Shockoe Hill Cemetery..and other stuff (March 9, 2014)

Made an early morning visit to Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond on Sunday morning, first time to see this-found out about it from a friend from work. Amazing place, with a lot of history, it  was established in 1822 when St. John's Church Cemetery was filled up. Lots of history there, the third Chief Justice is buried there, a famous Union spy, the great great grandfather of George Patton, and a girlfriend of Edgar Allen Poe are all buried there as well as a number of soldiers -Revolutionary, War of 1812, and many from the Civil War both North and South. 

 This is the area where John Marshall (the Chief Justice) is buried. Just a peaceful place to explore with a lot of interesting grave sites. I was able to find a map near the entrance which gave the location of 18 of the notable graves.
As with many old cemetery sites, many of the stones have been worn off, and the names of those who were on them are long gone (though sure the city which owns the grounds has the records) and there is also some damage to the stones due to time and probably vandals.
On an early Sunday morning it was a very peaceful place.  

This is one of the older monuments. I have posted some of the more notable photos of the historic graves on my flickr page, and there is a link to that on this site. Enjoyed my visit here and look forward to a future return.
Had a good time there as I am a huge history fan, and for a great city to enjoy that, there are few places better than Richmond. Saturday during a motorcycle ride got to see the Lumpkin Slave Jail...photos from that are also at the site as well as a previous post here.
From there, went back to my apartment to find...the lights were all out. A car had taken out a telephone pole and the power company was working on the problem.
I went to Crossroads Coffee on Forest Hill Ave for lunch and a refreshing beverage. Then with border collie, took a walk to see some of the sights on the James River.     

 At the James, saw these guys on their Kayak's taking a "stroll" down the James River. That is a popular thing to do, and fun to see them rolling down the river.
Richmond is lucky with the James with has some rapids to run, and that is a popular pastime here. I like the river, reminds me of the days when I lived in Louisville, Kentucky..though there was a lot of bodies of water around Charlotte, NC that city is not on a river, so was a bit of change. Richmond has a lot to offer. 

Finally here is the view of the work crew working on the power outage. Had to replace the pole, and did take Dominion Power a long time to get the lights back on. From the morning accident it was late afternoon before we had lights again.
Was a very history filled weekend, with a very fine motorcycle ride and a good trip in the car...all within a few minutes of where I live.
There are a lot of fun things to see and do in this town, and I am looking forward to a fun filled Spring in the RVA this year.