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Historic Buildings to Become East End Teen Center
On June 14th, Richmond City Council approved the acquisition of properties that will become a new East End Teen Center (EETC). In cooperation with the city of Richmond and A.C.O.R.N., EETC will purchase, and renovate the former Richmond & Rappahannock River Railway Terminal, located at N. 29th and "P" streets in Church Hill, as Phase I of the Center. The original railway terminal was built in 1912 by the esteemed architectural firm of Noland and Baskervill. Trains offered easy access to Civil War battlefield sites. The railway created an avenue for marketing farm produce grown along the main line, which crossed the Chickahominy River and went to the Pamunkey; and it opened the surrounding country for hunting and fishing. By the 1940's, however, the railway ceased to operate and the Neoclassic brick structure had become a social club with a restaurant, pool hall, and dancing.
The adaptive reuse of the former Richmond & Rappahannock River Railway Terminal is just the initial phase of a multi-phase project to acquire and rehabilitate the entire block of buildings - including the former Bill Bojangles Theater. On the sidewalk in front of the neglected Art Deco gem are the footprints and signature of the great tap dancer and Richmond native. The theater has even more significance for the African-American community as one of the few theaters outside of Jackson Ward where blacks could see a movie during the era of segregation. Also on the same block and included in the project is the former Richmond Union Passenger Railway Trolley shed, which dispatched the first overhead powered trolley in the United States in 1888.
According to A.C.O.R.N. executive director, Jennie Dotts, "This block of vacant, dilapidated buildings is full of history with the potential to make every young person in the neighborhood proud to live here. These structures are tremendously significant, architecturally and historically; but they have an equally important symbolic value in that their rehabilitation can signal the rebirth of an entire community. The renovation of each building will stimulate renovation around them; collectively, the entire neighborhood will improve."
IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS IMPORTANT PROJECT OR HOW YOU MIGHT CONTRIBUE FINANCIALLY TO ITS RENOVATION, PLEASE CONTACT JENNIE DOTTS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT: info@richmondneighborhoods.org