May 01, 2006
Where the sidewalk (still) ends
North 31st and East Grace Streets (where that intersection used to be)
Here's a map. When I took this picture I was standing on the south edge of Libby Terrace Park, or what's left of it. This is one of the areas severely damaged by Tropical Storm Gaston in August 2004, maybe the best known. The work to stabilize the hillside only began in September 2005. They're going to put in a retaining wall and rebuild the roads.
We last came by here in March 2005, when the site was still draped in plastic. Now they've scraped out the sinkhole preparatory to building the retaining wall and anchoring it. Maybe those interesting things projecting from the hillside are the anchors? Well, I never took civil engineering, so I can only guess.
While I was taking pictures, one of the workmen came up out of the pit. When he walked by where I was standing, I said, "Hey, did you know that this used to be the city dump, like fifty years ago? Do you all ever find dump stuff down there?"
He said, "Oh yeah. Bottles. Guys come by on the weekends and dig up bottles and sell'em. Get some good money too."
"Maybe I should come by and look?"
"Just get you a hardhat."
Now that I think of it, the fact that this area was fill would explain how it didn't stand up to the storm.
And how do I know about the dump? Once when I was going for a walk, as I was crossing Grace at 28th, a retired couple drove up and wanted to talk. They both grew up in Church Hill back in the 1940's, they said, and the woman pointed to a house on the corner. "I lived in that house. That playground at the end of the block? That was the city dump." They were excited to see how lovely the neighborhood looked and just wanted to tell someone (their ungrateful children, not present, weren't interested). They also told me they had tons of old photographs and their kids weren't interested in those either. I suppressed the urge to say "Are they nuts? Give them to me!" and referred them to Historic Richmond, because that was all I could think of. I've always wished I could see those pictures.
388 words | May 1, 2006 09:29 PM | Shutterbug