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.

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