The Chamberlayne Avenue properties were vacant when they were acquired and have remained unoccupied since that time. They have been for sale since February 2009. There have been very few inquiries regarding the properties, and, as of mid-February, when the Foundation applied for a demolition permit, no serious offers had been received. The Robins Foundation concluded that it could be several years before the market improves enough to complete a sale at a fair price. Given the poor state of the economy and the ongoing costs and management challenges associated with the properties, demolition appeared to be the most prudent and economical course of action.

Recent publicity has generated some inquiries regarding the properties and the Robins Foundation is prepared to consider any serious offer for a purchase. The asking price has been reduced, and we would certainly be pleased if an early sale could be arranged.

We first covered the story here and here.

The full text of the email response is after the jump.

At the risk of reciting a story with which you are already familiar, I’d like to provide a little background on the history of our ownership of these properties. The properties at 4200 and 4202 Chamberlayne Avenue, as well as an adjoining lot, are owned by Early Learning Associates LLC (“ELA”), a limited liability company. ELA, in turn, is owned by the Robins Foundation. The properties were purchased in 2005, with the hope that they would be the future home of a state-of-the-art family learning center. The Ginter Park Residents Association (“GPRA”) decided to oppose this use. A series of mediation sessions, led by independent professional mediators, took place during 2006, but it proved impossible to find common ground.

ELA and the Robins Foundation concluded that they would not pursue the project at that location due to the strong opposition it received from the GPRA. It should be emphasized, however, that resistance to the project was not unanimous. Many residents saw the potential benefits that the family learning center would bring to the community, as well as the opportunity to engage the Robins Foundation as a partner in the revitalization of the neighborhood. ELA and the Robins Foundation even offered to retain the buildings on the properties and incorporate them into the proposed plans for the family learning center. The GPRA demanded that adjoining properties be acquired in order to secure its support for that approach, which was not economically feasible.

The family learning center concept includes a high-quality preschool, classrooms for adult education and office space for nonprofit organizations that serve Northside residents. Another site, at 800 W. Graham Road, was acquired and construction is now in progress. Residents of the Battery Park community have welcomed the project with enthusiasm.

The Chamberlayne Avenue properties were vacant when they were acquired and have remained unoccupied since that time. They have been for sale since February 2009. There have been very few inquiries regarding the properties, and, as of mid-February, when the Foundation applied for a demolition permit, no serious offers had been received. The Robins Foundation concluded that it could be several years before the market improves enough to complete a sale at a fair price. Given the poor state of the economy and the ongoing costs and management challenges associated with the properties, demolition appeared to be the most prudent and economical course of action.

Recent publicity has generated some inquiries regarding the properties and the Robins Foundation is prepared to consider any serious offer for a purchase. The asking price has been reduced, and we would certainly be pleased if an early sale could be arranged.

Thank you for your interest, and please be assured that the views of all the stakeholders are receiving careful consideration.

Sincerely

Bill Roberts
Executive Director
Robins Foundation

The Richmond Police Department needs the public’s assistance in locating a murder suspect.

Tion Randell Bates, 18, is wanted in connection with the murder this evening of Keith Lamont Brunson, 23, of the 200 block of West Home Street.

At 5:50 p.m. Richmond Police received a call regarding random gunfire in the 1200 block of St. John Street. When officers arrived, they found Brunson next to a vehicle deceased from a gunshot wound.

Two other men also were injured by the gunfire. They were taken to VCU Medical Center. Their injuries are not considered life threatening.

Bates is a black male, 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 190 pounds. His last known address is 237 Knighthood Court.

Anyone with information about Bates’ whereabouts or information about Brunson’s murder is asked to call the Richmond Police Tips Line at 514-TIPS (8477) or Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.

This brings the City’s murder total for 2010 to seven. RVANews provides a google map of the murders.

Units working a 2nd alarm fire in the 1700 blk of BELLEVUE. NFD

FIRE in the 17OO blk of BELLEVUE AVE UNDER CONTROL.

2927 Garland Avenue is listed as a contributing structure in the Brookland Park Historic District, making it eligible for state and federal historic tax credits. This 2-story stucco residence has a wide front porch and entry with transom and sidelight windows. Please call the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods at (804) 644-5040 for more information or to make an appointment with property director Lane Pearson.

• Zoned: Residential Two-Story
• Description: 35″ wide x 135″ deep
• OPTION ASKING PRICE: $52,500
• Contact: Lane Pearson, 804-644-5040, lpearson@richmondneighborhoods.org

Info on ACORN’s option properties

This is when A.C.O.R.N. purchases selling options with our Revolving Fund on vacant or abandoned buildings in Richmond’s old neighborhoods. An “Option To Sell” gives A.C.O.R.N. an exclusive right to find a purchaser for the property during a specific time frame at an established price. This means that A.C.O.R.N. would use the agreed upon period of time to find a purchaser committed to renovating the property. A.C.O.R.N. does not profit from the sale of an option, by keeping prices as low as possible we hope to move more properties back to productive use.

You can read more here.

The Robbins foundation, owner of the properties, has said that it will consider all serious offers.

The foundation is asking for $425,000 for both properties combined.

More on ACORN’s site as well as from NBC12.

• John Marshall had two sweeps last year with zero arrests and zero contraband found.
• Henderson had zero sweeps.

The majority of the drugs found were marijuana or over-the-counter drugs.

¹ The article is missing spaces between the columns of data.. So instead of 20 drug sweeps at John Marshall, you should read that as two sweeps with zero arrests.

As I was pulling up to the intersection at Hermitage and Westbrook, I noticed a granite type headstone in the median. It had four letters engraved on it. Does anyone know what that is or referring to?

Anyone? Anyone?

