Granite Schoolhouse, Westham Train Station make 2025 Most Endangered Historic Places list
Richmond’s Westham Train Station and Granite Schoolhouse are on this year’s list of Virginia’s 10 most endangered historic places, an inventory released annually by nonprofit Preservation Virginia.
In a release announcing this year’s lineup, Preservation Virginia CEO Will Glasco said it was critical for communities to “work together to preserve these locations before they’re gone.” The nonprofit says only 10% of the sites it has listed over the years have been lost to demolition or neglect.
“These places still have value and purpose as affordable housing, community centers or by sharing the story of Virginia during the 250th anniversary of the United States,” Glasco said. “Let’s not waste this opportunity.”
In addition to the 10 specific sites, Preservation Virginia also flagged what the nonprofit sees as a broader threat to historic places posed by the proliferation of data centers across the state. Home to the biggest concentration of data centers in the world, Virginia has seen the facilities expand rapidly from its northern region into other areas, including the Richmond region, where 53 have been developed.
Westham Train Station
The circa 1911 Westham Train Station was previously located in Henrico County before being moved to its present site near the intersection of Robin Hood Road and Hermitage Avenue, just north of the Squirrels stadium. For decades, it was the city’s visitor center and part of a transportation-themed park before it fell into disrepair.
Preservation Virginia argues that “many similar structures of railway history are vanishing from the American landscape, and this example needs to be stabilized, moved, renovated and given a new life celebrating its unique contribution to Virginia history.”
However, Kimberly Chen of Richmond’s Office of Historic Preservation recently told Style Weekly in a feature on the train station that conservation arguments are complicated because “the station lost context and integrity when it was moved in the 1960s and it has lost further integrity over the years through adaptations for different uses.”
Granite Schoolhouse
The Granite Schoolhouse is what Preservation Virginia calls the “last remaining historical building” of the Granite community, an enclave on the Southside that was founded by former slaves after emancipation near a stretch of Old Cherokee Road in Stratford Hills.
Michael Phillips
The “Granite” moniker resulted from the occupation of many community members: mining granite that was used for infrastructure all around Richmond, Washington, D.C. and New York City.
The schoolhouse annex cited by Preservation Virginia was used not only for education, but for weddings, dances and community gatherings. The local Granite CommUNITY Foundation is raising money to acquire the structure from the city and repurpose it as a community facility.
Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org
