Miller & Rhoads Santa - 1960s

Reader Beth sent in a bunch of great pics, we've featured some in the past. Today we have some pictures and stories of her Great Uncle, who was the Miller & Rhoads Santa from the 1960s to the 1980s.

"My Great Uncle, Arthur Hood (we called him "Uncle Woo Hoo" due to his trick of slipping out his dentures and whistling very loud so as to startle the kids at family gatherings), on Santa's lap/ in training to take over as the next Miller & Rhoad's Santa"

"Woo Hoo in his Santa costume, with his wife, Frances Hood, on his lap. She hand-sewed all of his velvet costumes. We called her 'Aunt Ditty'"

Children mailing letters to Santa - 1930s

The Library of Virginia's blog has a great picture from the 1930s of children mailing letters to Santa:

Photo courtesy of The Library of Virginia Special Collections

Broad Street - Winter 1969

Broad Street in downtown Richmond, looking West, in January of 1969.

Photo courtesy of VCU Libraries

300 block of East Grace St - Before and After

1975:

2012:

1975 photo courtesy of VCU Libraries

Fan Holiday House Tour - 1969

The 50th annual Fan Holiday House Tour is today and tomorrow. Here's a great poster for the 1969 tour:

Ad courtesy of The Library of Virginia

History of the A.P. Hill statue in Bellevue

Richmond.com has an excellent article on the A.P. Hill statue at Hermitage and Laburnum Avenues in Bellevue in Richmond's Northside. Included are some great pics of the statue/intersection from the 60s and 70s.

Westhampton School, The Redskins & Bon Secours

I'll take another slight jump into politics on this blog by saying that I'm not a fan of the deal the city is offering the Redskins and Bon Secours for the proposed Redskins training facility. The Redskins pay nothing in this deal, Bon Secours gets a 60 year/$5,000 a year lease on the Westhampton property, and millions of dollars are diverted from Richmond Public Schools to pay for the construction of the Redskins' training camp. Possibly worst of all is that there's no money from the sale of the school property because of the lease (as opposed to a sale), a sneaky workaround to the 2008 City Council ordinance that states that money made from the sale of surplus school properties are "limited to new school construction and the repair and renovation of active school buildings." Also, Jim Dunn, Bon Secours' vice president of advocacy and community affairs has stated Bon Secours can't make any promises on whether they'll save the Westhampton School building. My bet is there's a good chance they'll demolish it.

Bottom line, as a city tax payer with children in Richmond Public Schools, all of this is telling me the Washington Redskins are more important to our city government than the education of our children.

Even though the Westhampton School has sat empty since Richmond Community High School moved out in 2009, I wanted to put a bit of a face on the property that the City of Richmond seems to be handing to Bon Secours for demolition.

The photos below were taken a few years ago by Little Monkeys Photo Co.

Photos courtesy of Little Monkeys Photo Co.