Current News
The Alliance is Moving Forward · The Alliance is Expanding
The Alliance is Rebuilding
The Alliance is becoming Richmond's Urban Neighborhood Design Resource Center.
Join us in establishing this initiative that will re-imagine Richmond's communities.
We will be gathering collectively to capture new ideas, blend established initiatives and to welcome fresh perspectives. We invite you to join us in this effort.
Your participation will help develop the purpose and vision for the Design Resource Center
that will continue to conserve Richmond's neighborhoods and communities.
The Public is invited to a Community Charrette to help us craft this new vision.
Day: Thursday July 22nd
Time: 5:30pm - 8pm
Where: Edgeworth Building at Tobacco Row ~ 2100 East Cary Street
CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS
Explore Your City: North Side Neighborhoods Open House and Bike Tour Program comes to Battery Park's Stone House
Pictured below: The Honorable Ellen Robertson welcomes Explore Your City participants to the North Side.
On Saturday, June 26 residents of Battery Park, Barton Heights, and Highland Park and Richmonders from neighborhoods on both sides of the river convened at the old Stone House in Battery Park to participate in Explore Your City: North Side Neighborhoods. Explore Your City is an Alliance program that serves the dual purposes of bringing history to life in old Richmond neighborhoods and making residents of the city aware of Richmond's unique architectural resources. This June, Explore Your City featured Richmond's early streetcar suburban neighborhoods on the North Side: Battery Park, Barton Heights, and Highland Park. Please CLICK HERE to read on about this event, see pictures of the North Side Bike Tour, and to find out more about our annually published neighborhood property booklet.
To view a PDF of the Explore Your City property booklet, CLICK HERE.
To obtain your own copy, email info@richmondneighborhoods.org or call (804) 644-5040.
The Alliance worked with the Battery Park Civic Association and and the Southern Barton Heights Community Association to accomplish this event. The Alliance also thanks the Valentine Richmond History Center and the City of Richmond Dept. of Planning & Development Review for ongoing support.
SOLD !
Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods negotiates a sale of a former Oliver Lawrence Property in the in Oakwood-Chimborazo Historic District
CLICK HERE to view the story and video by Rachel DePompa of WWBT NBC12 News
(Pictured below: 421-423 North 33rd Street)
Located in the Oakwood-Chimborazo State and National Register Historic Districts, this circa 1910 Classical Revival house has been SOLD through our Option Property Program. The Alliance, Virginia Commonwealth Bank, Dave Seibert with Long & Foster Realtors worked collaboratively to facilitate the sale of this historic house formerly owned by Oliver Lawrence. Lawrence was convicted last fall of more than 180 property maintenance violations. Renovation work has already started to this formerly vacant house and we look forward to tracking the progress of this rehabilitation that will utilize historic tax credits to guide the project.
CLICK HERE to visit our Option Properties page for other renovation opportunities
Check out these Chamberlayne Avenue Properties...
Before it's too Late!
Houses Featured on NBC 12 News: Click Here to view the story & video
(Pictured below 4200 & 4204 Chamberlayne Ave)
The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods encourages interested renovators, contractors, and developers to investigate these THREE north side properties
located at the corner of Chamberlayne and Bellevue Avenue and now available at the incredible price of $425,000. Sold as a 
package only, this deal includes 2 homes and one land parcel, and is a great opportunity to make an impact in a neighborhood with strong fabric and an already vibrant community. Both houses are contributing homes on the Virginia Register of Historic Places and qualify for Historic Tax Credits. Demolition on these residences is pending; serious offers should be submitted as soon as possible. Please help to save 4200 and 4202 Chamberlayne Avenue from pending demolition!
To learn more about these properties, check out THIS FLYER (Click here).
CLICK HERE to view interiors of these Ginter Park homes
For purchase information, contact:
Lee Hilbert of Harrison & Bates at (804) 591-2411 or email
lee.hilbert@harrison-bates.com
or Bruce Milam, Vice President (804) 591-2412 or email
bruce.milam@harrison-bates.com
Announcing New Option Properties
at the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods
Through the Option Property program, the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods encourages the historic renovation of homes in urban neighborhoods. We are excited to announce the 
availability of three historic houses in the Brookland Park, Fairmount, and Union Hill neighborhoods. Each of these homes is located in a State and Federal Historic District, which means they are eligible for up to 45% recoverable renovation expenses through the state of Virginia's rehabilitation tax credit process, which you can find out more about HERE.
