From announcement:
Join Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, along with representatives from international software giant Microsoft and independent software agency Avepoint to launch Richmond’s new citizen service platform RVA311 today from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. at the Welcome Center of the Main Street Station at 1500 E. Main Street.
You should. They showed up Saturday morning and took part in the Fifth District Cleanup. Thanks to them, Hands On Richmond, RVA Clean Sweep, and Councilperson Parker Agelasto’s office for organizing. We always hope for greater turn out next time.
502 Laurel Street, 8:30 am
From ad on Craigslist:
We are having a fancy yard sale in Oregon Hill on Saturday June 16th, 8:30-2:30.
502 S Laurel St
There will be clothing, vintage stuff, electronics, records, art stuff, photo stuff, letterpress printing stuff, tables, bicycles, and some odds and ends.
and
626 S. Pine Street, 8 am to noon
Described as a porch sale. From ad on Craigslist:
Household items
Bicycle accessories
Jerseys
Rep samples
Bike locks
Rocking chair
Beer equipment
Jewelry
Cabinet
Editor’s note: Michael James is a native Richmonder who has been giving history tours and writing about Richmond for twenty years. Recently he established a new blog which contains both his music and his stories. He asked to share this post with OregonHill.net readers, which I am happy to do. It’s a good reminder of just how special and lucky we are to live in Oregon Hill. Happy Flag Day!
Hollywood Cemetery – Three Presidents and a Pyramid
Hollywood Cemetery is a 130 acre cemetery on or next to “Oregon Hill“, overlooking the James River. Crowded with tombstones, memorials, mausoleums and obelisks, it can be easily identified looking west from the Lee bridge (Rte 1) on the north side of the river.
Originally a part of the Belvidere estate of William Byrd III, son of Richmond’s founder William Byrd II. Bushrod Washington who purchased it in 1795 and sold it prior to his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1798, would have been located in today’s Oregon Hill, an old blue collar working class neighborhood, now mostly student housing. The estate was sold to Jacquelin Harvie prior to the 1819 financial panic, who had earlier unsuccessfully sought to create the town of Sydney, now part of today’s Fan District. Thirty years later, the cemetery was laid out on the western edge of Belvidere, called Harvie’s Woods. The cemetery was originally established in 1849 by William H. Haxall and Joshua Fry, who were inspired by the “rural garden style” of the Mount Auburn Cemetery they had visited in Boston and laid out by architect John Notman, who had designed Philadelphia’s “Laurel Hill” cemetery.
Two U.S. Presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler are buried in President’s Circle, pictured above, along with scores of other prominent Virginians and approximately 1,800 Confederate soldiers. Jefferson Davis is buried in another section of the cemetery along with some other Confederate luminaries.
After the battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863, the remains of Union soldiers were carefully exhumed from the battlefield and ceremoniously re-interred at the new Gettysburg National Cemetery where Lincoln gave his now famous address calling the nation to finish the work their sacrifice made possible.
“that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.
The Confederate dead, buried unceremoniously in shallow graves and trenches, were left on the battlefield farmlands. Likewise, Union dead were treated similarly in the South. After the war, the man who was hired to oversee the grisly disinterment, Samuel Weaver, a local teamster merchant, was accompanied by his young son Rufus, who would one day leave his mark in the field of medicine with his significant research on the human nervous system. Samuel Weaver died in 1871, just as discussions to exhume the Confederate dead began in the south.
The Gettysburg farmers were more than happy to allow Rufus, who was now in medical school and the obvious choice for the “undertaking” of the task, which required knowledge of human anatomy and a familiarity with the terrain, to proceed.
Rufus, now in medical school, was the obvious choice for the task, which required knowledge of human anatomy and a familiarity with the terrain. The Gettysburg farmers were more than happy to allow him to proceed. Funds were raised in Richmond by a committee of ladies who formed the Hollywood Memorial Association to front him enough money to get started.
Never thrilled about being elected, Rufus managed to disinter nearly 3,000 bodies and ship them to Richmond, but when it came time to collect, he was unable to find anyone to pay his bill. The ladies apparently spent the rest of their funds on the parade and pageantry on the way to the cemetery. He ended up getting “stiffed” to the tune of about $1,000.
