Costly Training, A Preserved Hospital, and the Ashland Electric Railway
Cheers RVA!
Today will be sunny with a high of 67, light wind, and a low of 42 in the evening. The week ahead looks mostly sunny, with highs warming back up to the low 80’s.
the pulp:
Several businesses were damaged after a three-alarm fire on Northside at the 1800 block of 3rd Avenue early Sunday morning, via channel 6. More than 75 firefighters responded to the incident, with no reported injuries.
The City of Richmond spent nearly $19k on training and professional development for City Council chief of staff LaTesha Holmes, who was appointed in 2023 and dismissed last month by vote of the Council, from Samuel Parker at the RTD. Her annual salary was $196k.
The Richmond Community Hospital will be preserved, after VUU revised its apartment development plans. The hospital was built in 1932 and served African Americans when the city was largely segregated. The building was abandoned in the 1980’s when the hospital moved to Overbrook Road. R. Anthony Harris wrote an editorial for RVA mag calling the decision a “victory for community activism.”
the dive:
Daniel Payne from the Richmonder wrote a recent piece on Richmond History: the Ashland Electric Railway.
What will eventually become the Fall Line Trail runs partially along an electric trolley line that used to take passengers from Broad Street to Ashland once an hour.
Richmond is well-known for having rolled out the world’s first practical electric streetcar system in the late 1880s. Designed by Frank Sprague, the system would grow to over 80 of miles of tracks within the local region before cars and buses forced its retirement in 1949.
(The article refers to Jay Gould as a “philanthropist”, rather than a “railroad magnate and financial speculator”, as wikipedia describes him)
Gould’s portfolio included the Virginia Railway and Power Company, which became VEPCO and now operates as Dominion.
The Richmond-Ashland line opened in 1907 and ran until 1938, with minor changes along the way.
The Richmond-Ashland Railway is long gone. But its history is arguably never more relevant than now, at a time when mass regional transit seems more important than ever, and the odd, ahistorical way we’ve built our society entirely around cars has never seemed stranger. At the time of the rail’s demise, the Ashland Herald-Progress lamented the loss of the line, but the Richmond Times-Dispatch dismissed those concerns amid the ascendent automobile. “This is a changing world and people change with it,” the Times-Dispatch said.
Read the full article here.
the vibe:
Have a vivid day RVA!
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