Richmond Past: Grading Richmond 1937

Big thanks to John M. at Church Hill People News for this post from which I learned about Redlining Richmond.

“Redlining Richmond” is the work of the  Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. They have put online The Residential Security Map for Richmond which graded the Richmond neighborhoods from A to D on a number of factors.

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The Hills and Heights regions runs the gamut A thru D.

The original map was produced by Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). Race plays a pivotal role in the grading process. As seen in this description from the website:

With the HOLC holding hundreds of thousands of long-term mortgages that would not be paid off until the late 1940s or 1950s, in 1935 the parent organization of the HOLC, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, launched a City Survey Program to gauge trends in housing values in American cities, charging the HOLC to execute the program. Working with local realtors and lenders, the HOLC amassed data about different neighborhoods and areas in American cities. They would record information about the terrain, about the type and age of buildings, about sales and rental demand, about the “threat of infiltration of foreign-born, negro, or lower grade population,” among other factors. Using this data, each area was assigned one of four grades. “A” areas were “‘hot spots’ … where good mortgage lenders … are willing to make their maximum loans.” “B” areas were not as desirable but “still good.” “C” areas had reached “the transition period” where they were in decline due to factors such as “age, obsolecence, and change of style” and “infiltration of a lower grade population.” Finally, “D” areas had fully declined and were “characterized by detrimental influence in a pronounced degree.”

The site is excellent and the map allows you to see specifics on each neighborhood. For example I live in B8 and in 1937 the estimated family income was $2,500 and houses went for an average of $8,500. There were no foreign born citizens or “negroes” and in fact it states “restricted against negroes”. I would like to think things have improved and they have to a certain extent but many of the same racial boundaries remain today.

Previous Richmond Past posts.