The Hollywood Women’s Association put up the Monument to the Confederate Dead near the Gettysburg graves. It was designed by engineer Charles Dimmock, whose brother, Marion J. Dimmock, was the architect the soldier’s chapel behind Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the old farmer’s market in Oregon Hill, now part of VCU’s Cary Street Gym.
From City Council liaison extraordinaire Amy Robins:
Hi folks! The Oregon Hill 5th District cleanup is THIS Saturday, June 16.
I drove a decent number of your alleys this morning and do not feel there is actually enough to warrant a truck. It appears (minus the storm delays) that the every two week bulk pick up program is working. Additional alley cleanups have been scheduled for the big August 1 move out to make sure your alley aren’t trashed. I know we all vwant to make sure we are using our tax dollars wisely.
This cleanup will be focused on street litter and graffiti removal off public property. We are happy to do private property but the property owner needs to provide the paint and sign this waiver:http://www.richmondgov.com/PublicWorks/forms/GraffitiRemoval.pdf
AND call me before Friday so I can add it to the TO DO LIST. 804-646-5724
FaceBook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1999082900374103/
Editor’s note: Speaking of views, you may notice that I have changed the theme on this website. I took down advertisements since no one was paying me regularly. I am going to try to re-work things over the summer and maybe add some new features. Please get in touch if you are an Oregon Hill resident who knows a bit about WordPress and would like to help. Just please be committed…I have had people in the past who have not lasted long at all. This site could certainly generate some good part-time income and benefits for the right person.)
While it’s dizzying to keep up with VCU’s empire, and all of its acquisitions, citizens should also try to keep abreast of VCU’s connections to state and industry.
This morning the Virginia Nuclear Energy Consortium Authority board met in a building close to Oregon Hill.
From the Sierra Club Falls of the James press release:
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2018
CONTACT
Joe Brancoli, Chairperson of the Sierra Club Falls of the James Executive CommitteeSierra Club: Terminate the Monroe Park Conservancy’s Lease, Remove Board President Massie
RICHMOND, Virginia – At the May meeting of the Sierra Club Falls of the James (SCFOJ) Executive Committee, a vote was taken to update and republish last year’s public letter by the SCFOJ Executive Committee to the Mayor and City Council which called for an end to the lease agreement with the Monroe Park Conservancy. (Note: a copy of the 2017 SCFOJ letter can be found at this link: https://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/2017/01/sierra-club-falls-of-james-letter-to.html, please do review its statement of facts.) This new resolution follows multiple, unanswered requests for meetings with elected officials, despite their pledges for more public oversight. The new resolution also makes the additional request that City Council ask the Monroe Park Conservancy to remove Alice Massie from her position as the president of the Conservancy.
The past year has seen growing public outrage against the Monroe Park Conservancy for its actions. It is worth noting that, after being closed for 19 months and with none of the previous projected finish dates being met, the Monroe Park renovation is ridiculously behind schedule and over budget. The renovation has used over 4 million dollars in public taxpayer money and it is not apparent where additional funds will be found to complete the renovation. The problems are legion:
We are concerned that granite curbstones adjacent to sidewalks were not reset properly after the sidewalk was removed, as well as shoddy brickwork overall. We are also concerned about the renovation of the Checkers House, which is listed as contributing to the Monroe Park Historic District, because alterations may affect its inclusion on the National Registry of Historic Spaces.
We agree with near-by neighborhood associations that the signage that the Monroe Park Conservancy has proposed for the park is inappropriate. Superfluous signage clutters the sight lines in the park and detracts from the natural beauty. The Monroe Park Conservancy has once again applied to the Urban Design Committee to place a large (3.5 foot high) billboard for corporate donors in a prominent position at the main entrance to the park across from Sacred Heart Cathedral. Despite most of the funding for the renovation has come from taxpayers, this sign would prominently advertise corporations/institutions such as Dominion Energy and VCU at this area of our city’s most historic park, overwhelming the Department of Historic Resources’ highway marker that cites the park’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. There are alternatives to this billboard such as engraved pavers that would not detract from the park’s natural sight lines. Alice Massie, President of the Monroe Park Conservancy, mislead the City Planning Commission by stating that permeable pavers cannot be engraved.
