<P> "Monument Avenue Historic District" includes the part of Monument Avenue begins at the termination of West Franklin Street at Stuart Circle in the east extending westward for some fourteen blocks to Roseneath Avenue in the west, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark District . In 2007, the American Planning Association named Monument Avenue one of the 10 Great Streets in the country . The APA said Monument Avenue was selected for its historic architecture, urban form, quality residential and religious architecture, diversity of land uses, public art and integration of multiple modes of transportation . </P> <P> Monument Avenue was conceived during a site search for a memorial statue of General Robert E. Lee after Lee's death in 1870 . Richmond citizens had been wanting to erect statues for three Virginians who had helped defend the city (two of whom were killed in the defense). City plans as early as 1887 show the proposed site, a circle of land, just past the end of West Franklin Street, a premier downtown residential avenue . The land was owned by a wealthy Richmonder, Otway C. Allen . The plan for the statue included building a grand avenue extending west lined with trees along a central grassy median . The plan shows building plots which Allen intended to sell to developers and those wishing to build houses on the new grand avenue . </P> <P> On May 29, 1890, crowds were estimated at 100,000 to view the unveiling of the first monument, to Robert E. Lee . </P> <P> It would take about 10 years for wealthy Richmonders and speculative developers to start buying the lots and building houses along the avenue, but in the years between 1900 and 1925 Monument Avenue exploded with architecturally significant houses, churches and apartment buildings . The architects who built on Monument Avenue practiced in the region and nationally, and included the firms of John Russell Pope, William Bottomley, Duncan Lee, Marcellus Wright, Claude Howell, Henry Baskervill, D. Wiley Anderson and Albert Huntt . Speculative builders such as W.J. Payne, Harvey C. Brown and the Davis Brothers bought lots and built many houses to sell to those not designing with an architect . </P>

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