5th St. Master Plan

The purpose of this plan is to provide a vision and a blueprint for the revitalization of the Fifth Street corridor between Main Street and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge. The primary focus is the area two blocks on either side of Fifth Street, though the surrounding neighborhoods, including College Hill, Garland Hill and Tinbridge Hill, are also very important to the corridor’s revitalization. Fifth Street links the Downtown/Riverfront and Midtown areas of the City, both of which are the focus of revitalization efforts as well. In order for the corridor to succeed, it must serve the needs of the residents and be an attractive gateway to both Downtown and Midtown.
 
REVITALIZATION GOALS
The City and the Fifth Street Community Development Corporation (CDC) have engaged the community in a number of conversations and public input sessions over the last few years to develop ideas for the improvement of the Fifth Street corridor. To realize a vision, one must have goals. The following goals distill the community’s hopes and dreams for Fifth Street.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR FIFTH STREET REVITALIZATION The creators of this plan collected a great deal of information about the corridor and surrounding neighborhoods in order to prepare an informed and well grounded plan. The details of this data collection effort are provided in Appendix A. From this research, the opportunities for revitalization as well as the challenges became very apparent. We summarize them here to give the reader an understanding of the basis for many of the following recommendations.

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Opportunities Champions: Fifth Street has a dedicated group of champions in the Fifth Street Community Development Corporation (CDC). Formed in 2000, the 16 members include neighborhood representatives, business owners, citizens, and city agency representatives all devoted to revitalizing Fifth Street. They have guided the planning process for this Fifth Street Master Plan. A testament to their ability to mobilize community support for revitalization has been the high levels of attendance at community meetings, including over 120 people at the Fifth Street Master Plan public input session on January 16, 2006. Reclassification: For many years Fifth Street was U.S. Route 29, a through arterial connecting Lynchburg with Charlottesville to the north and Danville to the south. When the Expressway was built, it became U.S. Route 29, and Fifth Street became Route 29 Business. With the opening of the Route 29 By‐pass in 2005, the Expressway became Route 29 Business, and Fifth Street was renumbered Virginia Route 163. Fifth Street is no longer a major U.S./Virginia highway and thus has the opportunity to become a more local serving street – a place for business and community activity rather than a throughway. A Vital Link: Fifth Street links two important focal areas of the City: Downtown and Midtown. Downtown is currently experiencing a renaissance as a result of the implementation of the Downtown and Riverfront Master Plan 2000. The recently adopted Midtown Plan (October 2005) promises to bring new vitality to that important neighborhood. Fifth Street is the direct link between the two. final_fifth_street_corridor_plan_5-23-06[1]-24

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Goals of the Fifth Street Corridor Master Plan
Vision – To provide a vision for a revitalized Fifth Street Corridor – a thriving business center in a beautiful setting of rehabilitated and new buildings with complementary streetscape and surrounded by attractive, safe, and diverse neighborhoods.
An Urban Street for All – To reclaim the street so that it serves all of the community’s needs not just the needs of those traveling through by motor vehicle.
Encouraging Walking – To create a comfortable, functional, and attractive environment for pedestrians so that they can move easily through the corridor, into and out of the neighborhoods, to Downtown and Midtown, and to nearby parks and other destinations.
Honoring History – To protect the corridor’s historic buildings, sites, and districts, and to honor that architectural heritage through compatible rehabilitation, infill and redevelopment.
Supporting the Needs of the Neighborhoods – To meet the specific needs of the neighborhoods for decent housing affordable to people of a wide range of incomes, essential goods and services, places to recreate and worship, a safe and beautiful environment, and a central space for daily enjoyment and social interaction.
Tools for New Businesses and Residents – To develop new and promote existing programs and implementation tools that support the creation of new businesses and improved housing opportunities.
Inspiring Action – To set out an action plan of specific implementable steps that will inspire Fifth Street stakeholders to make revitalization happen.
The remainder of this plan shows how the City hopes to meet these goals.

