A Box of Freedom

Richmond from the James River Canal
"Honey, I'm Home!
...Honey?"

But the house is empty. Your wife and your kids are gone. And they are never coming back.

Before we delve into the mystery of the missing family, we'll look at some pictures from a recent canal boat ride that Sherry, Ember, Morris & I enjoyed one Sunday.

I bought tickets awhile back, but it was so freakishly hot this summer that we waited until the danger of spontaneous combustion had passed. I had to trick Sherry into going by avoiding mention of words like "educational" and "historical information." As far as she knew, it was simply a pretty boat ride.


The canal ride is a pleasant, short excursion along the lower remnants of the James River and Kanawha Canal, which was a grand scheme of George Washington's back when he was hiking over hill & dale surveying the countryside as a young man. It was conceived as a means of transporting goods & passengers by water between the coast and the remote western settled regions, over the Eastern Continental Divide to link up with the Ohio River. That never happened. Along came the railroad, which was a much more productive system.



This is some sort of rolling bascule bridge. The thing up in the air that looks like an upside-down kitchen grater is a counterweight that lifts the bridge span so that ships can pass.

A very active railroad trestle runs along the canal. Large warehouses & manufacturing plants were built conveniently close to the old canal docks. Now, vegetation claims the banks, and you can see turtles lazing in the sun. Ember saw a dead squirrel floating in the canal. I didn't see it, but she does a good imitation of it, and that's better than seeing the real thing as far as I'm concerned.

There are lots of former tobacco factories lining the canal. Most have been turned into upscale residential spaces. It's a dot com world out there.

Isn't this a superb photo of Ember, Morris, and Sherry? You can see Sherry clutching a bottle. She still has a severe drinking problem. Wherever she goes, she is accompanied by great sloshing noises. I don't know that I've ever seen her with less than three types of beverage; iced tea, water, and something she calls "diet." We can go into a restaurant, and when asked what she would like to drink, Sherry simply says "Diet" and the correct beverage appears. On the other hand, I can ask for water and get a barrage of questions: bottled? imported? with lemon? lime? strawberry? carbonated? supplemented? distilled? holy?

As our guide Cotton pointed out, here you see the history of Richmond's transportation. The picture was taken from a boat, next we have a railway, topped by a modern highway, with the skyway of air travel overlooking it all.

Now, what of the man who returned home from work to find his family gone?

Along Richmond's Canal Walk there is a metal representation of the three foot by two & a half foot wooden crate used by Henry "Box" Brown to ship himself out of slavery in 1849. One aspect of the complex system of American slavery was the hiring-out of slave labor, particularly in industrial areas. Owners would lease their slaves to work in private industries and, during the Civil War, to military departments.

Henry Brown was born on a plantation outside Richmond, but when his master died he was moved to Richmond by the master's son to work in his tobacco factory. Slaves out on-hire usually arranged for their own dwellings and other needs, and gave most of their wages to their owners. Henry met another slave, a woman named Nancy, and married her. They had three children together and lived in a small house. However, marriages between slaves were not recognized by the legal system, and Nancy & the children were sold by her owner. Henry was told about this while he was at work one day. He saw his family for the last time as they were leaving with other slaves who had been sold down South.

Having had his family torn from him by slavery, be was determined to escape its bonds, and he devised a plan to ship himself as dry goods to Philadelphia. With the aid of a free black man and a white shop owner, he had himself sealed in a small wooden crate and escaped to freedom.

You can read more about Henry by clicking here.

A Streetcar Ran Through It

Eighteen years ago today, my partner & friend Michael died. He was kind & compassionate, funny & fun-loving, and he had a generosity of spirit that inspires me to this day. Michael had an interest in the well-being of others, and was always there to lend a hand whenever he could help a friend. He knew that life was a precious gift, and he squeezed as much out of his time with us as he could before he succumbed at the age of 32 to the disease of AIDS. He taught me a lot about grace & humility in midst of dreadful times. I can still hear his joyful laugh in my mind, and it makes me smile. God bless you, Michael!

