Piet Jones in front of his Southern Barton Heights home
When I first moved to Atlanta, it was dubbed the “Murder Capital of the Nation.” When I moved to RVA a few years later in 1994, it seemed a contender for the title. Not wanting to be priced out of the market as things improved, I decided to buy instead of rent, settling on a 1927 five-bedroom, 2,600-square-foot brick home in a neighborhood that usually elicited blank looks when mentioned: Barton Heights.
That people didn’t know about Barton Heights wasn’t a real surprise. At the time, many of the houses were boarded-up shells; even though we are near downtown, the bridge connecting us to the rest of the city was in disrepair and closed, and there were more than a few unsavory characters wandering about at all hours. Still, it was my first time owning a home, and I liked it here.
A Battery Park mural memorializes Arthur Ashe, created through the U.N.I.T.Y. Street Project (Upholding, Networking and Inspiring Togetherness in celebration of Yesterday).
HISTORY
Envisioned by James H. Barton, whose 1890s mansion is currently being renovated into apartments, Barton Heights (both Northern and Southern) was like the Wyndham of its time — a planned community where residents could live away from the city but get to Broad Street in minutes (in the case of Barton Heights, by hopping on an electric streetcar and traveling over the then-new viaduct).
Most of the homes were built in the ’10s and ’20s — distinctive houses with gables and turrets — and the community thrived. By the 1940s, desegregation started with professors from Virginia Union University and even a bona fide star, gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. White flight started as a trickle in the 1960s.
Two events in the early aughts, though, were catalysts for rebuilding in earnest. To start, the repair of the First Street viaduct (formally called the J.E.B. Stuart Memorial Bridge, renamed the Samuel W. Tucker Bridge in 2000) reconnected Barton Heights with Jackson Ward and downtown.
Then Tropical Storm Gaston caused our storm drains to fail, putting us on the city’s radar for much-needed infrastructure repair and rebuilding.
LIVING
As my house transitioned from barely habitable to a home where I am raising a small family, so too has the neighborhood changed. Rapidly refilling with families and newly planted gardens, many of the grand old Queen Annes are coming back to life. My neighbor’s house, one we feared would collapse from neglect as she slipped into dementia, was recently given a beautiful Gothic revival makeover by Atlas Realty. The house sold within three days on the market.
RECREATION
A couple of blocks away, where some rundown apartments were torn down after repeated flooding, an empty field is quickly becoming the area dog park, with a petition in the works to make this designation official. Biking enthusiasts like myself use the repaired viaduct to roll into downtown and take advantage of the new trails along the winding, wooded Richmond-Henrico Turnpike. Over in Battery Park, the city has built new basketball courts to go along with the tennis courts and community swimming pool.
Delicious cakes are available at Michaela's Quality Bake Shop in nearby Brookland Park.
DINING
Dining and shopping are still a little scarce, but that doesn’t matter since there is so much close by. To the north, Brookland Park Boulevard is on the verge of a renaissance with delicious cakes from Michaela’s Quality Bake Shop, morning joe from Nomad Deli or even a few tasty wings from Boogaloo’s. Cross the bridge and within moments you’re in Jackson Ward, or zip down to Shockoe Bottom or even over to Church Hill.
Sure, there’s a business strip about two blocks from me, but the spaces remain boarded up. Even two former restaurant spaces — one with a walled-in patio ready for al fresco dining — sit idle. If only one of our great local restaurateurs would make the jump, I might not need to leave Barton Heights ever again.
