Richmond (IPA: [ˈrɪtʃ.mənd]) is a city in east central Indiana, which borders Ohio. It is sometimes called the "cradle of recorded jazz" because some
early jazz records originated there at the studio of Gennett Records, a division of the
Starr Piano Company.[1]
Richmond is the county seat of Wayne County.
The city's 2000 population was 39,124. In the 1990s, Richmond's population declined by 1.6 percent.[2]
History
Richmond was settled along the East Fork of the Whitewater River in 1806
by Quaker families from North Carolina. John Smith and
David Hoover were among the earliest settlers. Richmond is still home to several Quaker
institutions including Friends United Meeting, Earlham College and the Earlham School of
Religion.
Richmond is believed to have been the smallest community in the United States with a professional opera company and symphony
orchestra. The Whitewater Opera has since closed its doors but the Richmond Symphony Orchestra is
a source of community pride. Will Earhart formed the first complete high school orchestra
in Richmond in 1899. A later orchestra director, Joseph E. Maddy went on to found what
is now known as the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.
A significant group of artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to be known as the Richmond Group. The list of artists includes John Elwood
Bundy, Charles Conner, George Herbert
Baker, Maude Kaufman Eggemeyer and John Albert Seaford
among others. The Richmond Art Museum has an outstanding collection of regional and
American art.[3] Many consider the most significant
painting in the collection to be a self portrait of Indiana-born William Merritt
Chase.[4]
Richmond was once known as "the lawnmower capital" because of the lawn mowers manufactured there from the late 19th century
through the mid-20th century. Manufacturers included Motomower Dille-McGuire and F&N. The farm machinery builder Gaar-Scott was based in Richmond.
In the 1920s, Indiana had the strongest Ku Klux Klan organization in the country under
Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson, with control over the state legislature and an ally in
Governor Ed Jackson.[5] At its height, national membership during the second Klan movement reached 1.5 million, with 300,000
from Indiana.[6] Records show that Richmond (home
to Whitewater Klan #60) and Wayne County were Klan strongholds, with up to 45 percent of the county's white males having been
Klan members.[6][7] At the same time Gennett Records was recording important black jazz
artists,[8] it also produced private-label contract
recordings for the Ku Klux Klan.[9] Official racial
segregation was a feature of Richmond life until 1965, when the city ended its policy of restricting black firefighters to one
station and limiting the promotion opportunities of firefighters and police officers.
After starting out in nearby Union City, Wayne Agricultural Works moved to
Richmond. Wayne was a manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles, including "kid hacks", a precursor
of the motorized school bus. Beginning in the early 1930s through the 1940s, several
automobile designers and manufacturers were located in Richmond. Among the automobiles
manufactured there was the "Richmond" which was built by the Wayne Works, the "Rodefeld", the "Davis", the "Pilot", the
Westcott and the Crosley.
In the 1950s, Wayne Works became Wayne Corporation, a well-known bus manufacturer, and relocated to a site adjacent to Interstate 70 in 1967.
The company was a leader in school bus safety innovations, but closed in 1992 during a period of school bus manufacturing
industry consolidations.
Richmond was known as the Rose City because of the many varieties once grown there by Hill's
Roses in several sprawling complexes of greenhouses. The company once had about 34 acres
under glass. The Richmond Rose Festival honored the rose industry and was a popular summer attraction.
Richmond is located on the National Road,[10] which became part of the system of National Auto Trails. The
highway is now known as U.S. Highway 40. One of the extant Madonna of the Trail monuments was dedicated at Richmond on October
28, 1928[11] The
monument sits in a corner of Glen Miller Park adjacent to U.S. 40.
On April 6, 1968, several downtown blocks were destroyed or
damaged by a natural gas explosion and fire, killing 41 people and injuring
more than 150.[12] Thereafter, the main street through
downtown was closed to traffic and the Downtown Promenade was built in 1972 (and later expanded in 1978). The five-block
pedestrian mall was later torn down and the street reopened to traffic in 1997 as part of an urban revitalization effort.
A Powerball lottery ticket sold in Richmond won approximately $314 million (annuity value)
in the August 25, 2007 drawing. As of August 27, the winning ticket had not been claimed. In 1998, a group of 13 machine-shop workers from Ohio won
Powerball on a ticket that had also been purchased in Richmond, IN. It won $295.7 million (annuity); the "baker's dozen" chose the cash option.
Architecture
Richmond is noted for its historic architecture. In 2003, a book entitled Richmond Indiana: Its Physical Development and
Aesthetic Heritage to 1920 by Cornell University architectural historians,
Michael and Mary Raddant Tomlan, was published by the Indiana Historical
Society. This work is the result of twenty five years of research on Richmond's growth and development. Particularly
notable buildings are the 1902 Pennsylvania Railroad Station designed by Daniel Burnham
and the 1893 Wayne County Court House designed by James W. McLaughlin of Cincinnati. Local
architects of note include John A. Hasecoster, William S.
Kaufman and Stephen O. Yates. Five large districts and several individual buildings are
listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the
Historic American Buildings Survey and the Historic American Engineering Record.
