For years, the chapel at Woodland Cemetery – like the grounds themselves – seemed destined to be lost to history. The chimney had begun to pull away from the 1950s building, and it suffered from poor drainage and inadequate insulation.
But those issues were corrected this fall thanks to a $78,000 grant from the Virginia Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Historic Preservation Grant Program. The Woodland Restoration Foundation, which owns the property on Magnolia Road in eastern Henrico County, was among the state program’s first round of recipients.
The chapel is the latest sign of progress to restore the cemetery as a place of dignity and reverence, following decades of neglect and smothering overgrowth.
Woodland, founded in 1917 for the interment of Black residents during segregation, has an estimated 30,000 gravesites. About 3,000 headstones have been recovered in since August 2020, when the Woodland Restoration Foundation purchased the property, said Marvin Harris, the nonprofit’s executive director.
“Looking at where it was, a thousand percent better,” he said. “Family members who haven’t been here in a while, they’re very appreciative.”
The foundation purchased the 30-acre property with support from Henrico. Among the individuals buried and memorialized at Woodland are tennis champion and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe Jr. and the Rev. John Jasper, founder of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond. Others include doctors, dentists, bankers and a woman who spied for the Union during the Civil War.
With the chapel now stabilized for meetings and other gatherings, the foundation hopes to use the remaining grant funds to prepare for a small addition, which will serve as a museum. Long term, the foundation also hopes to build an education center.
Harris recognizes the need for substantial fundraising but said the foundation and its volunteers remain committed. They’re eager to tap the talents and support of groups and individuals, like Michelle Bebbs, who have connections to those buried at Woodland. Bebbs’ architectural firm, Architecturally Yours, is designing the addition to the chapel.
“We’re trying to tie all this in, so the families know what we’re trying to do,” Harris said.
For more information, visit woodlandrestorationfoundation.org.
