You are here

Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Southside » Chesterfield County » Colonial Heights (Independent City) and Vicinity » Azurest South

Azurest South

-A A +A
1939, Amaza Lee Meredith. 2900 Boisseau St.
  • (Special Collections and University Archives, Johnston Memorial Library, Virginia State University)

One dramatic exception to Virginia State University's mostly Georgian Revival buildings is the modernist residence and studio Meredith designed for herself. One of the commonwealth's earliest known Black female architects, she also founded the college's Fine Arts Department in the 1930s. Her concrete-block house, finished in white stucco, has clean geometric forms, a flat roof, and curving bands of glass-block windows emphasizing the rounded corners of the walls. On the west side of the house, the former garage was enclosed in the 1950s for use as a studio and darkroom. Attached to the studio is an open carport with modernism's favored inverted-V pipes as supports. Inside, the colorful interior has a massive Art Deco fireplace, bright mosaics, Carrara glass, and turquoise vinyl tile with metallic gold flecks.

Meredith resided in the house with her partner and fellow educator, Dr. Edna Meade Colson, until her death in 1984. After Colson's death in 1986, the university acquired the property and it now houses the VSU Alumni Association. 

References

Amaza Lee Meredith Papers, 1912, 1930-1930, Accession #1982-20, Special Collections Dept., Johnson Memorial Library, Virginia State University, Petersburg, Va.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
Updated By: 
Catherine Boland Erkkila (2021)

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,