Hey Reader!

On my recent trip to Virginia, I met someone who told me that Richmond is the most historic city on the East Coast.

I asked him if this was based on the number of remaining historic buildings, events that happened here, or something else, and he basically said “it’s all of it.”

Granted, I was talking to a tour guide, who’s made his entire livelihood from digging into all the hidden stories of Richmond, and I’d argue that most cities are full of history, you may just not know about it.

But now, a few weeks after my trip, I’m still thinking about some of the stories I learned about there.

One of the stories that really stuck with me is the story of Jackson Ward — a historic Black neighborhood that, post-Civil War, was filled with so many thriving Black-owned businesses, artists, and activists, it became known as “Black Wall Street” and the “Harlem of the South.”

🎥 See Jackson Ward’s murals and history for yourself in this Instagram reel!

Jackson Ward was home to iconic Civil Rights figures like Maggie Walker, the first Black woman to own a bank (she also founded a newspaper, worked as a teacher, and advocated for more economic and educational opportunities for Black people and women throughout her life), and countless other people.

Although the neighborhood thrived throughout the early 20th century, it was thrown into a period of decline around the 1950s, when the construction of I-95 ended up displacing a few thousand of Jackson Ward’s residents.

A few decades later, it’s now turning over a new leaf. New investment into the community has meant that the neighborhood is now filled with murals, which tell the story of Jackson Ward and its community members, past and present. It also has some of the city’s best restaurants, including long-running institution, Mama J’s, which serves soul food. (I’d highly recommend the fried catfish with a side of mac and cheese!)

The only reason I got to learn so much about this neighborhood on my trip was because I went on a walking tour. (If you find yourself in Richmond, definitely sign up for a tour with the Valentine Museum! Not an affiliate link, they’re just genuinely great.)

I absolutely love taking guided walking tours, and whenever a city I’m visiting offers a free one, I jump on it.

But when it comes to actually paying for one, I’m often hesitant. I’m always making my trips work on a fairly minimal budget, and it can sometimes be hard for me to justify paying for something when I technically could do it on my own. Like, I can walk around a neighborhood and read about its history myself. And I often do.

But, when you have a truly good tour guide (and I did on this tour), the stories come alive for you in a whole different way.

Plus, literally learning about a place while you’re standing right where that history happened, is an entirely different experience from wandering around aimlessly and reading a general history later. Like, my tour guide literally called two of the artists who had painted the murals we were looking at, and I got to speak with them. She had also grown up in the neighborhood, and could actually tell me from lived experience, how it had changed over the years.

So, if you’re always one to skip a tour, see if your next destination offers any historic walking tours (it probably does). You may just gain a whole new appreciation for the place you visited, and leave feeling far more connected to it than you otherwise would.

Disclosure: Tess the Traveler contains affiliate links and is a member of the Amazon Associates Program, meaning that if you make a purchase using one of these links, I may earn a commission. I only recommend products and companies I trust and have used. See the Privacy Policy for more information. Thanks for your support!

🌺 this week I’m loving …

​“The House of Eve” by Sadeqa Johnson ​

This one didn’t immediately grab me, but it ended up really pulling me in.

It follows two women in the 1940s — one, a student at Howard University in D.C., and the other, a struggling high schooler living in Philly who’s hoping to become the first college student in her family. It’s not clear how their stories will connect until close to the end, and for me, the payoff was totally worth it. “The House of Eve” highlights a really underreported side of history, in my opinion, and was beautifully written.

📚 Pick it up on Amazon here​

Happy travels,

Tess