Historic Hospital Slated for Demolition in November
Virginia Union University officials announced on February 2, 2024, a partnership with the Steinbridge Group and the Student Freedom Initiative to build 130 to 200 residences on the northern edge of VUU’s campus. The Steinbridge Group, a large real estate investment firm headquartered in Philadelphia and operating in New York and many major cities, committed $42 million to VUU to build the residences. The construction of the new residences will involve the razing of the shuttered historical Richmond Community Hospital and the destruction of important Black history. Community campaigns launched by Viola Baskerville, Farid Alan Schintzius, and Seldon Richardson have been organized to save RCH from demolition.
Virginia Writers Project delves into the history of Richmond Community Hospital and its many iterations going back to 1895 when Sarah Garland Jones, the first Black woman licensed to practice medicine in Virginia, and her husband started a hospital in Jackson Ward to serve African-American patients. Return to this blog to find out more about the hospital and efforts to save it. The forthcoming Winter 2024 December VWP Journal will feature the history of the hospital. Our coverage begins here:
Richmond Community Hospital Campaign
By J. Thomas Brown, Virginia Writers Project, September 23, 2024
Community Effort to Save Hospital from Destruction
Shuttered and in decay, Richmond Community Hospital sits on land adjacent to Virginia Union University at 1209 Overbrook Road in the Northside of Richmond, just outside the boundaries of Frederick Douglas Court, a development laid out in 1919 by the African American speculators who had formed University Realty Company.(1) Its cornerstone, dated 1932, was laid after several years of fundraising to provide a hospital for a Black population that had expanded beyond the confines of Jackson Ward and other parts of Richmond.(2) An ever-growing community is working to save, not just the legacy, but the historic building itself, from destruction.
In the post-Civil War Jim Crow era, Black people suffered from lack of good health care in the White hospitals. The continuing national problem of discrimination resulted in African Americans in many cities being relegated to basements and hallways when, or if, they were admitted to a White hospital. This helped fuel a movement in the country among Black communities to build their own hospitals.(3) The Richmond Community Hospital Campaign was begun in 1927 to raise $200,000 with donations and the sale of a building on East Baker Street to build a modern, well-equipped hospital. Because Black physicians and nurses were not hired by White hospitals, it would also provide employment for them as well. Spearheaded by Maggie Walker and prominent Blacks such as Jas T. Carter, B. L. Jordan, and Virginia Randolf, ground was broken in 1932. After completing all financial requirements, it fully opened in 1934. The Richmond Community Hospital continued to operate at 1209 Overbrook Road until 1980 when it relocated to North Twenty-eighth Street in Church Hill. The RCH hospital board voted to turn the building over to VUU. It has been vacant since then. (4)
RCH 1927 Campaign organizers – The Saint Luke Press
VUU Partnership with Steinbridge Group
Virginia Union University officials announced on February 2, 2024, a partnership with the Steinbridge Group and the Student Freedom Initiative to build 130 to 200 residences on the northern edge of VUU’s campus. The announcement was made at the university’s Claude G. Perkins Living and Learning Center where Leonard L. Sledge, director of the Department of Economic Development for the City of Richmond; Ann-Frances Lambert, City Council vice president; Tawan Davis, Steinbridge Group founding partner and CEO; Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, VUU board chairman; Keith Shoates, COO of the Student Freedom Initiative; and Dr. Hakim Lucas, VUU president, were in attendence.(5)
The Steinbridge Group, a $2 billion real estate investment firm headquartered in Philadelphia and operating in New York and many major cities, committed $42 million to VUU to build the residences. During the Feb. 2 press conference, the group’s founder and CEO, Tawan Davis, said his firm had worked with businessman and philanthropist Robert F. Smith’s Student Freedom Initiative (SFI) to select VUU as the first HBCU (Historic Black Colleges and Universities) to receive an investment as part of its $100 million initiative announced in November 2023.(6) Steinbridge Group states its mission is to help HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions make underutilized assets economically productive, thereby diversifying their revenue streams and improving their financial situations and endowments.(7)
Mr. Davis noted that while a significant number of Black professionals emerge from the HBCU system, the schools are funded 30% less than their counterparts and that the collective endowments of all HBCUs is less than the smallest Ivy League endowment.(8)
When asked whether the vacant hospital building will be preserved, Dr. Lucas replied, “Oh, no. We will be memorializing (the site) and finding ways that historically represent it.”(9)
Asked why the building will be destroyed, Dr. Lucas replied that “it is not in a place that we can convert any useable building in line with anything in the medical field.” (10)
After a public outcry to preserve the historic building, VUU tempered it’s demolition plans and announced on August 8th an expenditure of $5 million to memorialize the hospital’s legacy by repurposing the façade, cornerstone, and some of the bricks, as well as naming rooms in the new building for personnel and physicians who had worked at RCH. The token of appeasement clearly would not save the building from razing and created more pushback instead. Community campaigns were launched by Viola Baskerville and Seldon Richardson to save RCH.
