A partial concrete cutout of the “gun hole,” on display at The Valentine museum (Photo courtesy The Valentine)
In a city with so much uncomfortable history, it was bound to happen.
The once-lost Richmond “gun hole,” the sidewalk imprint that caused a social media stir in January 2024 before disappearing this spring, is back.
And this time, it’s on display at The Valentine.
Shaped like a Colt-style revolver, the gun hole on South Addison Street, between Cary and Main streets in the Fan, became a Richmond icon shortly after the Chicago rat hole rose to national fame nearly two years ago.
Both came to define their respective cities. The rat hole, there for decades before a local comedian tweeted a photo, merged Chicago’s self-deprecating grit with its love/hate relationship with furry rodents.
The gun hole? That’s a little harder to explain.
Like its Chicago cousin, the gun hole had been a Fan staple for at least two decades, according to locals. And it also became a shrine, drawing visitors as well as sacramental cigarette butts, condoms, acid-reflux pills and all manner of knickknacks after someone posted a photo on X in early 2024.
Is it ridiculous, silly, even inappropriate for a city once renowned for its homicide rate?
Yes. And that’s the point, says Bill Martin, The Valentine’s longtime director.
“We want something funny that will divert us from the everyday stuff. We’ll take gun holes. We’ll take cats. We will do anything to grab onto something that makes us smile,” says Martin, who over three decades has helped shape the staid museum into a repository of Richmond’s cultural zeitgeist.
“That’s what makes Richmond kind of interesting: You can have great beauty and great architecture next to this ugliness,” Martin says. “It’s all of those things.”
The gun hole, cut out when the city replaced a section of the sidewalk in May, was preserved by a neighbor. Christina Vida, the Elise H. Wright Curator of General Collections at The Valentine, says the gun hole will be part of its ongoing exhibit, “This Is Richmond, Virginia,” beginning on Oct. 21.
There is, of course, one stipulation.
“We’re asking for people to not leave offerings to it at The Valentine, when they come to see it,” Vida says.