Learn how to grown your own vegetables and flowers by starting them from seed. We’ll discuss everything you need to know to successfully start seeds for your garden, how to prepare your garden soil & how to care for your young seedlings. We’ll also discuss popular vegetable varieties that will grow well in this area.

Info

• When: Saturday, February 27, 10am-12pm
• Location: Bryan Park Greenhouse
• Instructors: Allison Mesnard & Stacey Moulds
• Cost: $20
• Contact: allison@tricylegardens.org

The City of Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities is closing the main entrance to Bryan Park off of Hermitage Road tomorrow morning, Feb. 26, at 7 a.m. while it makes repairs to a broken water main.

The department estimates that the main entrance to the park will be closed to vehicular traffic for five to six hours. During this time the park will remain open, however there will be no vehicular access to the park.

Another of Richmond’s historic parks is also getting a remake. On the city’s north side, one project in Bryan Park is already complete and another is underway. The dredging of the park’s Azalea Garden pond (shown at right), which was choked with cattails, has been completed, and the pond’s fountain has been restored, completing this project. In addition, work on the lake wall at Young’s Pond, located on the north side of the park, is underway. The heavy fall rains and the winter snow have delayed this project, but once completed, Bryan Park will also regain much of its former glory.

Anyone got a current picture of the fountain in action?

Agenda

• 2010 Richmond Real Estate Tax Assessments
• James Hester, Richmond City Assessor
• Richmond City Council Office of the Assessor of Real Estate

Richmond City Councilman Chris A. Hilbert, Northside 3rd District, will hold a meeting in the Northside 3rd District. Councilman Hilbert holds individual meetings in Richmond’s Northside 3rd District throughout the year that include information on his goals and accomplishments; a topical agenda; and, special guests. The meetings are free and all Northside 3rd District citizens are invited and encouraged to attend.

The build will run from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. every Wednesday-Saturday from February 24-April 24.

Check out http://engage.richmond.edu/habitat.html for more information.

Union-PSCE students, faculty and staff will join the staff of the Presbytery of the James to form a human chain from the Presbytery office to a waiting truck to load more than 2,000 hygiene kits that will be sent to Haiti.

The rest of the press release is after the jump.

On Wednesday, February 24 at 1:30 p.m., the group will make this symbolic human chain as a way of showing unity and continued community ministry to the citizens of Haiti. The kits contain items such as a hand towel, washcloth, comb, nail clipper, soap, toothbrush and Band-Aids.

“The Presbytery of the James is joining with Union-PSCE in a cooperative effort to support Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in response to the tremendous devastation following the earthquake in Haiti. In the face of natural disasters, violence, or grinding poverty, hygiene kits can mean the difference between sickness and health for struggling families,” explained Carson Rhyne, General Presbyter of the Presbytery of the James.

“While we know the hygiene kits are a drop in the bucket compared to the enormous needs of the country, we hope this effort will send a message to our Haitian brothers and sisters that we care and we pray for them” says Brian Blount, President of Union-PSCE.

Members of the Richmond community who are interested in joining are welcome to come and lend a hand.

Union-PSCE (soon to be Union Presbyterian Seminary) offers graduate degree programs on campuses in Richmond, Va., and Charlotte, N.C. and through the Extended Campus Program (EXCP), to prepare men and women for Christian ministries. Founded in 1812, it is one of ten theological seminaries of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

Barton Heights began as a real estate development project in the fall of 1880s, one of several contemporary efforts to create new suburban towns just outside the Richmond city limits in Henrico County.

The Barton Heights Historic District

1. Introduction
2. Early History
3. James H. Barton and the Speculative Suburb
4. Architectural Analysis
5. Barton Heights Cemeteries
6. Maps of Barton Heights
7. Credit and Sources

Introduction

Barton Heights is a turn-of-the-twentieth-century residential quarter of the city of Richmond, Virginia. The first of a number of private and speculative developments outlying the city’s Northside, it was touted as a haven for the renter class of managers and clerks, for whom easy terms would finance first houses and electric rail service would give quick access to the city center. The town of Barton Heights was a rapid success, surviving the panic and flight of its founder James H. Barton in 1896 to produce a tight-knit community that welcomed annexation in 1914 and prospered as a middle-class neighborhood through the mid-century.

The Barton Heights Historic District is among the earliest of several turn-of-the-century streetcar suburbs in north Richmond. Spacious wood frame houses, most built in the first quarter of the twentieth-century, are sited on fw-foot-wide lots plotted on the neighborhood’s gentle hills. The primary impetus for the development was the 1890 construction of the First Street Viaduct, a steel frame structure built by the developers at a cost of $35,000′. This essential Viaduct linked Richmond’s downtown to the district’s “heights,” by bridging the industrial area at the foot of the Bacon Quarter Branch ravine.

Early History

The land that later became Barton Heights was first laid out north of “Duval’s & Coutts’ Addition” in 1806, when Major William Duval speculated that the new capital of Virginia would grow north and west of the new statehouse. Duval, grandson of French Huguenots, had petitioned the General Assembly in 1804 to extend the western boundary of the city to the junction of Brook Road and Westham Road on the west end of Richmond. Duval’s land lay east and north of Brook Road. Major Duval was a Richmond attorney who served as mayor of the city (1804) and later as a delegate in the General Assembly representing the city. Patrick Coutts (d. ante 1795) was a merchant in the city whose properly joined Duval’s.

In 1813 William Mitchell laid out his 102 acres in the grid that is identifiable today as the historic corporation of Barton Heights. Already Barton, Lamb and Monteiro Avenues drive north, although their names originally honored species of trees rather than land speculators: Pine Street, Oak and Poplar. The cross streets were numbered in the Henrico survey of 1813. First Street is today’s Wellford or School Street, Second is Minor Street and Poe Street was Third Street. The later site of James H. Barton’s mansion house on Monteiro at Vale can be discerned in the shift of the lot line of lots 38&44 in Mitchell’s survey. Mitchell’s Springs, which would become the source of Barton Heights water supply nearly a century later, was a well-known gathering spot in the years between Mitchell’s failure and Barton’s success.

