Murder on Monument Avenue: The Earl Armentrout Case

There were four guys in the car, one little guy and three big ones. The short guy was John “Little Herbie” Mansour, a five-foot-four 42-year-old ex-con from Brooklyn. Mansour was already wanted by the cops in New York and needed the job to go smoothly and to get out of this town without a whole lot of trouble. Salvatore Bunopane was also from Brooklyn - a big guy who was brought in to literally do heavy lifting. Buonpane was described in a Richmond newspaper as, “swarthy and hatchet-faced” and, according to the cops, the 30-year-old had multiple convictions and only spent four years outside a prison since leaving an orphanage at age sixteen. Al Yesbick, a 37-year-old Princess Anne County restaurant owner, was the third guy. Al was said to have been in on the planning from the beginning. Alfred Helal was the fourth guy in the car, a balding, stocky ex-car dealer and former Brooklyn cab driver who now ran a used car lot on North Lombardy Street. The car the four guys were in was parked in the dark in the alley behind Earl Armentrout’s house.

Earl Armentrout was a connected kind of guy; it was just that nobody who knew him was saying who or what Earl was connected with. Richmond, after all, was not the kind of place where organized crime seemed to exist. Sure, there had been a black market during the war, and there were some whorehouses and card games and gambling and sometimes guys went to jail, but Richmond was largely diverted by racial issues and the exploding suburbs in the late 1950s. Organized crime was something you read about in Life magazine that involved Italians and Yankees. The fact that the official name of Armentrout’s place on North Third was the “Newspaper Workers Pastime and Social Club” hints at the cozy relationship between Earl and the Richmond press corps, which helped keep his name out of the news.

 

The genial Earl Armentrout, (1895-1957), Richmond News Leader, July 22, 1957.

That deference was extended by the Richmond Police, too. Police Chief Dewey Garton said obliquely that Armentrout “had a reputation for being in gambling circles.” The gambler and his “club” at 118 North Third Street attracted little attention from the cops. The attitude toward Earl Armentrout went far beyond the usual bounds of Richmond’s finely-developed sense of self-preservation through propriety to the point it hinted at corruption and collusion of the kind only associated with big city crime.

 

Armentrout had been in the business for thirty years, but the only accusation of criminality was eight years before when the Alcoholic Beverage Board refused to renew a beer license for Armentrout’s club because of accusations of gambling. The same article about the license was careful to note there was no record of Armentrout, a Richmond native, having ever been arrested. Captain D. W. Duling, Chief of the Richmond Police Vice Squad, said his men had investigated Armentrout’s club several times but since all the guys up there were playing only for chips and not cash, no laws were broken. Armentrout even left the front door on North Third Street unguarded and told the cops to “come up any time,” said Captain Duling.

 

 Earl Armentrout ran the “Newspaper Workers Pastime and Social Club” on the top floor of this building at 118 North Third Street.

 

Armentrout, his wife Priscilla (who everyone called “Sissie”), and her father lived in a substantial brick home at 4210 Monument Avenue, an address reflecting both Earl’s economic and social status. July 1957 had been a tough month for Earl as his mother died only a couple of weeks earlier, so the couple’s weekly ritual of going to a restaurant on Sunday evenings was a welcome diversion for Earl and Sissie on the night of July 21^st. Leaving her father, W. L. Cassada, at home to watch TV, the Armentrouts went out into the warm Richmond evening anticipating a nice meal in an air-conditioned restaurant.

The Armentrout home on Monument Avenue, Richmond News Leader, July 22, 1957.

The guys all knew somebody in Earl’s line of business didn’t follow usual banking habits and was bound to have a lot of cash on hand. The story was that there was $200,000 upstairs in Earl’s safe just waiting for four smart guys and about fifteen minutes to grab it - in and out. The guys in the car were also obviously familiar with Earl and Sissie’s Sunday evening routine, and as soon as the couple left the house, one of the guys rang the front doorbell. When Cassada answered, all four forced their way past him and into the Armentrout home. They knew the safe was on the second floor of the house, so the plan was to first tie up the old man. Mansour would guard him while the other three carried the safe out the back to the alley and put it in the waiting car. The elderly Cassada was easily overpowered by the four men and left on the floor, tied up and blindfolded. Mansour stood over him with a pistol in his hand and keeping an eye out the window toward Monument Avenue. Buonpane, Yesbick, and Helal ransacked the house, grabbed the 380-lb. safe and wrestled it down the stairs and to the back of the house.

 

Imagine the look of horror and surprise on Mansour’s face when, in addition to the sound of cursing and grunting and the safe thumping across the floor, he heard a sound he would remember his entire life: a key in the front door lock. The Armentrouts had come home early. Earl pushed the door open and stepped inside ahead of his wife. Immediately, Mansour rushed toward the front door, brushing past Sissie Armentrout as she stood frozen in fright. “Duck, Sissie, duck!” Earl shouted and four gunshots were heard. Earl slid down the wall and Mansour ran across the yard, down Monument Avenue, rounded the corner, and jumped in the car in the alley behind the house. The three guys with the safe fled out the back door as soon as they heard gunfire. The safe (which contained less than $100) was abandoned, unopened, on the Armentrout’s kitchen floor.

