Along the Avenue of Second Place Trophies

     While in Richmond recently, I killed time with a walk along Monument Ave. I have always enjoyed this street with its buffet of architectural styles, handsome trees and gardens, cobblestones, and the monuments themselves. It is one of Virginia's most beautiful, but increasingly controversial streets.

     When I was fresh out of school, and working a job where I felt unappreciated, I came home to Richmond one weekend, found a new job, and quit the one I had in Norfolk in a dramatic huff. I needed a place to live, and found an apartment in the house below on Monument Ave. It is quite the place now, but when I lived there it was an affordable dump. You could see where a previous tenant hung pictures on the wall because the site of each frame was outlined in roach droppings. There was a football-sized hole in my bathroom floor that gave you a good view down into my neighbors kitchen. It was nothing a piece of plywood and a rug couldn't hide, but my neighbors liked to cook collards, so there was always a strange smell emanating from that hole. I didn't live there long.

     With its large globe, hound dog, ox, swallows, and churning waves, the Mathew Fountaine Maury (Pathfinder of the Seas) monument is my favorite. 

     The last monument built on Monument Ave. was that of Arthur Ashe. I like that it was sort of a raised middle finger to all the Confederates, but I can't stand it artistically. Ashe looks like he is standing on the edge of an upturned concrete culvert from which children are pouring. To keep the kids from stealing his books, he holds them at bay with his tennis racket.

     You would have to be living under a rock, or maybe a marble plinth, to not have heard about the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments. Personally I feel they should stay as part of the city's flawed, but colorful fabric, though I would like to see them somehow interpreted in a more historically accurate context. That said, if I grew up in Richmond as an African American, with these bearded bronze uncles constantly looking down on me, I know I would feel much differently.

A Rainy Day in Hollywood Cemetery

     I love poking around old cemeteries, and perhaps my favorite is Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. After nearly 3 decades I made a return visit while I was in Richmond on Thursday. I set out on foot from the entrance with just a light rain falling, but soon found myself hightailing it back to my truck as the weather intensified. Fortunately, you are also allowed to drive. Established in 1849, Hollywood was one of the earlier incarnations of the rural cemetery movement, which sought to create beautiful park-like settings, not just for the dead, but for the living to enjoy as bucolic escapes from crowded urban centers. If you want to learn more about this movement and Hollywood, there is a good article here, from a 2012 issue of Magnolia, published by the Southern Garden History Society.

     Not too far from the entrance is Iron Dog, who guards the grave of a toddler who died in 1862.

     Perhaps the most famous landmark in the cemetery is a 90' tall pyramid, created by the ladies of the Hollywood Memorial Assc. to honor the 18,000 Confederate soldiers buried here. I have always found its simple design in rough-hewn stone to be a stark and apt reminder of how war wastes lives.

     The cemetery is the final resting place of a who's who of notable Virginians, including Presidents Tyler and Monroe. The later was re-interred from New York, but given the ornate Gothic revival design of his tomb, on a prime spot overlooking the fall of the James, he probably didn't object.

     Speaking of re-interment, Jefferson Davis' body was moved from New Orleans to Richmond. His wife, Varina, would have preferred their plantation in Mississippi, but she was worried about flooding. You just can't have the bodies of former Confederate presidents floating about. There was a clamor among many Southern cities for the chance to be Davis' final resting place, but Varina chose Richmond for Davis and their family. While I was there on Thursday, it was evident that Davis Circle was in the middle of a big re-work, only appropriate as many across the country are re-working their view of Southern "heroes".

     While Hollywood has a long history, it is still very much a working cemetery, and there are many contemporary graves. There is also a mausoleum built in the 1990's with a beautiful view of the James River, and the city beyond.

     Before all of your allotted pixels are gone, I wanted to share with you one last photo, taken by my not-yet-wife of me and a friend posing on the pyramid about 1984/85. I am on the left. Please pardon the shorts and white socks, it wasn't creepy back then. I also want to remind you that my Winter Walk-Off is taking place through 3/19, and I invite all bloggers to participate.