James H. Barton and the Speculative Suburb

Born in 1837 in Pennsylvania, James H. Barton arrived in Arkansas after the Civil War with the Union troops. He had been secretary to Powell Clayton who was a Brigadier General in the Union Army and later Governor of his adopted state and its U.S. senator. Barton was enterprising and soon became a co-owner of a Little Rock newspaper, the Republican.

By the time he came to Richmond in 1889 his immediate past experience had been in land development in Little Rock and Memphis, Tennessee. According to reports he had developed “hundreds” of new houses in the two cities. Barton purchased twenty acres north of Duval’s Addition, an impressive height at the conjunction of two ravines. His notion was to present a wholesome site to a newly rising class of clerks and professional people, offering as inducements easy terms on the land and buildings, what might be called renting to own: “Parties wishing a house at once can select their lots, make a reasonable cash payment, have a house erected, and when it is completed can make small monthly payments for all the unpaid money due for the house and lots. Lots are for sale at $15 a front foot, upon a payment of $25 cash and $5 a month, with 6 percent interest.”

In addition he promoted the construction of a viaduct across Bacon Quarter Branch, connecting the Heights to First Street and providing easy access to the center city. By 1894 a streetcar line (operated by the Richmond Railway and Electric Company) was ferrying his new landowners to and from the new suburb, technology unheard of in 1889. Cars first ran along Monteiro Avenue to Poe and west to a terminal (a prominent cedar tree) at North Avenue and Kersting Street (later Cedar Tree and still later Graham).

In time, service expanded to accommodate growth of the neighborhood and cars ran to Brookland Park Boulevard, Chamberlayne Avenue and eventually out to Lakeside. This new mode of transportation continued to spur growth beyond Barton Heights. Barton was a tireless promoter, taking advantage of the Letters to the Editor columns to pitch growth in Richmond. Barton was so successful that in less than six years (1896) Barton Heights had been incorporated a town in Henrico County.

James H. Barton made his own home in the development and his frame house, “Corner Minor,” figured prominently in the brochures and pamphlets that advertised the neighborhood throughout the town’s first two decades. W. P. Veitch, a granolithic paving contractor, was the owner of Barton’s mansion on Monteiro throughout the 1900s and 191Os, after which the property became a sanitarium. Still standing at the intersection of Monteiro and Vale, the now stuccoed house sits in the same large park that housed the town’s water supply at Mitchell’s Springs. Unfortunately he was less effective as a bookkeeper and fled the city under cover of darkness to avoid his creditors when bad practices and a depressed economy disgraced this “genial” newcomer that same year. In later years the judgment on him was not so harsh, his failures attributed to “fickle fate.”

A 1906 brochure promoting the virtues of this early suburb includes this glowing description:

Barton Heights is a model residence town. It has no saloons, no slaughter houses, no manufactories, no dirt-breeding or disease-breeding nuisances of any sort…. Its citizens are interested in a variety of important enterprises, but these are conducted in the main in the big city to which the town is immediately joined, and from whose noise and heat and dust and turmoil these toilers gladly escape to the quiet, peaceful and beautiful homes they have built or bought on the “Heights”.

Reorganized, the town continued to grow and in 1907 Henrico County ceded the lands to the town north of the original development, bounded by Roberts on the south and Graham Road on the north. Fendall still provided the western limit and the lot lines behind Lamb Street were the eastern boundary.

Other citizens of the new town included a number of Barton’s early associates. In 1907, H. Lee Lorraine, president of the Brookland Railway & Improvement Company (which leased track to the streetcar companies) lived at 400 Barton Avenue. His son H. Lee Lorraine Jr. lived at 912 (now 2308) Barton Avenue. He is listed as a clerk with the American Locomotive Company. The Raglands were a family of contractors and W.Lauman Ragland, sometime mayor of the town, was the principal builder for Barton. He lived at 500 (now 2000) Barton Avenue at the corner of Poe Street, and the family firm’s engineer Beaufort S. Ragland was living there in 1950. John E. Rose, a plumbing and steam fittings’ contractor and mayor of the town in 1906, lived at 702 (2202) Barton Avenue. lgnatius Bluford, proprietor of a new and used machinery concern lived at 2000 (500) Monteiro Avenue, which is sited prominently at the corner of Poe Street. Thomas W. Gardner, an attorney with Gardner & Lightfoot lived at the corner of Lamb and Graham (then Kersting).

Members of the Barton Heights Baptist Church were among the most prominent of the neighborhood. The Baptists moved to the corner of Virginia (Rose) and Wickham in 1892, to a building designed by Barton’s building superintendent John H. Rogers, also a member of the congregation. The Rev. Robert Healy Pitt was pastor of the Barton Heights Baptist Church from 1892 to 1897. He lived at 2118 (718) Lamb Avenue into the 1930s while he was editor of The Religious Herald, the principal Baptist publication in the state. An outspoken critic of attempts to outlaw the teaching of evolution in public schools, he was credited with defeating such legislation before the Virginia General Assembly”.

Other members included Olivia (Mrs. S.A.) Hazelgrove whose house at 610 (2020) Barton Avenue continued as the residence of her son, L. Conway Hazelgrove, a lawyer, in 1940. Jesse H. Binford, later superintendent of schools for the city lived at 2114 (714) North Avenue, before moving across Brookland Park Boulevard in 1922 to 3031 Noble venue”. William M.Luck sometime treasurer of the church lived at 2201 (801) North Avenue. H. Lee Lorraine, already mentioned as president of the Brookland Railway & Improvement Company, was a congregant, as were Frank B. Traylor, who owned lands north of town (later part of the Norwood subdivision in Brookland Park) and George Knox Crutchfield, a miller who lived at 2107 Lamb.

