The demolition of two 19th-century stables to make way for a $50 million recreation center has revived longstanding tension between VCU and the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association.
Reuban Rodriguez, dean of student affairs, said the construction scheduled to begin this fall is necessary to accommodate increasing student numbers.
“We have woefully inadequate space for our athletic programs,” Rodriguez said. “We intend to move ahead with the project.”
But Charles Pool, a member of the association, said the planned construction of the recreation center breaks a promise VCU President Eugene P. Trani made in the early ’90s.
Trani promised VCU would not encroach on historic Richmond neighborhoods, Pool said, including the Fan and Oregon Hill.
Pool added that Oregon Hill residents would not be the only ones to suffer if the center is built as planned as an addition to Cary Street Gym.
“The students are going to suffer because the university has this wrong-headed notion that they have to stick all of their recreational facilities in one spot,” Pool said. “It is illogical to put your recreational facilities not where your dormitories are.”
Rodriguez said the university presented the association with two options. The first option involved the closure of Linden Street, a side street that provides traffic access to the 1-195 exit ramp.
“The feedback we received from the residents of that area was that they believed that closing the street would impact them more than if we just had the structure on the current block where the facilities reside,” Rodriguez said.
The Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association sent Trani a letter, Pool said, reportedly contesting the original plan. The university then switched to its current plan, which instead requires the demolition of the two stables.
“VCU had presented two options to us, which were equally as bad,” Pool said.
Located on the 900 block of Green Alley, the stables are registered on the Virginia Landmark Registry and the National Registrar for Historical Places, Pool said, and their inclusion on these lists should protect them from demolition.
When the association learned the stables were to be demolished, the group sent Trani a second letter emphasizing the stables’ historical value.
Rodriguez said concerns about the stables were considered.
“(The stables) speak to an earlier era in our history. When these things are lost, we lose a . cultural and historical marker.”
-Jennie Dotts
“You can have a historical neighborhood, but structures in that neighborhood aren’t necessarily historical to that neighborhood,” Rodriguez said. “We, of course, work with the City of Richmond, as well as various cities and advisory boards that look at historical structures, and what they add to the community.”
The university is committed to preserving Richmond’s historical value, Rodriguez said, and he referred to the recent reopening of Hunton Student Center as evidence of its resolve.
“Certainly the university is always very sensitive,” Rodriguez said. “We, in fact, own and have renovated many older structures across both campuses.”
One of the stables is currently used as an annex to the current gym. Since the stable has been renovated, Rodriguez said, replacing the structure is not the same as replacing a building with its historical details intact.
Jennie Dotts, executive director of the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods, said even though she thinks VCU is a benefit to the community, its approach toward expansion needs to change.
Dotts said the university is continuously encroaching on historical districts to expand its facilities.
“Because VCU is a state agency, they’re really not bound by many of the restrictions that would apply to private developers,” Dotts said. “VCU apparently acquired them (the stables) for the purpose of demolition.”
Pool said the university is attempting to sidestep key paperwork to quicken the construction process.
“VCU tries to circumvent the state code requiring an Environmental Impact Report for all new projects by inaccurately stating that the foot print for the new plan in Green Alley is the same as the plan building in Linden Street,” Pool stated in an e-mail.
Dotts said even though her organization does not have a position on this issue, like many forgotten historical buildings, the stables are undoubtedly valuable.
“They speak to the development of our city,” Dotts said. “They speak to an earlier era in our history. When these things are lost, we lose a . cultural and historical marker.”
A dialogue needs to take place about how the university can grow in a historical community, Dotts said.
“There are ways of growing and expanding that can compliment and not threaten the historical resources that make Richmond, Richmond,” Dotts said. “I hope the students wake up and recognize the significance of the buildings and the neighborhoods around them.”