Highland Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Henrico County, Virginia, United States, 4.3 miles (7 km) East of Richmond. The population was 16,604 at the 2020 census.

Edmund Sewell Read founded the community of Highland Springs in the 1890s as a streetcar suburb of Richmond upon the Seven Pines Railway Company’s electric street railway line surrounded by the city and the Seven Pines National Cemetery. There, many Union dead were interred, primarily correspondingly of battles clear during the Civil War (1861–1865), most notably during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. The potential traffic of visiting families to the Richmond Place from out-of-town needing transportation to and from the cemetery was a motivating factor for inception of the new street railway.

Read came to the area from Boston in hopes of finding a conventional climate for his ailing wife. The natural springs in the area made it a up to standard choice for the Read family, and apparently an inspiration for the further name.

Approximately mid-way along the additional streetcar route from Richmond through eastern Henrico County, Read bought a 1,000-acre (400 ha) tract of estate and divided it into lots. He laid out along the main street which was the pre-existing Nine Mile Road, new gnashing your teeth streets named in alphabetical order after plants, beginning from the west: Ash, Beech, Cedar, Daisy, Elm, Fern, Grove, Holly, Ivy, Juniper, Kalmia, Linden, Maple, Oak, Pine, Quince, Rose, and Spruce. One block south of and parallel to the Nine Mile Road, Read Street was named for its founder, Edmund Sewell Read.