A growing group of community members is trying to save the shuttered historic Richmond Community Hospital, Richmond’s first Black hospital.

The hospital, which sits on the campus of Virginia Union University, may be lost to a $42 million affordable housing project. Working with The Steinbridge Group, a New York-based real estate investment, development and asset management firm, the VUU plan calls for 200 apartment units on their North Side property.

When civic leader Viola Baskerville saw that the plans for the housing project required tearing down Richmond Community Hospital, she and others formed “Save Community Hospital.” The group maintains a Facebook page that provides extensive history of the hospital and testimonies from community members who want not only to save the building but honor its history.

“This isn’t a fight about a dilapidated old building, it is a fight to preserve and honor those who came before us,” says Ms. Baskerville, a former member and vice chair of Richmond City Council and a former delegate the Virginia General Assembly.

Their mission, she says, is to increase awareness of what is at stake should the university decide to destroy the 1932 art-deco building, “built by Black hands for Black people.”

The group gathers on the first Sunday of each month to educate and make their opposition to VUU’s plans known. This Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at 1209 Overbrook Road, the group is hosting a history and healing session to honor the nurses who were a part of the original Richmond Community Hospital.