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This has been in the making for a while down here in Petersburg.
06/19/2007
A plaque for Siege survivors
BY PATRICK KANE
STAFF WRITER
As early as next week, the city will begin installing plaques on buildings that survived the Siege of Petersburg.
A Union soldier must have been bored to tears after the city fell in April 1865 and began listing damaged structures, said Chris Calkins of Petersburg National Battlefield Park. Richmonders torched their city as they fled, but many Petersburg homes and commercial buildings remained intact.
“There is a listing of every house in the city of Petersburg that suffered damage from bombardment,” Calkins said. “We know where the house is, who lived there, how many times it was struck and from which direction the shells came. I’m unaware of a similar list to this, so detailed of the damage. He goes up one side, crosses down and down up the other.”
After the listing was unearthed from the National Archives, Calkins listed those buildings in his book, “Auto Tour of Civil War Petersburg 1861-1865.” During a visit to Gettysburg, Pa., he noticed buildings that survived that famed battle were marked by plaques.
Calkins won a $15,000 grant from the Cameron Foundation to pursue the project, and contacted the High Street Association, a nonprofit that managed the grant.
Local firm Studio Ammons was called up to design two plaques, one for buildings that were struck and one for buildings that weren’t struck.
“For the buildings struck by shells, we used an actual artillery pin. It’s round, to represent a cannonball,” Studio Ammons and Commonwealth Architects principle Terry Ammons said. He worked with colleague Dolly Holmes to design the plaques. The second plaque is a 3-by-5-inch rectangle with Union and Confederate flags.
Ammons said the bronze plaques are being hand-cast in a facility in Tidewater. Ammons said they will be a nice touch to the expanded signage in the downtown area, much of which were created by his company.
The installations will begin on city buildings in downtown before expanding to privately-owned buildings, said Ron Reeks. Reeks expects the plaques to become popular with residents and visitors, alike.
“It’s kind of a neat thing to know that your house was either standing or struck during the Siege of Petersburg,” Reeks said. “As we begin to prepare ourselves for our sesquicentennial, it’s an additional feature.”
Victoria Hauser, preservation planner for the city, said they have ordered 86 plaques for structures that were struck plus 172 for buildings that were unharmed during the siege. The plaques are free for owners of pre-war properties who request them.
City workers will install the plaques for consistency’s sake, Reeks said.
Once the concentration of 18th- and 19th-century buildings downtown are marked, the city will look to neighborhoods of historic homes. When that happens, Calkins’ 1795 home on High Street could be marked.
“My house was hit, I have the fragment, Calkins said. “It was part of a 30-pound Parrot shell.”
To request a plaque application, contact Preservation Planner Victoria Hauser at vahauser@petersburg-va.org.
• Patrick Kane may be reached at 722-5155 or pkane@progress-index.com.
Online at: http://www.progress-index.com/site/n...d=462946&rfi=6
06/19/2007
A plaque for Siege survivors
BY PATRICK KANE
STAFF WRITER
As early as next week, the city will begin installing plaques on buildings that survived the Siege of Petersburg.
A Union soldier must have been bored to tears after the city fell in April 1865 and began listing damaged structures, said Chris Calkins of Petersburg National Battlefield Park. Richmonders torched their city as they fled, but many Petersburg homes and commercial buildings remained intact.
“There is a listing of every house in the city of Petersburg that suffered damage from bombardment,” Calkins said. “We know where the house is, who lived there, how many times it was struck and from which direction the shells came. I’m unaware of a similar list to this, so detailed of the damage. He goes up one side, crosses down and down up the other.”
After the listing was unearthed from the National Archives, Calkins listed those buildings in his book, “Auto Tour of Civil War Petersburg 1861-1865.” During a visit to Gettysburg, Pa., he noticed buildings that survived that famed battle were marked by plaques.
Calkins won a $15,000 grant from the Cameron Foundation to pursue the project, and contacted the High Street Association, a nonprofit that managed the grant.
Local firm Studio Ammons was called up to design two plaques, one for buildings that were struck and one for buildings that weren’t struck.
“For the buildings struck by shells, we used an actual artillery pin. It’s round, to represent a cannonball,” Studio Ammons and Commonwealth Architects principle Terry Ammons said. He worked with colleague Dolly Holmes to design the plaques. The second plaque is a 3-by-5-inch rectangle with Union and Confederate flags.
Ammons said the bronze plaques are being hand-cast in a facility in Tidewater. Ammons said they will be a nice touch to the expanded signage in the downtown area, much of which were created by his company.
The installations will begin on city buildings in downtown before expanding to privately-owned buildings, said Ron Reeks. Reeks expects the plaques to become popular with residents and visitors, alike.
“It’s kind of a neat thing to know that your house was either standing or struck during the Siege of Petersburg,” Reeks said. “As we begin to prepare ourselves for our sesquicentennial, it’s an additional feature.”
Victoria Hauser, preservation planner for the city, said they have ordered 86 plaques for structures that were struck plus 172 for buildings that were unharmed during the siege. The plaques are free for owners of pre-war properties who request them.
City workers will install the plaques for consistency’s sake, Reeks said.
Once the concentration of 18th- and 19th-century buildings downtown are marked, the city will look to neighborhoods of historic homes. When that happens, Calkins’ 1795 home on High Street could be marked.
“My house was hit, I have the fragment, Calkins said. “It was part of a 30-pound Parrot shell.”
To request a plaque application, contact Preservation Planner Victoria Hauser at vahauser@petersburg-va.org.
• Patrick Kane may be reached at 722-5155 or pkane@progress-index.com.
Online at: http://www.progress-index.com/site/n...d=462946&rfi=6