11 Most Endangered
Jackson Ward
Year Listed: 2001
Location: Richmond , Virginia
Current Status: Endangered
Threat: Deterioration, Neglect, Poor Public Policy
Latest News
The preservation of this 11 Most site was supported by Save America's Treasures, a program that is facing elimination in the proposed federal budget. Join our campaign to save this component of preservation funding, which has restored 1,100 structures and collections and created 16,000 jobs coast to coast.
Significance
Founded by free blacks and immigrants, Jackson Ward became a gerrymandered voting district in the 1870s that kept those groups voting in one area. When early 20th-century Jim Crow laws separated the races, the people of Jackson Ward created a self-sustaining economy that made the area famous as the "Black Wall Street" and alive with theaters, clubs and restaurants. In 1903, entrepreneur and activist Maggie Lena Walker, born to former slaves, became the nation's first woman bank president by establishing the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. During the depression, her bank bought all the local black-owned banks in town and renamed itself the Consolidated Bank and Trust Company. In the 1950s, construction of Interstate 95 cut through Jackson Ward, permanently dividing it in two. Then, when desegregation came to Richmond, many residents moved away and many businesses dried up. Urban renewal in the 1970s and 1980s caused widespread demolition and insensitive development; since then, many of the neighborhood's historic buildings have fallen into disrepair and approximately 100 of them are vacant.
Updates
Since the listing, Jackson Ward has experienced an extensive amount of rehabilitation. With Save America’s Treasures funding, the City of Richmond undertook a major stabilization of the Leigh Street Armory. The City has selected a developer for the Booker T. Washington School, the oldest public school building in Richmond (c. 1871). Tucker Cottage, the oldest building in the neighborhood, was moved and successfully preserved. In the Second Street corridor several rehabilitations of historic office buildings are underway at the present time. Despite these successes, dozens of vacant buildings remain in the neighborhood. Many buildings are threatened by neglect, and fires have collapsed several. The fate of some neighborhood landmarks - including the St. Luke Building, the Eggleston Hotel, the Taylor Mansion, and the Hippodrome Theatre - still appears to be in doubt, due to poor condition.
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Share your memories of this endangered place
Submitted by UrbanDougzine at: November 8, 2009
The Hippodrome looks like it may be reopening soon. Hopefully it will be able to attract high quality acts and keep the seats filled. Too bad the Eggleston wasn't restored, 2nd St. could have the trifecta of entertainment, food (Croaker's Spot), and somewhere to stay. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/HIPP02_20091101-222403/303133/
Submitted by Anonymous at: April 29, 2009
Sadly, the Eggleston Hotel collapsed earlier this month shortly before renovations were to begin to save it.