18 Facts About Grace Arents

Grace Evelyn Arents was an heiress, Christian activist and philanthropist in Richmond, Virginia.

Grace Arents inherited $1.2 million from her uncle Lewis Ginter, a tobacco magnate, and she continued his philanthropic efforts in the Richmond area.

Grace Arents returned to Richmond in 1874, and Grace Arents and her mother soon followed.

In 1890, Grace Arents's uncle landed a fortune as a founding member of the American Tobacco Company.

Grace Arents valued her privacy fiercely, as had her uncle, and avoided publicity.

Grace Arents never posed for a public portrait and few images of her have been found.

Grace Arents supported the Episcopal Church and became known for her work among the city's poor, mostly in a self-effacing way, or simply through her checkbook.

When her uncle died in 1897, Grace Arents inherited approximately $1.2 million, which she used to transform Richmond.

Grace Arents was a voracious reader and in 1899 established the Grace Arents Free Library on Cherry Street in Oregon Hill, the first free circulating library in Richmond; the building later became the William Byrd Community House.

Grace Arents financed the construction of three churches, including St Andrew's, which was completed in 1903.

Grace Arents donated money to establish a tuition-free school to teach neighborhood children, as well as a night school for working children and adults.

Grace Arents built the first subsidized housing in the city.

Grace Arents donated the Lewis Ginter Community Building for the Ginter Park neighborhood, one of three areas of north Richmond that her uncle had helped develop.

Grace Arents expanded and renovated the Lakeside Wheel Club, which her uncle had built, transforming it into a convalescent home for sick children.

Grace Arents deeded a life estate to her partner Mary Garland Smith upon her death, after which the City of Richmond received the property for a public botanical garden, known as the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

An elementary school for which Grace Arents donated land and $5,000 towards building costs was completed in 1911 and named in her honor.

Grace Arents helped establish the Playground at Clark Springs, one of Richmond's first.

Grace Arents died on June 20,1926, and is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.