This year, America turns 250. But Richmond? Richmond has been here longer than that.
Founded in 1737, Richmond predates the nation by nearly four decades. It’s been a colonial outpost, a Revolutionary capital, a Confederate capital, and through all of it, a city that kept building, kept trading, and kept showing up. So when the country pauses to reflect on what it means to build something that lasts, Richmond has a perspective most cities don’t.
Back in 1906, a group of Richmond shopkeepers had a problem: dust from the dirt streets kept blowing into their shops. They banded together to get the streets watered down, and the Retail Merchants Association was born. Today that organization is InUnison, the team behind Find Local RVA, still operating on the same conviction that local businesses are stronger together.
The businesses below have served Richmond for more than a century. Some predate the automobile, the telephone, and the electric streetcar. A few predate the Civil War itself. They’ve outlasted recessions, pandemics, world wars, and entire generations of competition, and though they predate InUnison by decades, they’re living proof of exactly what it stands for. None of them set out to make history. They set out to serve their neighbors well and keep showing up.
A mutual insurance society founded before George Washington’s second term. A watchmaker selling timepieces to railwaymen in the 1890s. A German immigrant building a lumber yard. A self-taught jeweler in Carver. A teenager with a Hamilton watch franchise. A tobacco baron who built a landmark hotel. Generations of funeral home families holding space for grief across more than 150 years of Richmond life.
That’s Richmond. And that’s worth celebrating.
Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia | Est. 1794
Before Richmond was the capital of Virginia, before the Constitution was ratified, a group of property owners came together to protect one another. Incorporated by the Virginia General Assembly on December 22, 1794, the Mutual Assurance Society is the oldest active corporation in Virginia and one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the entire country. It began as a fire insurance cooperative and has operated on the same member-owned model ever since, insuring historic properties including Monticello and Mount Vernon along the way. More than 230 years later, it’s still headquartered in Richmond on Fitzhugh Avenue, still protecting Virginia homes, and still owned by its members, not outside shareholders.
Cowardin’s Jewelers | Est. 1865
William H. Cowardin opened his watch and jewelry shop in Shockoe Bottom in 1865, the same year the war ended and Richmond was rebuilding from the ground up. Five generations later, the Cowardin family is still at it, now located near Willow Lawn on West Broad Street. That’s 160 years of helping Richmonders mark the moments that matter most.
Morrissett Funeral and Cremation Service | Est. 1870
Just five years after the Civil War ended, B.H. Morrissett left his trade as a cabinetmaker and established what would become the oldest continuously operated business in South Richmond. More than 150 years later, the tradition the Morrissett family started carries on, and the company has earned recognition as one of the top funeral providers in the country, receiving the National Funeral Directors Association’s “Best of the Best” distinction, an honor fewer than five funeral homes worldwide receive out of more than 22,000 eligible providers.
Bliley’s Funeral Home | Est. 1874
Joseph W. Bliley, Sr., along with his brothers John and Frank, founded what would become one of Richmond’s most enduring institutions in 1874. Their original location at Third and Marshall Streets was a downtown landmark for more than 120 years. Today, under the leadership of fourth-generation family members, Bliley’s operates three locations across the city and serves approximately 1,800 families each year. The Virginia General Assembly recognized their 150th anniversary in 2024, and it’s easy to understand why: for a century and a half, this family has shown up for Richmond during its hardest moments.
Siewers Lumber & Millwork | Est. 1884
Richard Alvin Siewers, a German immigrant, started a building company and lumber yard in Richmond in 1884. He passed the business to his wife, Sabine, who passed it to their sons, and four generations later, Siewers is still supplying Richmond builders and homeowners from its Lombardy Street location. More than 140 years of lumber, millwork, and deep roots in this city’s built environment.
C.P. Dean | Est. 1886
In 1886, Charles Preston Dean opened a manufacturing company at 10 Governor’s Street, specializing in bank fixtures, saloon furniture, and billiard tables, delivering everything by horse and buggy before Richmond became home to the first electric streetcar system in the country. After Dean’s death in 1903, William Selden III purchased the business and kept the name, recognizing that C.P. Dean had already become synonymous with quality. Three generations of Seldens carried it forward from there. The company furnished woodwork for the Altria Theatre (then called the Mosque) and supplied billiard tables to practically every parlor in Richmond during the Golden Age of the 1930s. In 2021, the Ball family acquired C.P. Dean and continues that tradition today, with Virginia’s largest selection of pool and game tables, plus a thriving awards and engraving division.
