Susan Carter Williams Memorial
Historic Fulton Seminar
Can Richmond's Future Honor the Past?
Historic Fulton Seminar Brings Civic and Nonprofit Leaders, Fulton Residents & Concerned Citizens to the Table
The Alliance to Conserve OId Richmond Neighborhoods hosted the 6th Annual Susan Carter Williams Memorial Seminar on May 15th at the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library. The seminar addressed one of Richmond's oldest and most complex neighborhoods: Fulton, located in east Richmond north of Rocketts Landing, is a community that has 
occupied the valley which slopes into the James River since the early 18th Century. Once a working class neighborhood occupied by immigrants, African-Americans, and white laborers, historic Fulton was demolished in the 1970s as a part of Richmond's urban renewal program. Now, the community is poised to recapture the cohesion their community experienced in previous years, with support by the Virginia LISC UP Neighborhoods initiative. The historic Fulton seminar was a successful event that brought all these and other issues to bear.
Note of local nostalgia: The last remaining houses in Fulton were used on the album cover by the 1970's local band "the eccentrics". A member of the band still in Richmond stated that the landscape was so desolate and these houses stood eerily in the middle of nowhere. The group was not aware of what happened to Fulton community, but knew something was wrong and much was lost.
The Alliance received requests for a report on the program. Thanks to John Murden for making the presentations available online by John Murden of the Church Hill People's News:
1) Fulton: A Visual History of the Hill & Valley ~ Selden Richardson
2) Moments in Fulton Time from Powhatan to Patience Gromes ~ Harry Kollatz
3) Hope, Renewal & Revitalization ~ Veronica Jemmott, of Virginia LISC
CLICK HERE to see recordings of these presentations.
Panelists (left to right) were Spencer Jones (Fulton Family Reunion Committee), Brooke Hardin (City of Richmond/ Planning & Develoment Review), Veronica Jemmott (Virginia LISC), Hon. Cynthia Newbille (Richmond City Council/7th District Representative), and Paul DiPasquale (longtime Greater Fulton area resident). The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods looks forward to working with the Fulton community, the City of Richmond, and Virginia LISC to help the Greater Fulton area reach its full potential for the future while honoring its historic past; and we thank the primary sponsor of this program-- Lotsey & Hardy Tire Co.-- along with other sponsors, including the Fulton Hill Community Business Association, the Greater Fulton Hill Association, Prospect Mortgage, Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, and Virginia LISC