Anne Spencer’s garden. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
Photographs line the walls inside Anne Spencer’s writing cottage. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
Shaun Spencer-Hester, executive director of the museum and the granddaughter of Anne Spencer. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
Shaun Spencer-Hester on her wedding day in 1984. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
A letter from writer Langston Hughes. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
A poem by Anne Spencer, titled “He Said,” hangs in her garden. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
Anne Spencer’s writing cottage, Edankraal. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
Many trinkets and artifacts, such as this violin, fill the home of Anne Spencer. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
Anne Spencer’s garden. Photo by Jacob Clavijo. 
The kitchen inside the Anne Spencer home. Photo by Jacob Clavijo.
The outside of 1313 Pierce Street may look like any other Victorian-style house in Lynchburg, but inside lives a culture that dates back decades. The home, which belonged to poet Anne Spencer and now serves as a museum, is filled with old family photographs, various writing desks, and a portrait of Spencer and her husband, Edward Spencer, that overlooks the dining room table where many American heroes sat and ate with the family.
“You can see the culture within her house,” said Shaun Spencer-Hester, the granddaughter of Anne Spencer and executive director of the Anne Spencer House and Garden Historic Museum. “Dance happened here; music happened here; family struggles happened here.”
Spencer, who passed away on July 27, 1975, lived at the house with her husband for more than 70 years, where they raised their three children, Bethel Calloway, Alroy Sarah, and Chauncey Edward, who is Spencer-Hester’s father. They hosted many prominent American heroes throughout the years, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Nationally, Spencer is recognized for her contributions to literature and activism within African-American society, most notably throughout the Harlem Renaissance.
Locally, Spencer was a fixture in the Lynchburg community, where she is remembered for her work as an activist and avid gardener.
“She was interested in Lynchburg,” said Spencer-Hester. “She was interested in the little people.”
In 1913, Spencer co-founded the Lynchburg chapter of the NAACP. In 1924, Spencer took a job as a librarian at Dunbar High School, where she worked for over two decades until she retired in 1945.
Outside of writing poetry, Spencer had a strong passion for gardening, which she often used as inspiration for her poems.
“She had this cultural interest in nature,” said Spencer-Hester, referencing Spencer’s poem “Earth, I Thank You,” which encapsulates her love and appreciation for gardening.
Spencer’s garden, which is the only restored garden of an African-American in the United States, was restored by the local Hillside Garden Club in 1983 by referencing old photographs of the garden.
Within the garden is Spencer’s writing cottage, Edankraal, where she spent most of her time working on her literature. The cottage now contains many family heirlooms and photographs, including a wedding photo of Spencer-Hester, who was married in the garden in 1984.
After a long career working in interior design, Spencer-Hester moved to Lynchburg in 2008 to help take care of her mother. She had only planned on staying in Lynchburg for a couple of years, but she became fascinated with her family’s culture and the impact that the home had on the community.
“I started noticing that people would come here and they would recognize something from their nana’s home or auntie’s home, and so then this became their home,” Spencer-Hester noted.
Since joining as executive director of the museum in 2010, Spencer-Hester shared that her involvement in the house has given her a deeper appreciation and understanding of her family’s culture and history.
“I’m learning about them still,” Spencer-Hester said about her family. “You learn something new everyday.”
As she looks ahead to the next 50 years, Spencer-Hester is confident that her grandmother’s culture will continue to flourish.
Later this year, the museum will expand to include a visitor’s center that will include a gift shop dedicated to sustaining the preservation and restoration of the home. A music stage will also be added next to the visitor’s center, which will be called “Pop’s Chicken House Stage,” an homage to Edward Spencer’s chicken business that he ran adjacent to the garden. The space will serve as a special event venue, which will include weddings.
As she reflects on the 17 years she has spent restoring and maintaining the space, Spencer-Hester is reminded that the house has given back to her far more than she has given to it.
“What it has given back to me is home,” Spencer-Hester shared.
For more information, visit the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum.
