Local author Harry Kollatz Jr points us to a documentary trailer for his book Richmond In Ragtime: Socialists, Suffragists, Sex and Murder. The Youtube video was crafted by Plant Zero based filmmaker Patrick Gregory and composer/sound designer Lincoln Mitchell.
Here are some fascinating tidbits from Kollatz's book on life in our neighborhoods (Fan, Musuem District & Carytown) during this turbulent Richmond era:
The Lee Park Neighborhood (bounded by Grove-Kensington-Roseneath-Tilden)
Its developers wax hyperbolic about, "Beautiful shade trees adorn the lots -- pure air, pure water and none of the noise and confusion...Lee Park adjoins Lee Annex, and in two or three years (the city s now growing faster) Lee Park property will sell higher than Lee Annex does now..."
Proto-blogger Adon Yoder, a grassroots progressive pamphleteer and self-proclaimed socialist, viewed Lee Park as a real estate deal at the expense of city tax payers. In his "Idea" of Sept. 18, 1909, he pointed out that the realty company of Green & Redd was selling the properties and that Green was a city councilman. Yoder called this a scheme, "with acres and acres of unimproved open fields between it and the city proper."
There was basically nothing between the city limits and Lee Park except for Lee Camp, the destitute Confederate veteran's convalescence center. The wheeling-and-dealing Yoder observed rankled him because basic city services went wanting in other older more established neighborhoods, and yet there was talk of annexing Manchester. (pp. 72-73)
