Located at the entrance to Windsor Farms on Windsor Way is the Lych Gate.  It is as picturesque as the old gate houses of English villages from which it is copied.  Its stone roof and timbered sides and columns were treated by Richmond workmen to look as though they had withstood the age of time.  The architecture is typical of the style prevalent before and during Elizabethan times.  Windsor Farms Inc. and The Windsor Farms Garden Club partnered with Preservation Virginia to renovate the Lych Gate in 2016.

Development of Windsor Farms

The mid-1920s were outstanding years for Richmond contractors. Construction was booming.  For example, by March 15, 1925, the 3400 block of Ellwood Avenue was completed, and by the following week the structures were occupied.  In December of 1925, the communities of University Heights and North Ginter Park announced that all lots had been sold.  Richmond was fast becoming a bustling city complete with traffic and pollution.  While many Richmond residents were enamored with progress, they did not wish to live in too urban a setting.

In 1926, Thomas C. Williams created Windsor Farms as a planned development.  According to the 1926 prospectus, the streets of the neighborhood, “lead the way from city noise and unrest to homes of English architectural sturdiness and elegant simplicity.”  Driving at “conservative speed,” Windsor Farms was only ten minutes away from what was then rural Henrico County, yet it had every city convenience.  The prospectus boasts, “Everything has been installed.  There are well-paved streets and sidewalks, lighted by ornamental lights, telephones, electricity, water and gas, as well as police protection and a fire station.”

The site chosen for the development was originally the Williams family’s homestead and farm, which had long been known as “Windsor.” Windsor Farms was created as a haven from Richmond city in a manner reminiscent of an historic English village flavored by wholesome images of the farm.