Standing at the end Boulevard, next to the tennis courts at Byrd Park, is the first statue of Christopher Columbus erected in the South. In the early 1920s, Richmond's Italian-American community – about 1,000 strong – wanted to gift a statue of their kinsman to their adopted home.

The residents hoped city officials would add a Columbus statue to Monument Avenue, but their request was quickly rejected by a city committee. It claimed that Columbus was not only foreign but Catholic - and thus could not possibly stand among some of the Confederacy's most revered figures.

Read more

Source: http://www.richmond.com/