A New Use For Thirteen Acres

by Charles McGuigan 11.2022

For more than a decade now the building that sits behind Holton Elementary School has been in a state of ever-rapid decline. Eight years after the elementary school opened, the building, commonly called Thirteen Acres, was put on a back burner, and time and the elements have taken their toll.

One of the oldest structures in the Hermitage Road Historic District (HRHD), it is now ringed in six-foot high hurricane.  

Thirteen Acres, a brick farmhouse, was built in 1885, making it the second oldest house among the forty-or-so homes that make up the HRHD. It’s a handsome structure, featuring a broad wrap-around porch, wide eaves supported by decorative dentils, four chimneys, and a hipped roof of slate.

Way back in 1967, the house and its accompanying thirteen acres (the land now occupied by Holton Elementary School) was sold to the City of Richmond for $475,000 by the Virginia Methodist Home for the Aged, which operated its facility there. Richmond Public Schools (RPS), at that time, planned to build an elementary school there, but there was fierce opposition from the adjoining neighborhoods. They argued that the location was too close to the dense traffic along Laburnum and Hermitage, and children might be hit by speeding cars. Which, incidentally, is still a concern today.

For the next four years, the old house served as a school for children with special needs. Then, from 1973 until 1978 the building became home to the RPS community relations department. In 1978, RPS proposed using the site as a residential school for adolescents. The surrounding communities—Rosedale, Bellevue, Ginter Park—were vehemently opposed to the proposal, but two years later Thirteen Acres opened a five-day residential program for emotionally disabled students, ranging in age from six to twelve. It continued as a residential school until 2007, eight years after Holton Elementary School first opened its doors.

Another note of interest: during the Second World War, Thirteen Acres was home to one of the largest victory gardens in Richmond. That victory garden continued producing vegetables for the full duration of the war.

Since the time RPS vacated the property, the building has fallen into a state of disrepair. 

So what should the city do with this old building?

There have been a number of proposals about what to do with the old Thirteen Acres building. 

More than ten years ago former Holton Elementary School Principal David Hudson suggested the old Thirteen Acres building be used an ancillary structure for classrooms to accommodate the burgeoning student population at the elementary school. “We put together a proposal to get it as a school for humanities during the regular school day,” David told me. “And then to use it for the extended, after-school programs in the afternoons.”

Third District Councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert said recently, “I really like the idea of about it being used for after-school program.”

Kenya Gibson, Third District School Board representative, definitely wants the building preserved and put to use.  “The property has been sitting vacant for over a decade, so first and foremost it’s time to do something,” she said. “As for my preference. I went to architecture school so I’m always going to sit on the side of preserving a building with historic value like Thirteen Acres. So I really hope that whatever happens, the building itself can be preserved. The ideal use is something that really complements the activities that are happening in the school. It’s been over a decade, it’s time to do something, and it’s important to preserve the historic fabric of our community.”

And the following, in a letter to the School Board, came from Robert L. Balster, president of the Hermitage Road Historic District Association: “Leave and repurpose for an appropriate use . . . or relocate to front on Hermitage Road . . . This would create a suitable location in the northwest corner of the current school property and create an attractive residence after restoration and improvement of the building.”