Urban Renewal
The northeast part of the city of Harrisonburg is almost unrecognizable today, compared to what it was nearly 60 years ago. In the 1950s and 60s, the federal government offered large grants to redevelop downtown areas in a process known as 'urban renewal.' "They just came through, started demolishing all the homes in the neighborhood of people who lived there all their life," said a life-long resident of the northeast neighborhood about the urban renewal project in Harrisonburg.
The site of what was homes became the site of businesses and a community turned to parking lots. The project focused primarily on the northeast section of Harrisonburg, which is now filled with businesses like Roses and 7-Eleven. "It's really funny to go down that part of Mason Street where they tore down beautiful homes and there's nothing, there's a 7-Eleven on the corner," the resident stated.
James Madison University has an archive of many photos from the urban renewal project, titled JMU Special Collections from the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority Photographs. Some of the archive photos are posted on this page, including the photo at the top of the page from 1958 which shows what is now the site of the Rockingham County Administration Building.
Homes of both whites and African-Americans were demolished or burned, but more than 60 percent of the destruction impacted the African-American community.
"They tore the heart out of a Black community and reduced them to rubble almost, they never really recovered from that," said Jennifer Vickers, whose family lived in the neighborhood.
Vickers says her grandparents lived in a home along Wolfe Street in Harrisonburg, which is now the site of Kline's Dairy Bar. The wounds left by urban renewal passed through generations, reaching down to people like Vickers, whose grandparents experienced the project. It even reached others who were too young to remember, but still felt the effects. "They felt like they lost everything they had and it wasn't right because they didn't have, it was hard for them to rebuild," said Valda Brown, who lived in the community but was too young to remember the project.
In the early 2000s, the community was facing a different problem with drive-by shootings, stabbings and murders. Karen Thomas started the Northeast Neighborhood Association (NENA) to help the area. "It had gotten to the point (where we wondered) what's happening to our community?," said Ms. Thomas.
NENA started as a neighborhood watch program with the Harrisonburg Police Department but grew from there. Ms. Thomas says, now, the community does not have the crime it used to and they want to focus on beautification and preservation. NENA was successful in getting the Dallard-Newman district recognized as a historic district and are actively working to create a museum for local African-American history at a home in Harrisonburg built by the formerly enslaved. We are also actively working toward a Harrisonburg Truth and Reconciliation Commission to acknowledge the harm caused by urban renewal so that the entire city community can be aware and to prevent such actions in the future. NENA centers the work of truth-telling, racial healing and transformation.
James Madison University has an archive of many photos from the urban renewal project, titled JMU Special Collections from the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority Photographs. Some of the archive photos are posted on this page, including the photo at the top of the page from 1958 which shows what is now the site of the Rockingham County Administration Building.
Homes of both whites and African-Americans were demolished or burned, but more than 60 percent of the destruction impacted the African-American community.
"They tore the heart out of a Black community and reduced them to rubble almost, they never really recovered from that," said Jennifer Vickers, whose family lived in the neighborhood.
Vickers says her grandparents lived in a home along Wolfe Street in Harrisonburg, which is now the site of Kline's Dairy Bar. The wounds left by urban renewal passed through generations, reaching down to people like Vickers, whose grandparents experienced the project. It even reached others who were too young to remember, but still felt the effects. "They felt like they lost everything they had and it wasn't right because they didn't have, it was hard for them to rebuild," said Valda Brown, who lived in the community but was too young to remember the project.
In the early 2000s, the community was facing a different problem with drive-by shootings, stabbings and murders. Karen Thomas started the Northeast Neighborhood Association (NENA) to help the area. "It had gotten to the point (where we wondered) what's happening to our community?," said Ms. Thomas.
NENA started as a neighborhood watch program with the Harrisonburg Police Department but grew from there. Ms. Thomas says, now, the community does not have the crime it used to and they want to focus on beautification and preservation. NENA was successful in getting the Dallard-Newman district recognized as a historic district and are actively working to create a museum for local African-American history at a home in Harrisonburg built by the formerly enslaved. We are also actively working toward a Harrisonburg Truth and Reconciliation Commission to acknowledge the harm caused by urban renewal so that the entire city community can be aware and to prevent such actions in the future. NENA centers the work of truth-telling, racial healing and transformation.
Dallard/Newman House
Ambrose Dallard built a home for each of his daughters upon their marriage. This particular home was built for Lucy Dallard and her husband, Charles Cochran. When Lucy and her husband moved out of the area, Mary Dallard and George A. Newman, moved into the home.
George Newman had come to Harrisonburg to serve as the principal of the "colored" schools around 1874. He maintained this position and that of teacher intermittently for 25 years. Lucy F. Simms, for whom the former high school for blacks was named, worked under the tutelage of George A. Newman. Of his 14 children, six served the Rockingham County Public Schools as teachers. George Newman was a crucial educational leader not only in the school, but in the community.
The Dallard/Newman house is one of the few middle-class African American homes to survive in Harrisonburg, since most of the African-American neighborhoods were targeted for demolition during the Urban Renewal movement of the 1960's. Its endurance, coupled with the prominence of the Newman family and the vital role it played in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Harrisonburg, makes it a unique and important structure, one worthy of preservation in the Northeast Community.
NENA is converting the Dallard/Newman house into a museum to tell the history of the African American families in the Northeast Neighborhood and house NENA’s headquarters. NENA is seeking sponsors, partnerships, and donations for renovations for this project. Click the Donate Now button below to help convert the Dallard/Newman house into a museum for the community.
George Newman had come to Harrisonburg to serve as the principal of the "colored" schools around 1874. He maintained this position and that of teacher intermittently for 25 years. Lucy F. Simms, for whom the former high school for blacks was named, worked under the tutelage of George A. Newman. Of his 14 children, six served the Rockingham County Public Schools as teachers. George Newman was a crucial educational leader not only in the school, but in the community.
The Dallard/Newman house is one of the few middle-class African American homes to survive in Harrisonburg, since most of the African-American neighborhoods were targeted for demolition during the Urban Renewal movement of the 1960's. Its endurance, coupled with the prominence of the Newman family and the vital role it played in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Harrisonburg, makes it a unique and important structure, one worthy of preservation in the Northeast Community.
NENA is converting the Dallard/Newman house into a museum to tell the history of the African American families in the Northeast Neighborhood and house NENA’s headquarters. NENA is seeking sponsors, partnerships, and donations for renovations for this project. Click the Donate Now button below to help convert the Dallard/Newman house into a museum for the community.