The Boulevardizen time machine takes us to 1918 when architects proposed an ornate four story brick hospital for the intersection of Grove Ave and Mulberry Street. The proposed Retreat for the Sick was eventually constructed and then given the friendlier name of Retreat Hospital.
Photo from the archives of Carneal & Johnston
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! went the trolleys at the intersection of West Cary Street and Robinson Street which once served as a bustling hub of activity for the old Richmond transit lines. Now progress is about to strike again at this historic property when the GRTC bus company moves its operations and transfers the property to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA).
With so much history associated with the property many area residents are wondering what will be done to preserve the historic character of the transit oriented neighborhood.
Valerie Dixon with RRHA tells us that preservation of the property is priority in the redevelopment planning. "The current City Master Plan calls for the historic trolley sheds to be preserved. The City and RRHA will study the feasibility of adaptively reusing the buildings."
The 2000 Richmond Master Plan designates the four square block area as a mixed use development for extending Carytown eastward and also as a "Housing Opportunity Area."
"When [GRTC relocates] this site presents a unique opportunity for high quality mixed-use, urban infill development. Given the size of the site, a mixture of commercial and office uses may be appropriate within the residential development." The plan adds "Any future redevelopment activities should retain and preserve the historic trolley sheds located on-site."
According to Dixon "RRHA’s next task is to work with the City to formulate a redevelopment strategy consistent with market conditions, site conditions, and City and neighborhood priorities."
Dixon says settlement of the land transfer from GRTC to RRHA will be completed within the next 60 days however the actual transfer of the property from the bus company to the government authority could take until late 2011.
"GRTC estimates that environmental assessment and remediation will be completed in late 2011. RRHA will take title to and possession of the property after remediation is complete and all other pre-settlement conditions have been satisfied." said Dixon of the industrial sized cleanup required of the property before further development is possible.
Our neighbors over at ByrdPark.net have an ongoing discussion about the use of the property with a number of thoughtful suggestions for future development.
This week we visit the future home of the Diamond on North Boulevard where numerous trucks are gathered for an old fashioned rodeo. This aerial shot is taken facing south towards Broad Street, old Parker Field sits to the left. The old Broad Street Train station can be seen in the far upper left corner.
This photo is provided from the Library of Virginia's Flickr Adolph B. Rice Studio collection.
Be sure to thank your nutty & bushy tailed friends as the Smithsonian informs us that today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. According to our well researched sources Squirrel Appreciation Day was first celebrated on Jan 21, 2001 in Ashville, NC:
"Squirrel Appreciation Day is an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate your tree climbing, nut gathering neighborhood squirrels. It's held in mid-winter when food sources are scarce for squirrels and other wildlife. Sure, squirrels spent all fall gathering and "squirreling " away food. But, their supplies may not be enough. And, the variety of food is limited. So, give them an extra special treat today to supplement their winter diets."
--- Holiday Insights
Are you appreciating Richmond's Flying Squirrels yet? The Smithsonian tells us more about this very special variety of winged creatures:
These Squirrels are gregarious, travelling from one Tree to another in Companies of ten, or twelve together. When I first saw them, I took them for dead Leaves, blown one Way by the Wind, but was not long so deceived, when I perceived many of them to follow one another in one Direction: They will fly fourscore Yards from one Tree to another. They cannot rise in their Flight, nor keep in a horizontal Line, but descend gradually, so that in Proportion to the Distance the Tree, they design to fly to, is from them, so much the higher they mount on the Tree they fly from, that they may reach some Part of the Tree, even the lowest Part, rather than fall to the Ground, which exposes them to Peril, but having once recovered the Trunc of a Tree, no Animal seems nimble enough to take them. Their Food is that of other Squirrels, viz. Nuts, Acorns, Pine Seeds, Pishimon Berries, &c.
This week we visit the intersection of West Broad Street and Boulevard where the old People's Drug Store once stood. This photo is taken with Broad Street in the foreground and with North Boulevard in the background (towards I-95).
CVS purchased this location and the entire Peoples chain of drug stores in 1990, taking on the CVS name in 1994 and replacing the structure several years later.