Educational institutions
Churches, Meetings, Synagogues, Temples, Etc.
Geography
Richmond is located at 39°49′49″N, 84°53′26″W (39.830189,
-84.890668)1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 60.3 km² (23.3 mi²). 60.1 km² (23.2 mi²) of it
is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.26%) is water.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 39,124 people, 16,287 households, and 9,918 families
residing in the city. The population density was 650.8/km² (1,685.3/mi²). There were
17,647 housing units at an average density of 293.6/km² (760.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 86.78% White, 8.87% African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.80% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 1.09% from other races, and 2.14% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.03% of the population.
Richmond lies on the flat lands of eastern Indiana.
There were 16,287 households out of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.1% were
non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or
older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.89.
In the city the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 21.6% from
45 to 64, and 16.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 88.7 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,210, and the median income for a family was $38,346. Males had a median
income of $30,849 versus $21,164 for females. The per capita income for the city was
$17,096. About 12.1% of families and 15.7% of the population were below the poverty
line, including 22.8% of those under age 18 and 10.8% of those age 65 or over.
Transportation
Richmond is served by Interstate 70 at exits 149, 151, 153, and 156.
Media
The daily newspaper is the Gannett-owned Palladium-Item.
Full-power radio stations include WKBV, WFMG, WQLK, WHON, WZRP (formerly WVXR), and Earlham
College's student-run public radio station WECI. Richmond is also served by several translator
stations repeated from WCDR on 95.3 and 90.7 and WJYW which is
repeated on 94.5 and 97.7. Area NPR radio stations include WBSH in
Hagerstown and WMUB in Oxford, OH.
Richmond is considered to be within the Dayton, Ohio television market and has one
full-power television station, WKOI, which is affiliated with TBN.
Points of interest
Hicksite Friends Meeting House, 1150 North A Street, Richmond, Indiana, now houses the Wayne County Historical Museum.
- Hayes Arboretum
- Wayne County Historical Museum
- Richmond Art Museum
- Indiana Football Hall of Fame
- Abram and Agnes Gaar Mansion (house museum)
- Joseph Moore Museum at Earlham College
- Glen Miller Park and Madonna of the Trail
statue
- Old Richmond Historic District
- Elizabeth Starr Historic District
- Pennsylvania Railroad Station Historic District
- Reeveston Place Historic District
- East Main Street/Glen Miller Park Historic District
- Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church [1]
(Tiffany interior and windows, Hook and Hastings
organ)
- Bethel AME Church (oldest AME church in Indiana: founded 1868)
- Old National Road Welcome Center (convention and tourism bureau)
- Whitewater Gorge Park and Gennett Walk of Fame
- Cardinal Greenway hiking trail
- Morrisson Reeves Library and historical archive
- Marceline Jones gravesite, Earlham Cemetery (Jim Jones's wife, who died in the
Peoples Temple mass suicide)
- Richmond Civic Theatre (plays, classic movies, and children's theater)
Notable Richmondites
- May Aufderheide, ragtime composer
- Baby Huey (singer), popular music artist
- Polly Bergen (Nellie Paulina Burgin), actress[13]
- Clark R. Bradley, rodeo professional[14]
- Timmy Brown, former NFL
running back and actor
- John Wilbur Chapman, Evangelist
- Al Cobine, jazz musician[15]
- Vice Admiral Terry Cross, Vice Commandant,
United States Coast Guard
- David W. Dennis, U.S. Congressman
- George Duning, Oscar-nominated composer[16]
- Weeb Ewbank, coach of the 1958 and 1959 NFL champion Baltimore Colts and the
Super Bowl III champion New York Jets[17]
- Jack Everly, pops conductor, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
- Paul Flatley, former NFL
Rookie-of-the-Year (Minnesota Vikings)
- William Dudley Foulke, lawyer, author
- Norman Foster actor, director[18]
- Harry "Singin' Sam" Frankel, radio star, minstrel[19]
- Richard T. Ginman, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy
- Mary Haas, linguist
- Jeff Hamilton, jazz drummer[20]
- Del Harris, professional basketball coach
- Micajah C. Henley, roller skate maker
- Charles A. Hufnagel, M.D. artificial heart valve inventor[21]
- Steven C. Jackson, Guitarist
- Dominic James, basketball player at Marquette
University, 2006 Big East Rookie of the
Year
- C. Francis Jenkins, television pioneer
- Harold Jones, jazz drummer[22]
- Jim Jones, founder-leader of Peoples Temple
- Melvin "Deacon" Jones, blues organist
- Harry Keenan actor[23]
- Esther Kellner, author[24]
- Daniel Kinsey, Olympic gold medalist
- Margaret Landon, author of The King and
I[25]
- Johnny Logan, professional basketball player
- Joe Longstreth, harpist, actor[26]
- Mike Lopresti, award-winning sports reporter for Gannett
Company.
- Lamar Lundy, football player, one of the L.A.