Throughout the first half of the century, the neighborhood was a middle-class white community, enforced by rental covenants and property values. The proximity however, of Postletown to the south (St James Street becomes North Avenue; St John, Rose Ave; and St Peter is today Miller Ave) influenced a steady pressure from African-American populations to look for housing in the district. As early as 1906, the Barton Heights Grammar School at 410 (1800) Miller Avenue near School Street, just outside the corporation lines of the town, was designated “colored.” In later years the name was changed to Valley View School. The school was closed by 1940.

Architectural Analysis

Large Queen Anne style homes have dominated the neighborhood since its earliest years, though Colonial Revival style houses became increasingly popular as the neighborhood reached maturity in the 1920s. Several Colonial Revival style apartment buildings are found in the district, with clusters on Monteiro Street near the Viaduct, and on Wellford and Minor Streets.

The few commercial buildings in the Barton Heights Historic District are small-scale masonry buildings found on North Avenue and on Roberts Street at North. The neighborhood’s churches and schools were demolished and replaced in the 1920s and 30s with larger masonry structures in the Battery Park and Brookland Park neighborhoods.

The town enjoyed fresh water from wells and a reservoir located at “Corner Minor,” originally James Barton’s estate. The original well, known as Mitchell’s Spring, was established as a local gathering place prior to the development of Barton Heights. The first Barton Heights fire department, now demolished, shared space with other town offices at 2215 Lamb Avenue. Thetown had electrical service from its inception. A box-like, brick 1920s transformer building remains on Lamb at Fells Street.

Barton Heights’ primary streets, Barton, Lamb, Rose and Miller, named for prominent figures in the neighborhood’s early development, reinforce its north-south axis. That axis is most powerfully asserted by North Avenue, a roadway shared with Richmond’s first electric streetcar. In the southern part of the historic district some houses and apartment buildings front on the shorter east-west oriented streets such as Poe, Wellford, and Minor Streets. In Barton Heights most roadways are lined with mature trees, and a grass strip buffers concrete sidewalks from automobile traffic. Alleyways bisecting neighborhood blocks provide access to one-story frame garages and service sheds.

Though most of district’s earliest houses are Queen Anne in style, a few examples of ltalianate and Late Victorian houses remain.

Later buildings tend to be either large-scale Colonial Revival houses, bungalows, or American Foursquares, whose porch columns, balustrades and window types reflect the variety of styles and motifs popular in the first quarter of the twentieth-century. Although there are several brick buildings in the district, the vast majority of structures are frame with wood siding or coarse-surfaced gunnite. Gunnite is a cementitious finish frequently applied to exterior walls of American Foursquare houses.

Queen Anne (1890s-1920s)

As initially developed, the streets of Barton Heights were lined with wood frame houses with complex roof forms, angled bays, and wrap-around porches with turrets, spindle friezes and neoclassical columns.

Outstanding examples of the Queen Anne style can be found on each of the neighborhood’s major streets, with the greatest concentration on Monteiro, Barton, and Lamb Avenues. The Hazelgrove House at 2020 Barton Avenue is among the best-preserved examples of this style. It is a large hipped-roof single-family dwelling whose salient features include a three-story hexagonal tower and a turreted wrap-around porch with spindle frieze, and turned columns and balusters. Typical of the picturesque Queen Anne style the house presents asymmetrical massing with a variety of window sizes, material textures and colors. Polychrome floral designs are centered on the slate roofs.

“Corner Minor” (at 2112 Monteiro) and the Bluford house (at 2000 Monteiro) may be the most prominent houses in the neighborhood. Both are frame structures, parged with stucco, and, like the Hazelgrove house, they have towers, turrets, and multi-sided bays. “Corner Minor,” the only neighborhood dwelling to boast ornamental-block entry posts and a pofte cochere, was built on the neighborhood’s largest lot for the original developer, James H. Barton.

The Pitt House (at 2118 Lamb Avenue) represents a large, but less flamboyant, Queen Anne style house. This house is distinguished by the symmetrical massing of its facade and by the arched and recessed third-story porch. 2210 Barton Avenue and 201 Poe Street are Queen Anne style houses whose two-story porches feature distinctive friezes and balustrades.

Late Victorian 1890s-1900s

The Late Victorian style buildings in Barton Heights are typically wood frame, detached, single family houses with steep pitched gable roofs covered with standing-seam metal. In contrast to Barton Heights’ Queen Anne style houses, these are more vertically oriented, with less exuberant decoration. Their one-story porches span the facade rather than wrapping around one or two sides. Some have a false mansard roof on the facade only. In Barton Heights two rows of Late Victorian style houses are combined with a few isolated examples. A group of small-scale, L-shaped, circa 1890 Late Victorian houses is found in the 1600 block of Sewell Street.

The circa 1900 houses at 203, 205, 207, and 209 Wellford feature false mansard roofs with floral designs in polychrome slate. The roof cornices have molded metal cornices. The one-story hipped porch roofs once had spindle friezes and sawn brackets; these elements remain intact at 209 Wellford.

ltalianate (1890s)

The ltalianate style dominated Richmond’s urban architecture in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, although this style is not well represented in Barton Heights Houses. Typical ltalianate houses tended to have a vertical emphasis with a parapeted facade shallow-pitched shed roofs, bracketed cornices, and a paneled frieze. The two examples of Barton Heights’ ltalianate buildings at 1613 Monteiro and at 1602 Sewell are small-scale framehouses near the historic district’s southern edge. Nearly identical in appearance, both are shed-roofed two-story houses sided in weatherboard, with a one-story, three-bay front porch and a traditional ltalianate cornice and frieze.