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In addition to serving as the “Main Street” of Lynchburg’s African American community, the corridor served as the community’s health and medicine center. By 1940, all but one of Lynchburg’s black physicians as well as all four black dentists had offices on Fifth Street. Perhaps Lynchburg’s best-known African American physician, Dr. R. Walter Johnson (1889-1971) attended Lincoln University and Meharry Medical College. His Lynchburg practice began in the mid-1930s, and was first located in the Humbles Building at 901 Fifth Street (118-5318-0039). In 1951, he constructed the office building at 1001 Fifth Street (118-5318-0047), which still bears his name in large aluminum letters along the façade. He was the first African American to be allowed to practice at Lynchburg General Hospital, and became a well-known tennis coach for young African American players, including Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson. He founded the American Tennis Association Junior Development Program for African American youth as well as an all-expenses paid tennis camp. His home and tennis court at 1422 Pierce Street (118-0225-0077) were individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and Centra Health’s outpatient clinic at 320 Federal Street is named in his honor. His sister, Dr. Eileen El-Dorado Johnson, was educated in Switzerland and worked in New York before moving to Lynchburg in 1967, where she established a practice on Fifth Street. Dr. Fred L. Lander, Jr. (1898-1941) a veteran of World War I, had an office at the corner of Fifth and Polk Streets (demolished in 1992). He was one of the first African American physicians to use sulfa drugs to treat venereal diseases, a serious health problem during the 1930s, when three times as many Virginia blacks as whites died of syphilis. Dr. Leon Braswell’s (1904-1958) office was located at 808 Fifth Street (demolished); he practiced from 1937 to 1958. In 1949, he was named state Vice President of the National Medical Association. Dr. Clarissa Wimbush (d. 1986) was the first black female dentist in Virginia, and earned her D.D.S. degree from Howard University. She opened an office at 911-913 Fifth (demolished 1979) in 1926, and practiced more than fifty years. Dr. Augustus Nathaniel Lushington (1869-1939) was born on Trinidad in the West Indies and is believed to be one of the first African Americans in the country to receive a degree in veterinary medicine, which he earned at the University of Pennsylvania in 1897. His home and practice was located in the house at 1005 Fifth Street (118-5318-0048). From 1959 until he retired, Dr. Kyle M. Pettus (1881-1967) occupied Lushington’s house. In all, more than twenty physicians practiced on Fifth Street, primarily in the 800-1000 blocks. The Humbles Building hosted at least nine doctors and dentists over the years. In support of the many physicians along the corridor was pharmacists Harry W. Reid (1892-1969). Reid opened his pharmacy, first called Bacchus & Reid, in 1919 at the Humbles Building. By 1930, there were twenty-one black-owned drugstores in the State of Virginia. The 1940 Lincoln Memorial Book of Lynchburg (a locally-produced African American business and cultural directory) stated that Reid’s “place of business is thoroughly modern, in appearance and in every other respect. It is the only drug store in the city owned and operated by colored people and it is a real credit to Lynchburg.” In 1936, Reid moved his business to the New Era building, a large mixed-use facility (similar to the Humbles Building and the True Reformers Hall) located at 919 Fifth Street (it was demolished in 1992). African Americans with medical training were not the only benefactors of Lynchburg’s health care community. Whit N. Brown (1895-1946) was a New York native and enjoyed success as a “real estate proprietor” in Lynchburg. Locally, he was known as the “King of Fifth Street.” His lifelong friend, Harry Reid, later recounted that Brown “was very honest in his thoughts. The Negroes have been working since 1925 to get a hospital of their own, but Whit wouldn’t agree. ‘Lynchburg Hospital belongs to the whole city,’ he told them, ‘us as much as anybody, and we don’t want to improve and pay for what we get over there.’” When Brown died in 1946, he donated his entire estate to Lynchburg General Hospital, including the brick duplex at 411-413 Polk Street (118-5318-0043) that he had constructed as rental property only six years earlier. Lynchburg General Hospital kept the building (likely earning income from residential rentals) until 1971.

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