Properties that would be used for a slavery memorial park, as viewed from the train shed platform, are currently parking lots. (BizSense file)
It’s been nearly a generation, but momentum is finally building to establish a national slavery museum in Shockoe Bottom near the Main Street Station. The centerpieces will be the Lumpkin’s Jail archaeological site and the African Burial Ground, both located hard against the northbound lanes of Interstate 95. The memorial park will honor the 300,000 enslaved individuals who passed through some 50 slave markets in the Bottom during the mid-19th century.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has ponied up, and Mayor Levar Stoney and the City Council are on board with establishing a foundation to oversee fundraising. In addition to promised state and municipal seed money, some $200 million-$220 million is still needed for the project. The timing may finally be right to hit the “go” button, as people await a fresh historical narrative for Richmond after the recent dismantling of icons of the “Lost Cause.”
And eyes are on Shockoe Bottom, perhaps the most evocative part of town, as it awaits this long-awaited cultural and economic endeavor. True, the neighborhood has its gems — Main Street Station, the Capital Trail, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, Tobacco Row, and the recently-restored Masons Hall. But the valley lacks an emotional and historical heart.
For the envisioned multi-acre memorial park to tell its story most effectively, however, dozens of Shockoe Bottom’s adjoining blocks, streets and sidewalks must be developed in an architecturally-respectful way that captures the sad fact that this was once a bustling neighborhood that housed one of our nation’s largest slave trading centers from the early 1800s to the Civil War in the 1860s.
In modern times, Shockoe Bottom has been largely defined by Interstate 95, North 21st Street, the river, and Venable Street. Until recently, for almost 300 years, its centerpiece was a farmer’s market at the crossroads in Richmond of the Tidewater agrarian flatlands and the elevated Piedmont. For the past 20 years, the city’s former Slave Trail Commission laid the groundwork for establishing a memorial and museum in the Bottom on the site of the Lumpkins Slave Jail, infamously called “the Devil’s Half Acre.” The commission envisioned an attraction that could deliver a message and experience similar to black history and slavery museums in half a dozen other American cities from Charleston to Cincinnati. For Shockoe Slip, one architectural team has already proposed a shimmering, glass-clad pyramid-like pavilion (think the Crystal Cathedral near Los Angeles). Other planners have envisioned a more cerebral commemorative approach that would encompass not just the “Devil’s Half Acre” site, but the nearby sprawling African Burial Ground.
Regardless of specific interpretive approaches to the memorial, one of the biggest challenges will be to develop and transform the desolate contiguous blocks that stretch to the present Exxon station at Broad and North 18th Street. These moribund blocks provide a blank slate upon which a densely-built, mixed-use district can be built. The density should invoke the slave-trading era when the Bottom was a cauldron of activity through which enslaved folks were pushed south en route to the cotton belt. Don’t imagine a Colonial Williamsburg-from-hell-like experience but a mixed-use, contemporary neighborhood that captures the density (claustrophobic even) of a 19th century street. Today, in Manhattan’s lower east side the blocks surrounding the popular Tenement Museum, while nothing if not hip, contain the traffic and congestion (minus the dirt and grime) of the Gilded Age.
How to achieve density in Shockoe Bottom? First, respect the existing historic street grid and rehabilitate every precious building still standing: Let’s forget about demolishing the century-old (or older) Loving’s warehouse at East Grace and Ambler streets for a parking garage; this is insane. For the Bottom to work as an economically and architecturally robust host of the memorial it must be rebuilt cheek-to-jowl with human-scaled structures. Off-street parking is essential but a garage would be better wedged into the cityscape farther up the valley near Venable Street.
Second, the size of the necessary in-fill buildings should generally reflect the 25-foot width of the traditional building lots. Structures should be no taller than four or five floors, respecting the existing old and new scale of the historic Bottom.
Third, the 50 sites where trading of enslaved people actually occurred must be identified clearly. Explanatory panels or markers can be set in sidewalks with narratives. In Germany, most towns and cities mark the places (often with metal plaques in sidewalks) from which thousands of individuals were removed by Nazis. It is a simple gesture, but unspeakably evocative.
