Virginia State University has received a $150,000 grant to preserve Azurest South, a historic home designed by one of the first documented female African American architects.

The grant, awarded through the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, will support conservation efforts for the building, also known as the Alumni House.

Built in 1939 by VSU alumna Amaza Lee Meredith, Azurest South was considered groundbreaking in residential design for its time. Meredith, who founded the university’s Fine Arts Department, lived in the home until her death in 1984.

The structure, one of Virginia’s few examples of International Style architecture, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Laurie Carpenter, national president of the VSU Alumni Association, expressed gratitude for the grant. “It is a significant building representing the hard work and dedication of Ms. Meredith, who laid the groundwork for African Americans in architecture,” Carpenter said.

VSU was one of eight applicants selected from a pool of candidates for the 2024 funding cohort. Since 2018, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has raised over $91 million and supported 242 preservation projects nationwide.

The grant fulfills Meredith’s long-held dream of establishing an Alumni House on campus. In 1986, two years after her death, the VSU Alumni Association designated Azurest South as the official Alumni House.