The built environment is in constant flux, whether from demolition and new construction, renovations and additions, or changing function and use. Social protest and cultural progress can also transform the built environment, as we have witnessed this summer in efforts to remove monuments to the Confederacy from public spaces. (See “SAH Statement on The Removal of Monuments to the Confederacy from Public Spaces.”)
As a digital publication, SAH Archipedia strives to ensure that its content is up to date and that published texts accurately reflect physical conditions on the ground. To that end, our editors and authors are reviewing individual entries and essays to identify those that need to be updated.
While this work is ongoing and continuous, we want our readers to know that we are prioritizing updates to entries and essays (and illustrations and metadata) dealing with monuments to the Confederacy and memorials that otherwise symbolize oppression to indicate (1) the removal of statues and other forms of dismantling or transformation, (2) the renaming or retitling of buildings, parks, plazas, bridges, streets, and highways, (3) necessary contextualizing and interpretations in light of new historical research and scholarship.
As always, SAH Archipedia’s editors will work with authors and peer reviewers to maintain the highest standards of a scholarly publication.
The Maggie L. Walker Statue and Plaza is located on West Broad Street, one of Richmond’s major thoroughfares. It is the city’s first monument to a woman and one of a few dedicated to a person of color. Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934) was a leading figure in the quest for the social and financial advancement of African Americans. The daughter of a formerly enslaved woman and white immigrant father, Walker became a prominent business leader in Richmond, ... more
The Mellon Arena was, and still is, the subject of engineering admiration and urban regret. The project began when city council member Abe Wolk proposed an open-air tent to house summer performances of the Civic Light Opera. Edgar Kaufmann Sr. turned the concept into a glistening, retractable stainless steel dome. When its site was changed from Highland and then Schenley Park to the dense African American neighborhood of the Lower Hill, the result was controversy: engineering marvel or racial harmony. ... more
This American foursquare residence, located in the Como Park neighborhood of St. Paul, is associated with Casiville (Charlie) Bullard (1873–1959), a skilled tradesman who was one of the few African American craftsmen of his era known to have worked in the St. Paul building trades as a member of a union—Local 1 of the Bricklayers, Masons, and Plasterers. ... more
The Rialto Theater is located on the courthouse square and has been in continuous operation since it replaced a theater torn down in 1923 to make way for this one. In 1940, the theater underwent an extensive remodeling at which time the present Art Deco neon-lit marquee and signage were added to the facade. The sixty-seven-foot vertical sign installed in November 1940 ... more