Click addresses listed below for further information on each property.
Contact property director Lane Pearson at the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods for further details about these Option Properties. Call 644-5040 or email lpearson@richmondneighborhoods.org.
CLICK HERE to visit our Option Properties page.
The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods
Vacant & Foreclosed Properties Initiative
826 N. 24th Street ~ Union Hill 
CLICK HERE for pricing and contact information on 826 N. 24th Street in Union Hill.
Essential to the vitality of the city of Richmond, local neighborhoods are the primary focus of the vacant and foreclosed properties initiative. Many of the neighborhoods that give Richmond its charm and special quality of place are threatened by vacancy and blight, especially in those communities with strong historic roots. Through initiatives like the Option Property Program, the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods is restoring communities, one house at a time. Our staff follows real estate foreclosures and home vacancies closely, in order to identify properties before they are beyond repair and then facilitate their rehabilitation.
CLICK HERE to learn about our current Option Properties.
CLICK HERE to view the City of Richmond's Vacant Building List (compiled Jan. 2010).
To find out about neglected homes in Richmond's historic neighborhoods,
check out Richmond Slumlord Watch
For an article by Richmond BizSense contributor Drew Jackson listing Richmond foreclosures CLICK HERE
Commission on Architecture Review (CAR)
Task Force to Continue Monthly Meetings
Next Public Task Force meeting scheduled for Thursday March 4, 2010
Location: Richmond Fire Dept. HQ, 201 E. Franklin St. (next to Main Library)
(Click on the map below to see Richmond's City Old & Historic Districts)
A Task Force to review the guidelines, policies and procedures of the CAR was convened by City Council in the fall of 2009 and in ongoing monthly meetings gathered to discuss the existing City Old & Historic District practices and processes. The overarching goal of the Task Force was to respond to issues raised by the public, City Council, and by applicants in commission proceedings regarding the clarity of the CAR guidelines, their administration, and the processes involved in their undertaking.
Please CLICK HERE to find a summary of subcommittee recommendations created by the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods. Click on the links below to read the original CAR Task Force subcommittee preliminary reports.
Richmond Slave Trail Commission Makes Progress in Plans for Shockoe Bottom Heritage District Development
(Pictured below: Rendering of proposed slavery museum & Lumpkin's Jail archaeological site by Stockton Clay Architects of Richmond, Virginia.)
Members of the Slave Trail Commission are working with city and state elected officials to select a planning and economic development consultant to perform a Shockoe Bottom area study, which would recommend future potential uses of the area. In the latter half of 2009, Richmond saw great progress made on planning a slavery museum, a preserved Lumpkin's Jail site, and a marked slave trail running from the banks of the James throughout the neighborhood. (Check out the article HERE that describes local design group Stockton Clay's concept for a slavery museum.)
The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhood believes that the geographic and historic origin of the city of Richmond, the neighborhood we now call Shockoe Bottom, is a community rich with historic fabric and vibrant activity, and supports the effort to bring about a plan that emphasizes the community's potentially enormous impact on Richmond's revitalization. The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods has been involved in the discussion of the most effective ways to promote Richmond's slave trade history since our organization helped to rescue and preserve the Winfree slave cottage from deterioration. (Read more about freed slave Emily Winfree's home HERE.)
With the excavation of the Lumpkin's Jail site in 2009, the Alliance continued to advocate for acknowledgement of Shockoe Bottom as a significant place in the understanding of African-American and slave heritage in Richmond, Virginia and at the national level. While important sites like the Negro burial ground, just north of the Lumpkin's Jail site remain under asphalt, the national Historic District document Slave Trade as Commercial Enterprise in Richmond, Virginia provides maps and copious evidence that these critical spaces remain preserved underground. The Alliance will continue to be active in the Slave Trail Commission in the effort to protect, excavate and incorporate these historic sites into the public realm, so that all Richmonders and visitors to Shockoe Bottom can learn about the nation's slave trade past.
