A report confirms that Venture Richmond is installing stairs on the steep slopes leading into it’s “Tredegar Green” area from the “Brown’s Island Way” street – one where the tow path intersects the street, and two on the upper tier.
For eleven years now I have enjoyed attending the annual Folk Festival held on Richmond’s riverfront, a short walk from the neighborhood. This year was no exception. I caught such great acts as the Cambodian American Heritage Dance Troupe, The Campbell Brothers, Feedel Band, Grupo Rebolu’, Zedashe, and others. For me the highlight was two sets of wonderfully cosmic jazz by the Sun Ra Arkestra. Sure, I could nitpick, but overall the Folk Festival Committee continues doing an excellent job with programming the festival. Having dabbled in music booking and management, and having volunteered for the Folk Festival in the past, I have some idea of the challenges they face.
This past weekend was blessed with great weather and the crowds were there. There were still a few issues with traffic and jackasses parking illegally in the neighborhood, but it was better than some previous experiences with riverfront events. Hopefully these issues can be negotiated in a respectful manner so that they are not issues in the future.
That said, a huge opportunity was missed to highlight one of Richmond’s most important historical resources. I am, of course, talking about the James River and Kanawha Canal, designed in part by George Washington, built with slave labor, and the biggest and most significant public project in Virginia’s antebellum period. Among other common sense proposals for the new “Tredegar Green” area, neighbors have repeatedly requested a sign or historic marker west of Tredegar Iron Works for the Canal, listed since 1971 on the National Register of Historic Places. How many of the estimated 200,000 or so festival attendees knew about the historic Canal they were walking by? Venture Richmond left it without any sign and treated it like just a regular drainage ditch.
How many of the artists who performed on the ‘VCU Health stage’, set up IN THE CANAL, knew the historic significance?
It was a bit surreal to watch the Irish group The Alt perform on this site where Irish immigrants had toiled and died, without any acknowledgement by the festival. A simple sign, as requested, would have worked.
At times, Richmond leaders and academics talk about how Richmond history is so much more than the Civil War, and how more pre-Civil War accomplishments and stories need to be told. Despite all this talk, Richmond’s leaders often do not live up to their promises in this regard. (Something the late Mark Brady and many others have experienced). Sometimes they are more interested in destroying these important legacies, sometimes to the point that they jeopardize future opportunities.
The Folk Festival is great at sharing and presenting stories of people from all around the world (and we all hope it continues to do so), but that is why it is so incredibly disturbing when Venture Richmond ignores and diminishes our own.
The Penitentiary Basin was dammed at the beginning of the 19th century, between Oregon Hill and Gambles Hill and below the Va. State Penitentiary. It served as an important turning basin for canal boats traveling the James River and Kanawha Canal. Canal boats offloaded supplies, and there was a canal boat building business in the Basin. The 1876 Beers Atlas shows the Basin below Oregon Hill at a time when canal boat traffic was being replaced by the more versatile railroads. In March 1880 the James River and Kanawha Company conveyed all of the canal property to the Richmond Alleghany Railroad, and the Penitentiary Basin soon was filled in and became a busy rail yard with turntable and machine shop. The 1889 Baist Atlas shows the remarkable transition from the previous decade as the extensive railroad infrastructure replaced the canal boat traffic. The water from the James River and Kanawha Canal continued to power the waterwheels at Tredegar Iron Works well into the 20th century. The attached photograph shows a steam engine beside the canal filling up with water from the tower located at the former Penitentiary Basin. Pratt’s Castle on Gambles Hill can be seen directly above the water tower. The former Penitentiary Basin is now owned by NewMarket Corporation, and it is hoped that they will be respectful of the rich history of this site.
Photo credits:
Canal/Railroad photo, Library of Virginia;
Baist Atlas, 1889, VCU Libraries;
Penitentiary Basin, Beers Atlas, 1876, Library of Congress
The following letter was sent from an attorney hired by the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association on June 17 to members of City Council, the Mayor’s office, Richmond Police Department, and others.
Dear elected and appointed officials of the City of Richmond:
We represent the neighborhood associations of Oregon Hill and the Overlook.
The citizens of Oregon Hill and the Overlook have engaged with Venture Richmond in a series of discussions, and today have provided a set of draft conditions for the consideration of Venture Richmond in their proposed zoning request to the City for the Tredegar Green Amphitheater.
The homeowners and residents of Oregon Hill support (and enjoy) robust public use of the riverfront and specifically do not oppose reasonable use of the Tredegar Green property. However, like any neighborhood of homeowners in the City, they have reasonable concerns about adverse impacts on noise, parking, trash, public safety and the like. And, like any neighborhood of homeowners in the City, they have a legitimate expectations that these adverse impacts will be reasonably addressed by a zoning applicant and by their City officials.
To assist Venture Richmond and the City, we have prepared a proposed set of conditions that we feel reasonably address the adverse impacts of use of the Tredegar Green property. Attached are that set of conditions and an explanatory cover letter to Venture Richmond counsel Bill Axselle.