 

The alley behind the 4200 block of Monument Avenue. Tire tracks and thrown gravel here showed police where the getaway car was parked before it sped away from the shooting.

 

Armentrout was shot twice in the belly, and when the police arrived, they immediately sensed that the wounded man knew who his assailants were. While waiting for the arrival of the rescue squad, Detective Asa Faison bent down and asked Earl who shot him. Earl said, “It’s all right” twice, and when asked a third time, responded, “I’ll take care of that,” implying he knew where to get his revenge.

 

Earl almost made it to Johnson-Willis hospital, then located on the 2900 block of Kensington Ave. One of the .32 caliber bullets had clipped an artery, and he bled to death in the ambulance that rushed him through the dark Richmond streets. Three days later, a few Richmond police detectives were among the 150 mourners who appeared at Earl Armentrout’s home for his funeral service on July 24, 1957. The cops were there just to keep an eye on things, and they were especially interested if suspects from their files showed up. The first floor of the house was filled with enormous floral tributes, said the Richmond News Leader. Earl Armentrout was buried in his family’s plot in Riverview Cemetery that afternoon.

 

The graves of Earl Armentrout and his wife, Sissie, in Riverview Cemetery

 

The same edition of the Richmond News Leader that covered the first news of the Armentrout murder had a smaller article at the bottom of the page that was a harbinger of a far more sinister criminal presence in Richmond. The owner of a bar on Lakeside Avenue had been held up the day before and robbed of $635. The victim told the reporter, “I never saw a gun but I could tell he meant business.” Leo Koury, the bar owner, went on to embark on a decades-long career of vice and multiple murders that led to his eventual addition to the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Richmond’s most famous racketeer, Koury died far from Lakeside Avenue in San Francisco in 1991, having eluded police for more than a decade.

 

Only days after Armentrout’s funeral, Richmond Police Vice Squad Chief Dan Duling was recalled from his vacation to come back to Richmond in time for a series of raids on gambling joints in various locations around the city. Public outcry about illegal gambling was increasing after the Armentrout shooting, although Chief Duling still maintained that it was all just a local issue. “Richmond is not a wide-open city,” Duling maintained, “No syndicated gambling has been called to my attention.” Despite the heat put on Richmond’s gambling circles, no clues were forthcoming in the Armentrout murder even after Sissie Armentrout posted a $3000 reward for information. Bulletins describing the crime were sent out to police departments across the country, and in them Richmond’s Police Department’s Chief Garton again sounded oddly deferential to the memory of Earl Armentrout, blandly describing the murder victim as a man “who operated a chartered club for the past several years and was well known to the sporting element.”

 

John “Little Herbie” Mansour and Salvatore “Sal” Buonpane, Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 11, 1959.

 

A break in the Armentrout murder didn’t come until two years later. The cops never identified the informant who contacted Richmond vice squad detective A. B. Cole, but on the front page of the Richmond News Leader on April 6, 1959, a headline read, “N.Y. Thug is Indicted in Armentrout Case.” Mansour wasn’t hard to find as he was already in jail in New York for assault and robbery charges. The cops said he had a fat FBI file and had done time in places like Sing Sing and Alcatraz. On the strength of their informant’s information, the three Richmond cops who flew to New York to pick up Mansour filed a detainer for Buonpane while they were there.

 

Mansour, now back in Richmond and sitting in the Virginia Penitentiary awaiting trial, must have thought that Buonpane was the rat who had caused all four guys to be named by the cops. They were all equally in serious trouble as Virginia law was such that each of them could have been eligible for a death sentence because someone was murdered in the commission of a burglary.

 

Buonpane was still at large on June 9, 1959, when a guy approached him on a Brooklyn Street and shot him in the face with a small caliber pistol, sending Sal to the hospital for twelve days. His assailant was none other than Chaffie Monsour, John’s brother. The cops picked up Chaffie, but Buonpane prudently refused to identify him as the guy who shot him and they had to dismiss the charges against Chaffie Monsour. After he was well enough from his gunshot wound enough to travel, a trio of cops went to New York and collected Buonpane, brought him back to Richmond, and threw him in the dreadful temporary jail which was a former shipping warehouse at the Richmond Intermediate Terminal. The Shockoe Examiner recently explored this little-known facet of Richmond history HERE.  

Mansour must have weighed the odds as his trial for the murder of Earl Armentrout began on September 3, 1959, and his chances did not look good. The cops had solid evidence that he was the guy with the gun that night. Twenty-three guys had been executed in Virginia’s electric chair since 1950, and Mansour must have felt he was going to be the twenty-fourth if he didn’t make a deal. His trial took only nine minutes, three of which was testimony by Sissie Armentrout as to the events of the night her husband was gunned down. The other six minutes were taken up by Mansour pleading guilty and immediately getting a sentence of life. Under Virginia law, he could be considered for parole after fifteen years.

