Richmond

Stuart C. Siegel Center is a 190,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. The... facility's main component is the 7,500- seat Verizon Wireless Arena. It also served as a student recreational area until the new Cary Street Gym complex was built. It now is used purely for VCU athletics and includes a weight room, auxiliary basketball court, an aerobic studio, and a cafè. The Verizon Wireless Arena hosts Division I level NCAA inter-collegiate athletics and serves as a general-purpose assembly space for special events such as graduations, concerts, receptions, and a variety of competitions . It is named after Richmond businessman Stuart C. Siegel. The "Stu" opened in 1999 and cost $30.1 million to construct. Its main tenant is the VCU Rams men's basketball team who enjoy one of the nation's best home court winning percentages since moving into the facility and has received the reputation as arguably the toughest place to play in the CAA.
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Sports Backers Stadium is a 3,250-seat stadium in Richmond, Virginia. The facility was opened in 1999. Sports Backers Stadium is used throughout the... year by various parties including the soccer and college athletics teams from Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia Union University. Occasionally, the stadium hosts the Richmond Kickers Future, a reserve team for the Richmond Kickers, and the Richmond Kickers Destiny women's team.
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Ford's Theatre is a historic theatre in Washington, D.C., used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the... assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After being shot, the fatally wounded president was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning. The theatre was later used as a warehouse and office building. It was renovated and re-opened as a theatre in 1968. During the 2000s it was renovated again, opening on February 12, 2009, in commemoration of Lincoln's bicentennial. A related "Center for Education and Leadership" museum experience opened February 12, 2012 next to Petersen House. The Petersen House and the theatre are preserved together as Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service; programming within the theatre and the "Center for Education" is overseen separately by the Ford's Theatre Society in a public-private partnership. Ford's Theatre is located at 511 10th Street, NW.
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The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government in the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the third capital of Virginia. It... houses the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, the Virginia General Assembly. Although it was completed in 1788 and is over 215 years old, the current Capitol is the eighth built to serve as Virginia's state house, primarily due to fires during the Colonial period. During the American Colonial period, Virginia's first capital was Jamestown, where the first legislative body, the Virginia House of Burgesses, met in 1619. The new government used four state houses at different times at Jamestown due to fires. A grand new Capitol building was constructed by Henry Cary, a contractor finishing work on the College of William and Mary's Wren Building . The Colonial Capitol was a one-story H-shaped structure, actually two buildings connected by an arcade. The first floor of the west building was for the General Court and the colony's secretary, the first floor of the east for the House of Burgesses and its clerk. It was completed in November 1705. Nearby was the grand Governor's Palace.
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The Museum of the Confederacy is located in Richmond, Virginia. The museum includes the former White House of the Confederacy and maintains a... comprehensive collection of artifacts, manuscripts, Confederate imprints , and photographs from the Confederate States of America and the American Civil War . The White House of the Confederacy is a gray stuccoed neoclassical mansion built in 1818 by John Brockenbrough, who was president of the Bank of Virginia. Designed by Robert Mills, Brockenbrough’s private residence was built in early nineteenth century Richmond's affluent Shockoe Hill neighborhood , and was two blocks north of the Virginia State Capitol. Among his neighbors were U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall, Aaron Burr, defense attorney John Wickham, and future U.S. Senator Benjamin Watkins Leigh. Sold by the Brockenbrough family in 1844, the house passed through a succession of wealthy families throughout the antebellum period, including U.S. Congressman and future Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon. Just prior to the American Civil War, Lewis Dabney Crenshaw purchased the house and added a third floor.
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The Science Museum of Virginia is a science museum located in Richmond, Virginia. In 1906, the Virginia General Assembly approved funds for the... construction of a simple "exhibits center" to display mineral and timber exhibits being assembled for the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. After the exposition ended, many of the items were moved to Richmond's Capitol Square. The "State Museum", as it came to be known, opened in 1910 and over the years displays of natural history specimens from a variety of State agencies were added to its collection. In 1942, the General Assembly created a study commission to consider the establishment of an official State science museum, and in 1943, that commission strongly endorsed the creation of a "Virginia Museum of Science". Unfortunately, the fiscal restraints and pressing concerns of World War II, and the recession which followed it, prevented the General Assembly from taking further action, and in 1946, the General Assembly suspended further work on a State science museum pending the identification of appropriate space and funds. By 1964, the General Assembly once again considered what to do with the "State Museum".
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Wilton House Museum is a museum located in a historic house located in Richmond, Virginia. Wilton House was constructed c. 1753 in a Georgian style... by William Randolph III, son of William Randolph II, of Turkey Island. Wilton was constructed as a tobacco plantation and located along the north bank of the James River several miles east of the city of Richmond. When the house was in danger of foreclosure the The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America intervened and saved the house from destruction by purchasing, dismantling, moving, and rebuilding it in 1934. Wilton was rebuilt in its current location in the West End of Richmond. Opened to the public since 1952, Wilton hosts a collection of 18th- and 19th-centuries furnishings, textiles, glass, ceramics, and silver that reflect the “planter” lifestyle of the mid-18th century.
