Center of black commerce, entertainment and religion
After the American Civil War, previously free blacks joined freed slaves and their descendants and created a thriving African-American business community, and became known as the "Black Wall Street of America." Leaders included such influential people as John Mitchell, Jr., editor of the Richmond Planet, an African American newspaper.
Maggie L. Walker was the first woman to charter and serve as president of an American bank, all the more remarkable an accomplishment as she was both African-American and was mobility-impaired. The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site at her former Jackson Ward home is operated by the National Park Service and the house was designated a National Historic Site in 1978 and opened as a museum in 1985.
Giles Beecher Jackson was the first African American to practice law before the Supreme Court of Virginia,[6] he was active in the neighborhood and has a "Giles B. Jackson Day" on April 17 (starting in 2007) and a historic landmark in his honor at the intersection of North 2nd Street and East Clay Street.[7]
Jackson Ward was central to the Civil Rights Movement in Richmond.[9] In 1940, the Virginia General Assembly created the Richmond Housing Authority, which could condemn property as well as issue bonds to construct housing. In 1941, 1956 and 1961, the city (which initially had no African-Americans on the city council) hired Harland Bartholomew & Associates to plan for redevelopment. The redevelopment plans targeted Jackson Ward, and had the effect of severely disintegrating the historic community's social structure, as well as clustered low-income persons in Jackson Ward and nearby Church Hill, and destroyed much of the pre-existing housing stock in order to construct freeways, broad urban boulevards, office buildings, the Richmond Coliseum, the Greater Richmond Convention Center and a smaller number of housing units controlled by the Richmond Housing Authority.[10]
The Richmond Housing Authority, initially controlled by the city's white business elite, first targeted the sub-neighborhood known as Apostle Town, adjacent to Maggie Walker's Penny Savings Bank. It built 297 units of public housing known as Gilpin Court to replace 200 houses. However, only 25 of 576 applicants for the new spaces (all segregated by race until 1964) had families who had lived in Apostle Town.[11] During the 1950s, Richmond destroyed 4700 units of housing in black neighborhoods and replaced them with 1736 units of public housing, mostly concentrated in Richmond's East End and all within three miles of Richmond's center. While some displaced people received small grants, as well as priority in applying for housing in the new projects, many found the public housing demeaning or simply unattractive. Both black and white realtors practiced blockbusting. As urban renewal progressed, many historic black churches followed their congregations and moved from Jackson Ward to north Richmond. These included the First African Baptist Church and St. Philip's Episcopal Church. Both moved to churches formerly used by white congregations who had followed their congregations to suburban Lakeside. Between 1950 and 1960, Richmond's population decreased by 10,000 persons, while surrounding Henrico County (which had 57,340 people in 1950) grew to 117,339 residents by the 1960 census.[12] Meanwhile, the Richmond housing authority built Creighton Court (1952), Fairfield Court (1958) and Whitcomb Court (1958), all in Richmond's East End.[13]
In 1946 R. Stuart Royer and Associates, a consulting firm, proposed a turnpike that Richmond voters twice rejected in public referendums. However, the Virginia General Assembly (with no black members at the time) then created the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority in 1954, which four months later announced the highway would be built through Jackson Ward. The consultants' initial report had insisted that destroying existing housing "offers no serious obstacle to a highway location." The expressway destroyed 1000 homes, cut a block-wide barrier canyon through what had been the neighborhood's historic center, blocked 31 streets and eliminated pedestrian pathways between the newly created halves.[14] However, the neighborhood banded together to rescue Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, which had been established in 1867 by Rev. John Jasper and initially occupied a building purchased from white Presbyterians but which had been renovated in 1887 and held 1400 worshipers. The church secretary, Cerelia Johnson, worked as an elevator operator in Richmond's City Hall, and conveyed discussions she overheard in the corridors of power to pastor Dr. A.W. Brown. The highway (now part of I-95) was rerouted slightly, and the church became the only building to remain on the north side of Duval Street. The turnpike opened in 1958, but Sixth Mount Zion's congregation lost 1000 members.[15]
After desegregation, as black Virginians became more widely integrated into Richmond's other business and residential areas, Jackson Ward's role as a center of black commerce and entertainment declined. Like most older urban neighborhoods of a similar era, the housing stock of Jackson Ward deteriorated as absentee landlords took over from single-family households.[citation needed]
Richmond also developed what became the sixth highest concentration of public housing stock among cities over 200,000 people. For example, the Richmond Housing Authority built Mosby Court East and Mosby Court West in 1962 (all within a mile of Creighton Court, Fairfield Court and Whitcomb Court), then the 30-acre site made possible through urban clearance received a new school, Mosby School,[16] designed to hold 1500 junior high school students and 1000 elementary school students.[13]
In 1966, the General Assembly created the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, with the power of eminent domain, to build a toll road from suburban Chesterfield County (mainly white) to downtown through the black East End and an adjoining low income white neighborhood. It displaced 1000 people and obliterated the historic Penitentiary Bottom sub-neighborhood.[17]
By the 1970s, Richmond's city council had become majority black, so another proposed superhighway project designed as a downtown bypass (and which would effectively enclose the five public housing projects in a box) received no support. Also, the city council secured identification of the Maggie Walker House as a national landmark, and preservation of the Leigh Street corridor. Nonetheless, the last government-sponsored neighborhood revitalization project (begun in 1970 and with much of the bulldozing completed by 1973) effectively destroyed a 2800-person multigenerational neighborhood known as Fulton Bottom, before new federal requirements for paying those displaced led to that project becoming stalled until 2011. The Fulton Bottom revitalization plan had reserved most of the 370 acres for industrial sites, and industrial boulevard and flood control.[18]
Revival
Toward the end of the 20th century, Richmond worked to revitalized Jackson Ward, including its pre-existing housing stock. The National Park Service assisted by restoring the Maggie L. Walker house, as well as listing the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and as a historic district in 1978. In the 1980s, historic tax credits by the federal government aided the restoration of dozens of houses on Leigh, Marshall and Clay Streets.
