Cityscape Slices of life and scenes in Richmond-JXN Project Executive Director Sesha Joi Moon welcomed guests to the nonprofit’s
dedication day Saturday, Sept. 21, at the JXN Haus and Skipwith-Roper Cottage. During the event, community members wrote well wishes on the building’s framing and contributed notes for a time capsule to be buried on the property. The JXN Project aims to contextualize
the origins of the Jackson Ward neighborhood. Once a thriving center of Black economic and political life, Jackson Ward was transformed by the construction of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike in
the 1950s, which displaced more than 1,000 families, including the last Black homeowners of the Skipwith-Roper Cottage. Research revealed that the cottage was relocated rather than destroyed, and remnants of the original structure still exist. The restored Skipwith-Roper Cottage and JXN Haus will serve as a multifunctional space for research and community programming.(Julianne Tripp/Hillian/Richmond Free Press)
