Originally published in the Winter 2024 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 74, printed February 21. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Winter 2024 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

By Ana Edwards

Emily Winfree’s cottage, situated in 1866 in the town of Manchester on the south side of the James River, was saved from demolition in 2002 by being relocated to Shockoe Bottom.

Since 2007, however, the small house has been sitting on steel I-beams next to the Lumpkin’s Jail Archaeology site, steadily deteriorating. This year that will change. According to Burt Pinnock of Baskervill, the firm designing the 10-acre Shockoe Project, the property will be transferred from Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authroity ownership to the City of Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities. A request for bids and permits will be issued with the intention that relocation to a property adjacent to Blackwell Elementary School and renovation can begin this year.

You can see the plans at the Baskervill website here.

It seems fitting that not only will the house be returned to the community from where it came, but it will also become part of the call to be educated that influenced so many of Emily Winfree’s descendants for generations.

Learn more about Emily Winfree and her legacy at virginiahistory.org here.