The National Trust for Historic Preservation previously posted some tips to tackle your historic house’s history. This was a great introduction into what kind of things you should look for to get started—tax records, Sanborn maps, deeds, and titles. Now they have followed that up with a Part 2, that has some more details and thoughts on research.
And one additional thought- please share with OregonHill.net what you have learned. I am happy to post it on here.
From the Federal Reserve’s Community Development website:
The City of Richmond, Virginia’s Neighborhoods in Bloom (NiB) initiative invested federal grant funding in seven target neighborhoods from 1999 to 2004. The majority of the city’s federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funding, as well as, significant amounts of capital improvement funds and other resources were spent in the strategically selected target neighborhoods. Through NiB, the city planned to concentrate public resources in these neighborhoods until they achieved the critical mass of public investment needed to stimulate self-sustaining, private-market activity.
Oregon Hill was one of the seven target neighborhoods. Click here for the part particular to Oregon Hill.
Wiliam Pickett has this great photo of when the footers for the ‘new’ Lee Bridge were put in at Belle Island.
Tomorrow night, downtown will be abuzz with First Friday/holiday celebrations. One event that might be of interest is a documentary screening at the Main Richmond Public Library at 6:30 pm, The Promise Land: The Story of Pocahontas Island. It tells the true story of one of if not the oldest free African American communities in the United States, as well as the life of the Island’s caretaker, Mr. Richard Stewart.
Pocahontas Island is down in Petersburg. It’s an interesting, historic enclave, something that Oregon Hill knows about. And some people may not know that Oregon Hill has a bit of ‘free African American’ history as well.
William Pickett continues to supply some great photos of Oregon Hill skating back in the 1980’s.
Excerpt:
Six months after his death, a filmmaker’s final work has been completed and it is hoped it will put his hometown, Tredegar, on the map.
Peter Morgan Jones scripted and voiced hundreds of documentaries as well as writing many books about south Wales.
When he died, he was making a film about Tredegar’s namesake in Richmond, Virginia, and south Wales’ little-known influence in the American civil war.
It has been completed and is attracting interest from US television networks.
While the Blaenau Gwent town is famous for links to Aneurin Bevan and the NHS, Mr Jones spent a decade uncovering its role in supplying arms to the Confederate South and rebuilding the USA after the war.
From Facebook event:
Throughout the country’s history, the United States government has had a complicated (and often violent) relationship with tribal nations.
Featuring:
Ari Kelman, Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Ari Kelman will explore connections between the United States Civil War and military campaign against Native American peoples, focusing on the case of the Dakota War. That conflict culminated in the hanging of 38 Dakota warriors on December 26, 1862, the largest public execution in the nation’s history, as President Lincoln prepared for the Emancipation Proclamation to go into effect.Keith Richotte, Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
This talk will describe tribal sovereignty and the relationship between the federal government and tribal nations before, during, and after the Civil War.
Cost: $10 Adults, Members: $8
Get tickets by clicking here.
Thursday, November 16 at 6 PM
The American Civil War Museum, 500 Tredegar Street
Courtesy of The Shockoe Examiner:
Just found this on EBAY – never seen this card before. This postcard image of St. Andrew’s School in the Oregon Hill neighborhood of Richmond is postmarked 1907.
1980’s photo courtesy of William Pickett
From a friend- Netflix show Mindhunter has a scene with the old state penitentiary (across from Oregon Hill). I forgot about that old bridge.
Speaking of the old penitentiary…Dale Brumfield’s Virginia Penitentiary book launches October 29, 4-6 pm at Babe’s in Carytown. Everyone’s invited!