The Cost of Creative Financing
The allure of a $42 million pledge and the development of new streams of revenue is dazzling, but it may not be a bad idea to ask, at what cost? Might it not be prudent to ask about the long-term effects on affordable housing by REITs, large real estate investment firms that buy up land and existing homes to repackage as rentals at inflated prices? (11) By “equity-mining” neighborhoods where families could once build wealth, investors instead capture the uplift themselves.(12) REITs, whether publicly traded or privately owned, have contributed to the high cost of home ownership and rentals in America.(13) The demolition is scheduled for November 2024 and the construction to be completed in 2025, but more time is needed to examine the details of the partnership and how the financing will be executed. Hopefully more transparency is forthcoming.
The greatest cost is the loss of history that the RCH building would represent if destroyed. It cannot be recovered once the bulldozers do their work. The old Art Deco RCH building is a reminder of America’s Black hospital movement in the early 20th century and the aspirations and sacrifices to build it. There is much meaning attached to it for the people who were born there and the physicians who worked there.
An extract from the original fundraiser pamphlet entitled RICHMOND’S COMMUNNITY HOSPITAL CAMPAIGN FOR $200,000.00 – JUNE 10-25, 1927 reads:
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RICHMOND’S GREATEST NEED--
“Build this hospital now.” Richmond owes proper hospitalization to the colored citizens. They do not have it now and this is said not in criticism of the hospitals which are now serving colored people but is based upon the facts which are manifest. 32 physicians treating 70% of the colored population of Richmond are denied the opportunity to practice their profession in any hospital in Richmond. This is a peril to the health of the community which should not be regarded with indifference. In view of its past reputation, Richmond will not fail to correct this condition. Justice, self-respect and loyalty to the best interests of Richmond demand action now. The SAINT LUKE PRESS: Richmond
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A life-long resident of nearby Frederick Douglass Court, Gary L. Flowers, suggested preserving the hospital and building the housing around it:
“It could be preserved and housing built around it — a historical oasis in the Sankofa sense.” The African term Sankofa refers to a mythical bird whose head is turned backward while its feet face forward. Sankofa is a Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana that loosely translates to, “Go back and get it.” (14)
Dr. Wm. Ferguson Reid, a physician, politician, Civil Rights activist and one of the founders of the Richmond Crusade for Voters, said to the Richmond Free Press about the building’s significance:
"I came back to Richmond in 1955 with my wife and young daughter, our first child, understanding that I would be able to practice my medical specialty at only one hospital in the city, Richmond Community Hospital. Black Doctors were not welcome to practice at the White hospitals during this period, because White hospitals required Doctors to be members of the local medical association, and the local medical association had a strict policy of, ‘No Negroes allowed’.
"I knew I had the qualifications to break that barrier down. The United States Military had just released me from my military service commitment, where these qualifications and my medical services had been accepted and utilized in Korea, and at Bethesda Naval Hospital. By the early 1960s, I was among the first group of Black Doctors in Richmond to practice in the previously white hospitals.
"Richmond Community Hospital was a tentpole, a support beam, a bulwark of the Black community at that time; a testament to achievement in the face of centuries of adversity; an example of the phrase ‘equanimity under duress’ and plain old undaunted self-sufficiency, of which Black Richmonders of that time were rightfully very proud.