Colonial Revival (1900s-1950s)

Houses of simpler massing and generic details, recalling American Colonial architecture are also prevalent in Barton Heights, as in all of suburban Richmond. Typically those in Barton Heights are weatherboarded, rendered in stucco, or surfaced with gunnite. Several prominent examples are constructed in brick or molded concrete block. In Barton Heights the Colonial Revival style is expressed in rectangular massing, simple molded casings, box cornices, and symmetrical window openings. Most of the roofs are hipped with cross gables, and are less complex than the Queen Anne style houses. The more high-style Colonial Revival examples have pedimented doors or entryways, dentils or modillions, and patterned upper window sashes.

Prominently sited at the Dove Street end of the Barton Avenue axis, 2009 Lamb Avenue (ca. 1920s) is a massive, hip-roofed house with a one-story wrap-around porch. Alternating courses of smooth and rough-faced ornamental cast block add visual interest, as do the red-brown tones of the sills and lintels.

Barton Heights commercial buildings at 2208 North Avenue and at 3 E. Roberts Street are also brick structures in the Colonial Revival style. 2208 North Avenue was originally constructed for Barney and Louis Briel, long time neighborhood grocers whose Colonial Revival house still stands in the Battery Park Historic District. Like the commercial building at 3 E. Roberts, the Briels’ grocery store presents a simple storefront with transoms and box cornices at the storefront and the roof. Both examples have apartments on the second floor.

More than thirly examples of the Bungalow style are found in the Barton Heights Historic District. They represent builder-designed houses constructed as the neighborhood attained full build-out. Most are American Foursquare houses surfaced with stucco or gunnite. These Bungalow style houses are wood frame with hipped roofs and raised, one-story, two-bay front porches with prominent piers. The roof rafters are often exposed within deep eaves, as in the examples at 2111 and 2113 Barton Avenue, and the roof is further accentuated with a centered dormer. The gunnite-surfaced houses at 1604 and 1606 Monteiro Avenue are very good examples of the Bungalowstyle interpreted in an American Foursquare type house. As is typical throughout the district this pair of very similar houses incorporates subtle differentiation. 1604 has terra cotta tile roofing while 1606 has a slate roof. The center porch pier at 1604 is truncated and topped with a planter while the center porch pier at 1606 is complete. Both houses feature paired double-hung wood windows, which are typical in American Foursquares.

Barton Heights Cemeteries

The Barton Heights Cemeteries in Richmond, Virginia are composed of six contiguous-and originally separate-burial grounds that appear today as one large cemetery. Although the boundary markers that once delineated the burial grounds have disappeared, the individual cemeteries were originally known as Cedarwood (formerly Phoenix Cemetery), Union Mechanics (formerlyUnion Burial Ground). Methodist. Sycamore. Ebenezer, and Sons and Daughters of Ham. The cemeteries were established between ca. 1815 and ca. 1865. Black churches. fraternal orders. and benevolent organizations were plot owners and their names and insignias are visible on some of the headstones. The cemeteries contain the graves of a number of Richmond’s prominent African Americans, including ministers, doctors, barbers. city councilmen, tradesmen, craftsmen, undertakers, and their families. Many of the records of the Barton Heights Cemeteries have been lost or destroyed and today, the cemeteries themselves are no longer in use. They are owned and maintained by the Cemeteries Division of the City of Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities.

As early as 1814, black Richmonders began to be concerned about the lack of places for burying their dead. By 1816, the City had established a public burying ground with “one acre for the free people of color, and one for the slaves in the City. ..contiguous to the Poor-House.” In January of 1815, the Burying Ground Society of the Free People of Color of the City of Richmond was established and purchased several lots for a cemetery on Academy Hffl in Duval’s Addition,just outside the City in Henrico County. This society and similar organizations established later acquired land for a burial ground and sold cemetery plots to individual subscribers who paid from $5 to $20. The cemetery became known as the Phoenix Burying Ground.

At least one piece of property for that cemetery was acquired from Christopher McPherson. who also owned a lot in the cemetery. McPherson was born a slave in Louisa County. Having received a few years of formal education, he became a clerk and an accountant in Fluvanna County for David Ross, a prominent man of commerce in late 18th-centuty Virginia. Most of the lot owners in the cemetery belonged to the free black elite of Richmond, including a number of free black barbers whose professions brought them into close and regular association with white society.

In the late 1840s, a second burying ground – the Union Burial Ground – was established on Academy Hill by the trustees of the Union Burial Ground Society. Land bought from free blacks Margaret and Peter Roper was laid off and numbered in sections of 14′ by 14′. Any free person could purchase a section for the cost of $10. Members of the society held a certificicate and interest of $50.00 in the bank for upkeep and repair of the graves.

Included among Union’s membership of twenty was Gilbert Hunt, a free black blacksmith who had rescued a dozen or more patrons when the Richmond Theater caught Are in December of 1811. The trustees laid out a constitution for the burial society proclaiming the members’ “deep interest in the welfare of our race and the importance of advancing in morality” and their belief that “the formation of a society for the interment of the dead will exert its due weight of influence.” The stones in the oldest section of the Union Burial Ground suggest that the individuals buried there represent a broader range of economic classes than do the early markers in the Phoenix Burying Ground.

Only a few monuments survive in these early burial grounds. The 1850s monument to barber John E. Ferguson (d. 1859 at age 49) and his wife Harriet (d. 1854 a t age 42) who were buried in the Phoenix Burying Ground contains this inscription for Harriet Ferguson: “None knew her but loved her.”

Ebenezer Cemetery was established before the Civil War near the Union Burial Ground. Land was purchased ca. 1858 for a burying ground for the membership a t Ebenezer Baptist Church. Little is known about the graves in Ebenezer Cemetery and today many of the stones have fallen or have sunk from view.

