Sundial

In Hollywood Cemetery, in front of the massive mausoleum for Lewis Ginter, is found a very modest sundial marker for his heir and niece, Miss Grace Arents.

On the sundial reads the words: “FROM SCHEME AND CREED THE LIGHTS GO OUT THE SAINTLY FACT SURVIVES THE BLESSED MASTER NONE CAN DOUBT REVEALED IN SAINTLY LIVES.”

Miss Grace Arents was the “patron saint” of Oregon Hill. With her inheritance from Lewis Ginter, she generously gave to the Oregon Hill neighborhood. Among her remarkable contributions are the St. Andrews Church, the William Byrd Community House, the Grace Arents School (now Open High) and the Grace Arents Housing on Cumberland St., perhaps the first and finest subsidized low-income housing in Richmond. (This Grace Arents Housing is now fenced off and the neighborhood is concerned that the future of this important part of her legacy is threatened.)

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