A ROAD LESS TRAVELLER • LAST MAN STANDING VOLUME 26 No 7 JULY 2020 R Charles Brandon Rapp McGuiganis now a man. This past June, my son grad- uated from high school, and in the fall, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will take a gap year before going to college. In his middle school years, he was bullied in extreme ways. It was sometimes blatant, sometimes subtle, but always mean-spir- ited. Charles could have allowed anger to fester into aggression. But he didn’t. Instead, he chose creativity and compas- sion. During a commencement ceremony, Principal Joshua Lutz said this of my son: “His academic skills, his creative drive, and his passion for others are unrivalled. Charles has always been one to step up for the little guy or for somebody he feels is marginalized by society, and that is a character trait that you can’t teach. It has to be within you.” continued on page 12 A REGIONAL MAGAZINE SERVING GREATER RICHMOND NORTH OF THE JAMES www.northofthejames.com Your Local Full-Line Dealer Since 1969! Arthur’s Electric Service, Inc. 8910 Brook Road • Glen Allen, VA 23060 • 804-264-2513 2 NORTH OF thE JAMES maGAZINE • July 2020 TABLE of CONTENTS 4 MONUMENTS Monument Avenue Soon To Be “A Road Less Traveller” When the monuments began to come down last month, they were like bowling pins, falling in slow motion. A massive ball of outrage, molded from centuries of racism and inequity, struck the pocket perfectly—no spare; just a resounding, if protracted, strike. 9 HIDDEN HISTORIES How the Irish Dealt With Offensive Monuments On the 50th anniversary of Irish independence, a gentleman named Liam Sutcliffe, took it upon himself to relieve the Dublin skyline of an extraordinarily high monument to the British Admiral Lord Nelson—for whom the Irish had no overwhelming affection. 10 MONUMENTS A.P. Hill Monument: Last Man Standing Recently, the Hermitage Road Historic District Association voted unanimously for the removal of the A.P. Hill monument, under which Hill is interred. 11 BOOK REVIEW Lush Hope in Dire Times “Deep Creek” is Pam Houston’s exquisite collection of essays centered around ★ her ranch in Colorado. A traumatic childhood eventually leads Houston to 4030 MACARTHUR AVENUE 266-3167 develop a deep love for nature, and culminates in her eventual purchase of a 120-acre home. Though Houston travels for much of the year, the ranch in sparsely populated Creede, Colorado is where her heart is. Pre-Order and Curbside Pickup 7 Days a Week, 11am-8pm 12 COVER STORY Charles Brandon Rapp McGuigan Menu on Our Facebook Page Is Now a Man This past June, my son graduated from high school, and in the fall, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will take a gap year before going to college. During a commencement ceremony, Principal Joshua Lutz said this of my son: “His academic skills, his creative drive, and his passion for others are unrivalled. Charles has always been one to step up for the little guy or for somebody he feels is marginalized by society, and that is a character trait that you can’t teach. It has to be within you.” 20 SCHOOLS The Dandelion Garden: An Outdoor Classroom Back in mid-May, I met up with three women who nurture The Dandelion at Holton Elementary School. Two of them—Ellen Shepard and Susanna Raffenot, the OGs, or Original Gardeners, as they’re sometimes called—planted the initial seeds. The other woman is Kate Lainhart who now works as the garden educator at Holton Elementary School. COVER IMAGE: Photographed by Rebecca D’Angelo R editor/publisher CHARLES G. MCGUIGAN Independently owned and operated. art director DOUG DOBEY at Dobey Design ® NORTH of the JAMES magazine is published web designer every month. Letters to the editor are welcome, CATHERINE MCGUIGAN but become the property of NORTH of the JAMES contributing writers magazine. Letters may be edited for clarity and length. Although we invite unsolicited manu- DALE M BRUMFIELD scripts, we cannot be accountable for their return. MARY ELFNER 4017 MACARTHUR AVENUE The publisher is not responsible for errors. ALANE CAMERON FORD RICHMOND, VA 23227 Copyright 2020© by NORTH of the JAMES maga- ORION HUGHES 804 525 4576 zine. All rights reserved. Views and opinions by JACK R JOHNSON our writers do not necessarily represent those of ANDREW CHURCHER [email protected] NORTH of the JAMES magazine. NORTH of the ANNE JONES JAMES magazine is not responsible for claims made by our advertisers. CATHERINE MCGUIGAN FRAN WITHROW LOOK FOR OUR REOPENING IN For media kits and ad rate information, write or call: contributing photographer LATE JULY OR EARLY AUGUST NORTH of the JAMES MAGAZINE REBECCA D’ANGELO PO Box 9225 account executive WE WILL FOLLOW ALL PROTOCOLS TO ENSURE Richmond, VA 23227 AREINA-GAIL HENSLEY THE SAFETY OF OUR CUSTOMERS AND STAFF 804 218 5265 editorial: [email protected] northofthejames.com advertising: [email protected] July 2020 • NORTH OF thE JAMES maGAZINE 3 MONUMENTS Monument Avenue Soon To Be “A Road Less Traveller” by CHARLES MCGUIGAN COUPLE YEARS back, shortly after gun-toting, torch- bearing, flag-waving, Nazis, white suprema- cists and neo-Confed- erates descended on Charlottesville like a plague, murder- Aing one woman and injuring many others, my brother Chris and I were texting one another about the fate of Confederate monuments in Rich- mond. At that time, Chris and his wife lived in a tiny Maryland village called Keedysville, less than five miles away from Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg. Chris and his wife, Mar- garet, had raised their two children there in an 18th century log and stone house they had meticulously restored over the course of some twenty years. Chris, who is among other things, a sculptor, an architect, and a black- smith, spent most of his career with the National Park Service. His special- ty was historic preservation. “What will they call Monument Av- enue when the monuments come Marcus-David Peters Circle surrounds the Lee monmument. down?” he typed. Jefferson Davis had already been top- seem to worship. bend, in any way, the extreme parts. “A road less Traveller,” I responded. pled by protesters back in mid-June. Work crews rose on the fenced plat- His legs are sticking out, and his boots, The statue lay face up on the asphalt, and his saddle bags. We just need to “Well-played,” Chris replied, which form of an articulating boom lift, a sort its torso coated with pink paint that make sure every piece of stays intact as meant a lot to me. Chris possesses a of cherry picker that can move in any called to mind a negligee, perhaps he comes down.” rapier wit. direction. Once at the hooves of Little a reference to the legend that Davis, Sorrel, Jackson’s horse, the team of hard- Throughout the afternoon, the crowd When the monuments began to come a month after the Surrender at Ap- hat-clad men began carefully securing swelled along Arthur Ashe Boulevard down last month, they were like bowl- pomattox, had dressed in women’s harnesses sheathed in anti-chafing gear and Monument Avenue, and each ing pins, falling in slow motion. A mas- garments to avoid capture by Union at key points around the forelegs and time a harness was secured, there rose sive ball of outrage, molded from cen- troops, who ultimately arrested him hind legs of the bronze horse. The op- a chorus of chants. “No justice, no turies of racism and inequity, struck just outside Irwinville, Georgia. The eration would last for a few hours, and peace.” “Black lives matter.” “F*** that the pocket perfectly—no spare; just a former president of the former Con- there was reason for this. statue.” And so on. resounding, if protracted, strike. One by federacy was unceremoniously loaded one they fell, torn from their pedestals on to the flat bed of a tow truck and Acting as a sort of consultant, Jil- A massive crane, towering above by protesters, or removed by profession- hauled away into the night. A group of lian Holland of Round Hill, Virginia, the monument, would groan and als with the aid of portable circular saws protesters cheered and chanted. sporting a harness and a hard hat, screech when the tension on the har- that cut through bronze bolts that had accompanied the crew on several of nesses tautened, and it seemed at any Two weeks later, I stood among more secured them to their lofty heights for their expeditions up to the bronze moment the machineries would lift than a thousand people, the vast ma- more than a century. The monuments statue, and made recommendations. the statue from its perch. But time jority wearing masks, who formed a ended up, some have said, at the City’s She knows a fair amount about large dragged on. large circle thirty feet from the cen- sewage treatment plant down on South- bronze sculptures. Jillian herself is a tral island of the rotary at the junc- By late afternoon, clouds had begun side. Just a temporary holding place be- metal worker, whose media include ture of Arthur Ashe Boulevard and moving in, white at first and then fore their final fate is decided. steel, aluminum, iron and cast bronze. gray, and to the South a steep bank of Monument Avenue. Rising from that What’s more, she’s often assisted Rich- On July 1, the very day a state law went clouds turned dark as ancient pewter. island, atop a stone pedestal, was a mond-based sculptor Paul DiPasquale into effect giving municipalities the You could see bolts of lightning in the massive equestrian statue of Thomas in the assembly, installation, and deliv- power to remove Confederate monu- darkest of those clouds, and I over- “Stonewall” Jackson, who, in the eyes ery of his work.