Finally, giving savvy architectural form and meaning to Shockoe Bottom’s distressing ill-kempt sea of surface parking lots is key to creating a setting for the slavery museum. Development will take vision and sharp oversight, but it can be done. Sixty years ago, Philadelphia’s Society Hill neighborhood near Independence Hall was a tattered district of filling stations and flop houses. It was rejuvenated by being restored and rebuilt with historically-inspired, as well as strikingly contemporary structures. If the western blocks of Shockoe Bottom can be rebuilt in concert with the memorial’s development, a quilt will result. Every stitch, color and image will form the handsome whole. Let the entire built neighborhood play a role, architecturally and curatorially, in telling this epic Richmond — and American — story.
Properties that would be used for a slavery memorial park, as viewed from the train shed platform, are currently parking lots. (BizSense file)
Properties that would be used for a slavery memorial park, as viewed from the train shed platform, are currently parking lots. (BizSense file)
It’s been nearly a generation, but momentum is finally building to establish a national slavery museum in Shockoe Bottom near the Main Street Station. The centerpieces will be the Lumpkin’s Jail archaeological site and the African Burial Ground, both located hard against the northbound lanes of Interstate 95. The memorial park will honor the 300,000 enslaved individuals who passed through some 50 slave markets in the Bottom during the mid-19th century.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has ponied up, and Mayor Levar Stoney and the City Council are on board with establishing a foundation to oversee fundraising. In addition to promised state and municipal seed money, some $200 million-$220 million is still needed for the project. The timing may finally be right to hit the “go” button, as people await a fresh historical narrative for Richmond after the recent dismantling of icons of the “Lost Cause.”
And eyes are on Shockoe Bottom, perhaps the most evocative part of town, as it awaits this long-awaited cultural and economic endeavor. True, the neighborhood has its gems — Main Street Station, the Capital Trail, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, Tobacco Row, and the recently-restored Masons Hall. But the valley lacks an emotional and historical heart.
For the envisioned multi-acre memorial park to tell its story most effectively, however, dozens of Shockoe Bottom’s adjoining blocks, streets and sidewalks must be developed in an architecturally-respectful way that captures the sad fact that this was once a bustling neighborhood that housed one of our nation’s largest slave trading centers from the early 1800s to the Civil War in the 1860s.
In modern times, Shockoe Bottom has been largely defined by Interstate 95, North 21st Street, the river, and Venable Street. Until recently, for almost 300 years, its centerpiece was a farmer’s market at the crossroads in Richmond of the Tidewater agrarian flatlands and the elevated Piedmont. For the past 20 years, the city’s former Slave Trail Commission laid the groundwork for establishing a memorial and museum in the Bottom on the site of the Lumpkins Slave Jail, infamously called “the Devil’s Half Acre.” The commission envisioned an attraction that could deliver a message and experience similar to black history and slavery museums in half a dozen other American cities from Charleston to Cincinnati. For Shockoe Slip, one architectural team has already proposed a shimmering, glass-clad pyramid-like pavilion (think the Crystal Cathedral near Los Angeles). Other planners have envisioned a more cerebral commemorative approach that would encompass not just the “Devil’s Half Acre” site, but the nearby sprawling African Burial Ground.
Regardless of specific interpretive approaches to the memorial, one of the biggest challenges will be to develop and transform the desolate contiguous blocks that stretch to the present Exxon station at Broad and North 18th Street. These moribund blocks provide a blank slate upon which a densely-built, mixed-use district can be built. The density should invoke the slave-trading era when the Bottom was a cauldron of activity through which enslaved folks were pushed south en route to the cotton belt. Don’t imagine a Colonial Williamsburg-from-hell-like experience but a mixed-use, contemporary neighborhood that captures the density (claustrophobic even) of a 19th century street. Today, in Manhattan’s lower east side the blocks surrounding the popular Tenement Museum, while nothing if not hip, contain the traffic and congestion (minus the dirt and grime) of the Gilded Age.
