Fate of historic 137-year-old school in Carver to be discussed Monday by School Board

A proposal to revitalize a historic school building whose fate has been hanging in limbo since 2020 is back on the table for the Richmond School Board. 

This Monday, the board will have a chance to again consider an unsolicited offer put forward last January by the Moore Street School Foundation to acquire and restore the Moore Street School, the 137-year-old Carver building that is the city’s earliest surviving school intentionally built for Black children. 

“Carver is a historically middle-class working community with a strong African American experience that’s on its sunset,” Foundation President Jerome Legions, who is also the president of the Carver Area Civic Improvement League, told The Richmonder. “If no one takes into consideration and tries to preserve those landmarks, there’s going to be very few records of us being here except what’s in the history books.” 

The Moore Street School Foundation, which was created for the purpose of preserving the school, is offering to buy the deteriorating property from the city and school division for $1. The group would then rehabilitate the structure using historic tax credits and transform it into a center for a variety of “community-building activities,” including arts performances, arts education, private music classes, volunteer efforts and research into the history of the broader Carver community. 

“The price reflects the substantial financial investment needed to bring the unique character of this historically significant property into usable condition,” the foundation wrote in its 53-page offer. 

Overall, the foundation estimates rehabilitation will cost approximately $6 million. The school division has estimated the property’s value as roughly $10 million. 

In a letter accompanying the offer, Legions wrote that while the group has had “some success” in its fundraising efforts, “the process has been both complicated and hindered because we neither own the building and its related land … nor have any contractual assurance that [Richmond Public Schools] and the City of Richmond … are actually committed to transfer the property to the MSSF.” 

In 2023, the school was included on Preservation Virginia’s annual list of the state’s most endangered historic properties, and the city signed off on a $75,000 grant from the state for the “stabilization” of the site.

A longstanding question

What the school division should do with the Moore Street School, which sits at 1113 West Moore Street, has been a longstanding question. 

In 2020, the building appeared to be headed for Virginia Commonwealth University, which had plans to transform it into a child care center with 60 slots for the children of VCU employees, 40 slots for non-VCU children and 48 slots specifically for children from the Carver and Gilpin Court areas. A memorandum of understanding was drawn up, and the School Board formally approved a legal instrument known as a quitclaim deed in order to transfer control of the property to the city. 

However, in November 2020, the Richmond Free Press reported VCU had dropped its plans, citing “cost, the timeline and a more challenging process than anticipated.” 

Among the complications that have dogged the site is the difficulty of drawing a boundary between Moore Street School and Carver Elementary, which are connected, in order to subdivide the two parcels. 

In a June 29, 2022 letter to Richmond Public Schools, architect Adam McPherson of the Wiley Wilson firm wrote that the city and school division would need to take seven steps in order to subdivide the lots, including seeking a special use permit and potentially a zoning variance. 

“It was decided that the best step forward would be to have the City Attorney draft a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Richmond and RPS, wherein RPS would transfer the operations of the facilities back to the City and maintain ownership of the property until such time that the City/Economic Development Office finds a buyer/user for the property,” McPherson wrote. “At that time, a proper subdivision would be negotiated/executed based on the new property use.” 

A ‘preferred developer’

In its unsolicited offer, the Moore Street School Foundation is asking that Richmond Public Schools identify it as the “preferred developer” to repurpose the building and transfer the quitclaim deed the board approved to the city. 

This September, city spokesperson Margaret Ekam confirmed that the city “is waiting for the formal transfer of the Moore Street property from RPS … pending the submission of a property survey from the Moore Street School Foundation.”

“Once received and approved by RPS, [the Department of Planning and Development Review] will facilitate the formal transfer process through the City Planning Commission,” she wrote in an email.

The foundation’s proposal includes multiple letters of recommendation written last year backing the plans. Among the senders are current 2nd District School Board member Mariah White, 2nd District City Council Katherine Jordan and Richmond Dels. Jeff Bourne and Rae Cousins. 

While the unsolicited offer before the School Board Monday was first sent in January, Legions said the proposal is being put to the body again because the foundation has supplied a survey — the Wiley Wilson delineation — that was requested.

“We gave them what they asked for,” he said.

If the board gives the foundation its blessing and agrees to transfer the quitclaim deed, Legions said negotiations could begin with the city. 

“This has been going on since 2022,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty positive that this is trending in the right direction.”