From the archives of the Times Dispatch:

August 18, 1905, Image 6

Dance in A Good Cause
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Dancing will be a most enjoyable feature of an entertainment for the benefit of smallpox sufferers on Oregon Hill, to be given at Forest Hill Park Monday night, August 28th, by Mrs. Alice Meitz. Tickets may be obtained for 50 cents at the residence of Mr. E. T. Davis, No. 507 Belvidere Street, and at Marston’s drug store, on Pine Street.

An article appeared in the Times Dispatch on August 10, 1902, entitled “Dogs At The Pound And The City Hall; A Curious Reporter Goes Through The Tax Books at Treasurer’s Office And Studies Dog’s Names”.

But in the eyes of the dog catcher all dogs look alike, whether they be the petted spaniels and pugs of Franklin street owners to the flop-eared hounds of Oregon Hill.

For experience has taught the man with the net that the tie that binds the master and his dog is a strong one, and that the owner of a worthless cur will go to as much trouble to redeem his captured canine from the dog pound as will the owner of a blooded registered setter.

Some recent events may have prompted the article, like the watchman kicking Mr. Berry’s dog.

From the newspaper archives of the Times Dispatch:

Two guards were yesterday ordered to patrol that section of the City south of Spring Street and east of Belvidere Street, where citizens have been exposed to the disease.

Dr. W.T. Oppenheimer, President of the Board of Health, and Mayor McCarthy held a conference yesterday morning and decided that it was imperative to have the guards placed on the infected section of Oregon Hill to see that no one entered the houses that were quarantined.

At the risk of being alarmist, history does tend to repeat itself, and citizens should be prepared.

From the newspaper archives of the Times Dispatch:

July 22, 1905, Page 2, Image 2

GEORGE RICE DROWNED
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Was Bathing In The Canal Near Hollywood – Body Recovered
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George Rice, the thirteen-year-old son of Dick Rice, of Oregon Hill, was drowned in the Canal, near Hollywood Cemetery while in bathing yesterday morning.

The body was recovered by Pat Woods, who dived for it.

The Tuesday, July 14, 1903 edition of the Times Dispatch reports of ‘torpedoes’ going off under a streetcar on Laurel Street during the tense times of a labor strike.

It sort of puts the previous post in perspective…I have been fascinated by the now-online archives of Richmond newspapers. Most of the stories I have read so far that mention Oregon Hill are about dogs, smallpox, and violence, but there are also beautiful descriptions of the neighborhood that could easily apply to today.

Do yourself a favor and search and read through them sometime. I will be sure to be including more Hill history now that these are available.