On today's tour, we'll make a short visit to a couple of Richmond's Northside district neighborhoods. We hope that this sign portends a change of fortune for Brookland Park.
Have you ever wondered what your neighborhood or town looked like before your dwelling was there? Probably not. I'm subject to convoluted & meandering thoughts; it seems to run in the family. I could be having a normal conversation with my Grandma and she'd come out with a non-sequitor like "Have you ever wondered why God put your nose above your mouth?"

I was astounded as a little boy to learn that our house, our neighborhood, had once been farmland. Like most egocentric children, it was hard to grasp a world prior to my arrival. To prove his point, my dad gestured to an almost imperceptible ridge in our lawn that ran from the street to the backyard. "That used to be a farm road that ran between the strawberry fields," he explained.

On May 4, 1888, Richmond became the first city in America to roll out an entire system of electric streetcars. This innovation led to the development of new neighborhoods to the west, south, and north of the city boundaries. Streetcars, now gone & mostly forgotten, changed the Richmond landscape forever.

A streetcar crosses the Fifth Street Viaduct
This past Sunday, when the predicted rain did not materialize, I scooped Morris up and we headed to the Brookland Park & Highland Park Plaza areas of Northside. Morris & I share an interest in local history & architecture, and I knew he would be a good guide. The neighborhoods in this quadrant were developed in the late 19th & early 20th centuries, with streetcar routes making downtown Richmond easily accessible for workers. A tall viaduct over the steep ravine of Bacon's Quarter Branch connected this previously inaccessible area to the greater city. This plateau now called Northside, though dotted with an estate or farmstead throughout, was mostly wooded and remote before the advent of the streetcar line.

These new suburban communities were for white middle-class residents only. Regulations prohibited "sale or lease to a colored person under any circumstance." Our history of uneasy race relations did not end with the Civil War. I find it curious that whites whose families had previously housed slaves in their attics & outbuildings came to a point where having black neighbors caused them to shudder. What did they fear? Equality? It is a continuing problem.

Still, it must have been a fine place to grow up. There were vacant lots for play, as well as designated parks and athletic fields. People kept chickens in backyards. Trees lined the streets. Retail blocks dotted the side streets within neighborhoods, with small grocery stores, barbers, and candy shops. A larger commercial center at Brookland Park Boulevard & North Avenue offered more services, such as a theater, churches, and a host of various shops; the streetcar ran through this retail area.

Brookland Park Boulevard commercial area

A well-maintained home in Brookland Park

The Highland Park Market on Milton Street was thriving in 1929; today, not so much.

The next few pictures show what has become of the Milton Street block of neighborhood retail establishments. In 1929, in addition to the Highland Park Market, the city directory also listed the Milton Street Confectionery, Highland Park Cleaning, Milton Street Barber Shop. By 1946, this block nestled amongst the homes of Highland Park Plaza featured six shops. Take a look at what we have today...



907 Milton Street, formerly the Sanitary Grocery in 1929


After indulging ourselves with lunch at Roy's Big Burger, Morris & I headed back to Brookland Park to gander at a home on Edgewood Avenue. We had spotted an Open House sign earlier, and we got back to Brookland Park shortly thereafter to see the house. The home had been newly updated, and still retained the fine original wood floors and trimwork. The neighborhood is finally balancing itself to become a home for people of all colors to live side by side.

Gracious spaces in a renovated Brookland Park home

Edgewood Avenue
I know I will go back soon to explore more streets in the Richmond's Northside. It offers a rich & varied architectural landscape. Beginning as a white-only suburb, then swinging to a predominately black population in the mid-60's, this area's demographics continue to evolve. I hope that these neighborhoods, as well as the rest of Virginia and America, become places where we take a greater interest in the color of our neighbors' houses, and pay less attention to the color of our neighbor's skin.