Short Pump got its name from a short-handled water pump under the porch of a crossroads tavern, where stagecoach drivers watered their horses on the road between Richmond and Charlottesville.
The tavern at the fork in the road
Around 1815, a tavern stood where the Deep Run Turnpike (today’s Broad Street) met Three Notched Road (today’s Three Chopt Road) in western Henrico County. Col. Robert H. Saunders bought and expanded it, and for about 35 years it served as a stagecoach stop, post office, voting place and local market.
Under the tavern’s porch sat a water pump with an unusually short handle. Drivers on the Richmond–Charlottesville run would tell each other, “See you at the short pump.” The name stuck. By 1853, a Henrico County map labeled the crossroads Short Pump.
From stagecoach stop to Short Pump Town Center
The tavern faded in the late 1800s and was nearly gone by the early 1900s, but the name lived on. Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette and Stonewall Jackson all passed through the area. Today Short Pump is one of the Richmond region’s busiest neighborhoods, home to Short Pump Town Center, which opened in 2003.
At auction now in Short Pump
Our Barrington estate sale in Short Pump closes Wednesday, November 4, 2026, starting at 10:00 AM. One of its showpieces is Lot 125, a fifteen-light, two-tier cut crystal chandelier, attributed to Waterford by a prior appraisal. It measures 38″ high by 33″ across, with cut crystal arms, bobeches and a column of faceted elements hung with crystal drops.
Sources: Henrico County; Wikipedia, Short Pump, Virginia.