 

Bunopane, with all his years of experience, must have been somewhat of a connoisseur of prisons and did not like the awful conditions of the temporary Richmond jail. He may have been housed in one of the five isolation cells under special secure conditions “for his own safety.” Nevertheless, Bunopane was among four prisoners who assaulted a guard on September 20, 1959, and instigated a riot of more than 40 guys who attempted to break out of the notorious concrete box of a jail, but they were stopped by guards with tear gas guns before they could breach the outer doors. On October 1, after a contentious trial where he pleaded innocent, Bunopane listened impassively as he was sentenced to 20 years for murder. 

Hedal and Yesbick were the last two men tried for the murder of Earl Armentrout. Richmond News Leader, 1959.

 

Helal voluntarily surrendered to the cops in April 1959 and Yesbick turned himself in the following May. Both were out on $5,000 bond that fall, and when Yesbick went to trial, he also took the safe course and entered a plea of guilty. On December 1, 1959, Yesbick received a 20-year sentence with 15 years suspended. The trial of Alfred Helal ended on a curious note as the case against him hinged on the testimony of a former Richmond policeman, Stuart White. White was supposed to have testified that Helal attempted to buy some Richmond Police Department uniforms from him, perhaps as part of an earlier plan to bluff their way into the Armentrout household disguised as cops. It certainly seemed like somebody got to White, a long-distance trucker who left town and could not be found. Due to the absence of this critical witness, the Commonwealth’s Attorney was forced by lack of evidence to drop the charges against Helal, who walked out of Richmond Hustings Court a free man on the afternoon of December 23, 1959. 

John Mansour’s “associates” are believed to have been that gang that knocked over a gambling club at Davis and Main, and the same scene today. Richmond News Leader, May 18, 1961. 

John Mansour, although incarcerated in the State Penitentiary, was mentioned as a possible mastermind behind a robbery of a gambling club at 2501 West Main Street in May, 1961. Guys with “Northern accents” came upstairs, had everybody in the club strip naked at gunpoint, and robbed them of an unknown amount of money. The robbers were termed “associates” of John Mansour. The manager of the club, Stuart Holzbach, was not too helpful and declined to call the cops at first, saying he was working on solving the robbery himself and made the pecular observation that the robbers were of “Syrian” descent. Holzbach claimed $500 was lost in the robbery, but the cops said the take was closer to $15,000. The supposed connection between Mansour and the guys who knocked over Holzbach’s club was never explained in the press.

 

Mansour made one more appearance in the newspaper in 1973. An article by Shelly Rolfe told the story of an aged convict in the State Penitentiary who had appealed to officials in the State Department of Corrections to get medical help for a cat named “Little Bit” that had somehow appeared in the Pen and then had kittens. The administration responded and a trip to the veterinarian was arranged for the cat and, after treatment, was soon retuned to the prison. Rolfe was interested in the story of the felon-friendly cat and arranged a visit to Spring Street to interview the man who neatly signed below his name, “No. 76333, Storeroom Clerk”. They talked about cats and the response of the prison administration, but then came around to some personal questions for the prisoner: “Where was he from? ‘Brooklyn.’ He spoke softly, with a New York City edge in his voice. And why was he in the penitentiary? Murder. ‘Do you remember the Armentrout case?’ Mansour spoke matter-of-factly. ‘I’m Little Herbie.’” Fourteen years had passed since that split second when Mansour saw Earl Armentrout blocking his path out of that house on Monument Avenue, and there was only one thing to do to clear the way. In literally a second, in a flash, the lives of all seven people in that house were changed forever. By 1973, Little Herbie Mansour had plenty of time to replay that moment.

 

John “Little Herbie” Mansour, 14 years into a life sentence for the murder of Earl Armentrout. Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sep. 1, 1973.

 

More research is necessary to discover the ultimate fates of Mansour, Helal, and Yesbick and how much time they eventually served for their part in what happened that night in 1957. Salvatore Bunopane died in 1996 at age 68 and is buried in Reno, Nevada. Hopefully he wasn’t in jail but had gone into quiet retirement after a life of thuggery, theft, and imprisonment. Maybe, sitting under an umbrella somewhere in the hot Nevada sun, the aging Sal Buonpane remembered trying to boost that empty safe in Earl’s house and how it all came apart with first the sound of Earl’s key in the door and then the gunshots. Behind his sunglasses, Sal might have blinked a couple of times and shook his head at the thought of all the days and months and years that one terrible instant in a house on Monument Avenue cost him.

 

- Selden

 

 

 

 

 

A Warehouse for Richmond’s Criminally Inclined: The Intermediate Terminal Warehouse No. 3

The City of Richmond is accepting proposals for the redevelopment of a municipal property at 1301 East Main Street, officially known as the Intermediate Terminal Warehouse No. 3. Completed in 1938, this long-neglected structure was once an important destination for a variety of bulk goods coming into Virginia by ship such as sugar and tobacco which were unloaded at the nearby Municipal Wharf. Today its site overlooking the river, beside the Capital Trail and squarely in the path of new development sweeping along what was once the Fulton waterfront may be the salvation of the forbidding, stained concrete building. Let’s take a look at an often-ignored part of the history of the Intermediate Terminal: the six years it served as the Richmond City Jail.

