The Ridge Street Historic District has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1982 as a part of the Charlottesville Multiple Resource Area form, which recorded much of the city’s historic architecture. An administrative error left the district off the Virginia Landmarks Register, but interest in state rehabilitation tax credits prompted city officials to seek designation in 2003. The residential district occupies four blocks just south of downtown and contains historic structures dating from the mid-1800s through the 1890s. Its ridge-top location attracted wealthy families who built stately Victorian-style houses there. The Ridge Street neighborhood was integrated even before the Civil War. A free black man owned property there as early as 1842 and, when the street was extended, its southern end was one of the city’s most fashionable African American neighborhoods. The Ridge Street Historic District is relatively unchanged and remains a cohesive black community.