Arthur Ashe Boulevard (also referred to as "the Boulevard") is a historic street in the near the West End of Richmond, Virginia, providing access to

Byrd Park Byrd Park, also known as William Byrd Park, is a public park located in Richmond, Virginia, United States, north of the James River and adjacent to Maymont. The park includes a mile-long trail with exercise stops, monuments, an amphitheatre, an ...

. It serves as the border between the Carytown/Museum District to the west and the Fan district to the east. Attempts were made to rename the street after

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Un ...

, a tennis star and social activist who was born and grew up in Richmond, but previous attempts failed until February 2019 when Richmond City Council voted in favor of changing the name to Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Near the south end is Richmond's

Boulevard Bridge Boulevard Bridge in the independent city of Richmond, Virginia is a toll bridge which carries State Route 161 across the James River. At long, the Boulevard Bridge was completed in 1925. It was privately owned and financed by the Boulevard Brid ...

(commonly called the "Nickel Bridge", in reference to its historical initial toll) across the James River. Arthur Ashe Boulevard intersects with main arteries Cary Street, Main Street,

Monument Avenue Monument Avenue is a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic in Richmond, Virginia, originally named for its emblematic complex of structures honoring those who fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. ...

, Broad Street (where the Historic District ends), Leigh Street, and Interstate 64/95, and terminates at Hermitage Road. The Diamond is located on Arthur Ashe Boulevard. The intersection of Arthur Ashe Boulevard and Monument Avenue featured a statue of Stonewall Jackson. Arthur Ashe Boulevard is designated as State Route 161, a route promoted in the 1940s and 1950s as an alternate bypass route before the

Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike The Greater Richmond Region, the Richmond metropolitan area or Central Virginia, is a region and metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Virginia, centered on Richmond. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines the area as the Richmo ...

and Interstate 95 were built, connecting with

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

north and south of downtown Richmond. In 2019 American artist

Kehinde Wiley Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977) he returned to Nigeria, leaving Freddie to raise the couple's six children. 3/sup> Wiley has said that his family survived on welfare checks and the limited income earned by his mother's 'thrift store' – ...

's outdoor sculpture

Rumors of War ''Rumors of War'' is a series of artworks by Kehinde Wiley examining equestrian portraiture in the canon of Western art history culminating in a bronze monumental equestrian statue by the artist of an African-American young man (with dreadlocks ...

was erected adjacent to Arthur Ashe Boulevard. It is part of the

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the s ...

permanent art collection. It stands between the museum and the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

headquarters. The sculpture was created by Wiley as a response to the

J.E.B. Stuart James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (February 6, 1833May 12, 1864) was a United States Army officer from Virginia who became a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of ...

monument and the other Confederate equestrian statues on

References

Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Transportation in Richmond, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Richmond, Virginia Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia {{RichmondCityVA-NRHP-stub