"I’m hopeful that my undergrad alma mater, VUU, will come to fully understand this history, as they decide whether to adaptively reuse the building or destroy it."(15)
Preserving Historic Properties
Placing the RCH building on the National Registry of Historic Properties is not in itself a guarantee against demolition. The owner has the final say. But it would be an excellent starting point to ensure project scrutiny by Virginia’s DHR Review & Compliance Division which manages federal and state undertakings.
In a letter to the Virginia Union University Board of Trustees published by The Richmond Free Press on August 29th, Seldon Richardson, Richmond historian and author of Built By Blacks, African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, writes:
… The former Richmond Community Hospital building is in your care and you are responsible, and this is not a resource to squander.
I researched and wrote the history of what was then known as the Leigh Street Armory in Jackson Ward and am solely responsible for that building being on both the State and National Register of Historic Places. The Armory, built by Richmond Blacks in 1895, was, like the Community Hospital, neglected for decades. It is now regarded as an architectural treasure and is the home of the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia.
The once ruinous building has become recognized on a national level as a vital part of telling the history of Blacks in Virginia. The story of the former armory perfectly illustrates the potential for the former Community Hospital building when given the proper vision and creative design, and the amazing transformations that are possible with imagination and drive.
I would like to volunteer to do the necessary research and write the nomination, attend the meetings and shepherd the paperwork through for the former Richmond Community Hospital to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I believe it is eminently qualified for this honor. An extensive discovery of the history of this building would show the world the heroic efforts made by people of little or no means, during the worst economic crisis this country has ever seen, to ensure modern and efficient health care where patients and doctors alike were treated with racial dignity… (16)
There has not been a reply to date.
A Comparison with VCU Medical Center West Hospital
The West Hospital at 1200 Broad Street, Richmond, is a New Deal Era Streamline Moderne building with a cornerstone laid in 1939. Partially funded by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, it was opened to the public in 1941. The eighteen story Art Deco skyscraper has been on the demolition list three times since 2004,17 but recently the Medical Historic District boundaries have expanded according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources DHR ID: 127-0252-0001 Surveyor Assessment completed in August 2024:
In 1984 West Hospital was converted into offices. In 1993 there were a series of capital renovations done and in 1999 building code upgrades were completed. A university master plan in 2004 called for its demolition, but there was outcry from preservationists and the plans did not move forward. In 2017, it was put on the demolition list again, but it got a reprieve with a 2019 feasibility study done by VCU. The study was completed in order to provide VCU an informed, financially viable project that would have significant private sector interest and minimize impacts on institutional debt capacity. The study’s conclusive recommendation was to renovate the building via a public-private partnership (P3) with access to tax credits to offset project costs and allow for acceptable leasing terms. In May 2024, the Richmond Times Dispatch ran an article wherein VCU’s vice president for administration and interim chief financial officer, Meredith Weiss, made public that the demolition planning will be moving forward due to West Hospital needing $150 million in deferred maintenance. There will be a period of public comment this summer and a final decision will be made in the fall.18
An additional extract from the DHR surveyor assessment concludes:
The MCV Historic District was determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR) in 1991. In 2017, a new survey of the MCV Historic District (HD) was completed. The survey expanded the boundaries and reaffirmed the status of the HD as eligible for listing on the VLR/NRHP. The district has already lost important buildings including the A.D. Williams Building and the Nursing Education Building. It is overall in fair condition and the building envelope retains a high level of historic integrity. The interior lobby also retains historic custom-designed terrazzo flooring, marble wall cladding and some historic signage. It is DHR staff opinion that this building (West Hospital) is individually eligible for the VLR/NRHP on the Statewide level under Criterion C and that it remains contributing to the VLR/NRHP-eligible Medical College of Virginia Historic District.
The Preservation of Historically Important Medical Buildings
Richmond Community Hospital and MCV West Hospital have strong community support to preserve them, but the steps to enter both buildings into the National Registry of Historic Places must still be completed. The need for engineers and historical experts to evaluate the RCH building on Overbrook Drive has not been met. West Hospital had several surveys completed over the years which has helped to put on the brakes for demolition and preserve it for the time being. NRHP registration of RCH was offered for free by Seldon Richardson, but access to the building has not been granted by VUU.
