Where am I? (Part 14)

Now, back to the game.  Take a good look at the image above. Who is he? Where is he?

If you think you know, click on the word comments below to give your answer.

Okay, it’s time to bring you up to date. My nephew Mike got Part 13 right. It’s Dogwood Dell in Byrd Park, a place where I’ve spent many a summer evening both on-stage and in the audience. As a teenager in the 1950s, I was in the cast of a play about Daniel Boone (I played his son Israel), and I played one of the Dromio twins (I forget which one, either Ephesus or Syracuse) in Shakespeare‘s “Comedy of Errors.” 

Dogwood Dell has long presented summer concerts and theatrical events. It’s probably best known for its annual July 4th concert by the Richmond Concert Band that concludes with the 1812 Overture, complete with cannon fire, carillon bells, and a fireworks display.

Speaking of which, my favorite memory of being in the audience at Dogwood Dell is from the July 4th concert in 1976, our bicentennial year. My friend Walter organized a group of us for a picnic in the amphitheater before the concert. Not just any picnic. Sure, we had the usual foods (including champagne, which is verboten at Dogwood Dell). But Walter served our picnic on china plates with silver and crystal. He even produced a white tablecloth from his voluminous picnic basket. It was a splendid evening of good food, good friends and rousing music.

Now to Part 11 of this exercise, the part that nobody got until I offered a big clue: it’s a school. In fact, it’s Franklin Military Academy at 701 North 37th Street, on the eastern edge of Church Hill. Like Tee Jay, the building is imposing. The image I showed you in Part 11 was a detail of the south corner of the façade. Mike got it right.

Long before the building opened its doors as Franklin Military Academy, it was known as East End Junior High School. Shortly after students started attending class there in 1929, it was called the most adequately equipped and artistic junior high school in the state. The architect was Charles Robinson, who also designed Tee Jay. East End Middle School, as it was later known, closed in 1991.

East End Junior High is where I learned how to be a teenager. I was a student there in 1954, 55 and 56, for the 7th, 8th and 9th grades. I loved that school. It was there that I truly began to learn, especially about myself. The teachers at East End Junior High planted so many seeds of knowledge that quickly bore fruit. They affected the way I saw the possibilities for my own place in the world. I owe them a debt of thanks.

If you’re coming in during the middle of this exercise on how well you know Richmond, you can start from the beginning by clicking here.