In 2019, Chesterfield County appointed MWCLT as its land bank, allowing them to transfer vacant county-owned properties to us so that we could steward them toward more productive uses. The first such property we received from the County was 3901 Dupuy Road in Ettrick, near Virginia State University in the Tri-Cities Area.

This property was once home to Dupuy Elementary School. The school served Black children grades K through 7 until the U.S. Supreme Court’s Green v. School Board of New Kent County decision in 1968. It was then merged with the nearby White elementary school, and became the Ettrick Annex, serving grades K through 2. Twenty years later, students in the Annex were moved to a newly expanded Ettrick Elementary on Chesterfield Ave., and the building was turned into a storage facility for the County.

The County demolished the old building before transferring the land to MWCLT’s Chesterfield Land Bank in 2020. Starting then, we began working with the Concerned Citizens of Ettrick and other groups to envision what the property could become to better serve the Ettrick community. In addition to the 10 permanently affordable homes we were to build, our neighbors requested a walking trail around the perimeter of the neighborhood. There were a number of elderly community members using mobility devices who were interested in owning a home with MWCLT, so we included Universal Design elements in our home plans. 

MWCLT and our partners at Chesterfield Community Enhancement, the Concerned Citizens of Ettrick, project:HOMES, Eagle Construction, Shoosmith Construction, and Balzer & Associates broke ground on the Ettrick Landing subdivision on October 19th, 2022.