Pandemic Panorama: Richmond Day After Easter 2021 Scenes

 

Richmond, Va. is a medium-sized Southern city (population approximately 225,000) with a nice mix of the old and the new.

This was my stomping grounds while a student at VCU in the early 1980s. Richmond was where I kind of found myself. And it’s where my Alesia is from and where we started to date. So lots of good, positive memories from Richmond! 

CHURCH HILL

The day after Easter I did some sightseeing here with Alesia and her brother Blake. It was a pretty spring day and we had all had free time with no one in a rush to be anywhere. 

One stop with its great views of downtown is Church Hill where these photos were taken. This area is also known as the St. John's Church Historic District. Keep reading to find out why. 

Richmond has a great amount of early American history beyond and before its role as the capital of the Confederacy during the civil war.

As addressed in my previous blog post (link here), part of the city’s rich history has been under fire and most long-standing Confederate monuments have come down (except at Hollywood Cemetery-keep reading)

I wanted to visit Church Hill because for two-and-a-half of my three years going to school at VCU I had an excellent part-time job at WRVQ-FM radio (Q94). 

Q94 was in this building along with WRVA news radio. Back then they were owned by Harte Hanks radio (today Entercom owns Q94; iHeartMedia owns WRVA). Both stations are still on the air today but left this location long ago. What a view of the city we had through these large windows.!

My job was as assistant to News Director Treda Smith. It was a tough job in that I had to be at work at 4:30 in the morning four days a week. On Sundays, I went in at 10 p.m. to play programs including “American Top 40” with Kasey Kasem from 2-6 a.m. Mondays. 

Working here plus my broadcasting courses at VCU motivated me to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. See my LinkedIn site for a summary of the stations where I was a TV news reporter and anchor. 

Also on Church Hill is this famous church where American patriot and founding father Patrick Henry made his famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech at St. John’s (Episcopal) Church (pictured) in 1775 during the Second Virginia Convention. 

This church dates all the way back to 1741. 

I would have liked to walk around St. John’s graveyard but it was locked. Edgar Allen Poe’s mother was buried her. Wow! 

Across from the church is this historic sign. The traitor Benedict Arnold led British troops to invade Richmond in 1781. I never knew that! 

Virginia Commonwealth University

When in Richmond it is always fun to stop by my undergraduate alma mater Virginia Commonwealth University. I hit the school bookstore and bought a VCU t-shirt in the school colors yellow and black. 

The heart of the downtown campus hasn’t changed too much in the, gosh, more than 35 years since I was a student here. 

My last semester or two at VCU I had a very sweet living situation in this old house right across from the school library. The photo top right shows the white library and to its right the house where on N. Linden Street. I had my own place- no roommate- on the first floor. My good friend from high school Dom lived on the third floor for a while during his Georgia Tech internship at the big Philip Morris cigarette plant. 

This is when Alesia and I began to date. This photo was taken in the living room of my very cool one-bedroom pad. Glad I still have my old photo albums! 

I used to tease her about this  “sailor suit” outfit she liked to wear. She was a beauty then and is still so today. I’m one lucky guy! 

Below is a picture of the corner house that is today a VCU office (something called the Moseley House  Equity and Access Unit). A small park across the street had a statue of a Confederate artilleryman. The monument was removed last summer during racial unrest after the George Floyd death at the hands (or better-said knee) of police in Minneapolis.

 

My well- worn VCU ID card. Eventually I graduated with a B.S. in Mass Communications! 

I was already working my first news job in Washington, N.C. (WITN-TV) when I received my diploma. I had finished in December and did not attend the graduation ceremony the following May. 

HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY 

A visit to Richmond would not be complete without at least 30 minutes to an hour spent at this beautiful, interesting cemetery. 

My interest in old gravesites is well documented but Hollywood Cemetery has a very personal connection for Alesia because this is where her parents were laid to rest. They are here in the lovely mausoleum along the James River. She paid her respects and then we drove and walked around the hilly necropolis for a little while. 

 For me historic Hollywood Cemetery is always a great place to take pictures. I've included photos here in previous blog posts, including this one in 2013. 

For a Civil War buff like me, this cemetery’s thousands (more than 18,000 to be more specific) of Confederate veterans and war deaths are always noteworthy. 

There are several areas (like above) specifically for Confederates. Many others (below) are mixed in throughout the 135 acres. 

(Above) Here are the graves of two brothers who both lost their lives fighting for the Confederacy. Gen. John Pegram (Lee's "paradoxical cavalier according to this very interesting article) fell in February 1865 at the Battle of Hatcher’s Run in nearby Dinwiddie County and Col. William “Willy” Pegram a few months later at the Battle of Five Forks in Virginia, one of the last as Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was being pushed toward surrender at Appomattox by Union commander Gen. Ulysses Grant.  
Here is a very interesting account by Willy Pegram after witnessing the "Battle of the Crater" in Petersburg in July 1864. Many Black Union troops were executed by the Southerners during and after this battle. 

Confederate Gen. George Pickett of “Pickett’s Charge” fame (or infamy?) at the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg. Pickett is among 28 Confederate generals buried at Hollywood Cemetery.

Cavalry Gen. Jeb Stuart, killed at the Battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864, is revered to this day. Usually there are lots of flags, picture, gifts and other tokens left at Stuart’s obelisk. But on this day there was nothing perhaps due to the pandemic or the racial unrest- or both. 

The photo below I found in an old photo album from my Richmond days. It’s of the grand Jeb Stuart monument that stood for a century on Richmond’s Monument Avenue. The statue, along with those of other important Confederate leaders, came down in 2020. See my other new Richmond post that covers that topic and those changes. 

I have been surprised over the years to see headstones with my last name Harwood here at this Richmond cemetery. In fact there are many Harwoods here, according to findagrave.com, which has listings of 86 Harwoods interred here!  I have always learned and thought of my relatives coming from Maryland. I may have to research this more. 

One of the harwoods buried here, George Daniel Harwood (1818-1896) had a tragic death when he was struck by and later died from injuries a runaway horse on a downtown Richmond street. The findagrave.com link just given has details about his misfortunate after a long career as a merchant. 

All in all, a splendid day we had visiting downtown Richmond, even had a very good slice of pizza at a place near VCU. 

Richmond remains a rugged, vital, vibrant, and industrialized Southern city on the James River. It will always be a favorite place to visit.