Zero Milestone marker is an easy point to miss

WHAT: Zero Milestone marker

LOCATION: Just east of the intersection of Grace and 9th streets at the northwestern corner of Virginia State Capitol Square, downtown Richmond, Va.

ARTIST: Unknown.

DEDICATION: 1929

DESCRIPTION: The three-foot tall stone and bronze marker is the is the official Virginia highway point of measurement of distances from Richmond for Virginia. The indiscrete marker is an easy point to miss among the many sculptures and monuments on the grounds of Capitol Square. An inscription says “Zero Milestone, Virginia Highways.” It is located at N 37° 32.380 W 077° 26.046 18S E 284947 N 4157525.

Dr. Hunter Holms McGuire at Capitol Square

WHAT: Statue of Dr. Hunter Holms McGuire at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia.

LOCATION: Capitol Square, Northern Edge.

ARTIST: William Couper.

DEDICATED: January 7, 1904.

DESCRIPTION: A seated bronze figure 6 foot high in a heavy armchair on a 7 foot high granite base. Dr. McGuire was President of the American Medical and American Surgical Associations and founded the University College of Medicine which merged to form the Virginia Commonwealth University / Medical College of Virginia in 1913.

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Dr. Hunter Holms McGuire (Oct. 11, 1835 to Sept. 19, 1900). The inscription on his granite base reads:

Hunter Holmes McGuire, M.D., LL.D., President of the American Medical and of the American Surgical Associations; Founder of the University College of Medicine; Medical Director, Jackson’s Corps, Army of Northern Virginia; an eminent civil and military surgeon, and beloved physician; an able teacher and vigorous writer, a useful citizen and broad humanitarian, gifted in mind and generous in heart, this monument is erected by his friends.

He is buried at Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery.

Gov. William ‘Extra Billy’ Smith at Capitol Square

WHAT: Governor William ‘Extra Billy’ Smith at Capitol Square in downtown Richmond, Virginia.

LOCATION: Capitol Square, along the Northern Boundary. 

ARTIST: William Ludwell Sheppard.

DEDICATED: May 30, 1906.

DESCRIPTION: Standing bronze figure 7 1/2 foot high on a pedestal 9 foot high. The pedestal is heavily inscribed on all four sides illuminating Smith’s career. He was twice Governor of Virginia and a member of the US Congress. Sculptor F. William Sievers enlarged in bronze Sheppard’s model.

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William Smith was born Sept. 6, 1797 in King George County and died May 18, 1887. He was a lawyer, congressman, twice a Governor of Virginia and one of the oldest Confederate generals in the Civil War.  He is buried in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery.

He earned the nickname “Extra Billy” through one of his early career moves, according to Wikipedia:

He established a line of United States mail and passenger post coaches through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia in 1831. It was in this role that he received his nickname. Given a contract by the administration of President Andrew Jackson to deliver mail between Washington, D.C., and Milledgeville, Georgia (then the state capital), Smith extended it with numerous spur routes, all generating extra fees. During an investigation of the Post Office department, Smith’s extra fees were publicized and he became known as “Extra Billy” in both the North and South.

Virginia Civil Rights Memorial at Capitol Square

WHAT: Virginia Civil Rights Memorial at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Va. See and listen to a slideshow.

LOCATION: Capitol Square, Northeast Corner near Governor Street entrance.

ARTIST: Stanley Bleifeld.

DEDICATED: July 21, 2008.

DESCRIPTION: Cast in bronze, the 18 figures are slightly larger than life. The wall the statues back up to is 12 feet long, 8 feet high and about 5 feet wide. The $2.6 million granite and bronze memorial was privately financed.

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The following was culled from excerpts of the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s coverage of the statue’s unveiling:

A Commonwealth once synonymous with defiance of court-ordered school integration celebrated the latest symbol of its often-difficult embrace of equality with the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial in 2008.

It represents a key moment in the history of the civil-rights movement in Virginia.

The statue spotlights the African-American students in rural Prince Edward County whose 1951 walkout to protest their run-down school led to a lawsuit that was folded into the challenge that triggered the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court banning segregated public schools.

Among the figures in the memorial is Oliver W. Hill Sr. holding a rumpled legal brief aloft as he stands shoulder to shoulder with law partner Spottswood W. Robinson III. They took on the case of the Prince Edward County students who protested the shabby condition of their school.

Barbara Johns was the one who called the school strike in 1951 and she is a key figure in the sculpture. Her statement “it seemed like reaching for the moon” is boldly featured.

The student protests garnered support from the local community, benefiting from the moral leadership of the Rev. L. Francis Griffin, known as the “Fighting Preacher” and is also featured in the memorial.

A plaque in front of Virginia Civil Rights Memorial reads:

On April 23, 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns and several fellow students led a strike to protest the deplorable conditions at their racially segregated Prince Edward County school. The Rev. L. Francis Griffin united parents in support of the strike and encouraged the students to contact NAACP attorneys Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson. The lawsuit that followed was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court and joined with four other cases as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), in which the Court ruled that racially separate educational systems are inherently unequal and unconstitutional.

This memorial is dedicated to these Virginians and countless others who courageously fought for the principles upon which the nation and this Commonwealth were founded.

Stonewall Jackson at Capitol Square

Gen. Thomas Stonewall Jackson

WHAT: Statue of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson [slideshow]

LOCATION: Capitol Square, along Northern Boundary in downtown Richmond at the Virginia State Capitol.

ARTIST: John Henry Foley. 

DEDICATION: October 26, 1875. 

DESCRIPTION: This bronze 7 foot high standing figure was sculpted and cast in England. It was commissioned by a group of admiring gentlemen shortly after Jackson’s death. The state had the 9 foot pedestal erected and paid for the delivery of the statue.