Richmond does not have many architectural historians. We lost one of our best on December 15, with the passing of Edward Slipek. There have been noteworthy tributes to his work, by Rich Griset in his beloved Style Weekly here and here, by Scott Bass and Harry Kollatz in Richmond Magazine here. His official obituary is here.
I can only echo the grief and praises of those above who have celebrated Eddie’s life and work. I found him the usual way, through his regular columns in Style Weekly, where his occasionally acid and always thoughtful considerations of this city’s built landscape broadened my own understandings considerably. They also made me appreciate this place in new ways.
More recently, I had the good fortune of getting to know Eddie through one of his southside neighbors, where we met a few times for drinks on a comfortable back porch. Eddie delighted me by saying some nice things about my own writings. Perhaps he was being polite (he had such a charming presence), but I walked a good bit taller on the way home. I expected that we would have time for plenty more conversations about historic preservation and architectural design and Southern culture on the skids. I had thought the same thing about Tyler Potterfield before he, too, died an untimely death.
Apart from the shock and sorrow, Eddie’s passing made me worry about the fate of his enormously useful online resource, Architecture Richmond. Spend a little time tooling around that website — I dare you not to find yourself down a number of unexpected and enlightening rabbit-holes. Hopefully Don O’Keefe can keep that project going for us all.
But as so many others have attested, nobody can replace Eddie. His memorial will be held at Second Presbyterian Church at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 24. He will be interred at Hollywood Cemetery, “lulled by the ceaseless murmur of the waters of the James and by the vesper hymns of the crystal streams that glide so musically through its dreamy vales and dusky dells.” I am so much better for knowing him.