St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall

Last year, nearly 15 years after the restoration of the historic St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall, community members approached the Town of Blacksburg with concerns about the current condition of the Hall and questions about the building's Deed of Gift that they felt could be more meaningfully honored.

To address these concerns, the Town Manager appointed a seven-member working group of individuals representing different perspectives on the history and future of the building and site. The St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall Working Group includes individuals with living memories and experiences of New Town and the St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall along with community members who are direct descendants of the Odd Fellows Hall founders and trustees.

Additionally included in the group are those actively involved with the prior restoration work on the building, and individuals currently engaged in existing operations and programs through the Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation board and committees.

The Town wishes to express its sincere appreciation to these members of the St Luke and Odd Fellows Working Group, for lending their considerable time, perspectives, and energy toward this work: Susan Anderson, John Bush, Jessie Eaves, Christine King, JoAnn Price, Tom Sherman and Latanya Walker.

The St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall Working Group has prepared a draft Strategic Restoration & Preservation Study to share with the community. This study represents the group’s efforts from November 2023 to the present and details the elements considered and deliberated upon by the group: key findings and recommendations made by the project team of architects, structural engineers, and other professional consultants, and a set of proposed actions.

Opportunities for Community Input

The Working Group is seeking feedback from the community on the study’s recommended actions to ensure they uphold the intention to celebrate the building’s history and character while ensuring the functionality and longevity of the structure for future generations to experience.

There are two opportunities for input:

1. Community Meeting: Community members are invited to attend a drop-in style community meeting held at St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall, 203 Gilbert Street on Wednesday, October 16 between 5:00pm - 6:30pm. This meeting is a good opportunity to meet the team members and to hear their thoughts on the study.
   Attendees can park for free in the North End Parking Garage on Gilbert Street, directly across from the St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall. Parking validation passes will be available.
   
   
2. Survey: Community members are encouraged to participate in the conversation by submitting feedback through a short input survey. The feedback will aid the Working Group in finalizing its recommendations to the Town of Blacksburg.
   The survey input period is now closed. Thank you for your participation!

Background

The St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall is a historic structure that stands at 203 Gilbert Street in Downtown Blacksburg. This two-story, narrow building is the only remaining structure of New Town, a once vibrant African American community that existed from the late 19^th century until the mid-1960s.

Constructed in 1905 as the meeting place for the local Lodge of the Grand United Order of the Odd Fellows, the Independent Order of St. Luke, the Busy Bee Society, and the Household of Ruth Lodge, the Hall became a social and civic anchor for New Town and the wider African American community in Blacksburg. It served as a central, communal gathering place that supported its members both economically and socially from the early 20th century through the Jim Crow era.

In 2003, the building was hit by a delivery truck and shifted on its foundation. This incident drew the attention of Blacksburg's Town Council, preservationists, and local citizens who began efforts to stabilize and restore the structure. At that time, both the Order of St. Luke and the Odd Fellows were defunct as local organizations, leaving no clear ownership of the Hall. Following extensive discussions with legacy relatives, former organization members, and interested citizens, three residents of Blacksburg, Walter Lewis, Beatrice Walker, and Aubrey Mills, were appointed to serve as trustees of the property by the Montgomery County Circuit Court.

These trustees donated the St. Luke & Odd Fellows Hall to the Town of Blacksburg in 2005 via a Deed of Gift with the following set of conditions:

1. The Town will use the Odd Fellows Hall for the purposes of educating, collecting, preserving, and presenting the history and contributions of Black people in Blacksburg.
2. The Town will keep the Odd Fellows Hall in its current location.
3. The Town will preserve the Odd Fellows Hall structure, maintain it, and restore it in accordance with accepted historic building standards including applying for state and national historic designation.
4. The Town will form a subcommittee of the Blacksburg Museum Committee that will consist of members of the organizations that built the Odd Fellows Hall and/or descendants and representatives from the community interested in the preservation and presentation of the history of the Black community whose charge will be to advise the Museum Committee, develop programs, and raise funds to supplement operating and maintaining the Odd Fellows Hall.

To meet these conditions to further protect the St Luke and Odd Fellows Hall, the Town of Blacksburg sought and attained historic designation of the building in the summer of 2005 for both the National Register of Historic Places as well as the Virginia Landmarks Register. A Feasibility Study was completed that same year with recommendations to restore and use the St Luke and Odd Fellows Hall as a museum and meeting place to tell the story of New Town. In 2009-2010, the Town completed the restoration of the building seeking to restore the structure with care and integrity.

If you have a question about the St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall project, please submit it using the "Questions" box below.