Jackson Ward Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Two blocks of Marshall Street in Richmond were left out of the original Jackson Ward Historic District in 1976 because so much historic fabric seemed lost. Later research showed that much of the gap was never built on, having served as a lumber yard and later a used car lot and gas station. The added area holds thirteen dwellings, five commercial buildings, a warehouse and a factory, built roughly between 1870 and 1930. Most dwellings are two-story, three-bay Italianate brick houses with bracketed cornices, and one large Victorian Eclectic house dates to about 1915. Early twentieth-century commercial buildings include Moderne and Art Deco examples. The Samuel Binswanger House, built about 1874, keeps its cast-iron porch and was home to the founder of a national glass distribution company. In the late nineteenth century the block housed immigrants and skilled tradesmen, and by the 1920s its residents were largely African American, with several Black organizations based there.