Richmond’s 1938 Intermediate Terminal, Warehouse No. 3, on East Main Street.

Richmond has a long history of miserable jail facilities, usually located in Shockoe Valley. In 1902 a dour, red-brick jail was constructed on Marshall Street to replace a succession of jail buildings that stood on that site for more than a hundred years. There, tucked out of sight below the hillside now occupied by the tall hospitals of the VCU Health facilities, the jail was literally under the Marshall Street Viaduct. The facility was subject to a constant shower of trash and horse manure from the bridge deck, to the point the jail windows sometimes had to be closed even in the heat of a Richmond summer. In the press, the Richmond jail was referred to dismissively as “our old Bastille.” By 1927 it was declared obsolete. Two years later, “bullpens,” large dark basement rooms that in another age would have been termed “dungeons,” were built to accommodate fifty more prisoners.

Modernity forced the hand of the City government in the late 1957. A tsunami of broken brick, cast iron, and bits of wood that had once been the homes, businesses, and streets of Jackson Ward and Navy Hill was being shoved into Shockoe Valley, filling the valley floor and smoothing the path of what was then known as the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike. Construction of what is today’s Interstate 95 was coming directly through the supports of the Marshall Street Viaduct and would soon obliterate the jail just as it had everything else in its path. Richmond was forced to sell the building and land to the Turnpike Authority, bringing to an end municipal ownership of the property that dated from 1799.

The Richmond News Leader, July 12, 1957. City Manager Edwards is presented a check for $531,000 for the old City Jail and in turn presents the General Manager of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike a model of the building. Demolition of the jail began three days later.

Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 23, 1957. This photo shows the Richmond jail in the path of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike. In the distance is the clock tower of Main Street Station. Above the jail, the Marshall Street Viaduct carried traffic from downtown Richmond directly to Church Hill until its demolition in 1969. The Shockoe Examiner explored theViaduct in this story.   

City planners scrambled to accommodate prisoners from the old jail. The former Meat Market on Sixth Street, with its distinctive cornice of terra-cotta bulls’ heads, was converted to a lockup and drunk tank for “guests” that were only staying a short period of time. It could accommodate up to a hundred men and women in separate cells, but a far larger facility was still needed.

The Richmond News Leader, October 15, 1957. The former market for meat and fish on Sixth Street with its distinctive cornice of bulls’ heads, once stood in the block south of the Blues Armory and in the 1950s was converted to an overnight jail facility. The history of the Meat Market appeared in the Shockoe Examiner in 2014. 

By mid-1957, the Intermediate Terminal Warehouse No. 3 had been hastily converted into the Richmond City Jail. Fencing and guard towers were constructed around the building and prisoners housed, not in cells, but in large, high-ceiling warehouse spaces with as many as 50 to a room, mixing hardened criminals with youthful offenders. A concrete shower in the corner of the room accommodated the prisoners, who ate, slept and bathed in the same space. There was no provision for recreation. Conditions must have been very similar to how prisoners were housed in Richmond a hundred years before, and because of the pressure from the crude conditions the facility was continually plagued by savage fights and escape attempts. A shortage of staff contributed to the problems and there was never enough funding to place guards in the four towers on the perimeter fence. In late 1958, a jail break was thwarted by a guard observing a rope hanging from a window, left there by an unknown individual who jumped the fence and broke into the jail, apparently to facilitate a mass escape.

R.T. Youell, Virginia Director of Corrections, was not impressed by what he saw when touring the warehouse-turned-jail in January 1959. In his report, Youell said, “The makeshift facilities provided… jail administration and staff the barest minimum means of control of prisoners.” Several months later, 43 inmates rioted and used a bench as a battering ram to attack doors and breaking up what little furniture was in the “bullpen” with them, including their one television. City Sargeant Cavedo said the TV and furniture would be replaced, but seemed in no hurry to order it done.

The same year the population inside the former warehouse grew to more than 600 men (and women, in a segregated section), but there were still only five individual cells for unruly or dangerous prisoners. The Richmond Times-Dispatch described the grim accommodation of the isolation cells: “Three of the cells are bare, with nothing but shadowy darkness within their concrete walls and barred front. Each of the other has a cot, sink, and toilet.” The worst and most violent prisoners were shipped off to the State Penitentiary once the five cells were filled. Guards constantly found homemade weapons and loose blocks pried from the walls, and violence continually swept through the miserable crowds of men pent in the roaring, echoing, concrete rooms. Conditions amid the heat and noise of the concrete “bullpens” were such at the temporary jail that some inmates must have been wishing they could return to the comparatively ordered squalor of the old jail in the valley.

 

Richmond’s Municipal Wharf, completed in 1928, was once a busy destination for international shipping unloading at the Intermediate Terminal. Today, only an occasional fisherman paces along the enormous concrete wall where cargo ships once docked.

