The Flight Home From Richmond Virginia

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The flight back to Orlando from Richmond Virginia was pretty uneventful. I sketched the airport waiting area before we boarded the plane. I’m always surprised how many people are always staring at their phones. This week the Thorspecken clan are visiting Orlando from Germany, Connecticut, Upstate New York and Charleston South Carolina. They are all staying in a double suite  at a hotel only a quarter of a mile from home. The second they arrived they all were scrambling to get their digital devices hooked up to the web. Once dinner was over, the room went silent as everyone took out their phones to get “connected”. It had been many years since everyone had been together. When I travel, I still write a post every day but I make it a rule not to share my experiences on Facebook. Terry has followed my lead, since writing experiences on Facebook is like announcing that “I’m not home, please take all I own.”

My brother Don Thorspecken had over 500 photos on his tablet from a trip he took to Germany to visit Cornelia and Nini Thorspecken. We are related to Cornelia through Dr. Augustus Thorspecken who came to America in the 1830’s. His brother remained in Germany and Cornelia is related through him.  Years ago Terry and I traveled to Germany where we met every Thorspecken we could find. Flipping through the digital photos, history came alive. Dr. Oscar Thorspecken helped save Jews destined for the work camps by making it appear like they were sick. Oscar’s wife however was all for the Nazi party, proud that her son was in the war. This caused a rift in the family. Shortly after the war, one of the sons was hiking in the mountains where he was murdered for his  camera. Cornelia is a professional flute player who kept the Thorspecken name, even after she was married. I was most excited by photos Don took of photo albums he was shown in Germany. This put a face to the stories. My father pushed into Germany at the end of World War II crossing the Ruhr river and moving through the industrial district towards Berlin. He said once that he saw the Thorspecken name on a storefront. On my trip I met Herbert who served in the Luftwaffe. It is a small world. Basically every war is a civil war with distant cousin fighting cousin.

The Wedding Ceremony of Andrea Kastner and Thomas Morton

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Thomas Morton and Andrea Kastner were married on April 26th 2014 at noon in Richmond Virginia. Wedding plans had to be changed at the last minute because the church they were going to be married in suffered from a huge fire. They were lucky to find another church in the heart of Richmond that could do the ceremony. It was a small intimate gathering of friends and family who gathered for the ceremony. I began my sketch by penciling in the harp player who performed as guests entered the church. The pastor said something to her and she packed up and moved to a far corner of the church.

After the exchange of rings, the pastor announced, “Forasmuch as Tom and Andrea have consented together in holy wedlock and have witnessed the same before God and this congregation and have declared the same by giving and receiving a ring, and by joining hands; I pronounce them husband and wife in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The ceremony was short and sweet which means I was still sketching as everyone filed out of the church.  The pastor came over to see what I was doing. He admired the work, but I suspect he wanted me to wrap it up so I rushed to put some final washes down. The reception was in Richmond’s suburbs at the couples home. Bright pink and purple blossoms adorned trees all around the city.

Colonial Williamsburg Has History With Modern Amenities

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While staying in Richmond Virginia for a wedding, Terry and I took a one day road trip to Colonial Williamsburg. After parking in a huge parking lot, we walked into the tourist information center to get tickets for the day. There was a long wait as Terry negotiated a triple A discount. Single day tickets are about $44 per person. Besides being a tourist attraction, some of the homes are private residences. Cars are not allowed on the towns dirt roads until after hours. Our ticket girl is saving her money so she can someday live in the town. I asked her why she would want to live in a town that is swarmed by a locust mob of tourists every day, but then I realized, we live in Orlando, so who am I to judge?

The walk to the Colonial Williamsburg town center was about a quarter mile alone a winding path through the woods. The only transportation in the town was a horse drawn carriage so there were piles of manure in the streets. My goal was to draw a colonial insurrection on the main street starting at 3pm.  I discovered this revolutionary plot because it was on the map. Terry and I stopped for lunch right away and it took about half an hour to get our sandwiches from a local shop. I realized as we were waiting for our sandwiches that we should have ordered a loaf of bread and some cold cuts from the deli and made our own sandwiches.

