Fifth Street Historic District is a national historic district located at Lynchburg, Virginia. The district encompasses 57 contributing buildings and 1 contributing object in a historically African-American section of Lynchburg. It includes a variety of residential, commercial, and institutional buildings, with about half dating to the period spanning from 1875 to 1940. Located in the district are the separately listed Kentucky Hotel, the Western Hotel, the William Phaup House, and the Pyramid Motors building. Other notable buildings include the Augustine Leftwich House (c. 1817), tobacco factories (1877-1885), the Humbles Building (1915), M.R. Scott Meat Market (1919), Miller Tire and Battery Company (1927), Adams Motor Company building (1927), Hoskins Pontiac (1951), Burnett Tire Company (1956), Moser Furniture Company building (1936), Fifth Street Baptist Church (1929), Community Funeral Home (1922), and Tal-Fred Apartments (1940). and Accompanying eight photos and Accompanying map
It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Narrative Description
Geographic & Topographic Description The Fifth Street Historic District is located within the urban core of Lynchburg, Virginia and adjoins the City's downtown commercial district, which lies to the north and east. The district runs 2,500 feet along eight blocks of the Fifth Street corridor. In total, Fifth Street stretches approximately one mile (fifteen blocks) along a southwest-to-northeast axis between the John Lynch Bridge (crossing the James River) to the northeast and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge to the southwest, which spans a valley containing the Norfolk Southern Railroad main line.
Fifth Street is currently designated as State Route 163, although it served as U.S. Route 170 from 1926 to 1931. From 1931 until 2005, Fifth Street was part of U.S. 29, which connects Maryland to Florida. In October 2005, a new bypass that circumnavigated the eastern edge of Lynchburg and Madison Heights (Amherst County) was completed and Fifth Street (the U.S. 29 Business) was re-designated as State Route 163. As Fifth Street crosses the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge to the southwest, the name of the street changes to Memorial Avenue. On the northeast, the name of the route changes to South Amherst Highway as it crosses the John Lynch Bridge and enters Amherst County. Fifth Street and Memorial Avenue have been given the honorary designation as Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
The primary cross street within the district is Federal Street, which intersects Fifth Street at its 700–800 block transition. Like all streets crossing Fifth (except Park Avenue), Federal Street intersects at a right angle, and runs in a southeast-to-northwest direction. On its southeastern end, Federal Street terminates in its 1100 block due to a steep cliff that overlooks Twelfth Street. On its northwestern end, Federal Street transitions into Hollins Mill Road, a winding route that crosses Blackwater Creek and terminates at its intersection with Bedford Avenue. The intersection of Fifth and Federal is marked by a single-lane, four-way roundabout and adjoining pedestrian plazas, which were completed in 2010.
At Fifth Street's transition between the 1000 and 1100 blocks, it intersects with Monroe Street as well as Park Avenue. Park Avenue departs Fifth Street at a 90-degree angle, and runs due south as it climbs College Hill before turning southwest toward the Kemper Street train station, which is served by four daily Amtrak trains.
Just northeast of the Fifth Street Historic District is the intersection of Fifth Street, Church Street (one-way southeast-bound) and Main Street (one-way northwest-bound). Just northwest of Fifth Street, Main and Church converge and form Rivermont Avenue at the Rivermont Bridge, which spans a deep gorge formed by Blackwater Creek.
Other streets (all neighborhood-serving) that intersect Fifth Street in the district are Court, Clay, Madison, Harrison, Jackson, and Polk Streets.
An unnamed tributary of Blackwater Creek drains the Tinbridge Hill neighborhood to the northwest, and the headwaters of Horseford Creek (now underground in pipes) runs in a southeasterly direction from the east side of the district, and eventually enters the James River via a culvert at the bottom of Washington Street.
The district's topography is largely flat, particularly between the 600 and 900 blocks of the route. Northeast of the 600 block, Fifth Street begins a precipitous 12 percent grade that carries the roadway downward towards the James River. The highest elevation within the district along Fifth Street is 765 feet above sea level in the 1100 block, and its lowest elevation is 710 feet above sea level in the 700 block.
Early Development
Lynch's Ferry and the Ferry Road Seven years after Charles Lynch's 1750 patent of 1,590 acres on both sides of the Fluvanna (James) River in what was then Albemarle County, his son Edward was granted permission to establish a ferry across the river at its confluence with Blackwater Creek. Edward's brother John, then seventeen years of age, is credited with operating the ferry from the beginning. Following the ferry's establishment, John Lynch constructed a tavern known as the "Ferry House" at the base of what would become known as Ninth Street. in order to accommodate travelers who might need to halt at the south side of the river to wait for the appropriate time of day or weather conditions to utilize the ferry. Prior to the development of the ferry, the river was crossed via a ford (the "Horse Ford") at the head of what is now known as Percival's Island, which, of course, was reached by roads from the north and south. In 1781, Thomas Jefferson noted that recently mined lead and other goods could be brought from the southwest along this "good road… [which led] through the peaks of Otter to Lynch's ferry, or Winston's, on James river [sic]." As it neared Lynch's Ferry on the south side of the river, this road established the path that would become the Fifth Street corridor. The "Ferry Road" was later described as a "well-shaded road [that] led from the ferry, …coming up Seventh Street to Main, passing through the square [block] between Seventh and Sixth to Church, …and obliquely thence into what is now Fifth Street, on its way to New London."
Establishment of Lynchburg
In 1786, the General Assembly adopted an act to establish a town called "Lynchburg" on the land of John Lynch. Initially containing 45 acres, it would be divided into two-acre blocks, each with four half-acre lots with 165' frontages on the 60' wide streets (the roads that paralleled the James River) and 132' frontages on the 30' wide alleys (those roads that ran perpendicular to the river). In its beginning, there were only four alleys in the town, the westernmost one being designated as "Third Alley" (now Seventh Street).
By 1796, Lynchburg contained approximately one hundred houses and was "rapidly increasing, from its advantageous situation for carrying on trade with the adjacent country" according to Isaac Weld's travelogue. In 1805, Lynchburg was officially incorporated, and the town was expanded to the northwest and southeast, although this expansion simply made formal what John Lynch had already accomplished three years earlier; in 1802, he sold thirty half-acre lots in this soon-to-be-annexed area, which meant that the formal plan of the annexed area was already in place by the time of its expansion in 1805. Seventh Alley (later known as Fifth Street) and Sixth Alley (later known as Twelfth Street) became the primary routes of access into the town.
Early 19th Century Expansion In March 1806, John and Mary Lynch gave the Town of Lynchburg a one acre lot "on a hill on the west side of the Main Road leading from the upper side of Lynchburg toward New London" for use as a public burying ground. The "Main Road" that Lynch described was a combination of Fifth Street (then designated as Seventh Alley) and what is now known as Park Avenue. The burying ground, now known as the Old City Cemetery, was sited on the outskirts of town, but not so distant as to be inconvenient to residents. With Lynchburg's primary business district along Second Street (now Main) at its north end, and the town's public cemetery at its south end, what is now recognized as the Fifth Street Corridor was in place by 1806. By this time, Fifth Street also became known alternately as Cocke Street or West Street. The name "Cocke" likely originated with merchant Thomas W. Cocke, who owned property along the route in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
During the following two decades, the corporate limits of Lynchburg would expand several times, increasing the number of lots along the Fifth Street corridor that were included in the town. In 1814, the town limits were expanded to Seventh Street (now known as Harrison Street). Following the 1826 annexation, the majority of the Fifth Street corridor was within the town limits.
As the town expanded, the established design of lots, streets, and alleys also expanded. Typically, the half-acre lots were already in private hands (i.e. sold by John Lynch to other individuals) by the time they were incorporated into the town, and the future streets and alleys were accounted for in the deed. An 1805 deed between John Lynch and Peter Detto for a half acre lot at the corner of Fourth Street (now Court) and Seventh Alley (now Fifth) ordered Detto to reserve a thirty-foot alley, while an 1812 deed between Lynch and his niece Agatha Terrell Dicks described the lot as being located at the corner of the "contemplated Seventh [Harrison] Street and Third Alley [Seventh Street]."
As in many Virginia towns of the period, Lynchburg residents were required to construct on each lot a "dwelling house sixteen feet square at least, with a brick or stone chimney." Unlike other towns, however, Lynchburgers were not directed to construct their homes of any particular material, and thus, many chose wood, which was the least expensive and most readily available material. Frame dwellings were typical in Virginia, much to the consternation of Thomas Jefferson, who noted that it was "impossible to devise things more ugly, uncomfortable, and happily more perishable."
While the majority of the first dwellings constructed in Lynchburg were frame, most are no longer extant, which seems to correlate to Jefferson's comment concerning the perishability of frame buildings in Virginia. By the second decade of the 19th century, Lynchburg was experiencing its first building boom, and many of the city's buildings began to be constructed of brick.
Federal Period Taverns, Stores & Houses
Kentucky Hotel Two of Lynchburg's three extant taverns from the early nineteenth century are located in the Fifth Street Historic District. The left-hand three-bay section of the Kentucky Hotel (118-0177) at 900 Fifth Street may have been built as early as 1800, while the two right-hand bays were added circa 1814. Typical for Lynchburg residential architecture of the period, the Kentucky Hotel presents a five-bay façade built of brick laid in Flemish bond. The façade is fenestrated by 6/9 double-hung sash on the first floor and 6/6 double-hung sash on the second floor. A single-leaf entry door topped by a graceful fanlight is located in the central bay of the first floor, and the single-pile, side-gable building is flanked by a pair of single-shouldered corbeled chimneys (the corbeling is a recent addition or reconstruction). While the majority of Lynchburg's buildings of this period feature a wooden box cornice, the Kentucky Hotel (along with other Fifth Street buildings) has a cornice of corbeled brick.
Western Hotel/Nichols' Tavern