McKee Row

McKee block (11) as shown on Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Charlottesville, Independent Cities, Virginia., ca. 1907

McKee Row (1912) can be seen on the left through the trees. Photograph courtesy of the Holsinger Studio Collection and UVA Special Collections

McKee Row on October 7, 1918, photograph courtesy of the Holsinger Studio Collection

The neighborhood block, called McKee Row, began in the early 19th century and eventually spanned from Jefferson Street to High Street along what is now Court Square Park. The buildings faced east towards the Albemarle County Courthouse, on a lane with locust trees and hitching posts. The neighborhood was once home to many thriving businesses; there was a printing shop, a dry goods and grocery store, Andrew McKee's hatter shop, and a merchant’s shop - each with private residences above. By the time it was razed in 1918, it had become a majority-Black residential pocket neighborhood and the lane was known as McKee Row.

Razed

In 1914, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors seized the property and granted it to the city, citing “rowdiness” that they believed could potentially impact white businesses. A school for white children was planned for the space, and the buildings were torn down in 1918. Instead, Paul Goodloe McIntire bought "all the property between Jefferson St., High Street, 4th St., NE and the County Court Building, assembled from 4 owners, and known as KeKee's [sic] Row. This park also includes a narrow lane, called McKee's Lane, lying between the Row and the County Court." He deeded the land back to the city on January 29, 1919, on the condition that it would be used as a public park (Court Square Park) to house a south-facing statue of Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and "no other building or monument."

The razed buildings of McKee Row and a dirt alley were covered with several feet of soil when the park was laid out by architect Walter Dabney Blair. The foundations of the eastern edge of the buildings still sit below where the statue once stood.

Early residents

Twyman Wayt did business on the south-west corner. The Wayt house was for a while occupied by the academy of Col. John Bowie Strange before the school's removal to Ridge Street. The site became a tobacco factory of Captain Charles C. Wertenbaker (1834-1919) a Civil War veteran.

Dr. Andrew Robert "A. R." McKee lived in a brick house once owned by his father, Andrew McKee. On September 6, 1889, the city council elected Dr. McKee as a member to the first school board for the Charlottesville City District.

In 1894, John West purchased one of the wooden apartment buildings on the block.

Henry and Lizzie Brown, the parents of Daniel Brown, lived in the McKee neighborhood during the closing years of the nineteenth century. During this time, of the 14 individuals who lived on their block, 11 were Black and 3 were white.

By the 1940's only one of original locust trees was standing in front of Dr. McKee's residence.

1913-Sanborn Fire Insurance Map

Hill's Charlottesville (Virginia) city directory 1914-1915

•	Bowles, Thomas	Labor	319 McKee
•	Brooks, Albert	Labor	311 McKee
•	Brown, Amanda	Laundress	321 McKee
•	Brown, Austin	Labor	305 McKee
•	Brown, Lizzie	Domestic	331 McKee
•	Brown, Robert	Labor	317 McKee
•	Davis, Edward	Labor	329 McKee
•	Jone, Bettie	Laundress	327 McKee
•	Mosby, Albert	Driver	319 McKee
•	Nicholas, Thomas	Labor	315 McKee
•	Parker, Solomon	Labor	323 McKee
•	Robinson, Ida	Domestic	315 McKee
•	Suesberry, Porter	Labor	301 McKee
•	Suesbuerry, Richard	Porter	315 McKee
•	Tinsley, Wilson	Driver	303 McKee
	Underwood, Lou	Laundress	307 McKee
•	Young, Philip	Hustler	325 McKee