Short Pump is a census-designated place (CDP) in Henrico County, Virginia, United States.

Thomas Jefferson,[5] the Earl Cornwallis, the Marquis de Lafayette, General Peter Muhlenberg, Stonewall Jackson and Ulric Dahlgren all visited this area.

The crossroads was officially named Short Pump by 1853, according to a Henrico County map found in the Virginia Historical Society.

[4] Short Pump began as a local tavern stop situated at a strategic crossroads in the early nineteenth century.

Purchased around 1814 by Col. Saunders, the tavern profited from the local coal industry, westward movement in the state, and the extension of roads in the period after the Revolutionary War.

While a gathering spot for white locals and travelers, the tavern relied on enslaved labor and hosted occasional slave auctions.

As automobiles replaced horses as the primary means of transportation, filling stations and garages popped up in the area.

[4][7] By the 1990s and 2000s, Short Pump transformed from a rural crossroads to an edge-city, a concentration of development on the outskirts of traditional urban areas.