Young John was raised by his maternal grandparents and sent to boarding schools, as his father remarried (to Elizabeth Cabell) and built a new mansion nearby, Rivermont.

Three large tobacco warehouses stood at the foot of the hill, with housing for workers on side streets and below the hillcrest (where managers and professionals lived).

Rivermont was partially subdivided by Edward S. Hutter in 1873 and worker housing lots promoted as "Danieltown" around the time a new bridge was built across Blackwater Creek for easier access to the city.

[3] The district stretches along the prow of a narrow, elongated hill bordered by the James River on the east and Blackwater Creek on the west.

Stretched out along Cabell Street, the district's only thoroughfare, is a series of outstanding, architecturally sophisticated mansions mostly dating from the last half of the 19th century, including Point of Honor.