6 places to spend an afternoon.
Catch first Friday at Gallery5 for free art and music during the district walk. The Maggie L Walker National Historic Site on 2nd Street is the best hour you'll spend in Richmond. Then browse Kicks Boomin for rare sneakers and Odd Bird for homeware with personality.
3 things to do, 3 shops, all in Jackson Ward.
Jackson Ward's history sits in the buildings themselves. The Black History Museum holds court inside the 1895 Leigh Street Armory, the Maggie Walker site preserves Quality Row exactly as she left it in 1934, and Gallery5 runs on artist energy inside Virginia's oldest firehouse.
From five rooms in 1883 to a 28-room Victorian mansion by 1928, this Jackson Ward house tracks the rise of a woman who ran a bank and a newspaper. Charles T. Russell, Virginia's first African American architect, added the columned porch and second-story balcony. America's first national park honoring a Black woman.
Housed in Virginia's oldest firehouse, which also did time as Richmond's first police station and jail, this nonprofit gallery has been running on artist energy since 2005. Show up first Friday for free art and music during the district walk, or fourth Friday for jazz that keeps Jackson Ward's history alive.
Twelve thousand square feet of Black Virginia history inside the 1895 Leigh Street Armory, believed to be the oldest surviving US armory built for a Black militia company, constructed by skilled Black craftsmen in The Ward. Permanent exhibitions span Emancipation through the Civil Rights Movement, and Richmond's removed Confederate statues now sit in the museum's custody.
Jackson Ward shopping runs small, sharp, and personal. Kicks Boomin keeps the rare-pair shelf stocked for Richmond's sneaker obsessives, Odd Bird stocks ceramics and oddities worth rearranging your shelves for, and Circle Thrift has been holding down Broad Street for eleven years on donation hauls alone.
A Jackson Ward sneaker retailer stacking rare and hard-to-find pairs for the Richmond shoe crowd. Check their online shop ahead of time to see what's in rotation before you walk in.
Ceramics, oddball objects, and small wares that make you rethink your entire shelf situation. Nothing generic, nothing fussy, just things with real personality from a Richmond shop that knows what it's doing.
Eleven years deep on Broad Street, this donation-stocked shop grew out of the old Books, Bikes & Beyond crew and still acts like a neighborhood utility. Expect a rotating wall of local artists, free in-store art classes, and a sidewalk trunk permanently loaded with free books.
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The hotels worth booking in and near Jackson Ward.
Restaurants, bars, and cafes in Jackson Ward.