Monroe Park, Richmond's oldest park, spreads its 7.5-acre landscaped pentagon about one mile northwest of the Virginia State Capitol Building. Named for James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States (1817–1825), this Victorian green is Richmond’s oldest park and unofficially demarcates the eastern point of the Fan District. It occupies the center of the Virginia Commonwealth University Monroe Park Campus and reads like a shared front yard for campus life and the neighborhood.
Paved paths weave among lawns and mature deciduous trees, intersecting at a cast iron fountain placed in the park’s center. Nearby, notice the bronze statue of Williams Carter Wickham, designed by Edward Virginius Valentine and erected in the park in 1891; the work was the gift of Williams’ fellow soldiers and the employees. The park is currently in the planning process of a historically sensitive, extensive renovation led by the Monroe Park Advisory Council—constituted by Richmond City Councilman William Pantele in 2003—in partnership with the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities and the Department of Community Development.
The fountain at the center, the pentagonal sweep of paved paths and lawns, the mature trees, and the bronze statue wait nearby for you.