An ugly electrical control station was placed right next to the World War II memorial in Monroe Park, blocking it. This disturbed the site lines and sanctity of the elegant memorial, which was designed by famous landscape architect Charles Gillette in 1951 and is listed as a contributing structure to the Monroe Park Historic District as included on the National Register of Historic Places. The Memorial, renovated to U.S. Secretary of Interior Standards circa 2005, consists of a masonry structure with limestone sheets upon which names of the city’s World War II war dead are inscribed and is adorned with 2 brass eagles and features two black granite benches which were donated by A. P. Grappone and Sons, Inc. stone works, at the time of the renovation. Original 2009 work documents had located two electrical control stations in the eastern portion of the park near Belvidere and near Pine and W. Main Streets, and, while it is not apparent who ordered the change, it appears to have been done to accommodate surrounding private development. Veterans and their families have publicly complained about this insensitivity of this clunky station placement.
In December 2016, 15 healthy mature trees were destroyed without the city seeking or gaining a departmental variance. A project supervisor applied to the Urban Design Committee and Planning Commission for approval after the trees were destroyed but both bodies refused to approve the destruction post facto. Since then, more old-growth trees have been destroyed despite requests from the public and the City’s Planning Commission that the Monroe Park Conservancy consider alternatives. The stated goal of the Conservancy is for the park to serve as ‘a green living room’ that is completely self-sustainable. With trees playing such a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming, and so much of the historic tree canopy now destroyed after having been declared in conflict with the mechanical bio-retention feature in the park, the environmental logic behind the Monroe Park restoration project is flawed.
Recently, in the location of the destroyed trees, a huge corporate tent was erected for a month that further damaged and monopolized a whole portion of the park, killing all of the vegetation beneath it. This block long tent “feature” is being actively marketed by the Monroe Park Conservancy and the management of the Altria Theatre for paid functions, effectively displacing the larger community from using this public green space.
On the same fateful evening that the Conservancy was awarded the lease to the park, City Council also unanimously approved Resolution 2014-R64-64, which called for the Conservancy to diversify their board with community stakeholders and neighborhood representatives within 60 days. Alice Massie, who is the current president of the Conservancy, signed this agreement with Council. But in the 4 years since signing this agreement, the Conservancy has consistently refused to add neighborhood representatives to the Board. The community volunteers listed on their website do not represent or report to their respective neighborhoods. The refusal to honor this agreement is especially troublesome because the 2008 Master Plan, overseen by Rhodes and Harwell, and which was celebrated for the transparency and public participation that went into it, has been ignored and altered, including the removal of a children’s resource area in order to place the huge corporate “tenting” area.
There are reports that the Monroe Park Conservancy has submitted a set of rules dictating use of Monroe Park but this draft has not been made available to the public. These rules must be approved by Richmond City Council, but the public should also have the opportunity and time to review and comment on these rules before they are arrive before City Council. Supposedly, this is currently under the purview of the City of Richmond’s Capital Projects, and (possibly) Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Departments. The public eagerly awaits a chance to review these rules. The Sierra Club urges free and unrestricted use of this PUBLIC park at no cost by all individuals
and community groups, as has historically been the practice in Monroe Park.Given the abandonment of a publically-approved plan, the obvious desecration of historic and natural features, the cost overruns and long-extended construction timeline, and the continuing embarrassing eyesore of a stalled construction zone in the center of Richmond, it is clear that the Monroe Park Conservancy has failed to meet its responsibilities to the City and must be held accountable for this travesty. In closing, it’s not often that the Sierra Club calls for the removal of a non-elected, non-government official, but in this egregious situation, it makes sense to demand more accountability. For this reason, the Sierra Club is asking again that the Mayor and City Council terminate all agreements with the Monroe Park Conservancy, and demands that City Council ask the Conservancy to remove President Alice Massie as a demonstration of no confidence. The Monroe Conservancy may yet accomplish a decent, renovation of Monroe Park, but it is very clear that the wooded, historic, Victorian, PUBLIC park that citizens cherished and loved has been irreparably and callously destroyed. The responsibility falls squarely on City government to correct its lack of oversight in regard to this very flawed ‘public private partnership/development’, and the Sierra Club is joining Richmond citizens to demand immediate action.
***
Pass the vibranium.
Laurel Street neighbor Tommy Birchett is hosting a show this Friday at the Black Iris, over on Broad Street.
From the venue’s website and Bandcamp.com:
Tommy has opened several times for his friend and fellow musician Tatsuya Nakatani, a Japanese avant-garde sound artist and master percussionist who has released over 80 recordings and tours internationally.