C.P. Dean’s story also crosses paths with another piece of Richmond history worth noting: In the spring of 1903, Maggie Walker chartered the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, becoming the first Black woman to charter a bank in the United States. The teller stands and fixtures installed in that historic bank? Provided by C.P. Dean.
Nelsen Funeral Home | Est. 1892
Nelsen Funeral Home has been serving Richmond families since 1892. Now in its fourth location, which opened on Laburnum Avenue in 1986, Nelsen has grown alongside the communities it serves while keeping the same commitment to personalized, meaningful tributes that has defined the business for more than 130 years. Their on-site reception center reflects a modern understanding of what families need: not just a service, but a gathering place to celebrate a life in a way that’s as unique as the person being honored.
The Jefferson Hotel | Est. 1895
Lewis Ginter made and lost two fortunes before returning to Richmond at age 50 and building one of the most iconic buildings in the American South. He poured an estimated $5 to $10 million into The Jefferson Hotel, commissioning the same architectural firm that would later design the New York Public Library and the U.S. House and Senate Office Buildings. When it opened on Halloween Day 1895, thousands of people lined up in the rain to walk through its doors. The hotel survived a devastating fire in 1901, a full rebuilding, and more than 130 years of history, hosting 13 U.S. Presidents and countless generations of Richmonders for weddings, celebrations, and milestone moments.
Schwarzschild Jewelers | Est. 1897
The Schwarzschild story begins with a teenager and a train schedule. In the 1890s, when Richmond was a hub for four major railroads, William Harry Schwarzschild started selling Hamilton watches to railway workers at Main Street Station. By 1897, still a teenager, he had acquired the Richmond-area Hamilton franchise and established the Old Dominion Watch Company at 802 East Main Street. His brother Gustav joined him in 1902, and soon after, Schwarzschild Brothers Watchmakers and Jewelers was born. More than 125 years later, Schwarzschild is still family-rooted, still locally operated, and still the kind of jeweler Richmond families trust with their most important moments.
Bennett Funeral Home | Est. 1897
Alphonso Winston Bennett founded Bennett Funeral Home and Livery Service in 1897 with a clear standard: his establishment would use only the best obtainable products and maintain practices higher than any competitor. That wasn’t a marketing line. It was a founding principle that has held for more than 125 years. Generations of Richmond families have returned to Bennett precisely because that commitment never wavered.
Waller & Company Jewelers | Est. 1900
Marcellus Carrington “M.C.” Waller taught himself the business of jewelry and watch repair in the late 1800s and opened his shop in 1900 in Richmond’s Carver neighborhood, becoming part of the entrepreneurial Black business community that was building something remarkable at the turn of the century. Waller & Company became known for handcrafting regalia for Black Greek-letter organizations, a specialty that made the shop famous well beyond Richmond. Now located at 19 E. Broad Street, it remains the city’s oldest Black-owned jewelry and watch repair business.
Agee’s Bicycles | Est. 1910
Louis Agee opened West End Bicycles in the Byrd Park area in 1910, making Agee’s one of the oldest bicycle shops in the country. More than a century later, it’s still going strong under the Agee name, with three locations across the Richmond area on West Broad, Midlothian Turnpike, and Cary Street.
Sally Bell’s Kitchen | Est. 1924
Sally Bell’s has been feeding Richmonders for over 100 years, and if you know, you know. The perfectly packed box lunches still tied with a string, the potato salad, the upside-down cupcakes, the deviled eggs… Founded in 1924, Sally Bell’s is the kind of place that feels like Richmond itself, now located in Scott’s Addition and still doing things largely the way they’ve always been done. In 2015, the James Beard Foundation made it official, honoring Sally Bell’s with its American Classic Award, one of the most prestigious recognitions in the food world. Some things don’t need fixing.
As America marks 250 years, Richmond gets to celebrate something special: a local business community with roots that go back nearly as far. When you shop local, you’re not just supporting a business. You’re investing in a story that’s still being written.
