Short Pump history and landmarks: the tavern, the pump, the markers

Last checked Oct. 19, 2026. Sources: Henrico County’s history pages, county markers and plaques; the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places data; and the Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey. Every date below comes from those sources.

Short Pump began as a crossroads, not a town, and it has never been incorporated. Henrico County, its government, was established in 1634 as one of the eight original shires of the Virginia colony. Henrico Recreation and Parks, which runs the area’s historic sites, is at 804-501-7275; the Deep Run School Museum takes appointments at 804-652-1455.

Visit

• Deep Run School Museum: Short Pump Park, 3401 Pump Road; special programs and by appointment, 804-652-1455
• Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park: 3400 Mountain Road, Glen Allen; grounds dawn to dusk, Parsons Community Center noon to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, March to November
• The Short Pump marker: West Broad Street at Pouncey Tract Road

How Short Pump got its name

Henrico County’s Short Pump marker, at West Broad Street and Pouncey Tract Road, tells the story the county records as legend. Just beyond the fork where the Deep Run Turnpike, now Broad Street Road, crossed Three Notched Road, now Three Chopt Road, stood a rambling frame tavern built in 1815. Under its rickety double porch was a short-handled pump. The tavern was a stagecoach stop between Richmond and Charlottesville, and drivers would say, “I’ll see you at Short Pump.” The name stuck to the crossroads.

Coal pits and country schools

Before the shopping centers, this was farm and mining country. A county marker at 9900 Ridgefield Parkway, at Deep Run Park, marks the old coal pit railroad bed, which carried coal from the Deep Run and Springfield coal pits in the 19th century about six miles south to the Kanawha Canal on the James River, and on to Richmond.

• Deep Run School opened in 1902, replacing Stand Spring School, which burned the year before. The two-room schoolhouse taught seven grades until 1911; folding the doors in its center wall turned it into one room for weekly square dances. The county moved it from Three Chopt Road to Short Pump Park in 1996, and it is now a museum.
• Springfield School, by Pouncey Tract Park at 4747 Pouncey Tract Road, was a two-room school for African American children, built about 1920 on land bought in 1919. Its students went on to Virginia Randolph High, the only high school for Black students in Henrico during segregation.
• Coal Pit School, 5101 Francistown Road, was a one-room school for African American children established about 1905 and supervised for a time by the educator Virginia Estelle Randolph. Its pupils moved to Vandervall School, now Pemberton Elementary, in 1955.

Churches and farms

• Deep Run Baptist Church, 10907 Three Chopt Road, was founded in 1742 as an Episcopal chapel and built in 1749 with wooden pegs and beams that are still part of the building, the county’s marker says. It served as a hospital during the Revolutionary War, became Hungry Baptist Church in 1791 and took the name Deep Run Baptist in 1819.
• Quioccasin Baptist Church was organized about 1866 by newly emancipated African Americans who left Deep Run Baptist to start their own congregation, according to church history cited by the county.
• Nuckols Farm, 3501 Gayton Hill Lane, formerly Locust Grove, was in the Nuckols family from 1849 to 1972. Israel Nuckols bought 274 acres in 1849; the family grew tobacco, then switched to dairy in the 1920s. The county bought it for a park in 2005.

The gas station and the grocery

The federal Historic American Buildings Survey documented two buildings at the old crossroads:

• The Short Pump Shell Gas Station, 11441 W. Broad St., built in 1938-39 in the “little bungalow” style, which the survey called one of the most popular filling station designs of the period (HABS VA-1346).
• The Downtown Short Pump Grocery, at West Broad Street and Three Chopt Road, built about 1900, a mixed-use rural store whose details move from late Victorian toward Craftsman and Colonial Revival (HABS VA-1345).

National Register listings

The National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places location data shows no listings inside the Short Pump census boundary. The nearest listed properties are:

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources keeps the state’s own register and marker list at dhr.virginia.gov.

Museums near Short Pump

• Deep Run School Museum, Short Pump Park, 3401 Pump Road: open for special programs and by appointment, 804-652-1455.
• Meadow Farm Museum at Crump Park, 3400 Mountain Road, Glen Allen, opened in 1981. It tells the story of Native Americans, African Americans and the Sheppard family on the land from 1713 to 1980, and keeps heritage-breed farm animals. Farmhouse tours run during building hours; arrive at the Parsons Community Center by 3 p.m.

Related guides: Short Pump population and growth, parks and trails and getting around Short Pump.

Frequently asked questions

How did Short Pump get its name?

According to legend recorded by Henrico County, a tavern built in 1815 at the fork of the Deep Run Turnpike and Three Notched Road had a short-handled pump under its porch. Stagecoach drivers on the Richmond-Charlottesville run would say, ‘I’ll see you at Short Pump.’

Is Short Pump an incorporated town?

No. Short Pump has never been incorporated. It is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Henrico County, which was established in 1634 as one of Virginia’s eight original shires.

Are there National Register historic sites in Short Pump?

The National Park Service’s National Register map shows no listings inside the Short Pump census boundary. The nearest include the Druin-Horner House on River Road, listed in 2009.

Where can I see Short Pump history?

The Deep Run School Museum, a 1902 two-room schoolhouse, stands in Short Pump Park at 3401 Pump Road and opens by appointment at 804-652-1455.