Dispatches From the Parks: Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Nestled in Richmond’s historic Jackson Ward neighborhood is a small but interesting national park site: Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site. The site is just a short walk away from the Tredegar Iron Works district of Richmond National Battlefield Park so we made sure to check it out while we were in the city. Walking to the park we realized that the Jackson Ward area is quite lively and we made a huge mistake by checking out this area early in the morning. With numerous restaurants that looked quite appetizing and quite a few jazz theaters, later in the day is definitely the time to go for a visit here. Despite that we carried onto the block containing Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site and the site does take up a substantial portion of the block.

Maggie L. Walker was a civil rights leader who specialized in economics. To access her park site, you have to go through a courtyard that features a mural of her and a small garden that makes for a pleasant place to take a seat and grab a sip of water. From here you can also access the visitor center and her historic home (although you can only go in the historic home with an advanced reservation that you can get by phone rather than recreation.gov). We did not have a reservation for the historic home, so we just checked out the visitor center. The visitor center is located in a small building, but besides a ranger desk and a gift shop, it does have two exhibits. One explains who Maggie L. Walker was and the other explains a bit more about the Jackson Ward neighborhood.
If you are not doing the historic home tour by reservation like us you are not going to spend much time at Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, but it does make for a nice break if you are walking around Richmond. The area is a calm place for reflection in a bustling city.