Category Archives: history

AVAIL’s “scuffletown” Still Resonates (and “with dominion at our door”)

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From their 1998 “Over The James” album, legendary local hardcore punk band AVAIL blasted the song “scuffletown” at a searing 1 minute and 18 seconds with the following lyrics:

There’s kepone in the river
But the river’s still flowing east
Ethyl ‘dozed the planet
In an attempt to keep the downtown clean

Still it’s a beautiful day
And the sun is still shining over the James

Oregon Hill is at end time
VCU crept up and lit the torch
West Ave. honkeys don’t forget
That trains still run north

Third per-capita
Next year number one

Couple of quick notes-
Local band Kepone, named after the local chemical disaster, just had a reunion at the GWAR-B-Q.
Ethyl, now known as NewMarket, owns much of the Richmond riverfront, something which is becoming more of an issue recently.
And, yes, VCU is still a concern….
Though in a few ways, Richmond is different from ’98, when there was speculation that it would go from third most murderous city in the country to number one.

Now as far as Dominion Power is concerned, Jim, there is the following reference in the AVAIL song “The Falls” off the 2002 Front Porch Stories album–

i’ve been broke and forlorn and caught out with the best at acca yard
oh it just goes to show, to desert friends like these streets
i would be crazy
to all the years full of backyard parties
winters in hibernation
to assaulting views with dominion at our door
healing but scarred

Brookfield Group Home Story Has Oregon Hill Roots

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Richmond BizSense carried this story today: Glen Allen nonprofit shuts down

Here is an excerpt:

Brookfield Group Home, a rehabilitative facility for teens and young women, shut down in June. The organization on Brook Road has been around since 1874, and until recently provided housing, counseling, transportation and other services to female youth with behavioral and emotional problems.
Executive director Tim Reading wrote in an email to BizSense that the nonprofit had ceased operations effective June 30. He would not comment further on why the nonprofit was closing or whether the residents would be transferred to another home.

How does this relate to Oregon Hill?

Neighbor Charles Pool has the local history:

Yes, there is a direct link between Brookfield and the Parsons House, which took some tracking down. Here is some info from my Parsons House report:
In 1874 the Magdalen Association established the Spring Street Home at the Parsons House as a home for rehabilitating “women of the street,” and later provided care for unwed mothers. In 1932 the Spring Street Home moved to the 90 acre “Brookfield Estate” off of Broad Street where the Richmond Hyatt is today. The Brookfield name was adopted and the agency continued to care for unwed mothers. The new president of the agency announced that, “We wanted to call it ‘Brookfield’ instead of the Spring Street Home to save the girls from any embarrassment in being in a ‘home.'” In 1968 Brookfield sold this valuable property at the I-64 interchange for $1,280,000 and moved to the location on Brook Road near the Henrico-Hanover boundary. Brookfield maintained the original motto of the Magdalen Association: “Ut Misercordiam Obtineant” (They Shall Obtain Mercy). In 1975 the mission of Brookfield changed from working with unwed mothers to helping adolescents of both sexes.

There Is A Wolf

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A recent Style Magazine story on Coby Batty reminded me of a post that I have wanted to do for a while:

(click here to hear the song)

There is a wolf, she sees with golden eyes;
She follows me, she knows my lonely mind;
How many times she is singing in my dreams and she knows all my songs;
And if I am right, she will sing along…

At Idlewood and Cherry late at night;
The moon is full, the Hill waits for the sun;
Ol’ Salome and haze settle along the yellow lines
Hollywood bones love to sing along…

(I still need to capture that full moon though)

912 Idlewood

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Yesterday’s flooding pictures on Idlewood brought to mind the structures that used to be along that stretch of road. Click here for a 1997 photo of 912 Idlewood on Flikr.

Here’s the caption:

This former storefront / house on the 900 block of Idlewood Avenue burned and was demolished in 1998. It sat at the alley immediately south of the 200 block of south Cherry Street. The community garden is located precisely where it and its neighbor at 914 sat. Oregon Hill, Richmond.