Program Information

Program: Hollywood: Richmond's Garden Cemetery
Segment Number: 8 (Watch entire program)
Duration: 00:03:37
Year Produced: 2004
Description:

Over 75,000 people are buried at Hollywood Cemetery. Before the middle of the twentieth century, the vast majority of private burials were for white and well to do citizens. Most are ordinary people, but national figures also reside there.

Richmond boasts a cemetery, named Hollywood because of the natural proliferation of holly trees on the grounds, whose history, beauty and tranquility have made it a local treasure. Hollywood Cemetery lives out its original intention for the living and the dead. It is a mature green space with a commanding view of the James River that serves the public as a natural retreat within the confines of the city. It is the final resting place for two U.S. presidents, the only confederate president, several confederate generals, a Supreme Court justice, writers and local celebrities - as well as many people who are not famous at all. In addition to its legendary status in Richmond and beyond, Hollywood remains a working cemetery.

For more information visit: http://ideastations.org/hollywood

Transcript

NARRATOR:

Over 75,000 people are buried at Hollywood Cemetery. Before the middle of the twentieth century, the vast majority of private burials were for white and well to do citizens.

Most are ordinary people, but national figures also reside there.

John Tyler is the other U.S. president at rest in Hollywood. He ran as vice-president for William Henry Harrison under the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” He ascended to the presidency when Harrison died after only 32 days in office. Teddy Roosevelt called Tyler “a man of monumental littleness.” (Option: Twenty years after his presidency he joined the confederacy and became the only US president ever deemed a traitor.)

Jefferson Davis was the only president of the Confederacy. After the civil war he was jailed as a traitor by the north and shunned by the south who blamed him for losing the civil war. Today his grave is frequently visited.

A confederate general and cavalryman, JEB Stuart was considered, “The eyes and ears of Robert E. Lee” although he blinded his commander with a late arrival at the battle of Gettysburg. He was mortally wounded at Yellow tavern while defending Richmond from a Union advance.

General George Pickett’s name has been attached to the ill-fated frontal assault on the Union line at Gettysburg. His defeat on cemetery ridge is considered the high water mark of the Confederacy. After the war he returned to his hometown, Richmond, and sold insurance.

Governor Henry A. Wise found himself embroiled in John Brown’s invasion of Harper’s Ferry. Brown was hanged for treason against Virginia after Wise refused the pleas of Brown’s supporters to stay his execution.

During the 1950s, Chairman of the Richmond school board, Lewis F. Powell barely integrated public schools during massive resistance. As a U.S. Supreme Court Justice he sat in the middle of a squarely divided court and was himself, often divided on issues like affirmative action.

Many of the residents of Hollywood were well known in their time but have since faded from the forefront. Their names now appear on local buildings, schools and foundations.

Lewis Ginter helped make Richmond the tobacco capitol of the world and he personally made a fortune by marketing and selling pre-rolled cigarettes. Before and after his death he bestowed millions of dollars back to the community and still had plenty left to build the largest mausoleum at Hollywood, complete with Tiffany stained glass windows.

In 1910 Mary Munford fought to establish a college for women linked to Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia. She failed but convinced the college of William and Mary to admit women in 1918. UVA opened its doors to women over 50 years later.

Newspaper editor Virginius Dabney was a Southern liberal who fervently called for the advancement of African Americans throughout the 1930s and 50s, although within the confines of segregation: a brave stance for the South at that time that earned him praise by both blacks and whites, but also intense criticism.

Douglas Southall Freeman wrote the definitive multi-volume biographies of Robert E. Lee and George Washington. Both won a Pulitzer. Eisenhower once said that it was Freeman who first suggested that he run for President of the United States.

Among the writers in Hollywood two early twentieth century contemporaries earned national acclaim for their novels. Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Glasgow was occasionally beleaguered by rivalry from her longtime literary friend James Branch Cabell. Their unsettled relationship continued, even after death.

Virginia Standards

5th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » USI.1
5th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » USI.9
6th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » USII.1
6th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » USII.8
11th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » VUS.1
11th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » VUS.7
11th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » VUS.13