How to achieve density in Shockoe Bottom? First, respect the existing historic street grid and rehabilitate every precious building still standing: Let’s forget about demolishing the century-old (or older) Loving’s warehouse at East Grace and Ambler streets for a parking garage; this is insane. For the Bottom to work as an economically and architecturally robust host of the memorial it must be rebuilt cheek-to-jowl with human-scaled structures. Off-street parking is essential but a garage would be better wedged into the cityscape farther up the valley near Venable Street.
Second, the size of the necessary in-fill buildings should generally reflect the 25-foot width of the traditional building lots. Structures should be no taller than four or five floors, respecting the existing old and new scale of the historic Bottom.
Third, the 50 sites where trading of enslaved people actually occurred must be identified clearly. Explanatory panels or markers can be set in sidewalks with narratives. In Germany, most towns and cities mark the places (often with metal plaques in sidewalks) from which thousands of individuals were removed by Nazis. It is a simple gesture, but unspeakably evocative.
Finally, giving savvy architectural form and meaning to Shockoe Bottom’s distressing ill-kempt sea of surface parking lots is key to creating a setting for the slavery museum. Development will take vision and sharp oversight, but it can be done. Sixty years ago, Philadelphia’s Society Hill neighborhood near Independence Hall was a tattered district of filling stations and flop houses. It was rejuvenated by being restored and rebuilt with historically-inspired, as well as strikingly contemporary structures. If the western blocks of Shockoe Bottom can be rebuilt in concert with the memorial’s development, a quilt will result. Every stitch, color and image will form the handsome whole. Let the entire built neighborhood play a role, architecturally and curatorially, in telling this epic Richmond — and American — story.
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Edwin Slipek is an adjunct instructor in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts and the co-editor of ArchitectureRichmond, an online encyclopedia of regional design.
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Spot on Ed. While this endeavor may take decades to complete, it will shape the course of Richmond. Skillful planning and soulful architecture ensure a place that all will be proud.
Let’s get this right.
Richmond always seems to be a case study on how History is used to divide people. Want to know why the western USA tends to be more successful? Less emphasis on “History”
Hmm… What explains virtually every European city, where the focus of the city center is in fact the History of the place. Hmm.
Probably because there’s less written history.
Maybe that’s in significant part due to the fact that Richmond has been at, or close to the center of virtually all of this nation’s first 200+ years of history, good and bad?
Great insight Ed Slipek! This is a vision the whole community can get behind.
Is that actually true? I mean, there are some who always seem to think “More Museums” should be a priority, but….
Just because you dont like or understand museums does not mean they are a critical element for a cities culture. so…
Excellent vision. Please don’t let the instinct for cheapness ruin it.
Talked about under Mayor Wilder with political support from then Gov Warner, first state funds allocated (2013 – $11M in seed money) under Gov McDonnell in his last budget under lame-duck Mayor Jones, and now in comes outgoing Gov Northam with lame-duck Mayor Stoney with their plan. Anyone else see a pattern. I so agree with Ed and I hope it comes to fruition but reality and recent history tell us to except a different outcome.
I like most of this, except one small part- In order for this to be the true asset to all of us, accommodations will need to be made for disabled parking outside of a remote garage on Venable.
lol @ you guys down voting accomodations for the disabled mandated in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Coming soon: The Lofts at Devil’s Half-Acre? Creating a development plan designed to preserve the character and ambiance of a historic slave trading area is a different objective than simply respecting and amplifying the historic character of the neighborhood, and it is likely to present some unique challenges. Will residents and businesses be drawn to the area by the association with the slavery museum? Or rappelled? I think the answer to that largely has to do with how large the complex is and how much it dominates the narrative of the neighborhood. The slavery museum could be a powerful force… Read more »
Thoughtful, well written article. Unfortunately, if recent history is any indicator, city planners won’t be given the resources and clout they need to bring the project to fruition. Reality says this is merely another pie in the sky proposal to provide Stoney more talking points to achieve his political aspirations. I had so much hope for him, but he is nothing more than a hack politician. Would love to see this area transformed for the benefit of the city, but if anything comes of this project it will be just another half-a$$ed attempt, drenched in controversy. — Bring on the… Read more »
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