Monroe Park

Crazy park with crazy people.

Calling this a park is a bit of a stretch. Also this is a hobo oasis. During the summer months it’s not uncommon for 30 – 40 homeless people to hang around due to the lax policy the ‘park’ has. I lived right next to this area when I attended VCU. Never saw that many students in the park. Also it’s well known not to go there at night. It’s poorly lit and kinda sketchy.

Maybe the parklife that Philly has to offer between the likes of Rittenhouse Square, Clark Park, and Eakin’s Oval has to offer spoils me. Bur while Monroe Park was certainly huge, had an OK fountain, and provided some random street art Easter eggs (go yarn bombers!); the bulk of it seemed like a disorganized mess that made it more of a place to walk through in favor of stopping to revel in those eclectic moments that most parks have to offer.
Maybe I just caught it on an off weekend. But the inhabitants that I saw within were beyond sketchy (and again I say this while witnessing the best of the worst of Philly’s parklife), and the overall feel of the park didn’t provide many welcome benches or grass spaces where I would sit and partake in ample people and scenery watching. And for me that’s mandatory Parklife 101! But despite that I did enjoy the tiny fountain, yarn bombing pole, and some of the colorful regulars that existed within.

I walked through Monroe Park countless times during my VCU days. During the day time a lot of students are usually walking through the park for class. There’s a fountain in the park with a lot of trees. The scenery is good for picture taking on a sunny day. Monroe Park is the final gathering spot after the Monument 10k. After dark, its best to be caution walking into the park (not well lit).

Wish I had majored in engineering during my time at VCU so I could have devised a time machine to whisk me back to the day when only a stupid asshole would have dared walk through this park after sunset.

This park is not what one would expect. It has a great fountain and one can find a statue of Wickham (of Valentine/​Wickham House fame) here as well. The view of the Richmond Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is amazing. One can also view other great buildings from this park such as the Richmond Mosque, Johnson Hall which is one of Richmond’s first high rise residential buildings and The Prestwould which is a high rise luxury condo built in the 1920s.
Monroe Park was originally a drill field during the Civil War and was also used as a camp hospital as well. There are probably more homeless here than any other park in Richmond but it is also a great spot to watch cute college kids play in the snow or sun. The VCU Police keep a very vigilant watch on this park and I do not feel that it is dangerous at all. I am sure there are cameras all over the place as well. Take a frisbee or a blanket and watch humanity, walk, skateboard, hackey sack and stumble by…

Every day just before noon, the drunken homeless congregate around the fountain in the center of the park. Someone brings a boom box, there are clearly a lot of brown-​bagged bottles, and the dance party begins. Walking by, you’ll catch a faint scent of a cigar-​rolled joint, which may be difficult to distinguish over the heavy musk of urine and B.O. However: the sheer epic awesomeness of daily Hobo Park Dance Party cannot be denied.
Do not walk through this park at night, you will get murdered. FACT.

A nice bit of nature in the middle of relatively dense urban area.
Unfortunately a gathering place for many homeless people, as is a great deal of the area surrounding the VCU campus, which distracts from the park’s charm.