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  The Virginia Federation of Colored Women Headquarters

The mission of the Barrett-Peake Heritage Foundation is to restore and preserve historic African American sites in Hampton, Virginia.

It is restoring and creating a museum at the state headquarters of the Virginia Federation of Colored Women's Clubs located at 123 Pembroke Avenue in Hampton, VA.

It will continue upgrading and securing signage for historic cemeteries, and develop new educational and cultural initiatives at the former Virginia School for Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled at Hampton.

An article about the Barrett-Peake Heritage Foundation from the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot

Honoring women who mothered Hampton's children: 
The legacy of Mary S. Peake and Janie Porter Barrett


By Denise M. Watson - The Virginian-Pilot

The boarded-up house at East Pembroke Avenue and Eaton Street in Hampton is the roomy dream any mom would love, especially Janie Porter Barrett.

Before Barrett died in 1948, the social reformer would likely have filled its three stories and wrap-around porch with children to teach to read. To teach them how to pray, how to hold themselves with a pride that she knew from experience they would need.

The house is quiet now, rust-streaked and dark, in need of a loving touch like Barrett’s.

Two Hampton women have formed a foundation to restore the home in the name of two historic women who lived in different eras but had the same purpose of mothering Hampton’s lost children.

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