According to the interview with Mr. and Mrs. Wood, the Thalhimer’s department store is where Mrs. Wood worked as a sales clerk. The department store was torn down in 2004. Today there are new apartments located in place of the department store.
Read MoreAs residents of the Carver Community since 1967, Mr. and Mrs. Wood attended the Moore Street Missionary Baptist Church.
Read More1411 ½ W Clay St. is where Ms. Robinson resided at the time of her interview. Built in 1905, it was a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom single family residential house. This home has been torn down and is currently an empty lot.
Read MoreThe Moore School or Moore Street School, 1113 West Moore Street, opened in 1887 as a public school for African-American students. This is where Robinson attended middle school. The building was enlarged in 1914 to accommodate the growing student population. Enrollment grew from 947 students in 1887 to 1,390 in 1921. A second addition was […]
Read MoreElba was the elementary school Viola Robinson attended.Located at 1000 West Clay Street,the school was built as a public school for white students in 1880. In 1927, Elba School became a black school after white enrollment declined.The school was abandoned in 1955 and torn down shortly thereafter.
Read MoreFor this podcast, I had the opportunity to interview 3 people from different businesses along East Grace Street: a photography store owner, a restaurant employee, and a hairstylist. Each of them introduced different aspects to the changes within the Grace Street downtown area. You feel as if you walked into a time machine when listening […]
Read MoreThe Blue Nine Market opened in 2005 along with its sister-store Clay Market which closed down a few years ago due to a decline in business. The owner, Adam Hussein, said that since the city closed down bus stops on Broad St. near his store the market’s sales declined. Previously the store was another market […]
Read MoreCarolyn Hawley went to the Maggie L. Walker High School as a teenager before it was closed. In her interview she expressed concerns with it being turned into a Governor’s School that is most likely going to serve a majority white population despite being centered in the middle of two black neighborhoods. Now, 16 years […]
Read More803 W Clay St. was the house James McBride was born in, and the house where his aunt lived upstairs and ran a hair salon downstairs for years. The building has been converted into apartment style homes where people rent. The businesses that McBride and Hawley described lining W. Clay St. and were owned by […]
Read MoreCarolyn Hawley lived across the street from 1000 W Clay St., another home that was a business and residence in the 60s when Hawley was a child. It was called Gee’s Shoe Shop. She remembered using the benches in the shop to mark her height. If the children could place their feet flat on the […]
Read MoreAs you walk down the neighborhood streets, there is an evident distinction between the different types of homes. More precisely, older homes differ from newer homes in the way they were built. For example, the outside facade of older homes where constructed using brick, cement, and spackle. The windows appear older with some windows having air conditioning […]
Read MoreAlbert V. Norrell Elementary was a segregated school that opened almost a 100 years ago. After the ruling in Brown V. Board of Education, many white families moved their children out of the institution when black families began moving into the neighborhood. Like most other predominately black schools, it was extended and constructed on top […]
Read MoreIn the early 1900s, North Avenue and West Brookland Park Boulevard became popular with the black residents of the Battery Park area. These streets, located in the neighborhood had many businesses that catered specifically to the black community. These included convenient stores, black-owned hair salons and barbershops, black-owned restaurants, and small local markets. Today, many […]
Read MoreBattery Park is a neighborhood filled with history. After interviewing a longtime resident, Ms. Bailey, I got an idea of what changes took place within this neighborhood. Battery Park was a neighborhood that housed predominately white middle class families. As gentrification began to take place in neighboring areas such as in Jackson Ward, black families were […]
Read MoreRichmond Haggins Jr. was born in 1938 in Richmond. Waller is the owner of the 118-year-old establishment Waller & Company Jewelers on 19 E. Broad St. The business was started by his grandfather, Marcellus Carrington Waller, in 1900 and despite several moves, it has maintained generations of steady customers. He runs the store with his […]
Read MoreThe owner, Yoseph, and his son were not interested in talking to me much. However, he did tell me that he is originally from Bangladesh — which explains the extensive and curated perfumes and incense from South East Asia that one smells when one first walks into the store. The one thing he did say […]
Read MoreRon Jones is the owner of HeadHunters Barbershop. His shop gives off vibes nothing short of eclectic Brooklyn cool. It makes sense considering he grew up in both Richmond and Brooklyn. They are different in size but have a similar history. The War on Drugs stifled both with violent crime and layers of poverty. The period […]
Read MoreBarksdale “Barky” Haggins has owned the record store Barky’s Spiritual Stores since 1956. Originally, it was on 407 N. 1st St. before being burnt down in a fire. “The next day we moved over here and were back in business,” Haggins said to me. He couldn’t remember the year of the fire but he bought the building in […]
Read MoreConstruction/Renovation of homes taking place on Jefferson Avenue in Church Hill.
