Evergreen Cemetery, the final resting place for bank founder Maggie L. Walker, newspaper editor John Mitchell Jr. and other prominent blacks of Richmond, is being reclaimed from years of neglect. About 25 volunteers, plus a tree-service company, spent about eight hours yesterday removing thick brush that had swallowed a section of the cemetery in the city’s East End.

Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday
  Cost: free
  Details: (804) 771-2017

Maggie L. Walker installed an elevator in her Richmond home in 1928. But yesterday, workers moved furniture the old-fashioned way—using the stairs. The elevator was off-limits. Too bad for the moving crew, which had to hoist three 200-pound wardrobes to the second floor of the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site yesterday as the temperature hovered near 100 degrees.

A Richmond historian has added a few years to the life of Maggie L. Walker. Until now, it has been widely accepted that Walker, a leading figure in the fight for rights of African-Americans and women in the Jim Crow era, was born July 15, 1867 - a date she herself used throughout her life. But Elvatrice Belsches has debunked the date with her recent discovery of a bank account opened on Aug. 10, 1872, listing Walker, then Maggie Mitchell, as 8 years old.

Virginia will receive $27 million in stimulus funds from the National Park Service for 37 projects to upgrade facilities at national parks and historic sites. The funding includes $579,000 for work at Richmond National Battlefield Park. Projects slated there include demolition of structures and removal of debris at Malvern Hill; elimination of trees that could prove hazardous to visitors; exterior repairs at Chimborazo Medical Museum; energy-efficiency projects and trail repairs.