Richmond Hustings Court judges began to pressure Richmond officials to find a solution to overcrowding and lack of security at the “temporary” Intermediate Terminal jail. An increase in shipping added urgency as warehouse space was in demand. Richmond attempted to build a new jail at Byrd Field (today’s Richmond International Airport) but was thwarted by Henrico County, which immediately initiated a change in zoning laws specifically created to foil Richmond’s plans. Talks between surrounding counties and the City of Richmond proposing a regional jail failed. In 1961, a 12-acre site within the city limits on the eastern edge of Shockoe Valley was obtained, funding secured, and construction began on the new Richmond jail on a site that had been a residential neighborhood. The clearing for the jail obliterated Avery Street and Page Street and cut off Accommodation and Buchanan Streets. An unknown number of homes and buildings were again ground to dust and joined the river of fill in Shockoe Valley.

The Richmond News Leader, Nov. 11, 1961. City Manager Edwards and Architect J. Ambler Johnston regard the site of the jail that will finally replace the Intermediate Terminal facility.

In October, 1964, busses began to transfer the first prisoners from the Intermediate Terminal warehouse to the newly-completed Richmond jail at 1701 Fairfield Way, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch described how “Richmond’s new jail opened to its most important visitors yesterday, and everyone stayed for dinner.” City Sergeant Frank Cavedo must have looked around with considerable relief as the inmates he managed sat down to their first supper in the new jail. Everyone, guards and prisoners alike, must have been happy to be out of the Intermediate Terminal warehouse, and the newspaper reported that, “Ushered into their new quarters, the prisoners looked about their new surroundings admiringly.” The 1964 facility was built for 730 prisoners with the option of increasing the jail population to 1,000. Today, the expanded Richmond City Jail holds more than 1,400 inmates.

The eastern side of the Intermediate Terminal Warehouse No. 3.

It will be interesting to see how the Intermediate Terminal building will be redeveloped and the grim façade reengineered. The Request For Proposal document issued by the City notes, “Though beautiful, this location is not without challenges,” reminding developers that, “Current FEMA flood maps place the base flood elevation in the area more than four feet above the structure’s first floor.” Despite the challenges, the site is impressive and filled with potential. For their part, the grim, impassive concrete walls and blocks wait for a new purpose, one that will dispel any lingering memories that accumulated for six horrific years in the history of Intermediate Terminal Warehouse No. 3.

- Selden

Found! The Architect and Contractors for Queen Anne Row, 200 Block of West Main St., built 1890, Richmond, VA

Queen Anne Row, 212-220 West Main Street, five two-story rowhouses, built 1890. Image from Historic Richmond. 

The row of five houses on the north side of the 200 block of West Main Street has been known as "Queen Anne Row" since at least the 1990s. The Queen Anne style of architecture was popular in the United States from the 1880s until the early 1900s. According to its nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places, Queen Anne Row's front exteriors are one of the "most interesting in Richmond. The five houses combine seven contrasting colors of brick, granite, and limestone, with no two houses being exactly alike. In addition, Queen Anne Row incorporates frequently varying styles of bay windows, colored Glass, turrets, and porches to provide random changes in the continuity of the facade. These features, taken together, provide a very pleasing effect." 

For a complete description of each of the five buildings, read the form HERE. 

I recently came across a short newspaper item in the May 24, 1890 issue of the Richmond Dispatch that lists not only the architect but also the contractors of this row of houses. This blog entry is the first time the makers of this Richmond landmark have been identified. The image of the newspaper item and its transcription are below. Included in this short essay are brief biographies of the architect who designed Queen Anne Row and the contractors who built it. 

Online research of archived newspapers has opened a wealth of historic information, especially for architectural history. Newspapers.com, Chronicling America, and the Library of Virginia's Virginia Chronicle are excellent resources for this kind of research. 

Before we explore who designed and built these buildings, here is an update on their status. 

Built in 1890, the houses were initially occupied by middle-income workers. By the 1930s, the houses that made up Queen Anne Row had become rental units. In the late 1980s, the buildings were vacant. The row was purchased and renovated for apartment living in the early 1990s. Behind this effort was "Queen Anne Associates," consisting of Murray Bayliss, Randolph Smith, and John Hebberd. They formed a partnership to significantly transform the row into livable properties, thus saving them. An article about the renovation of the houses appeared in the Oct. 16, 1994 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It noted that:

The houses featured leaded glass, fancy brickwork and five different facades in a mixture of brick and stone. The developers saved all the surviving trim, doors, mantels, floors, and sashes. New millwork was ordered to match missing pieces.

Windows over fireplaces had been bricked over. In the renovation, one original window was found and taken to a stained-glass maker, Wanda Greenwood [Hollberg]. It was repaired and copied in 19th-century glass for use in the other four buildings.

Today, the buildings are rental units in an area dominated by parking lots and VCU buildings. The neighborhood has dramatically changed since the first owners of these buildings lived there in the 1890s. The houses that make up Queen Anne Row are the only surviving ones on the 200 and 300 blocks of W. Main St.

The north side of the 200 block of W. Main Street, Sanborn map, 1895, Library of Congress. Queen Anne Row is the five houses on the left side of the image, numbers 212 to 220. The other houses and the ones on the 300 block have all been demolished. We are lucky Queen Anne Row survived. 

Who Built Queen Anne Row?

From the May 24, 1890 issue of the Richmond Dispatch.