Read MoreIt is important to note that these visual representations of houses north of M. Street do not represent the entirety of housing in Church Hill North. However, it does provide an idea of what some of the homes look like here versus south of M. Street.
Read MoreThis shows what the homes look like in Church Hill. Outside they retain the “historic” look, but inside they are completely renovated. The middle house is actually a restaurant called Patrick Henry’s Pub & Grille located on E. Broad St. One of the reasons why the African-American population in “historic” Church Hill has declined is […]
Read MoreA coffee shop located in the historic Church Hill on E. Broad St. “Captain Buzzy’s is perfectly situated in the heart of beautiful historic Church Hill. Less than two blocks from St. John’s Church, site of famous Patrick Henry, ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!’ speech and a couple blocks from Liberty Hill Park. […]
Read MoreAn exclusive restaurant located on the corner of N. 25th St. and M St. Provides a variety of dishes every day of the week after 5pm, except for Sundays where they open in the morning for brunch. “The Roosevelt is a neighborhood restaurant in a turn-of-the-last-century building in Church Hill, Richmond’s oldest neighborhood. Our food is an untraditional celebration of the […]
Read MoreA delicacy shop in Church Hill that provides, “all sorts of treats, including pies, cakes, caneles, muffins, sticky buns, breakfast sandwiches and more as single order items, and whole cakes and pies as special order items”. Location is convenient, on E. Marshall St., south of M St and near other restaurants and shops in Church Hill. […]
Read MoreProper Pie Co. is one of the more popular “quaint shops” found in Church Hill. They’re known not only for their traditional sweet pies, but also for their meat pies. Located just a few blocks from St. John’s Church in Historic Church Hill.
Read MoreAn older establishment located on E. Broad St., The Hill Cafe is a restaurant located in Church Hill (South of M. Street). In my opinion, restaurants do play an important role within gentrification in a city, especially within Richmond. Restaurants in Church Hill play off of the “historic” aspects of the area and attract members […]
Read MoreThis particular street in Church Hill has symbolic meaning. Kathryn Parkhurst wrote her M.A. thesis on the gentrification of Church Hill. According to Parkhurst (2016), “M Street served as a divider between the white side of the neighborhood and the African American side. The Historic Richmond Foundation brought back a segregated divide in the neighborhood by […]
Read MoreWhere the Greater Richmond Convention Center stands today, once stood the offices of John Mitchell, Jr (editor of the Richmond Planet) and Oliver Hill (civil rights lawyer). Today a plaque commemorates Mitchell but there seems to be no mention of Oliver Hill, his partners, or their offices anywhere. The following few pictures are of […]
Read MoreThis podcast provides a history of Church Hill as far back as the 1950’s and how the area has gentrified. Within the podcast lies a narrative of two former residents of the Church Hill area and how much the area has changed since the time they lived there. In addition to the interviews of these […]
Read MoreThe closer you walk to I-95, the more sparse the the businesses and buildings become and the more common empty lots become that are open for development. At the corner of Jackson and 2nd, where this particular lot was, there were three empty lots for sale at each corner.
Read MoreThe Second Street Bank, a prominent blank-owned bank in the late 19th and early 20th century, closed down with the desegregation in Richmond. The facade is still in tact, but the inside has been renovated into apartments.
