Mayor Avila highlights Shaco Institute, Skipwith Roper Cottage and Lumpkin's Slave Jail Pavilion

Mayor Danny Avila used his remarks at the Lee Street Armory press conference to detail recent and planned heritage projects intended to deepen Richmond's public history offerings.

"We opened the Shaco Institute on the 1st Floor of Main Street Station," Avila said, describing the institute as "a new space that is dedicated to telling the story of Shaco and telling the story of Richmond's role in the domestic slave trade." He also said the Jackson Project opened the Skipwith Roper Cottage to honor an early Black homeowner and that the city has rolled out plans with the Chicago Legacy Foundation to build a Lumpkin's Slave Jail Pavilion as an excavation and memorialization of a former slave jail.

Avila framed those projects as part of the administration's "7th pillar" to "be a city that tells its story," arguing that public history work helps Richmond confront its role in slavery and Jim Crow and supports broader efforts to reduce present-day racial inequities. The mayor's remarks did not include funding details or implementation timelines for the Lumpkin's Slave Jail Pavilion; those specifics were not provided during the press conference.