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Carver
This historic neighborhood has survived neglect and dissection by highways to undergo a renaissance. Fueled by a strong community organization, streets and homes in Carver have become a showplace of renewal and rebirth. In the 1840s, Carver was built on an area of Richmond divided by steep ravines at the western edge of Jackson Ward. Originally it was settled as a working-class neighborhood of predominantly German and Jewish merchants and tradesmen. They later were supplanted by black families, and Carver became an important part of the thriving black community in Jackson Ward. The movement west of lumber yards and brickyards to Carver from what is now downtown Richmond gave the neighborhood an early industrial component. Specialized industries also thrived in Carver, such as the Home Brewing Company, located at 1201-1209 West Clay Street. The Richmond Ice Company’s facility in the 1200 block of Marshall Street was once promoted as the largest in the South.
Houses in Carver are predominantly attached frame dwellings in the Italianate style that was popular during Reconstruction. Brick structures in the neighborhood tend to be located at or near corners, giving a coherent pattern to the Carver streetscape. These homes and stores were built of bricks made in one of the four large neighborhood brickyards.
In the 1930s, Belvidere Street sliced Carver off from the rest of Jackson Ward. Despite this, the area remained a thriving black neighborhood with a social mixture of working poor and upper-class professionals. As part of the urban renewal programs of the 1950s, many historic Carver homes were demolished, and the construction of Interstate 95 erased entire blocks of Carver and cut off access from the north. To combat these continued incursions and other losses of the architectural fabric of the neighborhood, the Carver Area Civic Improvement League was founded. This organization has fought energetically to preserve the charming Victorian homes of the area. In a cooperative effort with the Richmond Housing and Redevelopment Authority, thirty-five new townhomes have been built in Carver, designed conscientiously to fit in with the historic character of Carver.
The presence of Virginia Commonwealth University near by has also had an impact on Carver, particularly VCU’s expanded presence along Broad Street in the southern portions of the neighborhood. As a result, Carver has become a popular residential neighborhood for students and a promising location for businesses catering to the college-aged demographic. With a grocery store, restaurants and coffee shops, and a number of other businesses all in close proximity to VCU’s Monroe Park Campus and downtown Richmond, the Carver neighborhood is one of the most dynamic and liveable neighborhoods in the City of Richmond. The presence of students and young professionals, coupled with the families who have lived in Carver for generations, provides a nice balance of youthful energy and neighborhood stability.
A walk through Carver reflects a neighborhood in transition. The decline experienced for years has been replaced by a growing interest in restoration, and new homes in the style of the past speak of the promise of the future.