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We’ve heard that the historic Eggleston Hotel has come close to emergency demolition in the past week due to its rapidly deteriorating condition. With work at the hotel apparently stalled since fences went up in November, maybe this will spur quicker action to save the landmark building.

The Richmond Free Press’ “Overflow shelter for homeless at Sixth Mount Zion” profiles Sixth Mount Zion’s transformation on nights when forecasts call for temperatures below 35 degrees. The church on Duvall Street was selected for the city-financed program because of the church’s central location and active in community outreach programs.

Music, refreshments and holiday decorations will be part of the free Christmas Open House at the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site on Saturday, Dec. 8, from 2-4PM. Cider and cookies will be served during the holiday program in the visitor center, 600 N. Second St. For information or to make group reservations for 10 or more people, call (804) 771-2017, ext. 24. [via]

Kids will get a chance to sit with Santa and share their Christmas wishes at The Black History Museum’s holiday program with Santa on Saturday, Dec. 8, from noon to 4PM. For more information, contact the museum at (804) 780-9093. [via]

YouTube has a great 90-second introduction to the Black History Museum.

The Historic Jackson Ward Association is seeking volunteers for the Jackson Ward Restricted Parking Committee. If you are interested in participating, send your name, phone number and email address to JoAnn Braxton-Lee at jbvalee@verizon.net. For some background, check out the City of Richmond’s 2002 Parking Study for Jackson Ward (PDF). [via]

In checking out the artists’ sites for the show Side Streets that opened last night at the new Glave Kocen Gallery, I found these great location paintings by Melissa Burgess (including the look at the house at 3rd and Bates from 2001 seen above).

Something is in the works at the long empty Eggleston Hotel, with chain-link fencing going up around the landmark building today.

The Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia is in the midst of moving their stored collection of African art, textiles and archival material to an unspecified commercial art-and-archival-storage facility in the area. The work of packaging and transporting the material is being relocated by volunteer museum professionals from Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, the American Civil War Center, the Virginia Historical Society, the Valentine Richmond History Center, the Museum of the Confederacy, the Jamestown/Yorktown Foundation, the Maggie L. Walker House, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the the Sully Historic Site in Fairfax, among others.

Central to the RTD’s look at the vitality of city churches is the example of Rev. Tyrone Nelson and Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church and its growing congregation.