Homes for sale in
Richmond.

Richmond's first settler was carpenter William A. McConnell, who arrived in 1837 and built the village's first structure, a log building. Eight more settlers came in 1838 and growth accelerated. The first school was built on McConnell's farm in 1841, and the village was platted in 1844, named after Richmond, Vermont, the home of an early settler. McConnell and Dr. R.R. Stone established a cheese factory, and a creamery, additional cheese factories, a box factory, a wagon works, and a pickle factory followed, giving the village an early farming and small-manufacturing economy. Richmond was officially incorporated in 1872.

Most of Richmond's original buildings date from the mid-1840s through the 1860s, with the commercial district and many homes built in the Greek Revival style and later prominent houses in the Italianate and Second Empire styles. On Christmas Eve 1902, a devastating fire swept through much of the commercial district and destroyed 20 buildings, a major setback because most were uninsured or underinsured. A second building period followed between 1903 and 1905. Today that 19th-century building stock anchors the village's historic downtown and antique district.