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Agecroft Hall is a Tudor-style estate currently on the James River in Virginia, United States, though originally built in Pendlebury, Lancashire,... England in the late 15th century. It is now operated as a museum. It was the home of Lancashire's Langley and Dauntesey families before falling into disrepair at the end of the 19th century. In 1925 it was sold at auction. Richmonder Thomas C. Williams, Jr. purchased the structure, had it dismantled, crated and shipped across the Atlantic, and then reassembled in a Richmond neighbourhood known as Windsor Farms. Its original position was in the Irwell Valley close to Agecroft Road between Lumns Lane to the west and the Manchester to Bolton railway line to the east. The hall was one of three manor houses owned by the Prestwich family from 1292 when Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, granted land on the banks of the River Irwell to Adam de Prestwich. In 1350, Johanna de Tetlow, daughter of Alice de Prestwich and Jordan de Tetlow, married Richard de Langley, following the deaths of her parents and both brothers - possibly from the plague.
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Eric Ivan Cantor is the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district, serving since 2001. A member of the Republican Party, he... became House Majority Leader when the 112th Congress convened on January 3, 2011. He previously served as House Minority Whip from 2009 to 2011. His district includes most of the northern and western sections of Richmond, along with most of Richmond's western suburbs and portions of the Shenandoah Valley. Cantor is the only Jewish Republican currently serving in the U.S. Congress, and the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress in its history. Cantor, the second of three children, was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Mary Lee , a schoolteacher, and Eddie Cantor, who owned a real estate firm. His paternal family immigrated from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s and his maternal grandfather was born in Romania. His father was the state treasurer for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. Cantor was raised in Conservative Judaism. He graduated from the Collegiate School in 1981.
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Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine is a Virginia politician. Kaine served as the 70th Governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, and was the chairman of the... Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011. He was elected governor in 2005, after serving as the 38th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and Mayor of Richmond, Virginia. Kaine was considered as a possible running mate for Barack Obama in 2008, but was not chosen. On April 5, 2011, after weeks of speculation, Kaine announced his candidacy for the United States Senate seat in Virginia that would be opened up by the announced retirement of Jim Webb at the end of his term. Kaine was born at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Mary Kathleen and Albert A. Kaine, a welder and the owner of a small iron-working shop. Kaine grew up in the Kansas City area and graduated from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri. Kaine graduated from the University of Missouri with a B.A. in economics in 1979. Kaine was a Coro Foundation fellow in Kansas City in 1978.
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Leslie Louise Bibb is an American fashion model and actress. Bibb transitioned into film and television in the late 1990s. She played minor roles in... television shows such as Home Improvement and Crossing Jordan, before she made her film debut in the Howard Stern biopic Private Parts. She scored her first recurring role in the show The Big Easy, followed by a film role in This Space Between Us. Bibb's role as Brooke McQueen on the WB Network dramedy series Popular brought her to the attention of a wider audience; she received a Teen Choice Award for Television Choice Actress for the role. During breaks in filming the series, she also played notable roles in the films The Skulls and See Spot Run. She had a recurring role in the medical–drama show ER . Bibb was cast as Carly Bobby in the Will Ferrell comedy film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, followed by minor supporting roles in the films Iron Man, Law Abiding Citizen, and Zookeeper. Bibb, the youngest of four sisters, was born in Bismarck, North Dakota and raised in Nelson County, Virginia. Her father died when she was only three years old.
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For the German anarchist, see Johann Most. John Most is an American poet. John Most, poet, was born Jonathan Eccard in Covington, Virginia, a small... mill town in the Alleghany Mountains, the son of Emmitt and Sandra Eccard. His parents, both native Ohioans, moved to Virginia in 1971, where his father continued his work as a United Methodist minister. Most and his brother, Alex Eccard, who is a CPA at Yount, Hyde, & Barbour, grew up in several towns in Virginia, including Covington, Waynesboro, Leesburg, and Lynchburg. In 1995, Most graduated from E.C. Glass High School and went on to attend the University of Virginia, double majoring in Psychology and Religious Studies. After graduating in 1999, he lived for three years in Richmond, Virginia. While in Richmond, he married his long-time girlfriend, Lynne Wesley in 2000. Most and his wife moved to New York City in 2003. Most had relocated to Manhattan because his wife was pursuing a graduate degree in graphic design from Pratt Institute. While in New York, Most founded the arts organization AQP Collective and started writing poetry, publishing work in places like Lungfull! and Jacket.
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Penn Dayton Badgley is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl. He has also starred... in the movies John Tucker Must Die, The Stepfather, Easy A, and Margin Call. Badgley was born in Baltimore, Maryland and split his childhood years between Woodlake, Virginia and Seattle, Washington. He attended Woolridge Elementary, where his mother, Lynne, became PTA president, then he transferred to the honors program at Swift Creek Elementary. He enjoyed playing youth soccer where his dad coached. He attended Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington. Also Penn was involved with the Seattle Children's Theatre. He soon began doing voice-overs for children's radio stations. At age 11, Badgley relocated to Hollywood and began pursuing an acting career. Badgley also pursued a singing career during this time and recorded a pop single in 1998. At the age of 14, Penn completed his California High School Proficiency Exam and began attending Santa Monica City College. He was later accepted at University of Southern California , where he deferred admission due to contractual obligations.