The article transcribed: 

Handsome Improvements on West Main Street.

The large lot at the northeast corner of Main and Madison streets has been purchased by Mr. J. Cabell Brockenbrough, through J. B. Elam, agent of the estate of the late James M. Estes, deceased, for $9,500 and Mr. Brockenbrough has let the contract for the erection at once of five handsome stone and brick dwellings thereon. The plans, drawn by Major Black, and which have been adopted, show each house of different kind of stone up to the second story and the best oil pressed brick above, three of them having handsome towers, each having nine rooms and all modern conveniences. The contract provides for completion by the 1st of October. Mr. John Amrhein, general contractor; A. J. Brown, stone-work; J. T. Maynard & Son, brick-work; Asa Snyder, galvanized iron-work, and T. M. Laundors, plumbing and gas-fitting.

Mr. J. B. Elam is the agent for the rental of these houses.

The Architect.  

Advertisement for B. J. Black, Architect, Richmond, VA, the 1879 Richmond city directory.

The architect of Queen Anne Row was Bernard J. Black (1834-1892). He is known to many Richmond historians for his proficient and varied architectural work. He designed houses, churches, commercial buildings, and other types of structures.  Born in Pennsylvania, he was raised in Emmetsburg, Maryland, about 60 miles northeast of Baltimore. The 1850 census lists his father, Frederick Black (1805-1893), as a "plasterer" in the "construction" business. In the 1860 census, Frederick is listed as a "hotel keeper." Black's mother was Margaret Black (1796-1879).

A short biography of Black was published in Richmond, Virginia and the New South (1889) and gives excellent details on his early life. It reads:

B. J. BLACK, architect, of Eleventh and Bank streets, got his preliminary training for his profession in Baltimore between the years 1851 and 1857. He was a student with Professor Shorb there. His first work was done in Burlington, Iowa, and later he built Wise's big flour mill.

Just prior to the war, he located in Petersburg. During the war he was a major of artillery under Magruder, and when it closed, he reestablished himself in the Cockade City. In 1873, he came here, and since has done such work as ranks him amongst the cleverest of Southern architects.

His specialty is large buildings - public and private - and of these he has built Grace Church and that for the First Baptist congregration in Petersburg (in fact there is hardly a block in that city that has not a building he has planned and erected), the Armory here, a $30,000 job, the Moore Memorial Church, not yet completed, and other edifices of that class. The Terminal Hotel at West Point, considered, in many respects, one of the finest houses on the coast, the "Bon Air," eight miles from here, a house at Clifton Forge, additions to the Central Lunatic Asylum, and others, testify to his skill.

His plans have been accepted for a very large new hotel contemplated for Richmond, and out of the sixty odd competitors in the City Hall award, he stood second in the judgment of those who gave the premium. 

The item above refers to a "Professor Shorb." I believe that individual is Joshua J. Shorb (1809-1884), an architect and builder from the Baltimore area of Maryland. Shorb was from the same town Black was raised in. He was not a "professor" but a working architect. Both Black and Shorb were Catholic. [See his obit, published in The Democratic Advocate, Sept. 13, 1884. I have been unable to find any online archival newspaper coverage of Black in Iowa. If I do, I will add it to this profile of him.] 

According to the genealogical website WikiTree, his first wife was Mary E. Bass, whom Black married in Petersburg in July of 1857.  "Mary died on December 7 of that year, presumably in childbirth; an unnamed infant daughter died three days later."  This places Black residing in Petersburg as early as 1857, when he was 27 years old. He married his second wife, Eliza Fletcher Hawkins, the following year, on Sept. 20, 1858, in Petersburg. Her father-in-law, John Hawkins (1802-1863), was a contractor. Did Black train as a carpenter with Hawkins? 

Black's obituary lists the architect and his wife as having seven children, four daughters and three sons, at the time of his death in 1892. A son died in November of 1864, named Bernard, in Petersburg [Dec. 7, 1864 issue of The Baltimore Sun]. 

According to WikiTree, Black enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 and "became the captain of Company C,18th. Battalion, Virginia Heavy Artillery. Eventually, he attained the rank of Major. He was honorably discharged in 1865."  In late 19th-century newspapers, he was sometimes referred to as "Major Black." He was most often identified as "B. J. Black" in newspaper and other periodical accounts.

Black advertised himself as "Architect and Builder" in the July 24, 1865 issue of The Progress Index, a Petersburg newspaper.  By 1874, he began working in Richmond as well. He had many architectural commissions in Petersburg and Richmond. He designed structures in other localities in Virginia as well, including an early streetcar system in Roanoke in 1890. 

Below are a just a few examples of Black's work as an architect: 

The old City Market building in Petersburg, built 1878-1879. Image from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. 

Black's most well-known commission is for his design of the City Market building, also known as the Farmers Market, in Petersburg. Built 1878-1879, the building is an octagonal brick structure noted for its large decorated cast-iron brackets, located at 9 East Old Street. It currently houses the Croaker's Spot Restaurant. 