Thanks to the Library of Virginia's Flickr collection for sharing this and many other great photos of Richmond's past.
What sits within the confines of that mighty hill at the south end of Boulevard in Byrd Park? The above photo from the Library of Virginia offers a peak inside to reveal the city's reservoir before a roof was installed over the sprawling facility.
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)
Free! That's the price of admission to the Virginia Historical Society and its exhibits in 2010. Museum officials anticipate that free admission will result in a greater number of visitors at the popular tourist destination.
Learn more about the decision making process behind this at the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Hop in the Boulevardizen time machine and explore Richmond's past (courtesy of Dementi Studios). Dementi's online gallery of photos offers a fascinating look at Richmond in the early to mid 20th century.
Visit the gallery (click continue on the landing page to view the photos).
The VCU Libraries Digital Collection now includes more than 7,000 photos from the Richmond Commission on Architectural Review with 250 from the Boulevard. The online collection has detailed photographs of addresses up and down our grand avenue.
The photographs posted in the VCU collection range from 1991 to 1997 and show a street lined with properties long neglected and in states of disrepair.
View more photos from this collection at the VCU Libraries Digital Collection
On Sunday Nov 15 from 1-3 PM author Tyler Potterfield will lead a walking tour of the Boulevard. Potterfield will conclude the tour with a signing of his recently released book: Nonesuch Place: A History of the Richmond Landscape. The tour will commence at Main and Robinson St outside of Black Swan Books.
When: Sunday November 15, 1-3 PM
Where: Main St @ Robin St (Black Swan Books)
CBS 6's Virginia Tonight featured Boulevardizen.com in tonight's Best of the Blogs segment. Here's what WTVR has to say about our hyperlocal news site:
Time for this week's Best of the Blogs, our weekly segment on Virginia Tonight featuring local bloggers doing the best writing and reporting in their Richmond community. Our pick this week is boulevardizen.
Boulevardizen.com covers neighborhoods on and around "The Boulevard" in Richmond's Fan District. Boulevardizen is the blog formerly known as 10SBoulevard - made up of former apartment building tenants.
The blog has since renamed itself and taken on all the happenings around this historic street.
This week's edition of Style Weekly offers a fascinating view into the broken daily newspaper business and the future of journalism in Richmond. The multipart feature includes an interview with Peter Feddo of Boulevardizen.com about the hyper local format, its evolving characteristics and the future of news gathering and delivery.
Style's Greg Weatherford reports:
Peter Feddo’s first-floor apartment on the Boulevard doesn’t look like the future of news. But the modest two-bedroom place just might be.
You might not recognize Feddo’s name. But if you follow local news and politics you might recall the building’s street address — 10 S. Boulevard — as the inspiration for Richmond’s only “super-hyper-local” Web site, 10sboulevard.com.
There, Feddo and the site’s co-founder, Joe Schilling, have reported on the news and events of the blocks around the building for the past two years: fires, car crashes, rabid raccoons, bad drivers, assaults, murder.
Armed with a Dell laptop, a smart phone and a Nikon D60 digital camera he bought for the site, Feddo prides himself on covering his neighborhood.
“If there’s crimes and fires or whatnot we race the local news affiliates out there,” Feddo says. “If there’s a fire, I’d IM [instant message] Joe and say, ‘Hey, you want to go?’”
Usually he’s the first to the scene (“We know the alleyways,” he explains)
Continue reading more of this article at Style Weekly and be sure to catch the other MUST READ features in the Pulp Future edition:
CBS 6 opens up their video vault and takes us back to the city council elections of 1984. Facing challenges and tragedies including the murder of the Byrd Theatre manager and an attendent at the Cary and Meadow service station the candidates stake out tough positions on crime and neighborhood development.
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The Byrd Theatre hosts West Grace Production's feature documentary Loosen My Tie Sunday Aug 30th at 2 PM. According to the film's website: What started as a class project in 2002, Loosen My Tie is the story of musician, David Shultz, wanting to turn his passion of music into his career. The feature length documentary follows Shultz & his band, the Skyline, in the studio and on tour. Learn More At LoosenMyTie.com |
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