Community pride: Special improvements coming to honorary Church Hill area park
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Improvements are on the way to a small park in Richmond's Church Hill. Work is underway after the Church Hill Central Civic Association received a $10,000 grant in May to breathe new life into the area. The unique intersection of Chimborazo Boulevard, Oakwood Avenue and P Street is known as James S. Christian Jr. Memorial Place. The small green space was named in honor of James S. Christian, Jr., a World War II veteran and the first African American from Richmond to report for training at the Tuskegee Army Air Base in Alabama. He was later elected to the House of Delegates for three consecutive terms. “If you're thinking about community pride, you're thinking about what people look at from their front porch when they go by," said Mark Olinger with the Church Hill Central Civic Association when talking about Church Hill and this memorial site. "Instead of being someplace that we pass, make it someplace that you can stop." The Church Hill Central Civic Association is a group of local Church Hill residents who volunteer their time to strengthen what they call the “civic spirit” of their community. “This is an area of an underserved population," said Mark Olinger with the Church Hill Central Civic Association. “The neighborhood itself has improved a lot over the years [but] the park really hadn’t, and our goal was to create a space center in the neighborhood.” In June, the group announced on its Facebook page, that they received the $10,000 grant from the 2024 Richmond Outdoor and Prosperity Fund and, in the months that followed have managed to put it to good use at the memorial site. “There was a tree that got cut down -- they got rid of all the old roots, put down a new sidewalk,” said Olinger of the work that has already been completed. “Public Parks and Recreation did all of the cleanup of the old planters and the clean out of the new planter." The lawn surrounding the memorial site has been cut back and the plant feeders have been cleared away, but group leaders say that they will need the help of the community to get the space picture-perfect before its deadline arrives. According to the fine print surrounding the grant, the project must be finished by Spring 2025 -- and the civil association said that, in order to achieve this goal, it will need volunteers from the community to help with planting and other tasks during the fall season. “The grounds haven't really emphasized the memorial as a place for him," Oliner said. "It's a way to memorialize him, and tell the James Christian, Jr. story in a way that hasn't been told at this site before." Olinger is also a part of the leadership team at the nonprofit Capital Trees, which has collaborated with work on several Richmond projects, like the 14th Street Corridor, the Great Shiplock Park and more.
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Improvements are on the way to a small park in Richmond's Church Hill.
Work is underway after the Church Hill Central Civic Association received a $10,000 grant in May to breathe new life into the area.
The unique intersection of Chimborazo Boulevard, Oakwood Avenue and P Street is known as James S. Christian Jr. Memorial Place.
The small green space was named in honor of James S. Christian, Jr., a World War II veteran and the first African American from Richmond to report for training at the Tuskegee Army Air Base in Alabama. He was later elected to the House of Delegates for three consecutive terms.
“If you're thinking about community pride, you're thinking about what people look at from their front porch when they go by," said Mark Olinger with the Church Hill Central Civic Association when talking about Church Hill and this memorial site. "Instead of being someplace that we pass, make it someplace that you can stop."
The Church Hill Central Civic Association is a group of local Church Hill residents who volunteer their time to strengthen what they call the “civic spirit” of their community.
“This is an area of an underserved population," said Mark Olinger with the Church Hill Central Civic Association. “The neighborhood itself has improved a lot over the years [but] the park really hadn’t, and our goal was to create a space center in the neighborhood.”
In June, the group announced on its Facebook page, that they received the $10,000 grant from the 2024 Richmond Outdoor and Prosperity Fund and, in the months that followed have managed to put it to good use at the memorial site.
“There was a tree that got cut down -- they got rid of all the old roots, put down a new sidewalk,” said Olinger of the work that has already been completed. “Public Parks and Recreation did all of the cleanup of the old planters and the clean out of the new planter."
The lawn surrounding the memorial site has been cut back and the plant feeders have been cleared away, but group leaders say that they will need the help of the community to get the space picture-perfect before its deadline arrives.
According to the fine print surrounding the grant, the project must be finished by Spring 2025 -- and the civil association said that, in order to achieve this goal, it will need volunteers from the community to help with planting and other tasks during the fall season.
“The grounds haven't really emphasized the memorial as a place for him," Oliner said. "It's a way to memorialize him, and tell the James Christian, Jr. story in a way that hasn't been told at this site before."
Olinger is also a part of the leadership team at the nonprofit Capital Trees, which has collaborated with work on several Richmond projects, like the 14th Street Corridor, the Great Shiplock Park and more.
