As part of a family that has operated businesses in Jackson Ward for 80 years, Neverett A. Eggleston Jr. is familiar with the neighborhood's prime and decline.

As he sat on a motorbike near the corner of Second and Leigh streets, he sounded thrilled at Jackson Ward's direction. "I think it's on the move."

News that the nearby Hippodrome Theater could be turned into a blues club similar to venues named after guitarist B.B. King struck a chord in this historic neighborhood.

Jackson Ward has experienced a decades-long decay since its segregation-era heyday, when it was a major center of black commerce and entertainment. But the former Harlem of the South is undergoing a quiet renaissance.

Ronald Stallings, president of the partnership negotiating to bring the club and two restaurants to Second Street, has led the redevelopment effort with such projects as the 2C condos, a stylish rehab of a 1960s office building at Second and Clay.

Beneath the radar, Jackson Ward is reinventing itself, clinging to its historic past while embracing change in multiple hues.

"Some days, I walk in, and not a single black face is in there," Eggleston said of his son's popular restaurant, Croaker's Spot. On this evening, black, white and Asian customers populate the establishment.

"The influx of all nationalities has been really great," said Janice Pierce, the restaurant's floor manager.

Kim Gray and Leighton Powell are friends who embody the old and new Jackson Ward.

Gray is a native Richmonder whose drummer father, Earl Gray, kept time for Count Basie and Duke Ellington in Jackson Ward nightspots.

Powell, from Thomasville, Ga. by way of New York, took advantage of Neighborhoods in Bloom tax abatements to purchase her 107-year old Italianate home 5½ years ago. She had an affinity for historic houses and African-American history but, "I didn't want to be some white girl coming into this neighborhood offending somebody," she told a Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority program manager. "He said, 'Leighton, we need good neighbors.'"

Gray, who moved 15 years ago into her 1860s-era home on Clay Street, said, "I've seen a lot of changes here -- some for the better, some not."

She recalled the murder of a neighbor, house-fire fatalities and a slew of sexual assaults and robberies. Nearby Abner Clay Park looked uninviting.

"Now, it's not like that," she said. She feels safe. But there has been collateral damage as the neighborhood gentrifies, Gray said. Less affluent residents, cited with code violations or overburdened by taxes, lost their homes to condemnation or foreclosure.

"You can't get anything in Jackson Ward anymore for the bargain prices," said Rachel Flynn, Richmond's director of community development. "It's expensive now, particularly the good architecture."

She said the neighborhood has experienced much progress, "but obviously more has to happen." A critical mass of residents is needed to build investor confidence along the ward's main corridors. "You need lots more Croaker's Spots."

Balance -- preserving the Ward's heritage amid change -- is key.

"I think there are a lot of us who care about that -- who recognize the history of the place and want it to be preserved," said Powell.

Gray wants a taxpayer return on the Hippodrome effort, which would require $600,000 in city funding. Otherwise, "I'm excited, really excited about the project," she said. "I went to see B.B. King Sunday, and the thrill is not gone."

A neighborhood that has seen its share of the blues deserves an encore.
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or mwilliams@timesdispatch.com.