We look forward to working with Venture Richmond and the City as the zoning application goes forward. In that process, we submit these conditions to allow the uses that Venture Richmond envisions while reasonably protecting the neighbors on Oregon Hill.
We welcome your input and assistance in this regard.
Thank you very much,
Andrew R. McRoberts
Attorney
Sands Anderson PC
From: McRoberts, Andrew R.
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2015 1:31 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: Oregon Hill Proposed Conditions for Tredegar Green AmphitheaterBill, here are our proposed conditions and an explanatory cover letter. We look forward to working with you in addressing the Oregon Hill neighborhood’s reasonable concerns.
We learned this morning – too late to affect these conditions I promised you today – that the Richmond Police Department (“RPD”) may wish for the applications for event management plan approval to go through another department or agency rather than the RPD. Although I have not discussed this with my clients, I anticipate that shifting the receiving/approving agency to another department or office which works better for all would be acceptable to us. As I mentioned in the cover letter, a number of City departments may be involved in review of a proposed event management plan.
Thanks for your assistance,
Andrew
Andrew R. McRoberts
Attorney
Sands Anderson PC
Attachment: Letter to Hon Ralph L. Axselle Jr 6-17-15 (Editor’s note: click here for PDF)
Phil Riggan, who now writes the “Why Richmond, Why?” column for the Richmond Times Dispatch, earlier this week presented his final project for his VCU studies, a plan for making the Kanawha Canal between Oregon Hill and Bosher’s Dam into a recreational ‘blueway” for the James River Park system.
Click here for a copy of his presentation. A full written report/plan should be available in the near future after Riggan makes some final edits.
A couple of points about the plan- It was made with the help of the Friends of James River Park and the James River Outdoor Coalition. Nathan Burrell, the Director of James River Park, afterwards remarked that he thought it was actionable and doable now, as long as there was permission of stakeholders (CSX, Department of Public Utilities (DPU), and others) and available financial resources. It has already received letters of support from the James River Association and the Falls of the James Scenic River Advisory Committee.
Riggan knows about the 1988 canal restoration plan (the one that Venture Richmond ignored) and says he has included it in his final report. It is noteworthy that his plan starts with “Mile 1” at the start of the North Bank Trail near the S. Cherry cul-de-sac, and not “Mile 0” near the Lee Bridge. Riggan’s plan recognizes that DPU needs to complete engineering in order to get the water level right for recreational traffic (elevation verified at 83 feet). Some Oregon Hill neighbors are suspicious that perhaps that was the real goal of the Tredegar Green amphitheater, to damage the historic Kanawha Canal to the point where now the terminus of the “rewatered” canal is at “Mile 1”. That said, Riggan’s plan comes from a recreational paddling sport perspective and if it is successful, it may increase pressure for FULLY renovating, re-watering, and re-connecting Richmond’s historic canals.
After the historic Tredegar wall was illegally demolished several years ago, and much controversy resulted, several promises were made to rebuild the wall.
Recently, a neighbor who works in historic preservation has been helping preparations to finally start work on rebuilding the wall.
However, this website has recently learned that there are new plans to rebuild the wall at least twenty feet higher than its previous height. No one could comment on this development at press time.
While it remains a mystery as to the exact reasons being given for this raise, there is some speculation on the need to use ‘extra’ historic bricks that will be made available from the planned updating of old City Hall. Some Oregon Hill residents believe the higher wall will be used to host community movie screenings, while others believe that the City is preparing the wall for river level rise due to climate change.
Please stay tuned as this story develops.
From announcement:
The rezoning of the amphitheater below Oregon Hill will be considered at the meeting of the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association Tuesday, March 24th at 7:00 pm at the William Byrd Community House, 224 S. Cherry. This rezoning has the potential to negatively impact the quality of life in Oregon Hill in terms of noise, parking, etc.
Venture Richmond Director Jack Berry, City Planning Director Mark Olinger, City Councilman Parker Agelasto are scheduled to attend this meeting.
Please attend the meeting and share your concerns!
Thanks!
RVAnews.com has an article on the history of Irish immigrants in Richmond.
Excerpt:
Most Irish men in the 1830s worked to construct the Kanawha Canal, which had been conceived a half-century earlier by George Washington as a means of transporting people and freight from Richmond to the coast. This would have been incomprehensibly grueling labor. The Irish worked alongside slaves to dig deep channels through the hard red clay, knee-deep in mud and at the mercy of the mosquitoes that would have thrived in the stagnant filth. Yellow fever, malaria, and cholera were rampant. After a particularly hot summer in 1838 during which several workers died of exhaustion, about 200 Irish immigrants fled Richmond to seek safer work in the North.
According to an official in the City’s Dept. of Planning and Development Review, the Location, Character and Extent item for the Brown’s Island Way fence and gate (UDC #15-02) has been withdrawn from consideration from the Planning Commission. It will appear on the agenda for the meeting on March 2nd as a formality, noting its withdrawal. That agenda should go out later today.
For background on this, please visit the following links:
Fences of Contention III
Fences of Contention II
Fences Of Contention (I)
