364: Blight

This house has been on my list of ideas for this project for a long time. I read an article about it in the local paper not too long before I started the project, and I was not entirely surprised to learn that this was once a house of some import.

 

This Historic Richmond blog post features an image of the building before 1950. An even earlier image can be found in this article from Greater Jackson Ward News. Beautiful, no?

For those of you not familiar with the area, this house is located in Jackson Ward, an important African-American neighborhood during the first part of the 20th century, known as the "Harlem of the South." This particular house is located at an entry point into the neighborhood.

 

This is the house next door. Like the house featured in this earlier post, it's hard to believe the surrounding neighborhood is filled with beautiful, well-kept homes.