From the Valentine Richmond History Center:
May 28 Historic Cemeteries Tour (10am-1pm) Free for all veterans! BUS TOUR
Commemorate Memorial Day with a tour of Richmond’s historic cemeteries, including the Old Negro Burial Ground, St. John’s Church, Shockoe, Hebrew, Woodland and Hollywood Cemeteries. Learn about their layout, evolution as parks, artwork and notable tenants. Reservations required: (804) 649-0711 x301. Meet at the History Center.
From The American Civil War Center At Historic Tredegar:
Join us as we explore the roles women played during the American Civil War. From nurses, workers and spies, these remarkable women not only maintained the homefront, they were instrumental in what happened on the battlefront!
Saturday 11:30 am to 12:30 pm
From announcement:
Famous for cataloging all things River City, the Valentine Richmond History Center is venturing into a different kind of historical archiving – tattoos. In 2010, the Today Show ranked Richmond the third most tattooed city in the nation. Because of this, the History Center is expanding our horizons and archives to include Richmond tattoos. Terry Brown from Terry Brown Photography has partnered with the History Center to help us capture images of Richmond’s best ink. The best photos will become part of the collection and many will be featured in a photo exhibition that is scheduled to open in October of this year.
The first photo session will occur this Sunday, April 22nd and then another is scheduled for Sunday, May 6 with appointments still available. If you have a tattoo inked by a Richmond artist and would like to be considered for an initial appointment, call me at (804) 649-0711 ext. 322, email pr at richmondhistorycenter.com or complete an online submission form http://www.styleweekly.com/tattoo. Please include photos of your tattoo(s), the artist’s name and/or the studio.
Thank you to our partners on this project – Style Weekly, Candela Books and Terry Brown Photography.
Hopefully, Oregon Hill’s Salvation Tattoo will have some representative tattoos.
From The Daily Dispatch: March 29, 1865:
Fire
–About 4 o’clock yesterday morning a fire broke out in Mr. William Priddy’s dwelling- house, on Oregon Hill, which resulted in its entire destruction, together with nearly all the furniture therein. It is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary. Considering the unseasonable hour at which the fire occurred, and the great distance from the engine-houses in the city, the firemen arrived on the ground in an incredible short time. Though they were unable to save Mr. Priddy’s property, yet much other property adjoining was preserved from destruction by their exertions.
Note from one of our neighborhood historians:
I’m fairly certain this is an ancestor of William (Bill) Priddy, City of Richmond Chief Plumbing Inspector that lived on the 300 block of S Pine St. In 1876 (map) W Priddy is living in a house about where the Walker’s live on Pine St.
Richmond Times Dispatch has a local baseball history story. Here is an excerpt:
Over the years, pro teams played all around the city: at a ballfield at what is now Monroe Park, at a couple of parks on Broad Street, at several locations in the Fan District, and even City Stadium.
“A lot of people don’t realize there was a ballpark there” at City Stadium, said Russell Rowe, 89, a standout semipro infielder who enjoyed a long association with the game. “It was probably the best ballpark in town. It was excellent. It had a grass infield. Never got a bad hop.”
Rowe grew up on Oregon Hill and as a kid used to walk with his brothers to Colts games at Tate Field on Mayo Island, an intriguing little park that was used for nearly 50 years but, as you might expect from its location in the James River, had a recurring problem with flooding. But water wasn’t the problem on one of Rowe’s most memorable visits to Tate Field; fire was, consuming the grandstands, concession areas and dugouts. When word spread of the fire, Rowe rode to the park with his girlfriend and her father to watch it burn. Tate Field is gone, but Rowe’s girlfriend, Audrey, is still his wife. They’ve been married more than 65 years.
The fire pushed Colts owner Eddie Mooers over the edge. The former player and manager, who made his money running a car dealership, decided to leave Mayo Island and build his own park, Mooers Field.
It was a business move, as so many of them are in the world of professional sports. Mayer said fans often pine for the days of yesterday when baseball “was only a game,” but in pro ball, those days never really existed. He recalled a legal battle in the late 1890s between two Richmond trolley companies, each wanting a stake in the local team. The reason? A new Broad Street ballpark was on one trolley line, but the old ballpark, on Main Street, was on the other company’s line. Baseball meant more riders, so each wanted to dictate which ballpark was used.
From online poster:
In partnership with the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, the Library of Virginia, the Valentine Richmond History Center, Floricane is excited to present: RIC/RVA – 400 years of Revolution, Innovation, and Change in #RVA. It’s an i.e.* sanctioned series, and we think it’s going to change the way you think about #RVA’s past – and its future.
Presented in four separate events, beginning March 14th, RIC/RVA will introduce participants to a whole new way of looking at Richmond; past, present, and future. From the River City’s earliest drug lords to a celebration of our current creative renaissance, this event series will be part education, part creative engagement, and 100% entertaining!
