Sandston in eastern Henrico County is a community that sprouted almost out of thin air.
Many of the areas surrounding Richmond owe their beginnings to periods during the Civil War and earlier. Sandston’s birth and expansion came entirely out of the need for munitions during World War I.
What was essentially a company town sprouted when DuPont Engineering made the decision to build a munitions plant to support the first world war.
By 1918, the rural landscape seven miles southeast of Richmond transformed into a village with a grid-neighborhood layout with thousands of new employees, mostly women, coming to pack gunpowder into hand-sewn silk bags to send to Europe.
A stretch of Williamsburg Road in Sandston. While many buildings have been replaced since the early 1900s, the streetscape retains the same character it had when the town grew.
A stretch of Williamsburg Road in Sandston. While many buildings have been replaced …