Rams Fearsome Foursome
- Kenneth MacDonald, actor[27]
- Daniel W. Marmon, industrialist
- Dan Mitrione, counterinsurgency specialist for U.S. government
- Oliver P. Morton, Indiana's Civil War Governor[28]
- Rich Mullins, Christian musician
- Addison H. Nordyke, industrialist
- William Paul Quinn, African American minister
- Daniel G. Reid, industrialist/philanthropist
- Jonathan Clark Rogers, president of the University of Georgia
- Ned Rorem, Pulitzer prize-winning composer[29]
- L. Lena Sawner, educator[30]
- Chris Schenkel, sports broadcaster, ABC
Sports[31]
- Wendell Stanley, Nobel Prize
winner[32]
- D. Elton Trueblood, Quaker theologian[33]
- Bo Van Pelt, professional golfer
- Burton J. Westcott, automobile manufacturer
- Gaar Williams, cartoonist
- Carol Lou Woodward, jazz pianist, former leader of the Carol Lou Trio
- Orville Wright, aviation pioneer[34]
- Wilbur Wright, aviation pioneer[34]
Sister cities
Richmond's sister cities are Daito-Cho, Shimane
Prefecture, Japan and Serpukhov, Russia. There have been various cultural exchanges between Richmond and its sister cities, the most recent of
which took place in 2001.
Notes
- ^ Starr Gennett Foundation, http://starrgennett.org/, URL accessed May 29, 2006.
- ^ http://www.city-data.com/city/Richmond-Indiana.html
- ^ Richmond Art Museum, http://www.richmondartmuseum.org/, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Self-portrait: The Artist in his Studio, 1916, http://www.richmondartmuseum.org/collection/lg-pages/chase-william-merritt.htm, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Indiana State Library, Ku Klux Klan Resources from the Indiana Division,
http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/isl/indiana/Klan.html, URL accessed May 30, 2006
- ^ a b Ku Klux Klan, Wayne County, Indiana Records, 1916–1933, http://www.indianahistory.org/library/manuscripts/collection_guides/M0407.html, URL accessed on May 29, 2006.
- ^ Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928, Leonard J. Moore,
North Carolina Press, 1997.
- ^ How the Early Jazz Captured by Gennett Influenced the Shape of Things to
Come, http://starrgennett.org/stories/articles/way_station.htm, URL accessed May 29, 2006.
- ^ Gennett Numerical Series, http://www.vjm.biz/new_page_6.htm, URL accesses May 29, 1006,
- ^ Road through the Wilderness The Making of the National Road, http://www.connerprairie.org/historyonline/ntlroad.html, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Madonna of the Trail, http://www.waynet.org/facts/madonna_of_the_trail.htm, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Death in a Sunny Street : The Civil Defense Story of the Richmond,
Indiana Disaster, April 6, 1968, http://gates.mrl.lib.in.us:8080/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/fulltext&CISOPTR=1981&REC=1, URL accessed May 29,
2006.
- ^ Polly Bergen, http://www.meredy.com/pollybergen/, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Clark Bradley, http://sports.espn.go.com/prorodeo/features/bio?page=g_bio_PRCA_Bradley_CR, URL accessed October 28, 2006.
- ^ Really Good Music: Al Cobine, http://www.reallygoodmusic.com/rgm.jsp?page=composers2&compid=123140, URL accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Space Age Pop Music: George Duning, http://www.spaceagepop.com/duning.htm, URL
accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Weeb Ewbank, http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=65, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ FindAGrave: Norman Foster, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11777752&pt=%3Cb%3ENorman%3C/b%3E%20Foster, URL
accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ FindAGrave: Harry Frankel, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10193921, URL accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Jazz at Newport 2006, http://www.jazzatnewport.org/home.cfm?dir_cat=47265, URL accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Mendel Medal recipient: Charles A. Hufnagel, http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mendel/hufnagel.htm, URL accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Harold Jones' web site, http://www.haroldjonesbigband.com/, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Harry Keenan, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0444645/, URL accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Esther A. Kellner (1908-1998), http://www.mrlinfo.org/history/biography/kellner.htm, URL accessed May 29, 2006.
- ^ Wheaton College Special Collections, http://www.wheaton.edu/learnres/ARCSC/collects/sc38/bio.htm, 2006.
- ^ Naples Illustrated, Past Lives, http://www.naplesillustrated.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_article&whicharticle=112, URL accessed September 9,
2006.
- ^ Kenneth MacDonald, http://www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/villan27.htm, URL accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton, http://www.civilwarhome.com/mortonbio.htm,
URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Official Ned Rorem Website, http://www.nedrorem.com/, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ Uncrowned Queens: L. Lena Sawyer, http://www.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens/files_2004/sawner_lena.htm, URL accessed May 29, 3006.
- ^ American Sportscasters Hall of Fame Inductee, http://www.americansportscasters.com/schenkel.html, URL accessed September 9, 2006.
- ^ Wendell M. Stanley, http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1946/stanley-bio.html, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ D. Elton Trueblood, http://www.waynet.org/people/biography/trueblood.htm, URL accessed May 30, 2006.
- ^ a b
External links
Coordinates:
39.830189° N 84.890668°
W
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