WTVR reports on yet another James River rescue from this afternoon:
Virginia State Police and the Richmond Fire Department rescued a woman and two girls from the rocks near Belle Isle in Richmond Saturday afternoon.
The group made it out onto the rocks, but was unable to get back due to high water.
Thankfully no one was hurt.
Reminder- when the river level is high like it is now, everyone must wear a life jacket by law.
OregonHill.net and seven other sites are today launching Small Richmond, a new site featuring local independent news in the city.
The eight participating sites cover core Richmond geography and
areas of interest. We are stoked to partner with Church Hill People’s News, Brookland Park Post, Dogtown Dish, Randolph RVA, Richmond Outside, Springhill RVA, and VCU Ram Nation to connect Richmond readers and publishers.
Contact John Murden at murden@gmail.com or (804)564-1360 to suggest a site for inclusion, if you would like to set up a community blog for your area, or for more information.
From email announcement:
Community Movie Night
Friday, June 24
Pleasants Park
Free Refreshments: Food will be available at 8:00 pm
Movie will begin shortly after
This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.
If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.
In Virginia recycling news, students at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, are petitioning the high school to upgrade its recycling efforts by replacing current trash and recycle bins with integrated waste receptacles with clearly labeled bins for “recyclables” and “landfill.” Students are concerned that the current blue recycling bins at the school are being treated as regular trash cans by a majority of students, undermining the school’s recycling effort. Please consider signing their petition (click here for link) and encourage this to be a statewide effort.
From under the Lee Bridge last night….
Tourist maps are always fun for their distortions as well as their inclusions and exclusions.
The photo below is an excerpt from “The Character of Richmond”, circa 1990, made by Atlantic Graphics. It seems more oriented towards Fan businesses and notably left out all of the Southside. I got it from former Oregon Hill neighbor Greg Wells, who has a booth or two at Mixie’s in Mechanicsville. He has more copies of this map for sale, along with a lot of other cool memorabilia, Richmond and otherwise.
I have seen more recent ones around town that leave Oregon Hill out, showing just the Virginia War Memorial right next to Hollywood Cemetery.
Anyway, this post also gives a little foreshadowing to an announcement coming this Thursday.
Shortly after 9 pm last night a fire broke out on the second floor of 223 S. Cherry Street.
According to a neighbor’s report, the young resident had not been aware of the incident until she arrived home and said that her neighbor’s door had been busted in to get to the fire but that the fire seemed to be confined to a stairway area and it smelled like an electrical fire.
(Speculation is that the fire started when the power came back on for most of the neighborhood after Thursday’s storm.)
Thankfully, no one was injured and, from the rear of outside the building, it does not look like there was much damage.
Oregon Hill residents are very, very appreciative of the fast response and good work of the Richmond Fire Department.
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By the way, this is not just another apartment building. It was built as part of Grace Arent’s legacy and originally housed the Instructive Visiting Nurse Association (IVNA), one of the earliest forms of public health care in Virginia.
From a 2009 Richmond Magazine article from Harry Kollatz, Jr:
The IVNA provided health care for young mothers, babies and the chronically ill who could not afford proper care. A building she constructed in 1903 for St. Andrew’s teachers at 223 S. Cherry St. became in 1911 headquarters for the IVNA. The IVNA, founded in 1900, is today the largest noninstitutional, nonprofit home health-care agency in the Richmond region.
“I can’t believe it,” said RVA author Dale Brumfield. “Why hasn’t someone done this before?”
On Thursday, his plan for a marker commemorating the Virginia State Penitentiary was approved unanimously by the state Department of Historic Resources
…
Brumfield, who is writing a book about the old state pen, became fascinated while researching one of the countless legends about the place.
“Four prisoners went into the penitentiary but never came out,” he said. Legend had it they ran up gambling debts or otherwise ran afoul of other inmates and were ground up or incinerated.
“It just blossomed,” he said of the wealth of history that opened up as he peered back at the huge masonry monster that loomed over the shoulder of Oregon Hill from 1800 — when the first 21 prisoners were marched in — until it was razed in 1992.
“What else in Richmond lasts that long?” Brumfield said.
Here are some earlier OregonHill.net posts about the old penitentiary:
https://www.oregonhill.net/2015/10/22/virginia-state-penitentiary-richmond-filmed-in-1991/
https://www.oregonhill.net/2015/08/06/railroad-in-the-penitentiary-basin/
https://www.oregonhill.net/2011/10/02/virginia-penitentiary-records-now-available/
https://www.oregonhill.net/2015/06/25/1867-mitchiemicheler-corps-of-engineers-map/
https://www.oregonhill.net/2014/11/28/man-bird/
https://www.oregonhill.net/2013/07/22/view-of-oregon-hill-from-across-belvidere/
https://www.oregonhill.net/2009/10/17/this-jurys-a-terror-to-citys-evil-doers/
https://www.oregonhill.net/2009/08/31/times-dispatch-1905-capture-fleeing-convicts/
It’s worth noting that Oregon Hill as a neighborhood will also be getting a historic marker, probably near the Idlewood roundabout whenever that project is finished. And the James River and Kanawha Canal west of the Lee Bridge should also receive a historic marker at some point in the future.
From neighbor Todd Woodson:
Ive just been informed there is a “site redesign” from the Monroe Park master plan. It is a substructure in front of the Altria theatre to accomodate the tent that goes up on occasion for corporate events. Ive seen nothing in the planning commission schedule about a hearing and believe it may be an end run. My understanding also is that VCU will be more involved in the day to day management of the park than the conservancy. VCU advocated about ten years ago for cutting down most of the old growth trees in the park. I dont like where all of this is heading and I say the park belongs to the people.