Markers in Ebenezer Cemetery include an obelisk erected for Rebecca Bowser , wife of Lemuel Bowser. The monument features a lamb within a n oval design. Amanda Cousins (1810- 1860).a free black seamstress in antebellum Richmond, is another of those buried in Ebenezer. Explorations in 1988in Ebenezer Cemetery revealed stones erected by white Richmonders for their slaves.
Another burial ground. the Methodist Cemetery. was located just north of the Union Burial Ground. While the Methodist Cemetery is shown on maps, no burial records for this cemetery have been found. The cemetery contains a headstone for Richard Forrester (1823- 1891), one of the first black members of the city’s Common Council, serving for eleven years between 1871 and 1882. Forrester was a dairy farmer and was the first of five generations of Forresters in Richmond, a well known and influential family. Forester served on the Richmond school board and was instrumental in hiring black teachers and improving black schools.

In 1864,the Union Burial Ground Society bought four contiguous lots, more than doubling the size of the cemetery. During Reconstruction, the burial ground societies were reorganized to deal wlth the disorder. The members of the Burying Ground Society of the Free People of Color of the City of Richmond wanted to improve the Phoenix Burying Ground and to “devise ways and means to make it a fitting ‘city of the dead.’” Reorganization also resulted in a n ew name, Cedarwood. The Richmond Dispatch approved, calling it “a very appropriate and pretty name.”

Cedarwood Cemetery is the burial place of black minister. Rev. Richard Wells (1870- 1901). Also buried in Cedarwood Cemetery are Gilbert Hunt, hero in the 1811 Richmond Theater fire, and Joseph E. Farrar (1830-18921,who served on the Richmond Common Council during Reconstruction. A contractor, Farrar was president of the Virginia Home Building Fund & Loan Association in 1877.

The Union Burial Ground Society was also reorganized during Reconstruction and its cemetery was renamed the Mechanics Cemetery. On maps of the time, the cemetery is designated as the Union Mechanics Cemetery. Trustees for Union Mechanics included Benjamin Harris and John H. Adarns. Union Mechanics Cemetery contains an impressive monument to Benjamin Harris (1818-1904) and his wife, Eliza. Other notables owning plots in the Union Mechanics Cemetery included Rev. R. J. Bass, Rev. Thomas H. Briggs, Rev. William Gray, and Rev. Martin Jenkins.

One of the best known of those interred at Union Mechanics was Rev.John Jasper,the dynamic black minister of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Jackson Ward. Jasper became nationally known for his sermon. ‘The Sun Do Move” in which he proposed that the earth was flat and stationary. At his funeral in 1901 thousands were in attendance and numerous ministers spoke of his life and faith. Jasper’s remains were later reinterred at Woodland Cemetery, as were the remains of others originally buried in the Barton Heights Cemeteries. The headstone for James H. Bowser (1850- 1881)is located in Union Mechanics Cemetery. Bowser was one of the 1st black teachers employed in Richmond’s public schools.

The cemetery of the Sons and Daughters of Ham, a black fraternal organization, was established north of Union Mechanics and Cedarwood cemeteries on Academy Hill. While it is not known when the cemetery was established, it was probably started after emancipation. Black fraternal, social and labor organizations combined ritual organization. community activism, and death benefits–a basic form of insurance. These fraternal groups were the forerunners of the national black organizations that were later based in Richmond, including the Independent Order of Saint Luke, organized by Maggie Lena Walker, and the Grand Fountain of the United Order of True Reformers. begun by William Washington Browne. These organizations and others like them offered facilities and services to their members such as banks, stores, publications and insurance.

Monuments at opposite ends of the Sons and Daughters of Ham Cemetery commemorate the lives of two Richmonders, Captain Robert Austin Paul and Daniel Webster Davis. Robert Austin Paul (1846-1902) was born to slave parents in Nelson County, Virginia in 1846. He mastered reading and writing and became involved in historical and legal work. Paul, like other developing black leaders, gained knowledge through participating in politics. His presentations to local literary and scientific organizations demonstrated his grasp of politics and his ability as a public speaker. Paul entered politics in 1874 as a Republican candidate for Congress, but was defeated by former governor Gilbert C. Walker.

In the late 19th century, another cemetery was established on Academy Hill. It was known as Union Sycamore Cemetery or, simply, Sycamore Cemetery. It lay north of the earlier burial grounds and bordered the new white suburb of Barton Heights. There is little known about the origins of Sycamore Cemetery, but maps showing the names of lot owners include a number of Members of the city’s common council including John H. Adams, Jr. (1849-1934), Josiah Crump (1838-1890), and Edinboro Archer. Archer was a councilman in the mid-1880s and worked as a wheelwright. The headstone of James W. Washington (1839-1884) is located in Sycamore Cemetery. Washington, a tobacco worker, was a corporal in the U.S. Colored Troops Battery B, 2ndRegiment Light Artillery

During the late 1880s “Negro Memorial Day” became a community-wide ritual centered on the cemeteries. Celebrated on April 3, the day was commemorated as the day when freedom came with the fall of Richmond to Union forces. Processions of church congregations, club members, youth groups, brass bands. and citizens made their way to the cemeteries to decorate the graves and to listen to speeches by local ministers.

In 1899 the cemeteries faced a legal challenge to their continued operation from the adjacent white former suburb, now town, of Barton Heights. Charges were lodged that old graves in the cemeteries were being reopened for new burials. The town attorney considered the cemeteries a public nuisance and a threat to public health and sought to have them closed. In reaction, the black community attempted to consolidate operation of the cemeteries by forming a Colored Burial Association, but the effort failed. The Virginia General Assembly gave the Town of Barton Heights authority to regulate activities in the cemeteries, even though they lay outside the town limits. In 1900 the Town passed an ordinance restricting burials in the cemeteries and outlining new regulations for burials, funerals and required record keeping. The cemeteries remained open and operated under the new rules.

