By Taylor Boyd
The process to bring the statue of Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart home to Patrick County has taken a lot longer than expected.
Ronnie Haynes, President of the JEB Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust, said the organization expected to have a response from Richmond regarding its application to relocate the statue by Sept. 30.
Haynes said the delayed process could be due to interest in acquiring the statue.
“To date there are as many as 22 applications by other groups and organizations to acquire the statues that were taken down in Richmond,” he said.
Statues, including the Stuart monument, were removed from Monument Avenue in Richmond following protests over racial injustice and police brutality in July. Haynes said the organization applied to take possession of the Stuart monument soon after the city announced removal of the statues, with the intent of relocating it to Stuart’s birthplace in Patrick County.
The statues are currently being stored at a wastewater treatment plant south of Richmond.
“With as many groups that are applying, they (Richmond City Council) have to go through that whole process and check out everyone and get the information they need,” Haynes said.
He said some organizations have applied for multiple statues, and “there’s a couple of foundations that have applied for all of them, like the Ratcliffe Foundation,” in Russell County, which wishes to create an outdoor driving museum with the statues.
“As far as anyone who wants the Stuart monument individually, I have no clue who that may be,” Haynes said, adding he “can’t say for certain that any other group just wants that one. Our sincere hope is that the Stuart monument will be located at the site of his birth, Laurel Hill.”
Regardless of the Richmond City Council’s decision “the paramount goal is that the Stuart monument, as well as the others, be saved and erected in locations where they will be appropriately maintained, honored, and contextualized.”
Sandra Belcher, Patrick County Director of Tourism and Marketing, said she spoke with Steven Taylor of the Richmond City Council regarding the monument in September. Belcher said the council wanted to know how the monument fit in with Patrick County.
“I told them the town was named after J.E.B. Stuart and that Patrick County is the birthplace of J.E.B. Stuart,” she said.
Now, Haynes said that he doesn’t expect a decision will be made until at least the first of the new year. Legal counsel for the trust, as well as for the Stuart family in Richmond, have been working diligently on the project, he said, adding that currently, the group is “just waiting on the city of Richmond.”