City officials hoped that construction of the Greater Richmond Convention Center and Visitors Bureau at the eastern edge of Jackson Ward would bring renewed vitality to the neighborhood.[19] However, convention center's construction destroyed a number of historic houses (including that used by the Hill, Tucker and Marsh law firm), and separated Jackson Ward from much of downtown. Vacant and substandard houses in the neighborhood have been targeted in Richmond's Neighborhoods in Bloom program. In some areas, the progress of renovation has been slow, most notably with the First Virginia Volunteers Battalion Armory, best known as the Leigh Street Armory. In the mid-1980s, the Richmond School Board leased the armory building to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, and the museum is expected to open in the armory in 2015.[20]
Many Richmond residents have bought houses in Jackson Ward to renovate and restore in order to live in an historic area and revive the cultural character of the neighborhood. Each first Friday of the month, First Fridays Artwalk is held at night on Broad Street. Art Galleries open their doors to an outdoor party that includes live music, including Jazz and Salsa. Local restaurants, bars and a coffee shops serve customers who come to the First Fridays Art Walk. On New Year's Eve 2014, the heavy metal band Gwar opened GwarBar in Jackson Ward. The band described it as "a fantasy land of food and beverage, catering to everyone from local punk metal freaks, rock stars, businessmen, celebrity chefs and starving artists."[21][22]
Since the start of the 21st century, the neighborhood's reputation has rapidly changed from being that of a high crime neighborhood, into a popular historic district which rivals that of the Fan, and Church Hill. However, the revival of the neighborhood has led to gentrification controversy, particularly since while in 2000 it still had a majority African American population, by 2010 nearly twice as many white people as black lived in the neighborhood. Furthermore, the neighborhood's continued change focuses development on mixed-use new construction as much as restoration of existing historic buildings.[23]
The earliest houses of Jackson Ward were a series of small cottages built in the Federal style. By the later 1830s up until the Civil War, the Greek Revival style was prominent, which represents a major part of Richmond's pre-war architectural heritage. And then beginning in the 1850s the Italianate styles. A major part of the district's visual appeal and charm derived from the contrast between the two ornamental and austere characteristics of the two styles.[24]
St. Mary's German Catholic Church was built on Marshal Street to serve the growing German Catholic immigrant community that had moved into greater Richmond from about 1850 to through the 1880s. The center of the neighborhood is dominated by the former Armstrong High School, now the Richmond Public Schools Adult Career Development Center. Armstrong's sports field is now Abner Clay Park, which has a bandstand, football field, basketball court and tennis facilities.
Charles Thaddeus Russell was one of Virginia's first licensed black architects.[25] A majority of the workers and contractors hired by Russell were black. He designed homes in and businesses in Jackson Ward.[26] He also designed many buildings in an area that was known as “Black Wall Street of America.”[27][28]
The long invisible Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground is located in Jackson Ward. Likely the largest burial ground for free people of color and the enslaved in the United States, it is one of Virginia's most endangered historic places. Established in 1816 as two (1 acre) plots by the city of Richmond, it is estimated to have received over 22,000 interments and expanded to a little over 31 acres before it was closed to new burials in 1879 due to overcrowded conditions. The burial ground was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places as part of the Shockoe Hill Burying Ground Historic District in 2022. The heart of this burial ground is located at 1305 N 5th St.
Richmond is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871. The city's population in the 2020 census was 226,610, up from 204,214 in 2010, making it Virginia's fourth-most populous city. The Richmond metropolitan area, with 1,260,029 people, is the Commonwealth's third-most populous.
Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458 with a majority black American. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg with Dinwiddie County for statistical purposes. The city is 21 miles (34 km) south of the commonwealth (state) capital city of Richmond.
Oregon Hill is a historic working-class neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. Oregon Hill overlooks the James River and Belle Isle, and provides access to Hollywood Cemetery. Due to the neighborhood's proximity to the Monroe Park Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, the neighborhood is sometimes referred to as a student quarter because of its high college student population.
The history of Richmond, Virginia, as a modern city, dates to the early 17th century, and is crucial to the development of the colony of Virginia, the American Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. After Reconstruction, Richmond's location at the falls of the James River helped it develop a diversified economy and become a land transportation hub.
The Greater Richmond, Virginia area has many neighborhoods and districts.
Maggie Lena Walker was an American businesswoman and teacher. In 1903, Walker became both the first African American woman to charter a bank and the first African American woman to serve as a bank president. As a leader, Walker achieved successes with the vision to make tangible improvements in the way of life for African Americans. Disabled by paralysis and a wheelchair user later in life, Walker also paved the way for people with disabilities.
The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site is a United States National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Site located at 110½ E. Leigh Street on "Quality Row" in the Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. The site was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1975. The National Historic Site was established in 1978 to tell the story of the life and work of Maggie L. Walker (1867-1934), the first woman to serve as president of a bank in the United States. It was built by George W. Boyd, father of physician, Sarah Garland Boyd Jones. The historic site protects the restored and originally furnished home of Walker. Tours of the home are offered by National Park Service rangers.
America's 11 Most Endangered Places or America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is a list of places in the United States that the National Trust for Historic Preservation considers the most endangered. It aims to inspire Americans to preserve examples of architectural and cultural heritage that could be "relegated to the dustbins of history" without intervention.
Fourth Ward is one of the historic six wards of Houston, Texas, United States. The Fourth Ward is located inside the 610 Loop directly west of and adjacent to Downtown Houston. The Fourth Ward is the site of Freedmen's Town, which was a post-U.S. Civil War community of African-Americans.
Virginia Estelle Randolph was an American educator in Henrico County, Virginia. She was named the United States' first "Jeanes Supervising Industrial Teacher" by her Superintendent of Schools, Jackson Davis, and she led a program funded by the Jeanes Foundation to upgrade vocational training throughout the U.S. South as her career progressed. Her work is widely associated with vocational education. Two schools of the Henrico County Public Schools system were named in her honor and in 2009 Randolph was posthumously honored by the Library of Virginia as one of their "Virginia Women in History" for her career and contributions to education.
Originally a trolley car suburb in the years just before the dawn of the 20th century, the Fairmount neighborhood in Church Hill, Richmond, Virginia, is located just north of Union Hill. Much of the neighborhood was developed from the 1890s to the 1920s, and its buildings largely reflect Queen Anne, Italianate, and 1920s bungalow architecture. What is likely the oldest remaining residence, a frame house, probably dates from before 1870. A notable property in the Fairmount neighborhood is the Fairmount School. Annexed from Henrico County in 1906, Fairmount was first incorporated as an independent town on March 10, 1902.
Court End is a neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia, that sits to the north of the Capitol Square and East Broad Street. It developed in the Federal era, after Virginia's capital moved from Williamsburg.
College Hill is a historic neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, and one of six neighborhoods comprising the city's East Side. It is roughly bounded by South and North Main Street to the west, Power Street to the south, Governor Street and Arlington Avenue to the east and Olney Street to the north. The neighborhood's primary commercial area extends along Thayer Street, a strip frequented by students in the Providence area.
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated O4W, is an intown neighborhood on the eastside of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The neighborhood is best known as the location of the Martin Luther King Jr. historic site.
Union Hill is a historic district of Richmond, Virginia. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, the neighborhood "generally is bordered on the south by East Marshall Street and Jefferson Avenue, on the west by Mosby Street, on the north by O and Carrington streets, and angled on the east by North 25th Street." The neighborhood is on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, and is also one of sixteen designated "Old and Historic Districts" in Richmond.
The Chestnut Hill–Plateau Historic District is a historic area in the Highland Park neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. It is also known as 'Highland Park Southern Tip' on city neighborhood maps.
First Battalion Virginia Volunteers Armory, is a historic armory building located in Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1895, and is a two-story. Late Victorian style brick structure. It also is known as the Leigh Street Armory, the Monroe School, and the Monroe Center.
Charles Thaddeus Russell was an American architect who was one of the first two licensed African American architects in Virginia. He was the first to be licensed in Richmond, Virginia and he designed buildings on what became known as the "Black Wall Street of America".
The Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA) is an American 501(c)(3) organization and museum established in 1981 and focused on the history of Black and African Americans in the state of Virginia. It is located in the Leigh Street Armory building at 122 West Leigh Street in the Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia.
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