Richard Cheek Photo for Historic Richmond Foundation
This month, the Historic Richmond Foundation celebrates "75 Years of Preservation" with the launch of a year of monthly lectures. The festivities begin on Jan. 28 with a nod to the late Mary Wingfield Scott. In a lecture titled "City Saviors," Richmond magazine's resident history expert, Harry Kollatz Jr., will discuss the work of Richmond's female preservation pioneers, including Scott.
"She was the tipping point for preservation in the city of Richmond," says Katelyn Ann Kelley, the foundation's preservation and marketing manager.
Richmond-bred with a rebellious zeal, Scott worked to preserve the character of the city's neighborhoods by establishing the Craig House Committee in 1935, which later became the William Byrd branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the largest such organization in the state. She not only helped save the Adam Craig House in Shockoe Bottom but also purchased and rescued Linden Row.
The series' Feb. 25 event, "A Story of Success," features storytelling by members of founding families of long-lived Richmond businesses, including Jim Ukrop of Ukrop's Super Markets, Tracy Schwarzschild of Schwarzschild Jewelers and Gil Minor of Owens & Minor.
"[We] are asking them to share stories they would have heard around the dinner table that maybe no one else would hear about the businesses," Kelley says.
Each lecture will be preceded by a full dinner buffet, catered by Meriwether Godsey. The events, which cost $30 per person to attend, occur each month from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Catherine's School. For more information, call 643-7407 or visit historicrichmond.com .