Bus loads of cheer leaders wandered the streets. They gave a quick series of choreographed cheers as we ate lunch. Actors in colonial garb wandered freely among the throngs of tee shirt and shorts wearing tourists. They always stayed in character talking about troubles with Britain and other topics of the day. Through the course of the day history unraveled at an accelerated pace. At noon, the declaration of Independence was read on the steps of the court house.

As I sketched the main street, I didn’t catch and revolt. Instead, there was a broom jumping ceremony for two slaves. Although there were no official wedding ceremonies for slaves, this broom dance was an unofficial way for slaves to express their shared love. In some African-American communities, marrying couples will end their ceremony by jumping over a broomstick, either together or separately. This practice is well attested for as a “mock marriage” ceremony for slaves in the Southern United States in the 1840s and 1850s. Its revival in 20th century African American culture is due to the novel and miniseries Roots.

There was discussions among the women as well as they complained about their losses of fathers and sons in a revolutionary war that seemed pointless. Periodically I would Text Terry to let her know what was happening where I was. She wandered through the rest f the town exploring the many shops. Several boys played in the street drawing pictures in the dirt. Entertainments had to be simple since there were no video games to occupy them. I felt at home documenting the towns activities the way the would likely have been documented at the time.

Thomas Jefferson Stands Vigil in the Jefferson Hotel Lobby

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While visiting Richmond Virginia, Terry and I stayed in the Jefferson Hotel (101 West Franklin St, Richmond, Virginia). The place is lavish and luxurious so it’s five star rating is well deserved. While I slept one night, Terry got up because she smelled smoke. She complained and had staff come up to the room to smell for themselves. She suspects it was marijuana smoke. We suspect that the air ducts are interconnected between rooms on each floor. If someone lights up in the next room, the smoke spreads out and is piped into all the rooms via the ducts. Anyway I slept through the whole ordeal. The good news is that one nights accommodations were subtracted from the bill.

The hotel was opened in 1885 by Lewis Gunter who was Richmond’s wealthiest citizen at the time.  His millions came from the tobacco business.

It is estimated that between $5 and $10 million went into planning,
building and furnishing the hotel, with nearly $2 million of this amount
spent on construction. Unfortunately, Gunter’s enjoyment of his accomplishment was
short-lived, he died less than two years after the hotel’s grand opening.

In 1901 the hotel
itself came close to absolute destruction. A defective wire started a fire
that demolished three-fifths of the building. There were no fatalities,
however, there was a narrow escape for one famous occupant of the hotel,
the statue of Thomas Jefferson. A rescue crew, including the
sculptor himself, was hurriedly summoned to help. The men pushed the
statue onto strategically placed mattresses and carried it outside. They accidentally dropped it, and the head struck the ground and broke
off. For a while, the headless statue stood in the front yard of a
neighboring home. The head was kept in the secure vault of Henry Valentine, a
relative of the sculptor, and a member of the rescue crew. Eventually the pieces were  taken back to the sculptor’s studio, where repairs were made. The hotel reopened in grand style in May 1902 with Thomas Jefferson restored and intact.

A Hike Down Monument Avenue in Richmond Virginia

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In April. Terry and I traveled to Richmond Virginia to attend a wedding of one of Terry’s clients, Thomas Justin Morton to Andrea Marie Kastner. The day we arrived, we decided to take a hike up Monument Avenue. This main drag had traffic circles about every other block on which large Civil War era monuments were erected. The Robert E. Lee monument stands at the corner of Allen Avenue and Monument Avenue. Terry continued to hike to see the remaining monuments while I stopped to sketch.

The Virginia Commonwealth Campus had beautiful old historic buildings. We actually spotted another urban sketcher who was sketching one of the buildings. She was in the middle of the sketch, so I didn’t interrupt her. The entire street had amazing architecture along with some fixer uppers that would make a gorgeous studio. I’m sure the price of real estate would make that dream less practical.

Terry and I were staying in the Jefferson Hotel (101 W Franklin St, Richmond, VA) which is rated five stars and is absolutely gorgeous. The room itself wasn’t that amazing but the lobby was worth every penny. One scene in Gone with the Wind was shot on the grand staircase. Any time we weren’t at wedding related parties. we were happy to explore this city by foot. It was an Urban Sketchers dream, a step back in time.