Belle Island Moonshine

Richmond Bizsense.com has an interesting article on a new ‘craft distillery’ that is named after our beautiful island park, Belle Island.

An excerpt:

Production in Chicago, however, is only temporary. The team hopes to open a Richmond distillery in early 2014 and is close to signing a lease. They would not divulge an exact location but said they would like to set up their stills in Manchester.

“We want to have that river view, the city skyline – that’s where we want to be,” Wotring said.

The company’s founders would not disclose how much of an initial investment would be required to open the moonshine factory but said they recently brought private investors into the business. Marks, Wotring and Riggi plan to maintain their current businesses after launching their planned distillery.

About 30 area bars have picked up Belle Isle Moonshine, and 50 cases are set to ship this week to the ABC warehouse on Hermitage Road.

Another Riverfront Plan? This Wednesday At The Va. War Memorial…

From Church Hill People’s News:

The Virginia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (VA ASLA) will hold a public input meeting for the James River Corridor Viewshed study within the City of Richmond.

The viewshed study is being conducted by the VA ASLA in association with the national organization of the American Society of Landscape Architects as a community service project which each state chapter is conducting or has conducted within the year 2013.

The meeting will take place on Wednesday November 20, 2013 at the Virginia War Memorial Building at 621 S. Belvidere Street, Richmond 23220. The meeting will be between 6-8PM in the Freedom Hall room.

Anyone with an interest in James River Corridor is welcome to participate.

Contact VA ASLA at (804) 523-2901 or marykidd@vaasla.org with any any questions.

Tredegar Takes In Museum of Confederacy To Form New Civil War Museum

It was alluded to earlier, but now it has been announced. From NBC12:

Now the Museum of the Confederacy and the American Civil War Center are joining forces to build a $30 million museum in Richmond with the goal of creating the top Civil War museum in the nation 150 years after the deadliest conflict fought on U.S. soil.

The marriage of museums, announced to The Associated Press, will meld the collection of Confederate battle flags, uniforms, weapons and other historic relics with a narrative-based museum that uses bold, interactive exhibits and living history events to relate its 360-degree telling of the war.

In a joint announcement, the museums said the new historic attraction in the former capital of the Confederacy has yet to be named, but $20 million has been committed to its construction. Ground will be broken in 2014, with an expected opening the following year.

The new museum will be located along the James River, at the Tredegar Ironworks, where much of the South’s cannons were forged during the war. It’s also the home of the Civil War Center. The museums said bringing together both institutions will “further establish Richmond as the foremost Civil War destination in the United States.”

While other news sites are just reporting the announcement, many are still digesting what this means. A more nuanced reflection from an unnamed Oregon Hill neighbor:

Hmmm … no comment on the fate of the authentic White House of the Confederacy, coveted by VCU. And the $20 million pledged for this new museum would have gone a long way toward building a slavery museum in the authentic location in Shockoe Bottom. I wonder what proportion of that $20 million is being pledged by VCU foundations and their donors.

Between turning the canal location into an amphitheater, turning the slave market location into a ball park, and ceding the White House of the Confederacy to VCU, we are really at risk of losing the city’s authentic history.