The proposed facade for what became the Grace & Holy Trinity Church, 8 North Laurel St., opposite Monroe Park. The newspaper image is from the June 7, 1885 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. While Black's plans for the back of the church were completed, his facade design was not.  

One of several known church commissions by Black was for the Holy Trinity Church (now Grace & Holy Trinity Church) in 1885. As Donald R. Traser documents in Generation to Generation: The Art and Architecture of Grace & Holy Trinity Church (2024), only the rear of Black's church design was completed before funds ran out. "The first service was held in the new church on January 1, 1888." writes Traser. "Though the nave was completed, there were insufficient funds to finish the façade, and a temporary board front was constructed." By 1895, funds were available to complete the church, but Black had died three years earlier. The church then commissioned New York architect J. Stewart Barney , a native of Richmond whose mother was a member of the church, to complete the building.

The Lichtenstein Building, 29 N. 17th Street, corner of 17th and E. Franklin St. The image on the left shows the facade on 17th Street, and the right is the side facing E. Franklin St. Built 1878, designed by Bernard J. Black. It sits opposite of the 17th Street Farmer's Market. 

This Italianate-style building was built for the Lichtenstein family, who used the ground floor as a store and the upper two floors as their residence. According to a March 20, 1878 article in the Richmond Dispatch, Black is listed as the architect and that the building will be

"furnished with hot and cold water, gas, bathrooms, an elevator, and all other modern improvements, comforts, and conveniences. The parlor and other mantels, fireplaces, &c., will be of the most elegant description. The front will be of the best stock-brick, and the windows of French-plate glass. The windows will be fitted up with granite arches and sills."

Below is the complete article (March 20, 1878, Richmond Dispatch) with more details about the house and its neighborhood.

Richmond Dispatch, March 20,1878.

Lichtenstein and Sons was founded by Lewis Lichtenstein (1826-1883). Before the family moved to their new building on 17th Street, Lichtenstein and Sons sold commercial fishing supplies. After they moved to the building designed by Black, they became sellers of "dry goods, clothing, boots, shoes," and all types of linens [June 28, 1878, Richmond Dispatch]. Recently, the building was part of a larger renovation of buildings on the block for use as apartment living. 

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In 1890, the same year that Queen Anne Row was built, a commercial building on Broad Street that Black designed was constructed. The new store for "D & E Mittledorfer," a dry goods firm, was located at 217 E. Broad Street. It was known for its "massive" granite front. 

Rare real-photo postcard view of the "D & E Mittledorfer" dry goods store, 217 E. Broad St., early 1920s. It was designed by Bernard J. Black. The new building replaced a brick structure. Black described the building in an article in the Richmond Dispatch, published April 4, 1890. Black said:

"Broad street added last year a number of handsome and costly stores, and at present much finer and more imposing ones are being built. Messrs. D. & E. Mitteldorfer are building one, which will be broken-range, quarry-faced granite from ground to cornice line." -- From a newspaper item entitled “Architects Active – What Some of These Gentleman Have to Say About the Outlook,” Richmond Dispatch, April 4, 1890_

News item about the new Mitteldorfer store from the Richmond Dispatch, Nov., 5, 1890. Note that the Asa Snyder & Co. firm was hired for iron work, just as they had been for Queen Anne Row that same year. David and Ellis Mitteldorfer inherited the family store business from their father, Moses Mitteldorfer. 

Newspaper advertisement announcing the opening of the new Mitteldorfer store. Richmond Dispatch, Sept., 21, 1890. The Mitteldorfer business was absorbed by the Kaufman Store in 1926 when the Mitteldorfer brothers retired. The Mitteldorfer building was demolished ca. 1929 to make way for the Central Fidelity Bank building and the Broad-Grace Arcade built 1929-1930.

Black also designed his own house, which stands at 1300 Floyd Ave. The house was originally numbered 1200 Floyd Ave. Built in 1888, newspaper accounts document that the family was living there by the end of 1889.  Drew St. John Carneal (1938-2015), lawyer, civic activist, and architectural historian, writes about the building in his Richmond's Fan District (1996): 

Described in the deed [of Black’s house] as being “in the form of a right-angle triangle,” the lot must have challenged Black’s imagination as how to fill it with something functional. His solution was generally to conform the footprint of the house to the shape of the lot, thus producing in effect a “right-angle triangle” house. In addition to its unusual shape, 1300 Floyd Avenue exhibits clean, sharp lines accentuated today by the loss of its porch. It was a modern building for 1889 Richmond, and exudes some hint of the Queen Anne style, which at the time was becoming very popular in Richmond.

Black died on March 23, 1892 at his home after a six-month illness. He was 57 years old. He was buried in Mount Cavalry Cemetery in Richmond. A longer essay on Bernard J. Black's life and work will appear in the Shockoe Examiner in the future. 

Unfortunately, the newspaper article on Queen Anne Row from 1890 did not list which firm provided the millwork for the porches. This image of the center porch, 214 and 216 W. Main St., was provided by Dr. Charles E. Brownell, the former longtime head of the Architectural History Program at VCU. Charles's very informed perspective on the millwork is that it was most likely chosen by the architect, Bernard J. Black, from a local firm. The pattern of the porch design on Queen Anne Row could be found in millwork catalogs published at this time. The catalogs were widely circulated so local firms could easily produce them. 

