During October, the Enrichmond Foundation will host public meetings throughout the City of Richmond to get input from family members, community leaders, volunteers, and anyone else interested in the conservation and restoration efforts at historic Evergreen Cemetery. Visit https://enrichmond.org/events/historic-evergreen-cemetery-a-community-conversation/ for dates, locations, and times.
The meetings are a continuation of Enrichmond’s planning process for the property, which it acquired in 2017 and is the resting place of more than 10,000 African-Americans dating back to the 19th century, including notable Richmond leaders such as Maggie L. Walker and John Mitchell, Jr. The Virginia Outdoors Foundation has been working with Enrichmond to record an open-space easement on the cemetery, to ensure that the overgrowth, vandalism, and trash that plagued it for decades will not be part of its future. VOF has allocated $400,000 of public funding to protect and restore Evergreen along with the neighboring East End Cemetery.
The public meetings will be facilitated by volunteer members of Evergreen’s Executive Planning and Review Team (ExPRT committee), as well as Enrichmond staff. VOF trustee Viola Baskerville, who has family members buried at Evergreen, serves on the ExPRT committee.
Says VOF Executive Director Brett Glymph, “Enrichmond has done a remarkable job assembling a team of family members, volunteers, and other partners to ensure that we restore dignity to this national treasure in a way that’s consistent with the vision and values of the Richmond community.”
