 251 Henricus Park Road near Chester.
Drumwright said the group’s $1 million annual budget has for years been covered by a roughly three-way split between funding allocations from Henrico, Chesterfield and the foundation’s own revenues.
Drumwright said in an interview last week that the shortfall, even with the foundation’s reserves, will be challenging to work around.
“It puts us on the ropes, no doubt about it,” Drumwright said. “It will be felt tremendously, but there are things the foundation can do.”
A former deputy county manager, Drumwright worked at Henrico for decades until his retirement in 2012. He said Henrico had consistently provided funding support to the Henricus foundation since it was founded in the 1980s.
Henrico provided $356,000 as part of the current fiscal year 2024 budget, and the county’s proposed budget for the upcoming year initially included the same amount for FY25. However, that line item had been removed by the time the budget was adopted in early April.
That’s because Henrico supervisors, juggling multiple budget priorities, decided it didn’t have the funds to give Henricus in light of those other pressures, Henrico Board Chairman Tyrone Nelson told BizSense.
Among those priorities, Nelson cited the increased costs that Henrico has shouldered to keep a regional curbside recycling contract going after Chesterfield opted out of the agreement’s curbside pickup in 2023, among other budget priorities.
Tyrone Nelson
“We had to take on a greater financial commitment with the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority when it comes to how to handle recycling pickups,” Nelson said. “Chesterfield made a decision to pull out there and that affected us financially. Continuing that relationship with CVWMA is important.”
Other competing priorities included Henrico’s desire to provide funding for a Richmond-based regional homeless shelter, as well as plans for a 2,100-acre former plantation the county acquired in Varina earlier this year. Nelson said the county intends to use the property as a historical education site.
“We’re going to be investing in telling our story at Varina Farms,” Nelson said, referring to that property, which served as the county’s seat from 1632 to 1752 and is across the James River from Henricus.
The annual budget approval process in Henrico, as well as in other localities, involves receiving and considering multiple funding requests from local nonprofits that are engaged in work ranging from social services to cultural and sports programming. Nelson noted that the original FY25 budget proposal created by County Manager John Vithoulkas included a line item for Henricus, but that ultimately the board decided to eliminate the funding.
“We adopt the budget, but we also make modifications in the budget and that was one of the modifications. The county manager’s proposed budget included Henricus. The Board of Supervisors made the decision (not to fund Henricus),” Nelson said, adding that the board could potentially choose to provide funding for Henricus in a future budget.
Henricus Historical Park features a recreated 1600s English fort and Powhatan village on a historical site near Chester.
Drumwright said he was informed of the county’s decision not to give Henricus money in an April 16 letter from Vithoulkas.
In the letter, which was shared with BizSense, Vithoulkas wrote that there would be no funding earmarked for Henricus in light of the pending expiration of an operating agreement for the site between the nonprofit, Henrico and Chesterfield, as well as what the letter described as an unforeseeable future.
“As you know, the Operating Agreement for the park is set to expire on September 1, 2024, and it is unclear what the future holds for the park. Coinciding with the expiration of the Agreement, Henrico County’s approved annual fiscal plan for FY2024-2025 does not include funding for the operation of the park in the new fiscal year,” the letter read.
“Please accept my sincere gratitude for everything the Foundation has done to enlighten residents, visitors and school children about the history of the region.”
The letter didn’t mention any other reasons driving the county’s funding decision.
Drumwright said he didn’t know what was “unclear” about the historical site’s future. He said that prior to that letter, he received a resignation letter from Henrico’s representative on the Henricus board of trustees earlier in April.
The operating agreement for the site had been in effect in one form or another for more than 20 years, according to Henricus Executive Director Charlie Grant. He said he was under the impression up until recently that the agreement would be renewed with Henrico’s participation.
Chesterfield County Administrator Joe Casey said the foundation informed him that Henrico pulled its funding for the nonprofit. He said Chesterfield continues to support the historical site.
“We’re a continued supporter and funder of Henricus,” Casey said. “We’re vested in the foundation being successful. We have a lot of time to figure that out because they have been fiscally well managed.”
In addition to providing direct cash to Henricus, Chesterfield also provides back-office services like payroll for the historical site’s 16 workers, who are employees of the county. The site is a program of the Chesterfield parks and recreation department.
Casey said municipal governments have to make tough decisions during budget season when it comes to funding requests from local groups, and didn’t have any criticism for Henrico’s move.
“I’m not here to opine on what Henrico is or isn’t doing,” he said. “I respect what other localities have to go through to balance a budget. It’s not an easy job.”
Henricus is a living-history museum that depicts the Citie of Henricus, which was established in 1611 and was the second successful English settlement in Virginia following Jamestown.
The foundation reported $1.1 million in expenses and about $888,500 in revenue in its FY22 tax filing, which was the latest available tax filing on a nonprofits database maintained by news outlet ProPublica.
