Northam: Former Lee statue pedestal will be removed, land given to city of Richmond

RICHMOND — The Virginia governor’s office announced Sunday it would remove the pedestal of the former Robert E. Lee statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue and cede the state-owned property on which it stood to the city of Richmond.

Removal of the pedestal will begin this week Gov. Ralph Northam’s office said. The removal will be completed by the end of December.

“This land is in the middle of Richmond, and Richmonders will determine the future of this space,” Northam, who leaves office next month, said in a statement released by his office. “The Commonwealth will remove the pedestal and we anticipate a safe removal and a successful conclusion to this project.”

The statue, which had stood on Monument Avenue for 130 years, was removed earlier this year after the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the state, which owns the property, was not bound by a century-old land deed between a group of Henrico County citizens who paid for the bronze sculpture to be made and the commonwealth.

Two years ago, the General Assembly passed legislation allowing for the removal of Confederate monuments on publicly owned properties.

More: 'Last symbol of hate' now gone as state removes Lee statue from its 131-year location

The Lee statue, once considered the “crown jewel” of all the Confederate memorials that dotted Monument Avenue for years, was the only one on Virginia-owned property. The rest were owned by the city of Richmond and were taken down in short order by the city as soon as the legislation was enacted.

The statue, in a traffic circle at the intersection of Monument and Allen avenues, was sort of a “ground zero” for protests last year in Richmond following the deaths of several Black citizens at the hands of police officers in Minnesota and Kentucky.

Once the pedestal comes down, the land will be conveyed to Richmond. While exact details of what was planned for the traffic circle post-removal have not been officially announced, preliminary plans call for the city and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to decide on a joint project for the spot.

The announcement from the governor’s office said the state will Commonwealth will “safely disassemble and store the pedestal until next steps have been determined.” The statue that was on the pedestal also was disassembled and placed into storage when it was removed last September.

A time capsule was reportedly placed inside the pedestal in 1887, but so far, crews have been able to locate it. Once that is done, the state will store it along with the pedestal.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is daily news coach for USA TODAY's Southeast Region-Unified Central, which includes Virginia, West Virginia and central North Carolina. He is based in Petersburg, Virginia. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Virginia governor says controversial statue’s base will be removed