Old Towne Petersburg:
The Comeback

Black entrepreneurs are rebuilding Old Towne from the ground up — restaurants, galleries, coffee shops, and boutiques reclaiming one of Virginia's most historic corridors. The Comeback is not coming. It's already here.

Old Towne Petersburg is one of the most historically significant African American urban corridors in the entire United States. The Triangle — also called "the Avenue" — was Petersburg's Black business center from the 1870s through the 1970s. When Reconstruction ended and the political climate turned hostile, Black Petersburgers built their own — and what they built was extraordinary.

The Rialto Theater, designed by Black architect Charles T. Russell in 1893, stood as a monument to community self-determination at a time when Black people had limited access to white establishments. The Wilkerson Funeral Home, founded in 1874, still operates today — 150 years of continuous Black business in the same city.

The district spans approximately 250 buildings across 190 acres, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized as one of Virginia's oldest and most architecturally significant urban corridors — featuring one of the largest collections of Federal and Greek Revival commercial architecture in Virginia. The 20th century hollowed out what generations built. But the bones never broke. The buildings stayed. The community stayed. And now — the entrepreneurs are back.

Before the businesses can thrive, the city has to show up. Petersburg is finally doing that. In December 2025, Petersburg opened a $2 million visitor center inside the historic 1854 train station — the oldest train station in Virginia, which had sat damaged and empty for years. "171 years after the doors first opened, the city's new visitor center is open for business."

In March 2026, the city moved closer to establishing a Parking Authority for Old Towne — addressing one of the district's most persistent barriers to business growth. In April 2026, ground was broken on a major new construction project with completion targeted for Q1 2028. The LISC Virginia Strategic Investment Plan has poured resources into Old Towne as the city's primary revitalization anchor. The city's first locally designated historic district is finally getting the investment it always deserved.

The most important thing happening in Old Towne right now isn't a building — it's a program. The Metropolitan Business League (MBL), in partnership with the City of Petersburg, received a $100,000 Community Business Launch grant in 2024 to run the Petersburg Small Business Launch Program — a 10-week business training program specifically designed to put Black and minority entrepreneurs into brick-and-mortar storefronts in Historic Old Towne.

Out of 27 businesses that completed the 2024 training, 12 pitched — and 5 were selected for $10,000 storefront grants plus full business support and access to the City Point Resource Innovation Center (CIRC). Those five are below. All of them are open.