Style Weekly’s Edwin Slipek Jr. delves into the history and architectural import of the old WRVA tower, now the headquarters for the nonprofit ChildSavers.

ChildSavers, an organization providing care for local children since 1924, has renewed one of the city’s most visible and important mid-20th-century architectural landmarks. [...] A row of dilapidated brick houses near the corner of East Grace and 22nd streets, in the then-rejuvenating historic district, was demolished and an intriguing, Acropolis-like broadcasting complex was completed in 1968. It was a brilliant move architecturally on the part of the radio station, as the facility all but claimed Richmond: Its broadcasters looked out from their studios through cargo-bay-sized windows over the downtown skyline, the sweep of the James River and the curves of Interstate 95.

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ACORN’s next Renovator’s Open House will be 5:30-7PM on Wednesday, July 2nd at 801 North 24th Street. Built in 1855, this is a handsome square, brick building with the flat roof typical of the pre- Civil-War 19th-century era. Take a tour with architectural historian Kim Chen to learn about the property’s historic features and how they work within the tax credit program.

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Following up on her 2007 novel My Mamma, My Teacha, Loretta Watson has reprinted There Is Hope, her 1996 book of poetry. For every copy sold, one dollar goes toward the Shirley Coleman – Loretta Watson Creighton Court Scholarship Fund and will help a child from Creighton Court pay for a portion of his/her college expenses.

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ACORN has announced 2 workshops for June: Renovation Lending on June 21st @ St.John’s and Working with a Renovation Contractor on June 28th @ Caravati’s Architectural Salvage.

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Are you interested in starting a community garden in your neighborhood? Tricycle Gardens is hosting 4 identical workshops on how to jump start a community garden. Covered will be the nuts and bolts of what it takes to get a garden off the ground, and sustain it. Wednesday June 25th, Wednesday July 9th, Wednesday July 30th, and Wednesday August 13th. All workshops are free, and are from 6:30-9pm, at the Tricycle Gardens office: 211 W. 7th St in old Manchester. More information is available by emailing lisa@tricyclegardens.org or phone 231-7767

The Valentine Richmond History Center is looking for you to nominate “Richmond History Makers“. This is chance to recognize “those who are benefiting our community by mentoring best practices, leading successful initiatives and contributing positively through innovative methods.” You can nominate someone online in minutes.

Look out for the MobookMobikeMobile… For the 2nd year in a row, Books on Wheels will be doing their book/bike thing at the MLK Middle School parking lot on Saturday, June 7 (11AM-3PM). Free books and free bike repair!

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Beginning Computer Classes for Adults; open mic @ Poe’s Pub; All Church Hill YARD SALE ; Books on Wheels @ MLK; Church Hill Dog Park work party; New Visions Civic Association meeting; MORE…

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A partnership of the ChildSavers of Richmond/Memorial Child Guidance Clinic (MCGC) and the Tuskegee Airmen Motorcycle Club of Virginia, the Third Annual Ride for ChildSavers rolled through the city this morning.

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The 19th-century Italianate house at 2311 M Street in Union Hill will host ACORN’s Renovator’s Open House tonight from 5:30 to 7PM. A few blocks over, the Jewell’s renovation @ 2105 M Street will also be open to the curious.

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AP writer Kristen Geineau recently penned a piece on Alicia Rasin that ran in papers across North America, including Canada’s CANOE, the Santa Fe New Mexican, and the San Francisco Gate.

more than 20 years, she has voluntarily rushed to homicide scenes throughout Richmond to comfort the grieving. It’s a monstrous task; except for the past few years, Richmond’s homicide rate typically has ranked among the highest in the nation. She organizes candlelight vigils for the dead, arranges their funerals, helps the families they’ve left behind cope with the pain. Sometimes, people call her to homicide scenes before they call the cops.

An earlier version of this fell apart through some site upgrades, so I’ve put the photos together as a photo set on Flickr. If I’ve missed one, gimme the address in the comments.

Attend Tricycle Gardens’ rain barrel work shop and build your own rain barrel! This Sunday, May 18, 2008, from 12-2:30ish @ Neighborhood Resource Center (1519 Williamsburg Road) in Fulton, take home your own rain barrel for $40 OR $10 to attend and learn only.

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The Spring 2008 issue of Blackbird, VCU’s online journal of literature and the arts, has a few poems by local writer a Joshua Poteat “that involve Church Hill and the surrounding area. They’re kind of downers, and strange [...]“. Check’em out.

The 19th-century Italianate house at 2311 M Street, slated for demolition in 2005, was saved when ACORN found in David Collett a buyer for the house up for the massive task of total renovation and rehabilitation. ACORN’s next Renovator’s Open House will be at this now wonderfully renovated house on May 21st from 5:30 to 7PM.

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Hurricane Hazel, the only recorded Category 4 hurricane to make landfall as far north as North Carolina, was the worst hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the worst hurricanes of the 20th century. The storm hit Richmond on October 15, 1954, with 79 mile-an-hour winds that bent the steeple of the Trinity Methodist Church on East Broad Street.

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A nice contrast to reports of the arrest of the recent spray-paint-vandal LAST, this week’s Style Weekly has a piece on the street artist Hope and his art in the “third space”.

Church Hill Walking Tour; Beginning Computer Classes for Adults; open mic @ Poe’s Pub; Building Your Child’s Self-Esteem; Union Hill O&H Study Group; Heating and Cooling Your Old House; MORE…

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