Read MoreMiller’s Hotel was an institution and landmark of Jackson Ward, widely considered the first luxury hotel open to African-Americans in the South. Legends like Booker T. Washington stayed in the hotel. It became the Eggelston Hotel in 1935. The hotel and restaurant below became centers for music and culture. Redd Foxx, Louis Armstrong, and Ethel […]
Read MoreThe Taylor Mansion, on 2nd St. next to Hippodrome Theater, was widely accepted as the largest residence for a black person in the United States when it was built for Reverend W.L. Taylor in 1895. The Reverend was a prohibitionist and community leader, but the mansion was vacated by his descendants and bought by the […]
Read MoreThe Mechanics Savings Bank at the corner of 3rd and Clay was opened by John Mitchell Jr., the famous editor of the Richmond Planet and civil rights activist in Jackson Ward. In his later years he opened the bank to cater to the community of Jackson Ward. Later on the same building housed the Southern […]
Read MoreOn E Broad St, between 2nd and 3rd, there is only one occupied building on the north side of the street. The VCU Police Headquarters looms over the vacant corner markets and small groceries.
Read MoreThe New Fish Market was a small, family owned international market and restaurant by the corner of 2nd and E Broad. In 2014 it was raided by police for suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking along with a local barber shop. While neither the owner or the employee that was working were arrested, two customers […]
Read MoreA hub for local artists, Art Works opened their center- an event and gallery space, as well as studio, in 2003. Monthly art shows and receptions happen here, and Art Works is a venue for local art to be displayed and sold. The story of the Art Center began while scouting for a new home […]
Read MoreA local brewery which opened in 1994, Legend’s is one of the oldest and largest commercial microbreweries in central Virginia. Legend’s is a fixture in historic Old Manchester and is known for its view of the James River. It is even one of the stops on a local trolley tour– Richmonders do love their beer.
Read MoreReynolds South Plant, headquartered in Richmond from 1921-2000 (when Alcoa acquired it), provided the world with the aluminum can, the pop top and Reynolds Wrap — the stuff used for the crinkly Markel Building near Willow Lawn. Reynolds also built one of the deep-diving man-made objects, the Aluminaut. Located off Hull and Bainbridge St., this […]
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We actually saw this house during our class tour of Carver. The brothers were raised and lived here until their thirties when they moved one street over to Catherine Street but the location was never specified in the interview. Their home, at the time, was surrounded by several streams and they had a well-sized farm […]
Read MoreThe brothers originally attended the Elba school which was underfunded and lacked basic resources. They were part of the movement to force the larger white community to accept the plans to expand the George Washington Carver School which at the time was the Moore St. School. It re-opened as the Carver School in 1951 and […]
Read MoreThe Moore Street Baptist Church is the congregation where both Barksdale and Irving Haggins went to as children and continued to go to as adults. They spoke about how exposure to the civil rights movement varied greatly depending on which church people went to. They heard different philosophies and listened to different activists depending on […]
Read MoreThe 700 block of W. Broad street used to be home of a restaurant called Jim Brown’s. Nellie described this restaurant as one of the black restaurants and said that it moved to Clay Street a few years ago and is now non-existent. The building is now VCU student housing.
Read MoreNellie used to live on 1223 W. Clay street in the 50’s and until the 80’s. There is now a renovated apartment building and the address of 1223 no longer exists because the block ends with 1221 and the next block begins at 1301.
Read MoreNellie Weatherless attended Maggie Walker from 1948-1951. She technically never finished school at Maggie Walker because the 12th grade was added to the curriculum for finishing school once she had already been there for 4 years playing basketball.
Read MoreLucy Ann Lucas attended Elba School (also known as “Elbow” to the locals) during her childhood. It is located at 1000 West Marshall Street. The school opened in 1880 and closed in 1955. Not too long after its closing, the building was demolished. Today, it is a private residential parking lot.
