The monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was dedicated in 1890 in a field well beyond Richmond's western-most development. It took more than a decade for homes to be built in the area and 17 years before more monuments were added. By the time the Davis and Stuart monuments went up in 1907, the Avenue was dotted with large, elaborate homes for the wealthy and the Avenue was a focus for Confederate veteran parades and other commemorative activities. It helped that a large soldier home was located just a few blocks away. The boulevard was rapidly filling in and moving west when the Jackson monument was dedicated in 1919 and was well established by the time the Maury statue was unveiled in 1929. Local hero, tennis star Arthur Ashe (1996), is the latest addition and the first on the Avenue with no Confederate connections.

Date dedicated: 1996
Artist: Paul Di Pasquale

The monument to tennis star Arthur Ashe broke the tradition of Confederate memorials on the Avenue. Denied access to Richmond's segregated public courts, Ashe nevertheless was able to hone his skills in a park for blacks. He went on win three Grand Slam titles, including a Wimbledon title. He died in 1993.

* This is the only monument on the Avenue for a native Richmonder.
* Ashe himself and his family participated in and authorized the monument's design.
* Like all the other statues on the Avenue this one was subject to controversy. Some thought that the African American tennis player didn't belong.

This canon marks the site of a fortification on the Intermediate Line of Richmond defenses during the Civil War. A similar marker west of the Ashe Monument locates the site of a fort on the Outer Line.

Year dedicated: 1907
Artist: Fred Moynihan

Confederate Gen. James Ewell Brown Stuart is one of the most famous cavalry leaders in history. He was mortally wounded north of town at Yellow Tavern in May 1864 and died in a house a few blocks from this monument.

* He was just 31 years old when he died.
* The Museum of the Confederacy displays many of Stuart's belongings including his famous plumed hat.
* He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

Year dedicated: 1907
Artist: Edward Valentine

Davis was the only President the Confederate States of America ever had. He lived and worked in Richmond, fleeing the city just hours before the city was occupied by Union troops in April 1865.

* The 13 columns behind Davis represent the 11 official Confederate states plus Missouri and Kentucky.
* Davis and his family are buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
* Davis was officially inaugurated president under the Washington statue in Capitol Square on Feb. 22, 1862.

Year dedicated: 1929
Artist: William Sievers

Famous world-wide for his ocean studies, Maury was a Confederate Navy commander early in the war. In that post he directed the re-construction of the former USS Merrimac, turning the ship into the famous ironclad CSS Virginia. In 1862, he was sent to England, charged with purchasing arms and ammunition for the Confederates.

* According to the artist, the design of the monument represents "an allegory of the sphere of Maury's mind, which was nothing less that the entire Universe."
* During the war, Maury experimented with exploding electronic torpedoes (mines) in a bathtub in his downtown Richmond home.
* Maury was known as the "Pathfinder of the Seas" for his groundbreaking study of the oceans.
* Immediately following the war, Maury worked for the Emperor of Mexico as the "imperial commissar of colonization."

Year dedicated: 1890
Artist: Jean Antonin Mercie

Lee was the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia from June 1, 1862 until he surrendered his troops at Appomattox, April 9, 1865.
This was the first monument dedicated to a Confederate hero on what would become Monument Avenue.

* Among the items in the cornerstone (northeast corner) is a photograph of Lincoln in his coffin.
* An estimated 100,000 people attended the unveiling.
* It's not Traveller Lee is riding up there. The artist found the general's favorite horse didn't measure up.

Year dedicated: 1919
Artist: William Sievers

Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was the most famous of Lee's deputy commanders. He got his nickname at the Battle of First Manassas in July 1861 and went on to fame on battlefields in the Shenandoah Valley (1862) and his last fight at Chancellorsville (1863).

* A minor error that picky people sometimes point out is etched into the north face of the monument. It reads: "Killed at Chancellorsville." Jackson was actually wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He died more than a week later at Guinea Station.
* The artist is the same man responsible for the famous Virginia Monument on the Gettysburg battlefield and the nearby Maury monument.
* Jackson isn't riding his favorite horse, Little Sorrel. The artist found the horse not up to monumental proportions. But old Confederate veterans could still see Little Sorrel if they wanted. The horse's stuffed hide was on display at the Soldier's Home a few blocks south.