Trail of the Enslaved
Richmond, Virginia
Team Henry Enterprises was selected to construct substantial renovations and additions to the internationally recognized Richmond Slave Trail historic landmark. The project includes modifications to existing public streets to improve access to the memorial site; rehabilitation of the existing trail to improve erosion control, safety, and accessibility; construction of a new pedestrian bridge; and most significantly construction of a new $2-million trailhead exhibition plaza meant to be evocative of a transatlantic slave ship.
Client
City of Richmond
Completion Date
2026
Architect
Baskervill
Amount
$2,100,000
Size
4.5 miles
The exhibition plaza, powered entirely by solar power arrays, includes hundreds of custom granite pavers, many of which are carved with the images of the enslaved, custom laid in a pattern similar to infamous diagrams of loaded slave ships. The granite plaza is bounded by 2" thick steel plate walls intended to represent the hull of a ship, and all the other design elements have similar nautical themes, including gangplanks, and ship's masts.
The overall effect of the plaza is to give visitors a full scale walkable experience depicting the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade in three dimensions in a way that no other exhibit has ever attempted before.