Read MoreBarbara Abernathy attended elementary/middle school at Moore Street School which is now George Washington Carver Elementary School. Abernathy graduated from Moore Street School in the seventh grade. She then attended Benjamin A. Graves Junior High School which is now the Adult Career Development Center on Leigh St for eighth and ninth grade. She finished her […]
Read MoreT&E Laundry was a laundromat on Marshall St. where many people of the Carver community worked including Abernathy’s grandmother. In her interview, Abernathy talks about how her grandmother was a presser at the laundromat and for a period of time she could not work because a presser fell on her arm causing third degree burns. […]
Read MoreBarbara Abernathy lived in a few homes in Carver because her parents were not homeowners, but renters. Two of her previous homes are located on Catherine St. (one has been torn down). However, I photographed the last house that Abernathy lived in before she ventured off to Washington, D.C. and Boston for a total of […]
Read More1411 ½ W Clay St. is where Ms. Robinson resided at the time of her interview. Built in 1905, it was a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom single family residential house. This home has been torn down and currently sits an empty lot.
Read MoreThe Moore School or Moore Street School, located at 1113 West Moore Street, opened in 1887 as a public school for African-American students. This is where Robinson attended middle school. The building was enlarged in 1914 to accommodate the growing school population. Enrollment grew from 947 students in 1887 to 1,390 in […]
Read MoreElba was the elementary school Viola Robinson attended. Located at 1000 West Clay Street,the school was built as a public school for white students in 1880. In 1927, Elba School became a black school after white enrollment declined.The school was abandoned in 1955 and torn down shortly thereafter.
Read MoreOn Hancock and Clay there used to be Joe Louis Inn, a bar named after a famous professional fighter. “Joe Louis was the model of all black people. He was the champion…back when Joe Louis used to fight, we didn’t have tvs so everybody was glued to their radios…and as soon as Joe Louis knocked […]
Read MoreMr. Crawley was born on the corner of Kinney and Clay in 1932, and at the time of the interview, he still lived there. He would walk to the Elba school on Hancock and Marshall every morning, sometimes having to stuff his shoes with cardboard due to the harsh weather. He would then spend his […]
Read MoreWhere the Kroger stands today there used to be a Tobacco factory, I believe it to either be the Export Leaf Tobacco Company factory or the American Tobacco Company warehouse. A center for socialization and business, a large part of the community was employed at the factory, or how Mr. Crawley puts it, “so many people […]
Read MoreOn the corner of Harrison and Clay stand the old Richbrau Brewing Company, an old brewery that Mr. Crawley and others form his neighborhood would visit. Although a popular brewery, it would close at 11 pm as would other establishments in Richmond as it used to have a strict 11 pm curfew. According to Mr. […]
Read MorePictured is 1415 West Clay Street. Ms. Lucas moved to this location when she was 21 years old. This house still stands today and it is unknown whether she still resides at this property.
Read MoreWhen Lucy Ann Lucas was younger, she recalled Moore Baptist Church showing movies on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for the residents in the neighborhood and charging only a dime. The pastor of the church also organised annual block parties on the 4th of July.
Read MoreGeorge W. Carver Elementary School, formerly Moore Street School. Mrs. Francis Gordon and Mrs. Marguerita Johnson reference this school in their interview. Mrs. Gordon said after the expansion was added to the school, the name was changed from Moore Street School to Carver school and changed the name of the neighborhood from Sheep Hill to […]
Read MoreThalhimer’s and Miller & Rhoads (W. Broad Street 5th Street block) are referenced by Mrs. Francis Gordon in her interview stating that before desegregation, African Americans were prohibited from shopping in the stores. After desegregation, Mrs. Gordon visited the Tea Room at Miller & Rhoads, a place previously unavailable to her during segregation that she […]
Read More902 W. Clay Street is the home of Mrs. Margarita Austin, a Carver resident. In her interview, she reflected with her childhood friend, Mrs. Frances Gordon about the community in Sheep Hill.Their interview exemplifies how close the community was. Sheep Hill eventually became known as the Carver district. Mrs. Austin was a student at Moore […]
Read MoreWilliam Byrd Community House, in Oregon Hill. Mrs. Francis Gordon recalled being verbally and physically assaulted with racial slurs, rocks and tomatoes by white people in the neighborhood during the 1950’s as she left a building. She stated that the neighborhood has improved since desegregation. The William Byrd Community House closed its doors in 2015. […]
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