In the early 1900s conditions at the Barton Heights Cemeteries declined. Many families, as a tribute to loved ones buried there, removed their remains to better-kept cemeteries. Woodland Cemetery, just to the east of the Barton Heights Cemeteries, opened in 1917. In 1918, the members of Sixth Mount Zion Church removed the remains of Rev. John Jasper from Union Mechanics Cemetery to Woodland Cemetery. In the same year, the body of William Washington Browne was also removed to Woodland Cemetery.

In 1934, the City of Richmond acquired the Barton Heights Cemeteries and in the next several years. Burials at the Barton Heights Cemeteries continued until the 1970s.

Maps of Barton Heights

Credit and Sources

The text above is almost entirely sourced from the the registration forms from both the Barton Heights application to the National Register of Historic Places (PDF) and the application for Barton Heights Cemeteries . The original document for the Town of Barton Heights, dated 2000/2003, was put together by Kim Chen, Mary Sadler, Peter Witt, and Jean McRae, and includes much more more than is shown here. The original document for the Barton Heights Cemeteries, dated 2000, was put together by Denise Lester and DHR staff, and also includes much more more than is shown here. Check out the original forms to learn more or read up on any of the other sites in Richmond that are listed on the National Register.

All color photos are by John Murden. The black&white photo from the cemetery is from the Department of Historic resources listing for the Barton Heights Cemetery.

Previous neighborhood profiles in the series:

• The Oakwood-Chimborazo Historic District
• The Fairmount Historic District
• The Church Hill North Historic District
• The Highland Park Plaza Historic District
• A history of the Chestnut Hill/Plateau Historic District
• The Union Hill Historic District

Two homes on Chamberlayne avenue are scheduled for demolition as soon as the permits are approved. The two properties in question are 4200 and 4202 Chamberlanye Ave. The Ginter Park Residents Association is lobbying to save these historical properties:

We’ve learned that the owner of the properties at 4200 and 4202 Chamberlayne Avenue (intersection of Bellevue) has filed for a demolition permit that could be approved any day. The owner, Partnership for Families Northside, is a charitable organization focused on the coordination of services to the birth-to-pre- school age population; they are principally funded/led by the Robins Foundation. There’s been an ongoing history with these properties (including the vacant lot at 4204) and their ownership since late 2005. The properties were originally purchased for about $440,000 with the intent of demolishing them and then constructing a family learning center. GPRA did not support the prospect of rezoning the property for this use, so the Partnership chose not to proceed. Subsequently, the Partnership purchased and is now constructing their facility further down Chamberlayne in the parking lot area of the old Community Pride just past Overbrook Road (technically on Graham Road).

Sometime in late 2008 or early 2009, the properties were put on the market, listed commercially at $900,000+. Not surprisingly, the properties have not sold. To save the cost of annual maintenance and insurance of the structures (about $7,000 annually), the Partnership has elected to demolish them . . . expecting to proceed as soon as the demolition permit is issued (any day).

Please help us stop this effort! Contact the Partnership (www.kidsreadytolea rn.org) at 353-4264 to voice your concern about the loss of these impressive structures, part of the recently approved expanded Ginter Park historic district. Or reach the Robins Foundation (www.robinsfdn. org) at 697-6917. Lastly, the Partnership is reportedly prepared to consider purchase offers of all three parcels (including the two structures) in the $400,000s range. If you know a developer or someone else for whom this might be of interest, please have them contact the listing agent, Lee Hilbert at Harrison and Bates at 788-1000, x259.

It’s important that we protect these structures; please help us do so.
Meg Lawrence, President
Ginter Park Residents Association

NBC12 is also running a story on this.

I caught up with Gary York this afternoon. He confirms he will reopen Enoteca in the former Bella Arte space at 1223 Bellevue Ave. in late April or early May.

Other than the change in location, Enoteca patrons should expect most of the decor, employees, and menu to convey to the new location.

In years past, this event has helped raise as much as $4,000. This year, the 5K committee hopes to raise a solid $5,000 … a goal they feel is well within reason and very much needed, as outside funds are required for programs such as Theatre IV and Minds in Motion to the students. The committee also hopes to help fund the school’s first outdoor classroom, The
Dandelion Garden.

“The economy hit everyone this year … schools especially.” Says Jaki Carter, Co-Chair of the event (and parent of two Holton students), “This 5K is our school’s largest fundraiser. If we can grow participation just 15% in 2010, we will easily meet our financial goals. Growing a 500 person event by 15% is achievable. Only 75 more participants means it could be possible for the PTA to expand their before and after school enrichment programs by extending the sessions from six week to eight week courses.”

For more information contact Suze Naoroz at naoroz@verizon.net or 804.874.8711.

Read the full release after the jump.

SQUIRRELS AND DUDES DANCE AND RUN FOR A CAUSE

Richmond, Virginia, February 1, 2009- Linwood Holton Elementary announced today that two special guests will appear at the 10th anniversary Holton 5K Run/Walk event held on Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 9am to 10am. New baseball league, “The Richmond Flying Squirrels “, and local musical act “The Diggity Dudes” have been added as pre-race entertainment ensuring fun for all!

The Holton 5K Run/Walk is a family-friendly event that brings together students, parents, faculty and neighbors for a day focused on fitness and fundraising. Registration is available on-line at: www.raceit.com, keyword “Holton”.

In years past, this event has helped raise as much as $4,000. This year, the 5K committee hopes to raise a solid $5,000 … a goal they feel is well within reason and very much needed, as outside funds are required for programs such as Theatre IV and Minds in Motion to the students. The committee also hopes to help fund the school’s first outdoor classroom, The Dandelion Garden.

