Richmond council approves rebuilding historic cottage [Video]

Richmond City Council has approved a permit to construct a museum and community center in Jackson Ward, and it approved nearly $1 million in funding for the project.

On Monday, councilors voted in favor of building a mixed-use facility at 303 Bates St. near Gilpin Court. A nonprofit dedicated to telling the stories of Jackson Ward, the JXN Project, intends to rebuild the home of the neighborhood’s first Black homeowner and erect next to it a three-story building with offices and gathering space.

City Council also agreed to accept $950,000 from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and allocate it toward the project.

After he bought his freedom, Abraham Peyton Skipwith obtained a plot of land in Jackson Ward and built a small cottage there around 1793. By the 1950s, the property was in the path of where state …