For more information about how Richmond leaders are making an effort to recognize this history read the most recent commentary in the Times-Dispatch HERE.
The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods is now Accepting Nominations for the 2010 Awards!
CLICK HERE to access our 2010 Golden Hammer Nomination Form.
The 10th Annual Golden Hammer Awards were held November 12, 2009 at Plaza Bowl in the Southside Plaza Shopping Center on the corner of Belt Boulevard and Hull Street. The 2009 Golden Hammer Awards was the most highly attended that the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods 
has held in ten years, despite torrential rains. Thirty-two renovation and infill projects from neighborhoods across our fair city were represented in the presentation, for which City of Richmond Community Development Director Rachel Flynn and Valentine Richmond History Center Director Bill Martin made opening remarks. Many of the project leaders, including architects, local developers, contractors, and home owners were in attendance; Plaza Bowl's twenty bowling lanes were full of activity and lively conversation.
CLICK HERE for more information on the 32 excellent nominated projects.
CLICKE HERE to read about the 2009 Awards Ceremony & Winners
Be a Part of the Coalition to Protect Richmond's Historic View Shed and Public Access to the James River!
View of the James River from Libby Hill in Richmond, Virginia (Present Day)
In the on-going discussion over the most appropriate use of the banks of the James River, Richmond's defining natural feature, local residents are taking a stand and inviting fellow citizens to join them. Neighborhood activists, conservationists, historians, and James River enthusiasts have created an online "Riverfront Petition" and are filling it with the signatures of residents who share their concern for protecting access to public park space in downtown Richmond. The goal is to demonstrate to City Council that 
Richmonders value the natural landscape and view from the vantage point of Libby Hill Park. According to Richmond lore the city was so-named for this picturesque view of the southern bend in the river. To the American city's founders, this view resembled the Thames River at Richmond outside of London, England (Richmond Upon Thames, London, UK pictured left). The petition is sponsored by local nonprofit organizations Together We Stand, Scenic Virginia, Partnership for Smarter Growth, and Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods, and is in accord with the Downtown Masterplan's recommendations on the preservation of public park land on the banks of the James River.
CLICK HERE to find out more! Sign the petition to save "The View that Named the City" and preserve public access to the James River at this historic site.
Preservation Consultant Services Now Offered at the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods
A "One-Stop-Shop" for Historic Home Renovators
If you are the owner of a historic home in a City Old & Historic District or considering purchasing property in one of Richmond's historic neighborhoods, then our preservation consultants may have something to offer you. From nuts and bolts rehabilitation advice, to tax credit consulting, to helping you attain C.A.R. approval for your renovation project, Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods consultants will facilitate your historic home renovation.
Please CLICK HERE for details about Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods Preservation Consultant Services
Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods Recognizes Blacks' Contribution to the Building of City Communities
Slaves and free blacks played a vast role in the construction and design of America's cities; yet they are largely unrecognized for the role they played in the construction and design of one of America's most historic cities-- Richmond Virginia. To bring attention to the contributions of African Americans to the city's architectural heritage and to encourage the preservation of what remains of this impressive legacy, the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods has proudly published Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, VA.
THE SECOND PRINTING IS HERE! A second printing of this well-received publication has been delivered to retail locations around Richmond. Many thanks to everyone for the interest in this subject.
Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods Encourages Neighborhood Preservation Through its Historic Tax Credit Service
Typically utilized as a tool for developers for large, commercial renovation projects such as Tobacco Row or Rocketts Landing, historic tax credits can also greatly benefit the individual home owner renovating a historic structure for a residence. The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Service © helps people navigate the 3-Part application process. READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY » Not only do historic tax credits provide a tax benefit to the user, the economic impact in the state of Virginia since the inception of the program in 1998 has been enormous. A new brochure has been published by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources quantifying the impact of the historic tax credit. The new booklet, Prosperity Through Preservation quantifies the total economic benefit to the Commonwealth to be $1,519 MILLION! To say the Historic Tax Credit Program has been a success is an understatement.
The numbers show that preservation of our historic architecture pays. If you have questions about how the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Program works, feel free to call us at 804-644-5040 or send an email to: info@richmondneighborhoods.org
