Richmond-Area Neighborhoods With a Henrico County Recreation Area Named for Them: What Each County Page Lists

Published October 23, 2026

Which Richmond-area neighborhoods share their name with a Henrico County recreation area? Five do, and the county’s own Parks & Facilities directory lists each one with a street address and a feature list: Highland Springs, Laurel, Sandston, Short Pump and Varina. The order is alphabetical because we did not rank anything, and there is no scoring method behind it.

Two limits up front. A park with a neighborhood’s name is not proof that it sits next to a particular street, and we did not measure distances, so check any listing’s address against the park’s address on a map. And this post makes no price claim, so there is no data block. We read every county page below on October 21, 2026.

What the county lists at each one

Source: Henrico County Recreation & Parks, facility pages read October 21, 2026, linked in each section below. A feature that is not in the third column is not on that county page, which is not the same as saying it does not exist.

Highland Springs: a community center and a recreation area

The county’s page for the Highland Springs Community Center & Recreation Area opens with a one-line description, “The heart of Highland Springs,” and gives the address as 16 S. Ivy Avenue. The recreation area has a picnic area and shelter, play equipment and athletic fields. The shelter is first come, first served, and the page says to contact a sports league coordinator to reserve a field.

Within the neighborhood’s own name, that makes it a general-purpose park with a building you can rent. Our Highland Springs community page shows the area’s boundary.

Laurel: the one with a skate park

The Laurel Recreation Area & Skate Park is at 10301 Hungary Spring Road, Glen Allen, and the county lists the skate park as its special feature. Rules are posted: only skateboards, BMX bikes with gyro, non-motorized scooters, in-line skates and Heelys, with helmets required. The park also has baseball and softball fields, soccer and football fields, a picnic shelter and a concession building, and it is open daily from dawn to dusk, weather permitting.

That is the checkable reason for Laurel: it is the only pick here where the county names a skate park in the title of the facility.

Sandston: courts and fields on J B Finley Road

The Sandston Recreation Area lists one tennis court, two pickleball courts, athletic fields and a picnic shelter, with play equipment, a concession building and restrooms in the amenities. It is open daily from dawn to dusk. The address is 11 J B Finley Road, Sandston, which matches the neighborhood name directly. If racket sports are on your list, see also our guide to community tennis and pickleball courts, which looks at the same question across several counties.

For anyone sizing up Sandston, this is the most specific amenity list of the five for court sports.

Short Pump: a dog park, spray fountains and a schoolhouse

The county describes Short Pump Park at 3329 Pump Road as having a dog park, spray fountains, athletic fields, play equipment, picnic facilities and a restored 1902 two-room schoolhouse. The dog park has separate areas for small and large dogs, each with synthetic grass. The spray park runs 9am to 7pm daily when open, and on October 21, 2026 the page said it was closed for the season and would reopen in May. For the wider question, our guide to dog-friendly neighborhoods covers other parks.

Of the five, Short Pump has the most different features on one county page, and one of them, the schoolhouse, is a history item rather than a play one.

Varina: ball fields and a shelter on Recreation Road

The Varina Recreation Area is at 8099 Recreation Road, and the county lists ball fields, a shelter and play equipment, with a concession building, restrooms and soccer and football fields in the amenities. It is open daily from dawn to dusk. It is the plainest of the five, with no courts, no dog park and no skate park on its page, which can be a plus if you want a straightforward field-and-shelter park.

Reading a name match carefully

A name match is a weak proxy, and it is worth saying why. Counties often name a park for the community that surrounds it, but a community can be several square miles, and the county page gives one street address, not a service area. Two homes in the same neighborhood can sit very different distances from the same park. The county also lists other facilities with their own addresses in these same areas, such as community centers, so a park with a neighborhood name is one source among several. Use the address on each page as your anchor, and measure from the listing, not from the neighborhood label.

How to use this list

Pick two areas, open the county page for each park, and map its address against two listings. Then visit at the hour you would actually use the park, once on a weekday and once on a weekend. If you want the wider picture, our guides to near a public recreation center and neighborhoods next to a major park cover other kinds of county parks, and the eastbound I-64 commute guide shows how some of these same areas sit along I-64. The Henrico County page gives the county overview.

When you are ready to see homes, browse current listings, read our buyer page, or talk to our team. If you want to line up financing first, our preferred lenders are listed on one page.