Short Pump, VA

Short Pump began around a tavern at the crossroads of Three Chopt Road, Richmond Turnpike, and Pouncey Tract Road. Col. Robert H. Saunders expanded the business beginning in 1814, and for roughly 35 years it also operated as a post office, polling place, and local market. The crossroads lay on the principal route between Richmond, Charlottesville, and towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Local tradition attributes the name to a short-handled water pump beneath the tavern porch for stagecoach horses, though the origin is disputed. The 2020 census recorded 30,626 residents in the Henrico County census-designated place.