#blackrva

SA-125 Maggie Lena Walker (1864-1934)

Maggie Walker, and African American entrepreneur and civil rights activist, promoted economic empowerment for the Black community. In 1899 she was elected head of the Independent Order of Saint Luke, a mutual aid society and insurance company facing a dwindling membership. Under her leadership, the organization grew to more than 100,000 members. Walker founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903, becoming the first Black woman in the U. S. to establish and serve as president of a bank. She helped organize a major boycott of Richmond's segregate streetcars in 19045 and served on the national boards of the NAACP and the National Association of Colored Women.

900 St. James Street

Wayback RVA(169)

The Old Pythian Hall and Mechanics Savings Bank, Mr. Jno. Mitchell Jr., Pres.

Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.

Richmond Planet masthead.

Logo, Order of the Knights of Pythias.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 3.

[RTD] John Mitchell Jr. Richmond Times-Dispatch. Michael Paul Williams February 21, 1996.

311 North Fourth Street.

John Mitchell Jr. was aptly described as "a man who would walk into the jaws of death to serve his race." Mitchell -- newspaper editor, entrepreneur, city councilman and candidate for governor -- was one of the most respected black leaders of his day. [RTD]

A fascinating individual. The Shockoe Examiner has an interesting post from 2012 about Mitchell’s grave in Evergreen Cemetery. Alas for the old bank building, it’s former location now rests under the Richmond Convention Center.

Atlas RVA! Project

Wayback RVA(167)

Main Office of the Negro Development and Exposition Co. U. S. A. also Clothing and Gents Furnishings Mr. I. J. Miller, Proprietor 528 East Broad Street

Just down the street from Richmond Dyeing, Scouring and Carpet Cleaning Works!

Giles Beecher Jackson was the first black attorney certified to practice law before the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. With Daniel Webster Davis he co-authored a book entitled The Industrial History of the Negro Race of the United States, where he mentions I. J. Miller gent's furnishing store, with a stock of $10,000.

He also created the Negro Development and Exposition Company, which secured $150,000 to produce the Negro Building, exhibitions by and about blacks, for the 1907 Jamestown Tercentennial. That he was unsuccessful in converting this into a National Museum for Colored People, it was nevertheless one of the earliest attempts for a dedicated museum of this kind. An amazing story you can read here.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 3.

Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.

An Early Attempt to Build a "National Museum for Colored People". Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. September 2016.

528 East Broad Street.

Atlas RVA! Project

Wayback RVA (164)

St Luke Emporium Dry Goods and Millinery 112 E. Broad St. also new site of St. Luke’s Bank [SOV]

The upper floors of this straightforward Italianate building are preserved. [ADR]

[SOV] Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.

[ADR] Architecture in Downtown Richmond. Robert Winthrop. 1982.

Maggie L. Walker and the officers of the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, c. 1917.

Interior of St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, c. 1917.

Detail of Italianate ornament, April 2020.

St. Luke Emporium and St. Luke Penny Savings Bank.

[ADR] 112 East Broad Street, 1981.

112 East Broad Street, April 2020.

Wayback RVA (162)

Wholesale and Retail, Wines and Liquors Mr. S. W. Robinson, Prop. Corner 18th and Franklin Sts.

Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 45.

Richmond Planet, Volume 12, Number 3, 5 January 1895. Spottswood William Robinson, Sr.

21-23 North Eighteenth Street

Spottswood W. Robinson was born in King William Co., Va. Dec. 15, 1858, attended school in the country only six months and has never attended any educational institution since. He left King William Co., and came to Richmond and stayed with Dr. O. A. Crenshaw attending to milk dairy etc. He remained with him about one year. He then went to Mr. N. J. Smith and remained with him in business from '71 to '79. At that time he went into business for himself on Main St., bet. 18th and 19th Sts. He removed then to 16 N. 18th St., and from there to his present location, No. 23 N. 18th St. (Richmond Planet)

And there’s Masonic Hall right behind where this used to be.

Atlas RVA! Project

Wayback RVA (159)

Richmond Athletic and Social Club 310-12 North 3rd Street

Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 2

310-312 North Third Street

Today, a parking lot for the VCU Police Department, guardian angels on the beat in the Biotech Park.

Atlas RVA! Project

Wayback RVA (158)

Nickel Savings Bank (new site) and office of Dr. R. C. Brown, Dentist Cor. 29th and Leigh Streets

Urban Set, a hip-looking bridal shop, owns this building now and says that the wrought iron bars are original. There are bars visible in the 1907 photo, but it’s so grainy it's hard to compare. No shade at Urban Set’s claim of authenticity!

Dr. R. C. Brown was the Historian for the Old Dominion Dental Society, a fraternity of dentists that then became the Tri-State Dental Association and the Interstate Dental Association, before settling on the National Dental Association.

Coincidently, Richard Tancil, founder of the Nickel Savings Bank, was formerly in the medical space, graduating from Howard University with a degree in medicine in 1882, and practicing at Freedman’s hospital in D.C., before settling on a new life in High Finance. (newafrican77)

Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.

600-602 North Twenty-Ninth Street

Richard Fillmore Tancil (1859-1928)

ProQuest® Sanborn Maps Geo Edition™ — Richmond 1924-1925 vol. 2, 1925 — Plate 236

Old Dominion Dental Society — July 19, 1913 — Bay Shore Hotel at Buckroe Beach, Virginia

Wayback RVA (148)

Undertaking Establishment of Mr. Wm. I. Johnson, Foushee St. near Broad (Only a few vehicles shown.)

Wm. Isaac Johnson, Quartermaster, First Battallion, Virginia Volunteers, Infantry (Colored.)

Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va

The Richmond Planet, Saturday, December 21, 1895

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 2

207 North Foushee Street

A competitor to nearby A. D. Price Funeral Home. 

While the current building is almost the right vintage, close inspection makes it obvious that they are two different structures. The current one was built in 1910, just 3 short years after Souvenir Views was published. An interesting side note is the imposing Grace Street Baptist Church at right, the third such church of that name to stand at this corner of Grace and Foushee.

Atlas RVA! Project