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Dilshad Vadsaria is an American television actress. She played the role of Rebecca Logan on the ABC Family television program Greek. Vadsaria's... professional acting career began in 2006 with a part in an episode of the television program Vanished. She then landed a regular part in the television program Greek where she played the character Rebecca Logan, one of the Zeta Beta Zeta sisters. She also starred in the movie, Rapture where she played the role of a teenage mother. She appeared in the NCIS episode "Legend ", the pilot of NCIS: Los Angeles as Shakira, and in the Bones season 5 episode "The Dentist in the Ditch".
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Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the... 1960s and 1970s. Wolfe was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Louise , a landscape designer, and Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Sr., an agronomist. Wolfe was student council president, editor of the school newspaper and a star baseball player at St. Christopher's School, an Episcopalian all-boys school in Richmond, Virginia. Upon graduation in 1949, he turned down admission at Princeton University to attend Washington and Lee University, both all-male schools at the time. Wolfe majored in English and practiced his writing outside the classroom as well. He was sports editor of the college newspaper and helped found a literary magazine, Shenandoah. Of particular influence was his professor Marshall Fishwick, a teacher of American Studies educated at Yale. More in the tradition of anthropology than literary scholarship, Fishwick taught his classes to look at the whole of a culture, including those elements considered profane.
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Freeman Fisher "Gozzie" Gosden was an American radio comedian, and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. He is best known for his... work in the Amos 'n' Andy series. Freeman Gosden was born in Richmond, Virginia. During World War I he served in the United States Navy as a wireless operator, which prompted his great interest in the young medium of radio. While attending school in Richmond, Gozzie worked part time in Tarrant's Drug Store at 1 West Broad Street. In 1921, Gosden first teamed up with Charles Correll to do radio work, presenting comedy acts, sketches, and hosting variety shows. They met in Durham, North Carolina, both working for the Joe Bren Producing Company. Their first regular show came in 1925 with their WEBH Chicago show Correll and Gosden, the Life of the Party. On this show the two told jokes, sang, and played music . In 1926, Gosden and Correll had a hit with their radio show Sam & Henry on Chicago radio station WGN. Sam & Henry is considered by some historians to have been the first situation comedy.
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Francis Asbury "Fran" Tarkenton is a former professional football player, TV personality, and computer software executive. He is best known for... playing with the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants, as well as serving as a commentator on Monday Night Football and a co-host of That's Incredible!. At the time of his retirement he owned every major quarterback record. Tarkenton also founded Tarkenton Software, a computer-program generator company, and he toured the U.S. promoting CASE with Albert F. Case, Jr. of Nastec Corporation. Tarkenton Software later merged with KnowledgeWare , until selling the company to Sterling Software in 1994. Fran Tarkenton was born in Richmond, Virginia. His father, Dallas Tarkenton, Sr., was a Pentecostal minister. Fran Tarkenton went to Athens High School in Athens, Georgia, and later attended the University of Georgia, where he was the quarterback on the Bulldog football team. He led Georgia to the 1959 Southeastern Conference championship under Coach Wally Butts. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
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Aimee Mann is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and bassist. Aimee Mann grew up in Bon Air, Virginia, graduated from Open High School ... in 1978 and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes. The band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004. In 1983, she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup. The video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist. Mann was featured on the Rush song "Time Stand Still" which hit #3 on the American rock charts and became a minor UK hit, singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. Her laughter is also heard at the start of "Force Ten," from the same album. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now.
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Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was a former World No. 1 professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three... Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States. Ashe, an African American, was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is also remembered for his efforts to further social causes. Born in Gum Spring, Virginia, to parents Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe, Arthur and his younger brother, Johnnie, suffered a tragic loss when their mother died suddenly from heart related complications during routine surgery. Arthur Ashe first attended Maggie L. Walker High School, being coached by Ronald Charity, and later coached by Robert Walter Johnson. Tired of having to travel great distances to play Caucasian youths in segregated Richmond, Ashe accepted an offer from a St. Louis tennis official to move there and attend Sumner High School. Young Ashe was recognized by Sports Illustrated for his playing.
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Eric Ivan Cantor is the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district, serving since 2001. A member of the Republican Party, he... became House Majority Leader when the 112th Congress convened on January 3, 2011. He previously served as House Minority Whip from 2009 to 2011. His district includes most of the northern and western sections of Richmond, along with most of Richmond's western suburbs and portions of the Shenandoah Valley. Cantor is the only Jewish Republican currently serving in the U.S. Congress, and the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress in its history. Cantor, the second of three children, was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Mary Lee , a schoolteacher, and Eddie Cantor, who owned a real estate firm. His paternal family immigrated from Eastern Europe in the early 1900s and his maternal grandfather was born in Romania. His father was the state treasurer for Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. Cantor was raised in Conservative Judaism. He graduated from the Collegiate School in 1981.
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