The Mosque - Part of the "Arabesque" in Richmond

Image from Untangling the Arabesque: Islamic Design Elements in the VCU Monnroe Park Campus, Richmond, Virginia, 2007 by Leila Prasertwaitaya, Research Assistant in Special Collections and Archives, VCU Libraries. Read it Online - it's very interesting.

Rare view - 818 W. Main St., Richmond, Va - What is now the Main Street side of the Landmark Theatre, ca. 1870-80s??

Another item I found on EBAY.

The back of the image reads:

818 W. Main St., Richmond, Va.

Katie and Lunelle Cheatham

at the gate

Eunice Binns at window.

“Jif” the mocking bird in cage.

Now site of Shrine Temple. [The Richmond Mosque, or what we call now, the Landmark Theatre]

Birthplace of K. Sewell Wingfield.

[Thanks to Sean Yeager on helping to figure out some of the names and the date range! See his comments - he looked at the original Ebay posting for clues.  Good work!]

The Pachyderms’ Revenge - Racism and the Mosque in Richmond, Va

We have another guest contributor --  Dr. Edward H. Peeples, Jr. is Emeritus Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at VCU where he taught for more than thirty years. Ed is a native of Richmond and spent most of his adult life as a civil rights advocate involved in a variety of human rights reforms in Virginia.

Ed sent us this essay, The Pachyderms' Revenge, last week. It is about racism and a bit of revenge. The essay is available in PDF form HERE.

To learn more about the Mosque's music history click HERE.

Elvis Presley in Richmond at the Mosque, 1956 - Here he is inches away from Main St.

Elvis and fans on the backstage ramp at the Mosque
- June 30, 1956 - photo by Alfred Wertheimer.

I've past this spot a million times - Have You? It's behind the Mosque -- about 10 feet from Main St. - in the heart of the VCU Monroe Park Campus - across the street from the VCU Main Street Parking Deck.

This image is from a great site about Elvis' appearances at the Mosque (now the Landmark Theater) in Richmond, Va. It's full of photos of Elvis in the Mosque including that famous Kiss photo. This site is really a musical history of the Mosque. Check it out - it's part of a larger site about guitarist Scotty Moore.

Here's a view of that spot today from Google Maps.

- Ray B.