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Rediscovering Battery Park
One of Richmond's earliest streetcar suburbs is changing and improving
BY OTESA MIDDLETON MILES
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Advertisements tout trees and fresh air, enticing new residents to a budding Richmond suburb.
"A swell location," according to one of the ads.
Country living, with easy access to the hustle of downtown. "An absolute safe and certain investment." (The Times-Dispatch, Sunday, Dec. 5, 1909.)
Battery Park appealed to people who worked in the city's center but wanted to live outside the industrial hubbub. Lots sold for $6.50 to $11 a foot. Houses were built for about $10,000.
"Give your children a chance in the suburbs, where there is plenty of fresh air and sunshine. Think it over. Consult with your wife."
Located next to Barton Heights and Ginter Park, Battery Park began as a subdivision outside the city proper in the 1900s -- a country escape for those who could afford it. The city annexed the area in 1914.
"It was a sturdy, middle-class white neighborhood," said Vince Brooks, senior archivist for architectural records at the Library of Virginia.
Battery Park stayed that way until about the 1950s and 1960s, when whites left for the suburbs.
Brooks will describe the architecture and history next Sunday at an event sponsored by the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods.
He will tell how the neighborhood got the "Battery" name because it was the outer ring of Confederate defenses.
"It was one of Richmond's earliest streetcar suburbs," Brooks said. "Only eight minutes from First and Broad streets," an advertisement reads.
According to the 1913 city directory, it was home to a bricklayer, carpenter, painter, watchmaker, florist, clerk, engineer, pool hall manager and insurance agent. The neighborhood is an architectural find of arts and crafts, American four-square (two stories, two rooms deep and two rooms across) and bungalow houses. low houses.
Battery Park is being rediscovered. Houses are being renovated. Property values are going up in this diverse and integrated neighborhood.
Large trees still provide welcome shade. The streets one recent midday are quiet, although they are just blocks from the roar of Chamberlayne Avenue and Brookland Park Boulevard.
Winding streets surround a wooded park, pool and tennis courts that served as learning grounds for the legendary Arthur Ashe.
The signs of change are clear: orange cones pepper newly paved streets, moving vans line the sidewalks and "for sale" signs beckon new residents -- and a new era.
"It's one of the last places in Richmond a young couple can buy a house and afford it," said Grace Silverstein, president of the Battery Park Civic Association.
Houses in Battery Park sell from about $110,000 for a home in need of upgrades and renovation to a recent sale of $264,000 for a complete remodel, she said.
Silverstein, who lives across the street from the park, points out fine craftsmanship: houses with arched and curved windows, churches with authentic Tiffany glass.
She describes the area as home to young and old, new couples and families who have been the community backbone for decades.
The drawback: at night, the park serves as a magnet for prostitutes and their customers.
Silverstein acknowledges the problems but says she has never been the victim of crime. "It's nice and quiet. We feel very safe."
Her arts-and-crafts home with a large front porch is next to a burned, vacant house, one of 27 abandoned homes in the neighborhood.
ACORN, the host of the neighborhood showcase, has contacted owners of many empty homes, urging them to put the unused properties on the market. Two have agreed to sell. Many houses were left vacant by out-of-town owners who inherited the properties, said ACORN President and co-founder David Herring.
ACORN will print a booklet with addresses of empty homes with contact information for the owners. "We'll put all of the information out publicly so interested people can contact owners on their own," Herring said.
If getting in touch with the owners doesn't produce results, Herring suggests going a step further. "If people love the property enough, they will get a lawyer." They will need to take the lead and get legal help to ensure clean title to buy properties, he said.
"If we fill up those 27 houses, crime will go down, schools will improve, more people will use the park and the city will get more taxes," Herring said.
ACORN has been showcasing historic areas in the city since 2000. "We want to highlight neighborhoods people might not be familiar with," said Melinda Skinner, ACORN's director of development and a co-founder.
"Richmonders don't know Battery Park," she said. "Battery Park is the best-kept secret in Richmond."
Most of the 1,000 structures in Battery Park are considered contributing historic structures. Only 170 fail the history test.
Gilbert Jones, who lived in Battery Park in the 1980s and works there now, said the neighborhood is changing and improving. "It's building up," Jones said.
ACORN's showcase of Battery Park, dubbed a Sell-A-Bration, will include presentations by renovation loan specialists, information on tax breaks for buying and renovating in the city plus a tour of homes.
Past ACORN Sell-A-Brations have highlighted Barton Heights, Manchester, Shockoe Slip, Oakwood, Chimborazo and Blackwell neighborhoods.
This story can be found at: The Times Dispatch Online