Portsmouth Community Library | |
Location | 906 Elm St., Portsmouth, Virginia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 36°49′54″N76°18′46″W / 36.83167°N 76.31278°W |
Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
Built | less than one acre |
NRHP reference No. | 10000544 [1] |
VLR No. | 124-5130 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | August 12, 2010 |
Designated VLR | December 17, 2009 [2] |
Portsmouth Community Library, also known as the Portsmouth Colored Community Library, is a historic library building located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It was built in 1945 at 804 South Street. It is a one-story, three-bay, brick building with a hipped roof. It was built to provide for the reading needs of Portsmouth's African Americans. Bertha Edwards was the first librarian, and was a key to its success as she raised funds for the library. [3]
In 1959, two local dentists, Dr. James Holley and Dr. Hugo A. Owens, successfully sued the City of Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Public Library to integrate the public library, which resulted in the closure of the Portsmouth Community Library. The building has been relocated twice since it was closed in 1962 after integration of the public library system; first in 1967 to the parking lot of Ebenezer Baptist Church, 730 Effingham Street, then since August 2007, it has been located at the present location, 904 Elm Avenue. [4] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. [1]
The library is now operated as a museum of local African-American history by the City of Portsmouth. Displays include photographs and memorabilia, as well as African-American books and journals from the former library.
The African American Historical Society of Portsmouth led efforts to dedicate the historic library as a museum, [5] which opened in 2013. [6]
Courtland is an incorporated town in Southampton County, Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Southampton County.
The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum is a complex located in Staunton, Virginia. It contains the President's birthplace, known as the Manse, a Museum that explores the life and times of Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), a 6,800 square feet (630 m2) Research Library, a gift shop, and several other buildings that are not open to the public. Like all United States presidential libraries for administrations prior to that of Herbert Hoover, Wilson's is not part of the Federal National Archives' presidential library system.
Jackson Ward, previously known as Central Wards, is a historically African-American district in Richmond, Virginia, with a long tradition of African-American businesses. It is located less than a mile from the Virginia State Capitol, sitting to the west of Court End and north of Broad Street. It was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 1978. "Jackson Ward" was originally the name of the area's political district within the city, or ward, from 1871 to 1905, yet has remained in use long after losing its original meaning.
The Old Dillard High School, also known as the Colored School or Walker Elementary, is a historic school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is located at 1001 Northwest 4th Street. The first school building in Broward County for black students, it was built in 1924 by Cayot & Hart and the architect was John Morris Peterman. On February 20, 1991, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is the oldest surviving black school in Fort Lauderdale, and is named for black education advocate James H. Dillard. Its first principal, from 1924 until 1937, was Joseph A. Ely. Clarence C. Walker, Sr. served as principal from 1937 until his death in 1942.
The Robert Russa Moton Museum is a historic site and museum in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. It is located in the former Robert Russa Moton High School, considered "the student birthplace of America's Civil Rights Movement" for its initial student strike and ultimate role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case desegregating public schools. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, and is now a museum dedicated to that history. In 2022 it was designated an affiliated area of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park. The museum were named for African-American educator Robert Russa Moton.
Charles Morrison Robinson, most commonly known as Charles M. Robinson, was an American architect. He worked in Altoona and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1889 to 1906 and in Richmond, Virginia from 1906 until the time of his death in 1932. He is most remembered as a prolific designer of educational buildings in Virginia, including public schools in Richmond and throughout Virginia, and university buildings for James Madison University, College of William and Mary, Radford University, Virginia State University, University of Mary Washington, and the University of Richmond. He was also the public school architect of the Richmond Public Schools from 1910 to 1929. Many of his works have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Alfred Street Baptist Church's is a Baptist church in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA.
The Anne Spencer House, in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States was, from 1903 to 1975, the home of Anne Spencer, a poet of the Harlem Renaissance. The house opened as a museum in 1977.
Price Public Elementary School, now known as Price Public Community Center and Swift Museum, is a former African-American school in Rogersville, Tennessee. It currently serves as a community center and home of the Swift Museum. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Calvert Manor is a historic apartment building located at 1925-1927 North Calvert Street in Arlington, Virginia. It was designed by noted Washington, D.C. architect Mihran Mesrobian and built in 1948, in the Moderne style. Mesrobian was also the builder and owner of Calvert Manor. The three-story garden apartment building is constructed of concrete block with red brick facing, highlighted by light-colored cast stone, cement brick details, and vertical bands of glass block.
The Hume School is an 1891 former school building in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia. It is the oldest school building in Arlington County. It has been the home of the Arlington Historical Society since 1960.
The Louisville Free Public Library's Western Branch or Western Library is a public library in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a Carnegie library and is the first public library built for African Americans staffed entirely by African Americans. Previously known as Louisville Free Public Library, Western Colored Branch, and registered as a historic site in that name, it is a branch of the Louisville Free Public Library system. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Weston Colored School, also known as the Central West Virginia Genealogical & Historical Library and Museum and Frontier School, is a historic one-room school building located at Weston, Lewis County, West Virginia. It was built in 1882, and is a single-story rubbed red brick building on a fieldstone foundation. It originally measured 22feet by 28feet, then enlarged in 1928 by 12feet, 6inches. It was used as an educational facility for the community's African-American youth until desegregation in 1954. It was subsequently used for storage, then an agricultural classroom for the Lewis County High School, and as a shop for mentally disabled students. It afterwards was used by the Central West Virginia Genealogical & Historical Library and Museum.
Buena Vista Colored School is a historic school building for African American children located at Buena Vista, Virginia. It was built in 1914, and expanded in 1926. It is a one-story, brick structure with a hipped, sheet metal roof. Also on the property is a contributing brick outbuilding once used to store wood and coal. The building served as the only local school for African American children in grades 1–7 from 1914 to 1957. The Buena Vista Colored School Historical Society was organized in 2002 to restore the school as a museum and community center.
Truxtun Historic District is a national historic district located at Portsmouth, Virginia. It encompasses 241 contributing buildings in a primarily residential section of Portsmouth. It was developed between 1918 and 1920 as a planned community of Colonial Revival style single family residences. It was developed by the United States Housing Corporation as a result of the rapid influx of workers at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard during World War I. It was the first wartime government housing project constructed exclusively for African-American residents. In 1921 the Federal Government sold it off.
The Almshouse, also known as the City Home is a historic almshouse and hospital complex located in Richmond, Virginia.
Harrison School is a historic public school building for African-American students in Roanoke, Virginia. It is a rectangular, 13-bay brick building done in modified Georgian Revival architecture. The school was built in 1916, and two-story wings were added in 1922. It was the first school in the city to educate black students beyond the seventh-grade level, and its first principal was the noted educator Lucy Addison. After closing as a school in the 1960s, the building served as a child care center and later low-income housing as well as the home of the Harrison Museum of African American Culture.
The Jefferson School is a historic building in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was built to serve as a segregated high school for African-American students. The school, located on Commerce Street in the downtown Starr Hill neighborhood, was built in four sections starting in 1926, with additions made in 1938–39, 1958, and 1959. It is a large two-story brick building, and the 1938–1939, two-story, rear addition, was partially funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA).