Williams: Eggleston collapse a sign of Jackson Ward’s problems

All that remained of the old Eggleston Hotel yesterday was a pile of bricks and splintered wood.

As a backhoe scooped up this debris of Jackson Ward history to be hauled away, Charles "Dump Truck" Shelton stood and watched. He worked as a cook in the old building before moving across the street to work at another Eggleston family business, Croaker's Spot.

"It's a heartbreaking thing there, man," Shelton said as he observed the remains of the old inn, which opened in 1910 as Miller's Hotel.

Much of the block was cordoned off by yellow tape, and indeed, from a standpoint of historic preservation, this was a crime scene. Scattered among the debris are memories of Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Nat King Cole, the Harlem Globetrotters and a veritable Who's Who of other black luminaries.

"Lot of history there, buddy," Shelton said. "Lot of history."

A half-block up Second Street, a state highway marker describes Jackson Ward as "one of the premier centers of African-American business, social and residential life in the United States." Such a claim must be a hard sell for newcomers and tourists to the city.

Changing times and public policy have eaten away at Jackson Ward. Interstate 95 construction split the neighborhood in the 1950s. Integration eroded its currency. Neglect and decay set in.

More recently, Jackson Ward's preservation of its landmarks has not kept pace with its gentrification.

The rubble of the Eggleston serves as a cautionary tale for the First Virginia Volunteers Battalion Armory at 122 W. Leigh St.

The armory was built by the city in 1895 to train black soldiers. But Jim Crow and troop discrimination led to the dissolution of the battalion, and the armory was converted into a school in 1899, wrote Selden Richardson in "Built By Blacks: African American Architecture & Neighborhoods in Richmond, VA."

The building served schoolchildren until World War II, when it was finally used as a reception center for black GIs before reverting back to its educational use. It was damaged by fire during the 1980s and neglected for years until the city took steps to stabilize the structure in 2001, eventually spending $1.5 million on repairs.

Today, the brick structure -- with turrets that bring to mind a medieval fortress -- is the oldest armory still standing in Virginia.

The city has solicited development proposals for the property over the years, but none has met with the City Council's approval, said Tammy D. Hawley, spokeswoman for Mayor Dwight C. Jones.

The city is moving to have the armory placed on the National Register of Historic Places. An informal group has been exploring options at the armory, and Virginia Commonwealth University students have taken on the site as a project.

"Nobody's gone to sleep on this project," Hawley said, "but we want to be careful and prudent with the direction we move on this property."

The collapse of the Eggleston reveals serious cracks in the mortar connecting Richmond's past and present.

We can't let Jackson Ward, the former Harlem of the South, become known as a place where Richmond's history was allowed to rot away and die.

Contact Michael Paul Williams