Trail of the Enslaved
Richmond, Virginia
At Ancarrow's Landing, the starting point of the Richmond Slave Trail, Team Henry Enterprises built a $2 million exhibition plaza that turns history into something you can walk through. Hundreds of custom granite pavers, each carved with images of the enslaved, are laid out in the pattern of a loaded slave ship's hold and enclosed by 2-inch steel plate walls standing in for the hull.
Visitors move through a full-scale, three-dimensional reckoning with the transatlantic slave trade, on the same ground where enslaved people were once brought ashore.
The plaza runs entirely on solar power. The scope also included a new trailhead, amphitheater, pedestrian bridge, street modifications, and trail rehabilitation for erosion control and accessibility.
Client
City of Richmond
Amount
$2,100,000
Size
4.5 miles
Completion Date
2026
Architect
Baskervill
Challenges Overcome
Placed hundreds of individually carved granite pavers with precision, blending fine-art fabrication with heavy sitework
Engineered 2-inch steel plate walls to meet structural load requirements without compromising the architect's artistic vision
Designed a fully off-grid solar system for an open memorial landscape with no building envelope to house it
Coordinated street infrastructure, bridge construction, trail rehabilitation, and fine-art installation under one contract, each on its own timeline and trades
Fabricated nautical elements like gangplanks and ship's masts to sculptural tolerances well beyond standard construction specs
