THE NEIGHBORHOOD
A Guide to the Pierce Street Renaissance Historic District
Encompassing only the two blocks between 12th Street and 14th Street, this is the smallest of Lynchburg's seven historic districts. It is the only historic district which has been recognized because of the people who lived there, not for the distinguishing architectural features of their homes.
Pierce Street was first settled in the 1850s. During the Civil War in the 1860s, the area was the site of the Confederate Camp Davis which served as the gathering point for all recruits from the state of Virginia and as a military hospital. During Reconstruction the abandoned barracks were converted to housing for Federal soldiers, a freedmen's school, and a black Methodist church. By the 1880s, Pierce Street included the first African American–owned grocery story and community center and was rapidly becoming a center of activity in the community.
Much of this progressive activity in the late 1800s and into the twentieth century was because of the Warwick Spencer family who lived at 1321 Pierce Street and owned much of the property nearby. Warwick and Susan Payne Spencer had eleven children and later four of their sons built their homes close by each another on Pierce.
Edward Spencer was one of those brothers and brought his young wife, Anne, and infant daughters to live in the home he built at 1313 Pierce. There was a Spencer brother living in a house built on both sides of Edward and Anne's home. Anne and Edward lived there from 1903 until her death in 1975. The house and garden are now a Virginia Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.
At one point, Edward's father, Warwick Spencer, was co-owner of the corner store, Calloway and Spencer, at 1301-1303 Pierce Street. There have been a succession of noteworthy occupants of the building. At one time, there were apartments on the second floor of the store which were used as a home for elderly ex-slave women, The Dorchester Home, run by Amelia Pride, sister-in-law of the Calloways. At another time, it housed a dressmaker's shop for Edward Spencer's sister, Marietta Spencer Jones. At yet another time, the Meredith family lived in the upstairs apartment. A daughter, Amaza Lee Meredith, a close friend of Anne and Edward Spencer, became Virginia's first African American woman architect.
At 1307 Pierce Street is the still-active Wayside Gospel Temple Church of God in Christ. The small- scaled church was originally named Peaceful Baptist Church and was first used as a community building, known as “Calloway Hall”.
1300 Pierce Street is the home of Clarence W. “Dick" Seay, Principal of the all-black Dunbar High School for thirty years. There he created a program that demanded excellence and equality, with a strong curriculum offering many cultural advantages not usually offered in a segregated school.. After his retirement, he joined the faculty at Lynchburg College and served two terms as Lynchburg's first black, twentieth century City Council member and first black vice mayor. He was president of the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, and president of the State Teachers Association.
1306 Pierce Street is the retirement home of Chauncey Edward Spencer, Sr., son of Edward and Anne Spencer, and his wife Anne Howard Spencer. He was an amateur aviator whose historic flight from Chicago to Washington, D. C. helped gain the right for African Americans to become pilots in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He was one of the first members of the National Airmen's Association which later became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The home, like that of Edward and Anne Spencer, is a Virginia Historic Landmark.
1422 Pierce Street is a two story home on a large lot. Two important families have lived there and two Virginia Historic Landmark markers have been designated to honor each of them:
The first to live at 1422 Pierce was Frank Trigg, Jr., and his wife Elllen , who lived there from 1926 until his death in 1933. Trigg was born a slave in the Governor's mansion in Richmond, Virginia, as his parents were both servants there. He went on to become the principal (President) of three colleges. Educated at Hampton Institute, he was Lynchburg's first Negro Supervisor of Negro Student in Lynchburg's Public School System, beginning in 1880 and co-founded the Virginia Teachers Association. Trigg Hall at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is named in his honor.
The next resident of the 1422 Pierce Street home was Robert Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson, M.D., a physician and avid tennis player and coach. He had a tennis court built on his side lot and there trained many young players from across the country, including Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe. He worked tirelessly to break the color barrier in tennis, as well as in medicine. He was chairman of the committee which worked to open Lynchburg hospitals to black doctors. The Johnson Health Center, named in his honor, recognizes his medical contributions to the entire community.
1313 Pierce Street • Lynchburg, Virginia 24501 • 434-845-1313 • The Garden Conservancy provides preservation assistance to the Anne Spencer garden