To Protect and Preserve

How will the younger generation, and the social justice movement, impact historic preservation?

by Scott Bass

May 9, 2022 11:00 AM

On a chilly Friday night in early March, a group of mostly gray-haired preservationists marches slowly down Franklin Street. It’s a protest that feels more like a funeral procession: There’s an accordionist and the steady chime of a cowbell along with dozens of signs defending the honor of the iconic Second Baptist Church, that 1906 Classical Revival masterpiece next to The Jefferson Hotel with the columned portico and monumental front steps, the one that’s been under the threat of demolition for the past 30 years.

Longtime preservation advocate Jennie Dotts is directing traffic, advising the march line, speaking to the crowd on the sidewalk and the TV cameras assembled on the curb. Dotts, 71, jumped into the fight in early February, helping to organize another rally on Feb. 12 and launching a petition to boycott the hotel, which now has nearly 800 signatures.

Last fall, Richmond billionaire Bill Goodwin’s Historic Hotels, which owns The Jefferson and Second Baptist Church next door, applied for a demolition permit to raze the church, citing the need to “backfill and landscape” the property. Then in February, Kevin Vonck, director of the city’s Department of Planning and Development Review, determined that a previously approved permit to raze the structure in 1992 was still valid. In other words, there’s nothing standing in the way of the old church and the proverbial wrecking ball.

“Look at it. We are never going to see the likes of that building again, ever,” bemoans Dotts in a recent interview. “Walk around Jackson Ward. Walk around Church Hill. Go downtown. By and large, the new architecture, the new designs, they cannot compare to the design, the skill, the artistry embodied in Second Baptist. It’s just not there.”



Preservationists rally to save Second Baptist Church, built in 1906, in February. (Photo by Jay Paul)

{snip}