While Henricus doesn’t intend to end its operations in light of Henrico’s decision not to fund the organization, it remains to be seen how it’ll address the shortfall. In addition to general admissions and event programming, the site hosts visits from school tour groups.
Grant, the executive director of Henricus, said the nonprofit had been interested in constructing an indoor museum to expand its offerings but that the decision by Henrico to pull its funding complicates those plans.
“We get tens of thousands of school kids, and it will impact how we serve them and how we serve the public. There’s no way around that,” Grant said. “We’re either going to need other partners to come in or we’re going to have to adjust operations here to meet the revenue.”
Just like the city, Henrico will erase history……..
Kind of ironic that Michael Paul Williams had something to say about that in the RTD a few days ago.
Wow, is he still there? I used to get a lot of laughs from his column……..
Michael Paul Williams is one reason why I don’t subscribe to RTD anymore.
Yes. Let’s just say he was a “chauvinist”
Let’s do
Big difference — they are just not funding a museum.
They’re going to totally erase history after this generation.
Nah. Henrico’s just tired of Chesterfield’s lack of regional cooperation. Did you even read the article? Chesterfield has a long history of not contributing to joint ventures with Henrico and Richmond. The latest was its decision to pull out of cooperative recycling. That had a financial impact on the citizens of Henrico. If Chesterfield’s going to be stingy toward the other localities, they’re going to stop contributing in return.
But Chesterfield is still contributing to Henricus, right?
A lot of recycling is a scam. The glass part came out decades ago, now people are learning about plastic. There was an article on recycling even in the NYT like 20 years ago that, even though it was was totally accurate, received more hate mail than any other article up till that point and well afterward. Why? Because recycling is part of a religion to these people — you can tell them that it is both more climate-friendly or clean or whatever to landfill it AND it is cheaper for the taxpayer, and you will get hate like telling… Read more »
It would be prudent for Henrico to now remove the 1611 date from its flag and other marketing or historic documents. The Henricus Foundation should immediately impose (if this does not already exists) a fee per visitor for any school group that their locality does not participate in supporting the park. Also, as a life long Henrico resident, I will contunue to go out of my way to not purchase meals in Henrico and avoid the meals tax to the best of my ability. Shame on Henrico for stepping away from this regional endevour and historic area. This may also… Read more »
I live a few miles away from the historic park in Chester. I don’t know if you have actually visited the park but if you go inside the wooden fenced area where the employees dress up for the time period and look into the buildings you DO have to pay an entrance fee. You can visit the gift shop and walk the trails around the fenced in area for free.
As I (queried) above; thanks for the info on the entrance fee as i was not sure. My point is that school systems share this burden when enhancing their students education and that the Henricus Foundation does not bear the cost of doing so.
I’ve been there with my child’s class from a HCPS elementary school. They should charge HCPS field trips an extra fee now to visit. Or just bar them from coming.
Some of my ancestors were part of that 1611 community . Unfortunately, they didn’t fit a certain demographic. This seems deliberate.
Oh, the American flag will be abolished within the next 20 years
The mob was waving a different American flag on January 6, eliminating the red stripes. They didn’t get their wish.
They should change the name to ‘The settlement formerly known as Henricus’
Just take some of the money earmarked for the “fall line trail” and shift it over for funding the Henricus historical site. $1 mill or ~$350k is a drop in the bucket compared to what’s being allotted for a bicycle trail
Considering the aggressive increases in property taxes paid over the last few years, it is hard to contemplate that Henrico is unable to come up with $350k to support the park. This is a real shame.
Agreed, Jeff. Henrico’s annual budget increased by $96 million, but they “had” to cut $300K from Henricus. Quite a mystery.
It is interesting that recently-retired Tuckahoe Supervisor O’Bannon is one of Henricus’ Board Members.
https://henricus.org/who-we-are/board-members/
Dr. Gomez: How many more people do you think will use the Fall Line trail than have visited Henricus Park? Charles, where will you go to avoid the Henrico meals tax? Certainly not the City of Richmond.
As for the Real Estate tax we’re still paying less than we did when we left the City in 2011. Furthermore, we all got a tax refund a few years ago. How soon we forget.
I’ll just drive 2 miles west to Goochland or 5 miles south to Chesterfield, like I do already to avoid Henrico’s meals tax. I’ve already become increasingly deliberate in doing so. Not so much because of the tax itself (although it shouldn’t exist), but because of how the revenue is spent. Henrico’s local government is rapidly becoming a disgusting leviathan.
Wait till you discover Richmond….
Yes. History is interesting, but it isn’t all that Important.
I liked the park — even painstakingly arranged to give my daughter’s rooster “Captain” a heritage breed, to the park — I had been there several times — but my impression was always that visitation was scant — no one had ever heard of the place, even Richmond and Williamsburg area natives….
