McKee Row
McKee Row was a majority Black section of businesses and residences[1] directly west of the Albemarle County Courthouse in downtown Charlottesville. In 1914, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors confiscated the land from its residents and granted it to the city, citing “rowdiness” that they believed could potentially impact white businesses.[2] A school for white children was planned for the space, and the buildings were torn down in 1918.[3][4][5] Instead, Paul Goodloe McIntire bought the land. He gave it back to the city in 1919, on the condition that it would be used as a park (Court Square Park) to house and center a south-facing statue of Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.[6]
This site had historically been a mixed-use space. In 1828, there was a printing shop, a dry goods and grocery store, a hatter’s shop, and a merchant’s shop, each with private residences above.[7]
References
- ↑ Web. Marked By These Monuments, Drs. Andrea Douglas and Jalane Schmidt, Website, WTJU 91.1 FM, Charlottesville, 2019, retrieved May 28, 2021.
- ↑ Web. Marked By These Monuments, Drs. Andrea Douglas and Jalane Schmidt, Website, WTJU 91.1 FM, Charlottesville, 2019, retrieved May 28, 2021.
- ↑ Rourke. Kristen. "Marking History in Charlottesville." np. City Council Chambers, Charlottesville, VA. 30 May 2012. presentation.
- ↑ Web. Marked By These Monuments, Drs. Andrea Douglas and Jalane Schmidt, Website, WTJU 91.1 FM, Charlottesville, 2019, retrieved May 28, 2021.
- ↑ Web. Tools of Displacement, Abramowitz, Latterner, and Rosenblith, News Article, Slate [1], 23 June, 2017, retrieved May 28, 2021.
- ↑ Web. A Guide to the History and Gardens of Jackson Park, Stowe Keller, Website, Charlottesville Parks and Grounds, May 9, 2001, retrieved May 31, 2021.
- ↑ Web. Early Charlottesville: Recollections of James Alexander 1828-1874, James Alexander, ed. Mary Rawlings, Print, Jeffersonian Republican, 1874