Last updated: April 28, 2021
Place
212 East Clay Street
NPS Photo/Maggie L. Walker NHS
Quick Facts
Location:
Richmond, Virginia
Significance:
Mechanics Savings Bank and Southern Aid Society of Virginia headquarters
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
MANAGED BY:
Private Rental Company
This building formerly housed two historic African American business enterprises. The Southern Aid Insurance Company and the Mechanics Savings Bank. If you turn and face the building, the right half of the building formerly housed the Mechanics Savings Bank. This bank was the third chartered by African Americans in Richmond. It was founded by John Mitchell, Jr. and it opened for business in January of 1902. Mitchell was a Jackson Ward-based African American journalist, editor, and proprietor of a newspaper. He was also a fraternal leader who had been on the Board of Directors of the True Reformers Bank. This location of the Mechanics Savings Bank was constructed in 1909 and opened for business in 1910. The bank was designed by a white 3 architect by the name of Carl Ruehrmund. The African American contractor in charge of construction was Daniel J. Farrar. Farrar apprenticed in the building trades under his father, Joseph E. Farrar, a leading African American contractor who served on City Council during the 1880s. The Mechanics Savings Bank failed in 1922.
The Southern Aid Society purchased the building in 1930 and added a four-story western and a northern wing to the building when it later became its headquarters. Founded in 1893 in Richmond, Southern Aid Insurance Company is believed to be the first chartered non-fraternal African American-run and owned industrial insurance company in the South. It is a prime example of how inextricably linked the African American churches and its pastors were to the major African American banks and insurance companies in Richmond. Southern Aid had, as its founding president, the Reverend Z.D. Lewis who pastored the Second Baptist Church. For decades, Southern Aid was the oldest African American-owned insurance company in America. It is no longer in existence.
The Southern Aid Society purchased the building in 1930 and added a four-story western and a northern wing to the building when it later became its headquarters. Founded in 1893 in Richmond, Southern Aid Insurance Company is believed to be the first chartered non-fraternal African American-run and owned industrial insurance company in the South. It is a prime example of how inextricably linked the African American churches and its pastors were to the major African American banks and insurance companies in Richmond. Southern Aid had, as its founding president, the Reverend Z.D. Lewis who pastored the Second Baptist Church. For decades, Southern Aid was the oldest African American-owned insurance company in America. It is no longer in existence.