1800 block of E Grace Street (PHOTO: Richmond Police Lt. Daniel Minton)
RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) – Richmond Police want to hear from anyone who knows what damaged a ‘historic wall’ off the 1800 block of E. Grace Street.
Richmond Police Lt. Daniel Minton tweeted out a photo of the damaged wall along with a plea for information.
“This historic wall off the 1800 blk of E Grace Street suffered extensive damage. Contact me if u have any info,” Lt. Minton tweeted. “Someone had to have seen or at least heard something. They just need to give us a call.”
The wall, located in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom neighborhood, surrounds one of the oldest homes in Richmond — the Adam Craig House.
“It is the west property wall at the Adam Craig House which my wife and I still own,” Charles Macfarlane confirmed via email. He said he rents the property out to tenants.
“We discovered early yesterday morning that most of the wall fell into Wallis’ Alley. Based on a conversation with one of our tenants, we believe it happened around 4 – 5 a.m.,” said. “I am also filing an insurance claim as I estimate the loss at between $150,000 and $200,000.”
Macfarlane, who supports the building of a Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium, said the wall came down one day after he placed two “I Support Shockoe Ballpark” signs on the property.
"My company is one of the private developers slated to build a Hyatt hotel planned for the project," he said. "I have filed a police report and it is my understanding that they are investigating."
Chad Harvey. who owns River City Segs, called the Craig house a huge tourist attraction. "It's a little disappointing to come in and see how it's been either...I don't know...vandalized or just kind of falling a part a little bit," Harvey said.
"That's a lot of damage for someone just to come by and like rip down a brick wall," Harvey added. "It would be hard for me to believe that's what happened."
Macfarlane isn't the only one in the neighborhood with signs up in support of the proposed project. CBS6 asked Richmond police if they thought he was being targeted.
"I know that's one of his concerns," Captain Roger Russell, with Richmond Police, said. "And I certainly understand why he's feeling like that."
"What I can tell you with confidence though it that we have not received any other complaints in this area, and there's a lot of signs up," he said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Richmond Police.