That wasn’ the point. I know that the localities each have thier regressive taxes but I can make a choice where to pay the meals tax. Just as you can make a choice to support a meals tax.
Or stay home.
Henrico’s BOS has really been on a roll lately and it’s especially sad that Tyrone Nelson, as a Henrico/Varina resident, is happy to defund a local historical park while simultaneously sending the city of Richmond Henrico taxpayer dollars to build homeless shelters there. Why is Henrico funding projects located in the City? Also, don’t be fooled by the doublespeak regarding the 2100 acre Varina Farms. Nelson has repeatedly talked about its preservation as a park but the purchase deal only preserves the farm for 5 years. After that? Solar farm? Massive development? Who knows. Henrico’s BOS and the entire county… Read more »
If I thought homeless shelters actually solved a problem I’d be OK with henrico tax dollars funding them so long as they were built in Richmond limits.
And thank goodness for that!
Hardly
Funny they blame recycling program. As a resident of western henrico I already subsidize trash pickup in the eastern part of the county but don’t recieve the service myself. Maybe they can find some more services I can subsidize in the east end to help make up the budget shortfall.
And I wonder which end of the county pays more in taxes (both meals and property)? I always hear about how the east end needs more, gets the short end of the stick, etc., but the empirical evidence for these complaints seems to be woefully lacking.
It’s truly pathetic that Henrico has a budget of $1.2 billion, but has to virtue signal by cutting $300K from an important historical site that bears its name (and appears on the county’s seal) so it can fund homeless shelters in another locality. I guess this isn’t a huge surprise given the board that just got elected. Great work, Henrico voters!
Though I will rack up 30-50 negative views, I say again, Welcome to Virginia the New New Jersey, home of the largest number of rent seekers in the US thanks to Washington DC and Northern VA. The rent seekers bring their politics which is basically the middle finger to wherever they burrow.
Maryland has more I think, hence their politics are even worse.
Made us into California of the East, really. Unless more people wake up, we aren’t free anymore.
I think THIS a bit of exaggeration. Besides, the original European settlers there were Spanish 😉
So, why is this? Good fiscal mgmt or did someone find out that the history of Henricus kinda makes the native peoples of the Americas look like….. the native peoples of Scandinavia 700 years prior — sans the boats and steel and other tech.
They’re not hiding their intentions anymore. The new aquired “plantation” will likely focus solely on the slavery aspect , no doubt. The other history will be stripped away as if it never existed. Such opportunities wasted.
I guess what I am saying is: To What Purpose? Merely to tell a story about something that happened long ago? It is not important to the history of Henrico county — it was an outpost of Jamestown, a place that itself does not exist anymore because those people all eventually moved to Williamsburg, etc, and Jamestown was abandoned. The people who lived in Henricus were all murdered by the natives and hence did not settle Henrico — Jamestown is only dug up because it was the first English settlement in the new world and that is pretty much the… Read more »
How about we the people fund it ourselves? Could that be done?
I suppose it COULD, but such things often show just how MUCH people actually want something, or how MUCH it costs. History is so often political propaganda, and we learn this best when new narratives are pushed to the fore, and old narratives are dropped — usually by govts that decide to fund things that charities cannot. A LOT has changed in Richmond since I moved here. Back then, they put a statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting with his son Tad down at the civil war museum I think. Strange that I don’t recall ever seeing it in person but… Read more »
There goes the County’s bond rating, and name. Henrico County was named for Henricus. Will the foundation allow its name to be used without compensation?
How is NOT funding this site going to have a negative impact on the bond rating?
A lot of folks seem angry that Henrico pulled out of funding a private museum in Chesterfield. This comment section is so bizarre sometimes.
I completely agree that Henricus deserved more notice than they were given, but I don’t understand the anger that it happened. And I never understood the “erasing history” narrative that always happens here. The history is there. It isn’t erased. Books still exist.
I can only assume the “erasing history “ crowd doesn’t own any books. Clearly they only learn by wandering around and looking at statues.
It’s likely some from that crowd think public libraries are theft, too.
And what they say about assuming…..
You just made it 100% accurate
The whining on here is hilarious. Chesterfield has long turned up its nose at regional cooperation. Again and again it has left Richmond and Henrico to make up the funding difference while trumpeting its fiscal conservatism. I’m surprised it took Henrico this long to say enough.
Cutting a third of funding isn’t yanking funding.
All government programs are rife with waste and theft.
Tighten up management and all is fine.
Fact: Chesterfield is recycling more this year after empowering the private sector to pick up recyclables. The County can provide the data.
CVWMA is a big expensive monopoly.
Regionalism isn’t defined exclusively by Henrico.
Bravo Sir.