OK - adding to the top of this in a backwards fashion... :D
26. Richmond's Coolest Historical Sites, and the best watering holes between them!! Check it here!
27. The dishes we crave in Richmond: Article for the places and the food.
1. 48 Hours to Spend in Richmond? Check out this page!
2. Parenting Magazine rates Richmond as a top city! Read the article here.
3. Just south of Richmond, you'll find a lot of cool historical stuff, including the first iron furnace in the New World. Cool. Read about that here.
4. Runners unite! 8K Run/Jog Map from downtown. Half-marathon map here.
5. What else turned 40 in 2010? Heavy metal and Earth Day!
6. PBS Show "Virginia Currents" - watch the episode on "spirits" in a local plantation and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
7. Setting the record straight for The Bachelor. Dont watch it? Me neither. But, let's get this straight...there was no sex tape. Richmond Magazine article with the Richmond "starlette".
8. Summer suggestions for free weekends for us Richmonders - find out what's on the list here!
9. Fun and funky Richmond map.
10. Delta Sky Magazine articles on Richmond, Virginia Wine, and Williamsburg.
11. Virginia Public Radio story on the alcoholic beverage of choice in early America!
12. VERY interesting podcast discussion about history of death in Virginia - to include info about the origin of Memorial Day and Hollywood Cemetery.
13. Arthur Ashe called Richmond home. Visit his monument on Monument Ave - it's placement should not be lost on you...
14. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts - newly renovated - in the Top 10 in the country!
15. Up Close and Personal at VMFA - the exhibit is here until the weekend before the meeting.
16. Rarely Seen Richmond. Print this picture, step outside the Marriot, look east down Broad St. Compare what you see to this photo.
17. YouTube Tour: Local stories that were national news.
18. From Batmobile to Futon - the pitiful tale of the Richmond man who won the car.
19. The Revolutionary War, Benedict Arnold, and Richmond - Burning Down the House
20. Old City Hall - a few blocks over the Convention Center on the back side of the Capitol Grounds. Story of the monstrosity.
21. AWESOME shout-out from Cleveland!
22. "Man vs Food" fan? He's a fan of Richmond! Check out where he went!
23. Chief Powhatan was Pocahontas's father. You'll see homages to him and the tribe all over the city. Learn how to pronounce it, folks!
24. Classic Richmond Restaurant in Shockoe Slip: The Tobacco Company.
25. Who likes the Geico commercials? UPS White Board Guy? Wal-Mart guy? Freecreditreport.com band? ...the creative works of a Richmond company called The Martin Agency - yeah, we're proud. The links are articles about each one of those commericals.
BUS SCHEDULE and TOURS:
We have arranged with a local bus company a series of tours, which will take you around to the must-sees in Richmond!
The Virginia Department of Forensic Science has generously agreed to tour those interested through their facility! You MUST sign up for these tours, which will be Monday and Tuesday.
Please click Tour Schedule.pdf for more information!!
GOOD EATS.
Gibson's Grill - 1 block over from the Marriott is giving 10% off for anyone showing our meeting badge!
Richmond Attractions
Downtown Must-Sees:White House of the Confederacy:
The home of Jefferson Davis that was considered the political and military heart of the Confederacy. It has been meticulously restored with more than half of the items that were in the home during Davis’s occupancy. An extensive museum is located behind the house. It can be tough to find because it sits in the heart of VCU’s Medical Campus and Health System. ( http://www.moc.org)
St. John’s Episcopal Church:
The first church built in Richmond in the historic and beautiful Church Hill neighborhood and where Patrick Henry, a local lawyer in March of 1775, proclaimed “Give me liberty, or give me death!” – after which the Virginia delegates voted to join the American Revolution. (www.historicstjohnschurch.org )
Hollywood Cemetery:
Open since 1849, its winding paths and gardens overlook the falls in the James River. Some of its residents are historic figures, monuments to heroes, favorite dogs, and perpetually fighting literary colleagues. Visit it to see what I’m talking about. ( http://www.hollywoodcemetery.org)
Monument Avenue:
By some counts, the only street in the United States that is a National Historic Landmark and has both monuments to heroes and monumental homes. ( www.monumenthouse.com ) This link is devoted to the construction of a specific house, but it has some of the best information about Monument Ave.
Tredegar Iron Works and Belle Isle:
Built in 1861 as a gun foundry on the banks of the James River, it is now the American Civil War Center, the first museum to interpret the Civil War from Union, Confederate, and the African American perspectives. Walk over to Belle Isle, site of the Powhatan Indian encampment and later a civil war prisoner of war camp. ( www.tredegar.org )
Virginia Capitol Building and Governor’s Mansion:
The executive mansion has been the residence to Virginia’s governors since 1813 – and still is. So, you can’t walk through it, but it’s right next to the Capitol Building, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson and houses the oldest legislative body in the United States and the only statue of George Washington for which he actually posed. ( www.virginiacapital.gov )
Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site:
Home of the first woman in the United States to found a bank and serve as its president. The bank thrives today as the oldest continually African-American run bank in the United States. It sits in the heart of Jackson Ward, the largest National Historical Landmark district in the United States. ( www.nps.gov/malw/ )
Other Things To Do Around Richmond:
Go to the top of City Hall for a 360 panorama of the city.
Shop in Carytown – eclectic, historic, and sometimes odd
Walk the slave trail
See the crypt in Monumental Church
Check out Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s statue
Go to the Edgar Allen Poe Museum
Stroll the Canal Walk
Tour VCU’s Medical Campus. The Egyptian Building is considered the oldest medical building in the South. The library also houses a medical museum that, not surprisingly, has many civil war medical artifacts.
Just outside the city.
20 minutes.
1. Citie of Henricus – the first permanent English settlement after Jamestown. ( www.henricus.org )
2. Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens - once Powhatan Indian hunting grounds and then land owned by Patrick Henry, it is now one of only 2 public botanical gardens in Virginia with the vision and plan of being in the Top 10 in the nation
30-40 minutes.
1. Berkeley Plantation – considered to be the site of the first official Thanksgiving in 1619 and the birthplace of a United States President and of “Taps”
2. Patrick Henry Home in Scotchtown
10 minutes – 2 hours.
Tour a Civil War Battlefield - you can spend an hour to a day at any given one of them.
Day-trips.
1 hour drive:
1. Historic Federal Triangle: Jamestown (site of the first English settlement), Yorktown (where Cornwallis surrendered to end the American Revolution), and Colonial Williamsburg (18th century
political and cultural center of Virginia).
2. Charlottesville: Home of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s homestead
2-3 hour drive:
1. Washington D.C. - Needs no explanation
2. Harper’s Ferry, WV: Considered by some as the place that exposed the moral issues of slavery and propelled the nation to civil war with John Brown’s Raid.