Category Archives: history

10 Years of OregonHill.net and A Salute To John Murden

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10 years ago on this date, John Murden created the first post for this website, a mention of a YouTube profile of Pine Street resident, Nathan Motley.

Murden started OregonHill.net because he saw the potential of community news sites after doing his Church Hill People’s News site for a while and wanted to help create more sites for more neighborhoods. In turn, this also played into the aggregation of these sites for RVAnews.com and today, SmallRichmond.com

At the time, as President of the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association, I was very interested in this because I was dealing with a very public controversy regarding VCU’s plans to encroach further into Oregon Hill. While the neighborhood had its own email discussion list (still going, by the way) and a rudimentary website for the neighborhood association, the new OregonHill.net allowed the neighborhood to have its own voice and respond to some of VCU-slanted media coverage. My own first post on this site was August 18, 2007 about Oregon Hill Home Improvement Council volunteers.

Anyway, part of the reason to mention all this is that John Murden has announced that he is planning to step down as editor of the Church Hill People’s News site at the end of the year. Of course, we wish him the best and salute him for all he has done for Church Hill and Richmond in general.

As for the future of OregonHill.net, we shall see. After writing over 4,000 posts, I would welcome new contributors or even assistant editors for the website. I have had a few in the past, but as Murden knows, not everyone sticks with it. More community advertising support would also be welcome.

This Saturday: History at Sunset: Tredegar in the World Wars

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From the Facebook event page:

This Saturday at 7pm, there’s a history tour at Tredegar. Though the Tredegar Iron Works is most often associated with the Civil War, it was also part of the “Arsenal of Democracy” in both World Wars of the 20th Century. Join Ranger Mike Gorman for a unique look at the labor issues and production of one of Virginia’s most important industrial sites.

For more information, you can contact Ranger Gorman at this email address: mike_gorman@nps.gov

RVA Magazine Explores Hollywood Cemetery

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RVA Magazine has a new article entitled “HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY: A LOOK INSIDE ONE OF RICHMOND’S MOST CHERISHED LANDMARKS”

Excerpt:

An old piece of stone often holds more meaning than one might suspect, particularly in a city like Richmond. Although stone carved into monuments or statues may generate friction, a great deal more of it can remind us to ruminate on not only our history, but ourselves.

On a recent afternoon, a tour guide from The Valentine took RVA Mag on a little stroll to discover some history behind one of Richmond’s most cherished and popular landmarks, Hollywood Cemetery.

John Notman designed Hollywood Cemetery in 1847 and named it for its immense number of holly-wood trees. At the time, Richmond was experiencing the effects of the industrial revolution and much of the city was falling victim to industrialization–the pollution, smog, overpopulation and factory life was the reality for Richmonders.

Tredegar Hosts “Refugees From Slavery” Thursday

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The American Civil War Museum at Tredegar is hosting a talk on Thursday at 6 pm entitled “Refugees From Slavery” as part of their ‘Foundry Series’.

From the FaceBook event page:

What do Dadaab, Kenya and Zatari, Jordan have in common with the U.S. Civil War? Present-day refugee camps share important similarities with Civil War contraband camps. Discover how men, women, and children who fled from slavery to contraband camps influenced emancipation, the progress of the war, and the redefinition of U.S. citizenship.

Featuring:

Chandra Manning, Ph.D., Georgetown University.
Dr. Manning’s most recent book, Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War, about Civil War contraband camps, won the Museum’s 2016 Jefferson Davis Award.

Program Partners:
ReEstablish Richmond
CWS Richmond Refugee Resettlement
Artist Alfonso Perez Acosta

For more info and tickets, click here.

Michael Folland, Medal of Honor Recipient

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Reporter Mark Holmberg does another story on one of Oregon Hill’s most famous progeny, Michael Folland, Vietnam war hero.

Excerpt:

In the military, the formerly wild Mike found “his niche,” his nephew said. Mike had a fiancée as he went off to war. He made corporal and was apparently hoping to make a career out of it when he smothered the grenade.

Nearly 45 years later, nephew Chip gets choked up talking about it. “I actually talked to one of the guys that was in the ambush . . . he gave up everything” for them.

Chip Folland’s son, Ryan Holland, joined the military and wrote to me that his great uncle “is a source of great pride for me in my own military career.

There are others who have reached out with their remembrances, including a woman whose brother went through basic training and to Vietnam with Mike Folland. People who want to you to know that Mike Folland is worth remembering.

Tom Robbins On Monroe Park

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From local history buff Fred Rogers:

Tom Robbins, the well known novelist (author of several published works including “Another Roadside Attraction” and “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”) is a 1959 graduate of Richmond Professional Institute (VCU’s Monroe Park campus predecessor). During his last year at the school he served as editor and writer of the RPI student newspaper, the Proscript. His column that school year was entitled “Robbin’s Nest” and then “Walks on the Wild Side.” Robbins was concerned about the future of Monroe Park, threatened by corporate and political interests, to write about the park in the March 12, 1959 issue of the student paper. Below is an image of his column about Monroe Park. Here’s the link to the issue (download the file as a PDF):

http://dig.library.vcu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/rps/id/3165/rec/444

John Banister Tabb

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This post comes courtesy of Hollywood Cemetery’s FaceBook page:

John Banister Tabb was an American poet who received national and international recognition for his poems.
At the age of 17, he joined the Confederate Navy as a blockade runner, bringing supplies from Bermuda and Nassau to the Carolinas. He was eventually captured by Union troops and imprisoned at a Federal prison camp in Maryland. There he met fellow prisoner, Georgia poet-musician Sidney Lanier. Bound by their talents in music and poetry, Tabb and Lanier shared a life-long friendship.
Tabb went on to become a Roman Catholic priest and a professor of English. His poems were widely published in various prestigious magazines, and he became one of just two American writers admitted to the Oxford University Press Garland Series of Epigrams (1916).
He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Section 20, Lot 62 following his death in 1909. One of his poems is engraved on his tombstone:
If life and death be things that seem
If death be sleep and life a dream
May not the everlasting sleep
The dream of life eternal keep