Cardinal News: Then & Now takes a look back at the stories we brought you over the last 12 months. Through the end of the year, we’re sharing updates on some of the people and issues that made news in 2025. This installment: the ongoing effort to revitalize a historic Black neighborhood in Lynchburg.
A Lynchburg nonprofit with a mission to bring Black history to life didn’t wait for its museum to open to start telling Pierce Street’s stories in 2025.
Instead, Pierce Street Gateway’s leaders used an outdoor space behind the building to host farmers markets and community events while construction, fundraising and long-term planning happened behind the scenes, said Lauren Dianich, the project’s architect and the vice president of the nonprofit’s board. The result: Pierce Street Gateway welcomed 1,275 visitors to the historic block this year, according to its annual report.
“And we aren’t even in a building that’s occupiable,” Dianich said with a chuckle. “You don’t wait for the building to be done. You get energy, you get feedback, you push ahead with whatever you can do to tell this history.”
Pierce Street Gateway is revitalizing what once was the Calloway Store, which dates to 1877 and was one of the first Black-owned and -operated grocery stores in Lynchburg. After sitting vacant for decades, the shop is now being redesigned as a museum and community center that will be operated by the nonprofit.
Of Lynchburg’s 74 historic markers, eight are in the Pierce Street district, according to the state Department of Historic Resources. The museum at the Calloway Store will tell the stories of the Black “Lynchburg luminaries” of Pierce Street, Dianich said, while offering a gathering space reminiscent of the corner-store spirit.
The momentum of community connections made for a busy fall, Dianich said, with a Party on Pierce celebration in September, a Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra performance in October and a ribbon-cutting for a new pavilion in November.
The Party on Pierce, which included guided historical tours of the neighborhood, offered the nonprofit an opportunity to show guests that “there’s so much more beyond our end of the street,” Dianich said. Pierce Street Gateway’s store joins the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum and the Robert Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson house as landmarks in the historic district.
Spencer was a prominent Harlem Renaissance poet who became the first Black woman and first Virginian to be included in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. Johnson was the leading force behind integrating the sport of tennis: He ran a training program from his backyard court, which made tennis accessible outside segregated country clubs and produced tennis stars such as Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, the first two African American players to win Grand Slam titles.
Jolynn Johnson Smith, the tennis legend’s granddaughter and the president of the Whirlwind Johnson Foundation, said restoring Johnson’s house and courts is an ongoing job with endless challenges, from navigating official preservation guidelines to triaging repairs with a limited budget to finding creative ways to fundraise. Pierce Street Gateway has provided both tangible and intangible support, she said.
“I’m proud of our relationship. They give us more face time and recognition, which helps just with getting our name out there,” Johnson Smith said. “And there are tremendous connections, like I just heard back from a carpenter who is working with [Pierce Street Gateway], and he’s interested in working with us, too.”
Around the corner at the Calloway Store, initial structural repairs — such as redoing the failing roof, stabilizing the foundation and reglazing the windows — are complete and construction approvals have been secured, Dianich said. Now, the nonprofit is waiting for final construction bids to come in.
The goal is to wrap construction up in March, build museum displays in April and May, and open the store to the public in June, Dianich said.
The project has been fueled by donations: about $195,000 in fundraising dollars and $240,000 worth of in-kind donations, according to the annual report. The nonprofit will launch a campaign this winter to round out fundraising goals for the remaining construction, Dianich said.
In the spring, Lynchburg residents can expect farmers markets to return and a grand opening to be scheduled, Dianich said. For now, she said, it’s about celebrating the small milestones.
“Before we got our new roof, we were collecting buckets of rain inside. It was awful,” she said. “Now that everything is safe and dry, we can do all of our construction without worry of damage, right? We have to appreciate each of those steps that keep us moving forward.”