“The economy hit everyone this year … schools especially.” Says Jaki Carter, Co-Chair of the event (and parent of two Holton students), “This 5K is our school’s largest fundraiser. If we can grow participation just 15% in 2010, we will easily meet our financial goals. Growing a 500 person event by 15% is achievable. Only 75 more participants means it could be possible for the PTA to expand their before and after school enrichment programs by extending the sessions from six week to eight week courses.”

The event raises dollars yes, but it also raises awareness about the importance of physical fitness, a fact that attracts more than just parents and students. Many local runners have discovered that the Holton 5K fits in perfectly with their training schedule for the Ukrop’s Monument Ave 10K event, which takes place only three weeks after the Holton 5K.

New sponsor, Qdoba Mexican Grill joins the event this year as does long time sponsor Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Any other businesses or organizations looking to support this event should contact the committee by February 15, 2010 by emailing naoroz@verizon.net. Linwood Holton Elementary School, located in Richmond, Virginia, serves grades PK-5 in the Richmond City Public Schools district. The vision at Linwood Holton Elementary School is to reflect a positive and comfortable atmosphere while providing opportunities for continual growth as it embraces and celebrate diversity. Teachers, students, parents, and community are one entity, working together to foster a community of learning. All students are taught in a literate environment according to their individual needs and learning styles.
***

For more information or to schedule interviews please contact:
Suze Naoroz
naoroz@verizon.net
804/874-8711

http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/schools/holton/page1/page7/page7.html

The thieves didn’t break through a door or even try to go through a window. They went in through the crawl space. It happened in broad day light several times over a two-week period.

[the police] call the burglar’s approach unique, but says what is being taken is nothing new. He’s just seeing a spike in the crime, recently in North Richmond. He says at least 16 heat pumps and air conditioning compressors have been stolen out of backyards in North Richmond since December.

You can read the full article here. The police suggest you give them a call if you see anyone “carrying a large piece of equipment from a home.”

The Bonner Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) invites you to join us for a Brown Bag discussion on Friday, February 19th, “The Mortgage Crisis, Communities of Color, and the Ways Forward.” Sonya Ravindranath Waddell, associate regional economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond; Charlene Crowell, communications manager for the Center for Responsible Lending in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Connie Chamberlin, president and CEO of Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia (HOME) in Richmond, will discuss the current foreclosure crisis, nationally and regionally. Topics will include the disproportionate impact of the crisis on African-American communities and current regional trends and responses. This week’s Brown Bag is part of the Black History Month Celebration and is co-sponsored by the Black History Month Committee. . .

CCE Brown Bags are held on Fridays from 12:30-1:25 p.m. You will find directions to campus at http://www.richmond.edu/visit/directions.html and a parking map at http://www.richmond.edu/visit/maps/index.html. Weinstein Hall where the event will be held is building 8 on the map. You can obtain a parking pass at http://witness.richmond.edu/parking/visitorvehreg.htm.

The meeting will be held at Holton Elementary at 6.30pm tonight.

The original freeze was instituted by then Governor Kaine. McDonnell, however, says “I will not support the proposed freeze in the budget introduced by the previous administration. The Local Composite Index must be applied to all localities, at all times, in the same objective and fair manner by which it has always been utilized.”

WHEREAS, Ginter Park was conceived and planned by Major Lewis W. Ginter, a Richmond industrialist and entrepreneur, in the late 19th century; and after his death in 1897, Grace Arents, his niece and heiress, carried on his dream of establishing an idyllic, state-of-the-art community in northern Henrico County; and

WHEREAS, rare for neighborhood associations in 1909, the GPRA was unique in allowing female residents over 21 to have equal voting rights in the organization, and some women were property owners and most were involved in education, beautification, and other issues; and

WHEREAS, Ginter Park was incorporated as a town between 1912 and 1914 when it was annexed by the City of Richmond; and

You can read the full text of the bill over on RichmondSunlight.

The cleanup has been rescheduled for March 20th due to the extreme wet conditions caused be the recent snows.

Original

We’ve gotten a bunch of emails about this weekend’s second annual Cannon Creek Greenway cleanup. Volunteers are needed!

The event is a volunteer cleanup to remove unwanted trash and debris from the Cannon Creek Greenway, located in the area that runs along Richmond-Henrico Turnpike between Valley Road and East Brookland Park Boulevard, in the northern part of the Gateway 6th District of Richmond.

Last year, more than 200 volunteers removed 20 tons of trash, which included 400 tires from the area that has been used at times as an illegal dump site.

All individuals, community groups, businesses, families, friends, neighbors, and organizations are invited to participate. Volunteers are reminded to please wear layered clothing, sturdy shoes and work gloves. Trash bags and refreshments will be provided free.

If you’re interested in helping out meet at the Virginia Army National Guard Armory (500 Dove Street) *this Saturday February 20th March 20th at 8.30am*.

The Richmond Police Department needs the public’s help in identifying the suspect pictured in the attached photos.

The man is wanted in connection with the robbery of a Wachovia Bank at 1800 Chamberlayne Ave. around 4:42 p.m. today.

The suspect is described as a black male, medium build, age 30 to 40 with a short haircut, 5′7″ – 5′9″ tall, and wearing thick glasses. He was last seen wearing a black baseball cap with white stripes, a black plaid jacket with white, a black t-shirt and plaid matching trousers.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.

From RVAfoodie’s twitter:

It’s official, Enoteca Sogno to reopen on Bellvue in April. Gary signed a lease this week. Viva Italian wine! #rva

And also from the Epicuriousity blog:

After several months of searching (soul and otherwise), Gary York has found a new space for Enoteca Sogno, on Richmond’s northside in Bellevue. The former Belle B and Bella Arte space at 1223 Bellevue Ave offers some interesting architectural details and neighbors such as The Northside Grill and Nicola Flora.

Enoteca Sogno was located on the 2000 block of Broad Street before their landlord, Justin French, terminated their lease. This was right around the time The Republic opened on the same block.