SLIDESHOW

Mary Stuart Cruickshank remembers when Meadowview offered a meadow view.

Now, about all you can see from the Victorian-style home in eastern Henrico County are woods as the land falls to swamps along the Chickahominy River.

"Going back, it's wonderful," she said.

Cruickshank, 75, reconnected with the home from her childhood after Henrico brought The Armour House and Gardens at Meadowview Park into the county's parks system in October.

Meadowview is envisioned to be eastern Henrico's answer to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden on Lakeside Avenue.

But the landscapes are expected to take shape gradually, beginning with a children's garden.

"We won't be as grand, but that's the idea," said site manager Elaine Olay.

A bricked patio on the house's eastern side features a fountain and several arbors and pergolas that are ready for clematis and morning-glory vine to thrive.

"You can tell by the bones of it, it's a real sight," Olay said last week while walking the grounds.

Henrico has spent about $5.7 million on land acquisition and construction at Meadowview. The work has included renovation of the house built from 1915 to 1918 by Edmund Christian. He was the husband of Cruickshank's grandmother, Sallie Christian.

"I'm real pleased it's been taken over, and someone can handle it," Cruickshank said.

She lived at the home with her family from birth until age 6 but kept coming back as she got older to take dips in a spring-fed swimming hole.

"It was the coldest water you'd ever want to get into," she said.

Cruickshank, who lives in western Henrico, was unaware of the county's plans for Meadowview until she read about the project in a county publication.

"I saw the picture and thought, 'It couldn't be,'" she said.

She later visited and was impressed by how much bigger it seemed when she was a child.

"I can't wait to go out in the spring."

Henrico has set up the 4,660-square-foot Armour House and its carriage house for art classes, workshops and special events. Information on winter and spring classes, including yoga, china painting and stained glass, is available at (804) 343-3506.

Community interest in renting the house and grounds is picking up, with a May wedding booked and other rentals scheduled, Olay said.

The site can accommodate 50 to 60 people indoors and about 100 outdoors. For Henrico residents, the minimum costs are $150 for the house and $750 for the house and gardens. The fees are higher for noncounty residents.

The Meadowview project is part of a broader effort by the county to restore old landmarks of eastern Henrico. Meadowview opened about the same time as Henrico Theatre on East Nine Mile Road in Highland Springs and the Clarke-Palmore House on McCoul Street in Varina.

Meadowview Park, behind Arthur Ashe Jr. Elementary School, also reflects the growth of the Creighton Road corridor.

Subdivisions are popping up, and Harvie Elementary School is scheduled to open this fall at Harvie Road and Laburnum Avenue.

"Our goal is to have outdoor concerts, to do a lot of special events, to make it a landing place for the community, because there hasn't been much out in this part of the county," Olay said.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.