The Virginia Writers Project is currently researching the history of Richmond Community Hospital and its several iterations beginning in 1895 when Sarah Garland Jones and her husband started a hospital at 406 E. Baker St. in Jackson Ward to serve African-American patients.(19) The complete history will be forthcoming in the December 2024 issue.
The fight goes on. Farid Alan Schintzius, a community activist, and Viola Baskerville, who served in the Virginia House of Delegates and as Secretary of Administration in the Cabinet of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, have organized a campaign called Save Community Hospital. They have focused public awareness on the plight of RCH, organized rallies, and communicated with media outlets.
More on Save Community Hospital is found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/7015803205194987
To sign Seldon Richardson’s petition to save Richmond Hospital, visit https://chng.it/jhTBmDnrJG
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NOTES
1. Seldon Richardson, Built by Blacks (The History Press, 2007), 100.
2. Richardson, Built by Blacks, 99.
3. Ben Paviour, “How Richmond Community Hospital went from Black-owned to underfunded” VPM/BBC, October 19, 2022 https://www.vpm.org/news/2022-10-19/how-richmond-community-hospital-went-from-black-owned-to-underfunded
4. Cyane Crump, “Richmond Community Hospital Building,” Historic Richmond, February 27, 2024 https://historicrichmond.com/property/richmond-community-hospital/
5. Debora Timms, “Removing obstacles to growth: VUU’s plan for $42M investment includes new housing, but not historic hospital” Richmond Free Press, February 8, 2024
6. Marybeth Gasman, “$100 Million Capital Commitment To Historically Black Colleges & Universities,” Forbes, November 6, 2023 https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethgasman/2023/11/06/100-million-capital-commitment-to-historically-black-colleges--universities/
7. The Steinbridge Group (website), https://www.steinbridge.com/about
8. Timms, “Removing obstacles to growth”
9. Timms, “Removing obstacles to growth”
10. Timms, “Removing obstacles to growth”
11. Michael J. Polk, “How REITS Are Abstracting The Housing Market,” Forbes, August 5, 2022 https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/08/05/how-reits-are-abstracting-the-housing-market/
12. Polk, “How REITS Are Abstracting The Housing Market”
13. Matthew Ponsford, “iBuyer beware,” MIT Technology Review, May/June 2022. Vol 125 Number 3 pg. 74,75
14. Timms, “Removing obstacles to growth”
15. Carol A. O. Wolf, “Fight to Save Richmond Community Hospital From Wrecking Ball Growing,” Medium, May 2, 2024 https://medium.com/@vpcbtsn/fight-to-save-richmond-community-hospital-from-wrecking-ball-growing-98f9e361a95b
16. Seldon Richardson, “Historian calls on VUU to save former hospital” Richmond Free Press, August 29, 2024
17. Eric Kolenich, “VCU Health planning massive redevelopment of campus,” Richmond Times Dispatch, May 10, 2024
18. Virginia Department of Historic Resources DHR ID: 127-0252-0001 Surveyor Assessment
19. Otesa Middleton, “Sarah Garland Jones,” Feb 18, 1998 Updated Sep 19, 2019. The Richmond Hospital had 25 beds and mainly served female patients. It was also known as Women's Central Hospital. https://richmond.com/sarah-garland-jones/article_b0030d65-4f6b-58b3-84d6-d8a53b3e6a3d.html
The 1927 canvassing flier lists two addresses connected with the effort to raise $200,000. The first is the 200 Clay Street reference. This is actually a blook of buildings, now gone to clear the way for the Richmond Convention Center. The street comprised tenament houses, private residences, the Lafayette Luncheon known for its chicken dinners, and a large meeting hall. The hospital association did its public meetings there. The other address still stands: 1618 Grove Ave, home to Mr & Mrs Thomas H. Bigger (Ruby Vaughn). She was an active socialite and attached herself to several chairtable organizations. She wrote the short book My Nancy, the tale of raising Nancy Langhorne (later Astor) from the pov of house servant, 'mammie'…