In the heart of downtown Richmond lies an area once known as “the Devil's half acre." Also called Lumpkins Jail, it was where enslaved people were kept before being sold to the highest bidder. The city has tried for years to recognize the site and got one step closer to that goal Wednesday.
The entire 10-acre space behind Main St. Station in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom is on track to be turned into a museum and historical site honoring those bought and sold there over 150 years ago.
Burt Pennock is the Baskervill architect behind the designs.
“Our charge is to protect that which is there, to make sure it is then preserved and we can then interpret it to the public,” Pennock told a crowd at Richmond's Main St. Station Wednesday morning.
The design includes a pavilion that will sit above the site to offer that protection and will be built out of brick. Pennock says that’s on purpose.
“The materiality of this pavilion rises out of the ground as a dark solid brick mass. Eventually finding its way to becoming a lighter more open mass, rising from about 12 feet up to almost 30 feet," the architect said. "The future of the Shockoe Project will continue to rise from that space, that metaphorical coming out of the ground.”
The structure will be lined with the words of those who survived Lumpkins jail, taken from historical accounts.
“Miss Nelly Ray recounted: ‘I remember being on the blocks as a 3-year-old and being sold out of Richmond’," Pennock said. "It’s real. That’s our job. That’s our goal.”
Pennock said he looked forward to returning to the site in 18 months for the ribbon cutting on the new pavilion.
