Evergreen Cemetery was founded in 1891 by leaders in the surrounding African American community. Sadly, it was not founded as a perpetual care cemetery, and over many decades it fell into disrepair. In 2017, the property was purchased by the Enrichmond Foundation and plans for restoration began. The restoration of the cemetery is a huge ongoing project which is being undertaken primarily by volunteers. You can read about the timeline of the cemetery from its inception to today here. You can download the master plan for the restoration project here. Famous Richmonder Maggie L. Walker is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Maggie Walker was the first African American woman to found a bank, as well as the first African American woman to serve as a bank president. Also buried in Evergreen are the Rev. John Andrew Bowler, one of the organizers of the first school for African Americans on Church Hill and John Mitchell, Jr., a civil rights activist from Jackson's Ward, city alderman and editor of the Richmond Planet. He also organized a boycott of the segregated trolley system in Richmond. You can read biographies of some of the people buried at Evergreen here.
The coordinates for this virtual cache will take you to Maggie Walker's grave, but you are encouraged to walk around the cemetery to find other interesting gravesites and to observe the restoration work which is being done. To log this cache, post a photograph with your log which demonstrates that you were physically present at the site. You do NOT have to show your face if you do not wish to do so--a photo of yourself from the back pointing to the Maggie Walker grave would work, for example, or a photograph of your hand with the grave marker in the background. A photograph or screenshot of your GPS unit or phone showing that you are at the coordinates of the Virtual Cache is also a good option.
The cemetery is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday (this differs from what their website says, but there is a locked gate up at other times so do please adhere to these hours.) There is no entrance or parking fee, but do please park in the marked areas. As you enter, you will turn left and proceed clockwise around the one-way road to the parking, which will be about 2:00, on your left as you come around the top of the circle. Do not drive through the marked parking area onto the maintenance roads. There is a parking waypoint provided. Finally, the virtual cache may be wheelchair accessible. The approach is fairly flat, but it is on dirt and gravel trails, rather than pavement. I hope you enjoy visiting this often overlooked piece of Virginia and Richmond history.
I am pleased to be able to offer this cache as part of the Virtual Rewards 3.0 project- 2022-2023. Permission to establish the cache here was granted by the property managers of Enrichmond.
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.
Congratulations to vabreeze for a superfast FTF! According to time stamps on my email alerts, the log was 4 minutes after it was published. I'm going to ask her about transporter technology....!