Check out the details for each FREE event below, and get ready to see your city with new eyes!
FOUR WEDNESDAYS
5:30PM – 8:00PM
STARTING MARCH 14*
The third session on April 11 is at Tredegar.
The History Is Elementary blog connects the dots with a post called Myths, Memories, and Music.
Hey, boys this is Hollywood. It ain’t home, but It’s home for good. We’d walk away from here if we could…never come back again.
And later in the song…..
Then General Pickett strode right up to me and in a troubled voice he said, “Ya’ll ain’t learned a damn thing from history….”
Former Oregon Hill resident Joan Cook Charles kindly sent in this advertisement (the picture includes her father Willie Cook):
Excerpt from Times Dispatch article:
Richmond’s fiery last days of the Civil War will immerse visitors in a new interactive version of history at the American Civil War Center when an $8 million fundraising campaign is complete.
The campaign announced today has already secured pledges of $6.3 million from board members and riverfront neighbors of the center at Historic Tredegar.
A total of $4 million in contributions will come from NewMarket Corp. and Bruce C. Gottwald, chairman of both the Tredegar board and NewMarket’s executive committee.
MeadWestvaco has made a $500,000 commitment.
The most obvious change to the museum property will be a $3 million building connecting the current exhibition space with administrative offices.
A 100-seat theater within the new building will present a $1.2 million production tentatively called “Richmond on Fire,” said Christy S. Coleman, president of the Civil War center. The 12- to 15-minute immersive experience, “where scholarship meets showmanship,” will involve all the senses, she said.
“It will tell the story of those harrowing days at the end of the war (when the waterfront was set on fire by departing Confederates) with the purpose of exploring how the nation got to this point. We want the visitor to … have a greater emotional connection when they go into the exhibits.”
A $450,000 working model of Tredegar Ironworks in 1865 will be built in an area where the Richmond Folk Festival has children’s activities. Other improvements in interpretation at the center will include $300,000 in exhibit upgrades and $200,000 for outdoor interpretation through mobile devices.
In partnership with the National Park Service and the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, the campaign also will provide $350,000 to create a Gateway Orientation Center in the Pattern Building.
One of the smile-producing additions will be a cannon made from the same mold that Tredegar used, said board member S. Buford Scott.
“We are hoping to fire this cannon at noon every day and remind Richmond we are the gateway of the Civil War and a place to visit,” Scott said.
Gottwald, in an announcement of the campaign, said people need to remember that Richmond was the focal point of a war that cost 625,000 American lives. “A substantial part of this disaster occurred right here, right within earshot of our city.
I meant to post this earlier- Richmond Magazine writer Harry Kollatz Jr. explaining how Pixar’s latest connects to a Richmond cemetery mausoleum, or how the American Civil War met Mars, or how…well, here’s an excerpt (but you should really just *click here* to read his entire post on John Carter craziness):
In Burroughs’ telling, a telegram of March 4, 1886, summoned him to the Hudson River cottage of his uncle, Capt. John Carter, in New York state. But Burroughs learned that Carter, the direct descendant of Robert “King” Carter (1663-1732) of Shirley Plantation and a Confederate cavalry officer, had died that morning. Burroughs discovered in the cottage’s safe his uncle’s will, a hefty manuscript and detailed burial instructions. In accordance with these, Burroughs writes, he removed the body to the “strange mausoleum in the old cemetery at Richmond.”
Among Richmond’s “old” graveyards were Shockoe Hill at Hospital and Second streets, opened in 1822, and Hollywood, laid out in 1848. Hollywood is the likely candidate for a “strange mausoleum.” (And the name is prophetic, considering that John Carter has finally gone Hollywood.)
The burial directions included that Carter be laid in an open casket and that “the ponderous mechanism which controlled the bolts of the vault’s huge door be accessible only from the inside,” as Burroughs wrote in 1918.
(My guess is that none of these details are in the film; maybe if it had been adapted by a cable network and shot like a Merchant-Ivory production or the 1984 release Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan of the Apes.)
Weirder than Carter’s elaborate last wishes, though, were the papers he’d entrusted to Burroughs. The narrative within described 10 years of adventuring on Barsoom — otherwise known as Mars — fighting for and against four-armed green men and, after numerous battles, marrying “the ever beautiful Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium,” not to mention becoming the great friend of Barsoomian warrior Tars Tarkas. Carter became a prince of the house of Tardos Mors and jeddak (emperor) of Helium on Barsoom.
Burroughs, a failure in almost every pursuit, began submitting “edited portions” of Carter’s writings as serialized fictionalized shorts in pulp magazines in 1912. These stories accumulated into 11 books published between 1917 and 1964.
Cue the movie trailer:
