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Do you love Fulton?
02/10/2017 5:33 PM by John M
From Mary Ellen Otto:
Greater Fulton Civic Association: Tuesday, Feb. 14th, 7-8pm
You are invited to come to the Greater Fulton Civic Association meeting. We will hear an update about
- Bon Secours’ Sarah Garland Jones Center opening near the Community Hospital,
- A Studio Row Apartments progress report, and
- An opportunity to join the Clean Team.
Please join us 7-8pm at 1519 Williamsburg Rd. Refreshments following.
I love this sign… where is it at? A wonder it hadn’t been vandalized yet but glad it hasn’t.
@Eric. The sign is in the median triangle as you come into upper Fulton from Government Rd.
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5166775,-77.3957819,3a,30y,113.29h,89.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjLU05rl56XOB1StobvqX5Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
Fulton needs help. Stop the flow of garbage trucks through the community.
Seriously? As I thought about this-is there much to **love** about Fulton?
Although this comment may seem sarcastic, no sarcasm intended. I’m just not aware of anything unique or distinguishable about Fulton to **love**.
Greater Fulton is a great working-class community. There is an equality in the community that I much admire. It is a healthy urban neighborhood that is unlike any other in the city.
Here are 9 things, in no particular order, that I have grown to love about Fulton:
1. Gillie’s Creek Park – This is a park for everyone. Horseshoes, soccer, disc golf, youth athletics, BMX, etc.
2. Greater Fulton Civic Association – A tight-knit, diverse civic association that for real functions as a group of neighbors. Decades of history.
3. Powhatan Hill Park and Community Center – The community center, pool, and public park on the hill with the great view of the city skyline. Other neighborhoods would have sold this view.
4. Neighborhood Resource Center – Former post office, now a community center at the heart of Fulton. Montessori school, Girl Scouts, neighborhood meetings, a recording studio. Stop by the farm stand in season to get produce grown out back.
5. Independence – Fulton and Fulton Hill and Montrose are not Church Hill. Folks can move there and be away from Church Hill’s shit, build unique houses, make art and music, be whoever and whatever. They’ve got their own hands-on creative class, for sure.
6. Sir Moses Montefiore Cemetery – Under-appreciated peaceful space, with a sense of lost history.
7. Pirate Trails – Amazing DIY bike trails carved through the forest on the DL.
8. Old Fulton – This is a neighborhood with a unique and shattered history. And it’s just gone.
9. New Fulton – As the community at the bottom of the bottom of the hill fills in and matures, it really feels like an organic extension of the existing community.
Sweet bungalows, a true community that embraces and cares for neighbors, even neighbors who don’t look alike, safer than Church Hill (and the Fan, for that matter), people looking out for each other, quiet, creative, authentic.
To add to the list, Powhatan Hill is some of the best sledding in the city after a big snow.
Triple Crossing and Stone Breweries are a short walk away.
Among the many artists in Fulton, Paul DiPasquale, sculptor of the Arthur Ashe statue, Connecticut and Neptune in Virginia Beach, lives in the neighborhood (and keeps a small version of Neptune in his yard.)
But the nice neighbors, quiet streets, old trees and the rich and evolving history are what I love about Fulton.
@5 John M. I am not quite sure how to take your #5 comment above? For someone who runs a “Church Hill” forum, you sound bitter towards all that Church Hill represents as a historically “protected” community?
@6. The Richmond Crime stats don’t support your statement: “safer than Church Hill” Fulton registered 212 incidents in the last year as opposed to 70 in Church Hill. And…Church Hill is much safer than the FAN…hands down with 560 incidents. So you got the Fan part right.
@Eric – Nothing to do with “a historically “protected” community”, not sure how you got there. Meant more the worst edge of the NIMBY, know-it-all, blowhard type that we seem to have more than our fair share of at times.
@Kay9 – FWIW, the city calls everything east of the hill “Fulton”, it’s an enormous area equivalent to Church Hill, Chimborazo, Oakwood, and Church Hill North. Not sure of the density. I’m guessing that she wasn’t only referring to the St.John’s area.
Check out the map here: https://chpn.net/2009/04/20/map-of-the-city-neighborhoods/
@10… Sorry John if I read it wrong. I have been wrong before and will be wrong again. 🙂 But with the various posts of past and present about appropriate architecture design within the community… your comment about “build unique houses” and “creative class” seems to thumb a nose at any guidelines of Church Hill O&H and the DHR. I am not saying that about the unprotected areas where anything goes and completely understand about the NIMBY issues. And the “shit” comment, well, there is plenty of that around… some good and thought provoking, a lot bad including various incidents.
If people in Richmond would be more creative with forward thinking and sound designs, I would be more for it but… they take a unimaginative ultra-conservative industrial crap approach which look more like outhouses and third world bloc tenements. Here is an example of something I could easily live with in an unprotected area of Church Hill. Why can’t local architects come up with something like this?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BVDeiuSJrI0/VhnrhbrohZI/AAAAAAAAVvM/ExyGxtdYbb8/s1600/unique-home-designs-screen-door-parts-on-with-hd-resolution-x.jpg
Eric
K9, not sure why you choose to basically take a dump on the announcement for a community meeting that obviously doesn’t affect you one way or the other. Why don’t you come to the civic association meeting on Tuesday and see for yourself? You would be welcomed there. Everyone is.
@13…Huh? not sure why you seem to be overly sensitive about a fairly benign comment…directed at the title of the post. I was genuinely curious what there was to **love** about Fulton that, in my opinion, looks and feels a lot like many other neighborhoods around the Richmond area but, I’m no Fulton expert. Was I missing something? I appreciate what others stated they **love** about the area. It’s their opinion and to each his own.
Yikes. Some of the comments in this thread are exactly why people move one hill over to Montrose & Fulton, y’all.
@15 Clay Street… maybe you would like to come up with a similar list that John did for Fulton, but centered around Church Hill? For me, this is not only a locally recognized historical community but statewise as well. Church Hill is not for the casual resident but for those who understand and respect history and the decades of work people have put into trying to reverse and restore the fabric that make it a unique 18th and 19th century community. For those who are willing to unite with a common vision and goal, to preserve and make it happen. Some think people have attitudes when it comes to thoughts and concerns about our little part of Richmond… but it is more along the lines of pride… pride that you will fight for to prevent newcomers from trying to undo what others spent a lifetime creating and protecting. Those who spent time and money to restore their properties and want a better standard of living (gentrification if you must put a label on it). Pride to have outsiders (tourists) come see the fruits of your labor and share in history. People who move to Church Hill, chose to do so and hopefully for all the right reasons. Those who think Fulton or Montrose, or another “hill” is better than Church Hill is essentially giving up and jumping ship. Yes, our schools are lacking, the infrastructure is crappy, and city hall could give rats ass about us but, without community pride, people give up without a fight on the rest with a “why bother” mentality. True, Fulton is basically a blank canvas for the “creative” and free spirits, which is fine, and hopefully will take the focus off of Church Hill for those who want to create something that doesn’t fit in by codes or by the association. But keep in mind that it is in a flood zone (hence the death knell of Fulton in 1972) which means more development headaches similar to those that in part killed the stadium in Shockoe. That is why I would like to see a counter list for our neighborhood since we are the “original” and better than the rest. 😉
End of rant. 😀
Ugh, this is all so petty. Someone saying Fulton is great does not mean they are simultaneously saying Church Hill is bad and a terrible place, people. Get out of the factional binary mentality. Both places can be great at the same time, duh.
Eric,
Your comments always seem to lack an understanding of the true history of Church Hill. I know that and I haven’t even been here for many years. This past comment shows, among many other things, an almost complete lack of understanding of Fulton’s history. I can promise you that the “death knell” of Fulton was certainly not being located in the flood zone.
At this point, everyone knows your focus is the architectural integrity of the community and maintaining your investment, which certainly have their place in the discussion. However, your comments consistently show a lack of respect for those in, and out of, our community that don’t have your exact order of priorities. Case in point, on another thread today you’re advocating gun violence as a means to solve a neighborhood issue, and that’s just one drop in the bucket. As an ordained minister and reverend, I encourage you to not be so combative on a string like this where your neighbors are asking for positive support in their (beautiful, rebuilding) community. I can easily add to John’s list of lovely things about Fulton. Stop being such an ass.
@18 Jason, true… everyone knows my agenda about preservation. But my concern are for those who counter the mentality and diss the regimentet guidelines to live here. That is what I take offense to. Those who fly in the face of all things that a protected historic neighborhood is supposed to be. Someone who should and would be proud to promote tourism instead of sweeping all the dirty problems under the rug… but rather do something about them so that they don’t exist.
I answered the “gun” issue on that thread, which was meant to be a sarcasm but was taken way too seriously.
@17 Clay Street
My comments about pride, aka “spirit”, is not that much different than what school spirit is about. It doesn’t mean the students at either school are any better or worse than one another. Or they own things and live better than their rivals. It just seems that the “pride” of Church Hill has waned or lost its way over the years. Yes, both can be unique yet co-exist.
@18 Jason S. I would love to see Fulton revitalized but I will put this link to a story about Fulton and its history that lead to people leaving, including the 1972 flood.
http://ideastations.org/radio/indelible-roots-historic-fulton-and-urban-renewal
Here is an excerpt from “Connecting the Williamsburg Avenue Corridor: Studio Plan 6-15-16” – a plan to analyze the Williamsburg Avenue Corridor between Main St and Newton Road to evaluate existing conditions and develop recommendations for improving connectivity and shaping future land use.
“In 1969, Hurricane Camille flooded huge sections of the area as did Hurricane Agnes again in 1972. Gillies Creek, a tributary of the James River on the northern border of Fulton, swelled and put a large portion of Fulton under water for days. The floods damaged homes, businesses and other structures already suffering from neglect. Fulton Gas Works, one of the last remaining significant employers in the area, was greatly damaged by the flood and forced to close. When the waters receded and the City assessed the damage to the Fulton neighborhood, the state of damage and degradation provided the final rationale for the City to demolish the neighborhood.”
That’s a bit of revisionist history, Eric. At a bare minimum, that only glazes over the real impetus behind the bulldozing of Fulton.
Fulton was razed because it was a a low income African American community and Richmond wanted the tens of millions in federal HUD funding. The floods were the excuse to do it.
You should actually read the article you linked, or do some browsing/research on the Valentine’s oral history project. Might give you some perspective.
http://thevalentine.org/collections/specialty/historic-fulton-oral-history-project#
For someone who claims to be so focused on the historic preservation of our communities, you definitely seem to contradict yourself here and in other threads.
I’m confused by your suggestion in #12 about what you’d like to see in a community like Fulton. I don’t even know why you’d link that in this thread. I wish you hadn’t sidetracked the conversation from an important community meeting this evening to your haughty opinions on architectural design.
http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/the-greatest-place-on-earth/Content?oid=1379516
@23 Jason S. My linking the modernist design structure photo was to show that I am not opposed to it as many think. But I do prefer something more dramatic like this design rather than the conservative, bland, blase, uninspiring, cheap looking crap being built. I am opposed to people placing it within protected historic areas though.
“Haughty” opinions? Preservation of Church Hill started in 1957 and continues today. It is nothing new except it was expanded, the CAR was formed with the O&H rules, and added to National registries. What I have been preaching is only what everyone should be doing in such a community. Like Charleston, or Savannah, and other preserved communities with restrictions, which have survived and flourished due to community pride and commitment which in turn, draws tourism and revenue, unlike Church Hill… which is older and more historical and should be of more interest with travelers. Again, we are only talking about a few acres within Richmond so it shouldn’t be that difficult to grasp ahold of the concept for those who chose to move here rather than other places available within the city.
I said it is a great idea about Fulton because it’s nearly a blank slate where a new community, one for those not into preservation, can move to and develop as they please and still be in the East End. But to pull up stakes after signing on in CH and move there because of the restrictions that have been in place for years, and many oldtimes who created them still live here, is nothing less than a form of mutiny 🙂 <- note the smiley.
Move to Fulton for other positive reasons and not because you are disgruntled with CH is the bottom line.
In case it is of interest, here is the 2016 plan for Fulton I was mentioning above. It can be downloaded to read offline (79 pages) and has some great photos and charts. Just have to use the scroll bar to see the original and a OCR version is under it.
http://www.slideshare.net/MichaelDePaola2/studio-plan-61516finalprint