Confirming what Oregon Hill residents have known for a while, the Times Dispatch has an article on the William Byrd Community House shutting down.

Some excerpts:

The William Byrd Community House, an influential force for early childhood education and helping low-income families, is in the process of shutting down, according to the organization’s former executive director.
…
The nonprofit’s board of directors has not met to vote for its dissolution, but former executive director Shelia Givens said her last day was Friday.
“It’s pretty much inevitable,” Givens said of its closing.
After years of financial woes brought on by compounding debts and dwindling contributions and grants, the early-education center that received a rare and sought-after four-star rating from Virginia Star Quality Initiative furloughed most of its staff last month and shut down its preschool program.
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The nonprofit’s origins trace to the early 1900s when a group of nurses funded by philanthropist Grace Arents, the niece of Lewis Ginter, banded with social workers to provide cooking, hygiene and infant-care classes and community recreation. The building, constructed in 1903, was Richmond’s first free library before it became the William Byrd Community House to serve poor residents.
In addition to the early childhood education center, the nonprofit provided mortgage, rent and utility assistance to low-income families in the area as well as a food pantry and weekly farmers market that accepted SNAP benefits.

The Byrd House Market will officially end Oct. 27, but in speaking to the vendors, it sounds like ‘the renegade market’ can happen till the end of December. After that, ‘all promises are off’.

What’s even more worrisome is that the St. Andrew’s Association has not announced future plans for the building and grounds. There have been some rumors of a St. Andrew’s Middle School or longterm plans for elderly housing.