September 27, 2009
Leigh Street Armory makes the National Register
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has approved the Leigh Street Armory, at 122 West Leigh Street, for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Registry (PDF).
From an Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods email announcing the approval:
Built in 1895 for an African-American municipal militia organization, the castle-like building is an architectural gem. Research conducted in the course of the National Register nomination process revealed that only three such buildings were constructed for black militias in the United States, and the building on Richmond’s Leigh Street is the oldest one. It is also the oldest armory building of any kind still standing in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Before the establishment of the modern National Guard, American cities sponsored militia organizations that could be called up by the governor in case of emergency. These were not only military groups, but also social clubs; and membership implied high social status. The editor of Richmond’s African-American newspaper, John Mitchell, Jr., lobbied hard for funding and construction of the Leigh Street armory, knowing its importance as a demonstration of equality with Richmond’s white militias and their facilities.
After its function as an armory was discontinued, the Leigh Street Armory served for many years as a Richmond public school. It also became a home away from home for thousands of black G.I.s as a USO center during World War II, providing an overnight stay, a hot meal, and a shower for troops traveling through Richmond by train.
Today the Armory, stabilized by a grant from the Save America’s Treasures, awaits a new use, sensitive to its unique history and importance to all Richmonders. The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods will continue to monitor its condition, promote its reuse, and look forward to the day when the Leigh Street Armory will again, as John Mitchell, Jr. described it a hundred years ago, “shine in magnificent splendor.”
I can’t understand why more people don’t get mad about this grotesque situation and demand action from the City to find a suitable buyer for this place. They’ve apparently owned it since 1895 and still own it and have never done right by this great building.
The City had two buyers in the last decade. Ask Bill Pantele why he helped kill these deals until he found something that suited him. Apparently, an exposed roof and shell of a building is preferable than an owner that wanted to restore it. What vision.
I’ve heard that there is pressure from the community to have any redevelopment of the Armory be an African-American led project, and this has led to previous qualified offers being rejected.
This “community pressure” is what sank any reuse of the building in the past. What is needed is for Charles Samuels to go out into Jackson Ward, and explain to people what is needed to get this building taken care of. It is called leadership, and we have seen none on this subject and many others as well.
Where is the famous Historic Jackson Ward organization on this? Why are they so silent? Shouldn’t this be their number one cause?
How come we are now looking at the old crappy photo of the armory before they took the fire escape off the front? What happened to the nice shot of how it looks today?
I swapped for the older photo because this is the only photo that I’ve ever been able to find of the Armory when it was actually in use. I find it to be more compelling than a better photograph of current vacantness.
Here is the photo, the DHR application, that originally went up with this post this morning:
This historic building would make a wonderful home for the local Black History Museum. Space could be converted to conference rooms, display rooms, non-stop showings of Black history movies, museum retail space, library of rare books, etc.
[...] post up in recognition of the Leigh Street Armory making the National Registry of Historic Places (previously). Posted by john_m at 6:57AM under history | Tags: Jackson Ward, Leigh Street [...]
Many willing and fully capable individuals have wished to purchase this building in the past but have been turned away and denied because of never ending indecisiveness on the part of the community groups. The development ideas are never the “right thing”. Unfortunately, their idea of the “right thing” can not stand alone financially and will likely never come to fruition. I feel that those in charge need to realize that an occupied and restored historic building, regardless of use, is better than a vacant deteriorating one. If hands remain tied and good viable opportunities continue to be turned down, the neighborhood will continue to suffer from what has plagued it for so long: vacant, deteriorating property blight that does not attract new energetic life.