Charles explores in depth these types of architectural history topics each year at an annual lecture at VCU Libraries entitled "Artistic Mansions." The next "Artistic Mansions" is tentatively scheduled for 11 April 2026 and will take a good look at the Queen Anne style in Richmond. Many of the past lectures are available on YouTube. We appreciate his continued support and his willingness to share his knowledge in our investigations of Richmond's architectural history. 

The Contractors

General Contractor

Advertisement from the 1889 Richmond city directory. 

The general contractor of Queen Anne Row was John Amrhein (1857-1941). Building contractors were responsible for managing the building process, obtaining materials, and overseeing subcontractors. 

Amrhein first appears in Richmond city directories in 1886 as a carpenter. By 1889, he was advertising himself as a contractor and builder. He worked with his brother Leonard Amrhein (1870-1942) in the contracting firm of Amrhein Brothers (or John Amrhein and Bro.) in the early 20th century. He was then one half of the firm "Hunt and Amrhein" (from his obit, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jan. 7, 1941). The "Hunt" in the firm was Aubrey L. Hunt (1870-1938), son of the well-known contractor Gilbert J. Hunt (1843-1921), who built his house at 901 Floyd Ave., now owned by VCU.  More about Gilbert J. Hunt HERE. 

Just of few Amrhein's major contracts for buildings include the Barton Heights Methodist Church, built 1893 on North Avenue (sold to the congregation of St. Paul's Catholic Church, which replaced the 1893 building in 1967), Highland Park Public School in 1909, and one of Hunt and Amrhein's last major commissions, the Walter Hines Page Library at Randolph-Macon College, built 1922-1923. The architect was  Edward L. Tilton (1861-1933). Funding for the library was through the Carnegie Foundation. 

Another example of Amrhein's work as a contractor was for the Van De Vyver School, a Catholic school in Richmond for blacks, 711 N. First St., built 1910. It was designed by Richmond architect Charles M. Robinson (1867-1932).

Stone Contractor.

Advertisement for Alonza J. Brown Stone Works from the 1891 Richmond city directory. Brown's first name was spelled "Alonza" but was often misspelled in newspapers and other publications as "Alonzo." 

The stone contractor, “A. J. Brown, stone-work,” was Alonza J. Brown (1854-1937). By 1890, Brown had been a stone mason for twenty years and had established his own granite quarry. His work for the five houses on W. Main St included supervising the stone masons and supplying different types of stone, including grey granite, brownstone, and contrasting colors of limestone. Different combinations of stone were used in each building - read the detailed descriptions HERE. 

Brown was born in Hanover County on April 23, 1854. Records indicate that he worked as a stone mason in Richmond from about 1880. He established his own granite works business in 1888. Six years after his work on Queen Anne Row, he began a partnership with Andrew J. Wray (1848-1918). Wray was already a well-established stone mason who specialized in monumental stonework. 

Listing for Brown and Wray firm from the 1897 Richmond city directory.  

Wray had a quarry in Chesterfield County with offices on Cherry Street near the entrance to Hollywood Cemetery. Brown and Wray primarily built stone and marble memorials. Wray was the senior partner, having worked in Richmond since about 1869.   

An example of the Wray and Brown memorial work is the 25-foot-high obelisk placed in the plot of Dr. Hunter H. McGuire (1835-1900) in Hollywood Cemetery. The stone is blue granite from Wray's quarries in Chesterfield County. The excellent images were taken by Selden Richardson, architectural historian and one of the editors of The Shockoe Examiner. 

 

Brown's work with Wray ended in 1902. Brown is listed as a grocer in the 1903 and 1904 city directories. He returned to work as a stone contractor by 1906, continuing through at least 1915, after which his appearances in city directories end. In the 1920 census, the 66-year-old Brown is listed as having no occupation. Alonza J. Brown died on October 18, 1934. 

Brickwork. 

Listing and advertisement for the J. T. Maynard & Son brick manufacturer firm of Richmond, from the 1892 city directory. 

The J. T. Maynard & Son firm of Richmond was responsible for the brickwork of Queen Anne Row. John Temple Maynard (1894-1894) was listed as a brick mason in the 1870 census and a brick manufacturer in the 1880 census. 

Each of the five houses of Queen Anne Row has different combinations of contrasting colored bricks - red and tan.  

According to Maynard's obituary (Oct. 4, 1894, Richmond Dispatch), he died at his home in Fulton Hill in Henrico County. His adopted son, Alva W. Maynard (1866-1947), inherited the firm. He ran the Maynard brick yards located in Rockets through about 1900. Alva would become a successful contractor in Richmond, his work primarily in the gas, water, and sewer lines.  At the time of his death, according to his obituary (April 9, 1947, Richmond Times-Dispatch), he was a vice-president with the Southern Bank and Trust Company. 

Plumbing and Gas-Fitting

In the article on Queen Anne Row in the May 24, 1890 issue of the Richmond Dispatch, it lists "T. M. Laundors, plumbing and gas-fitting." Launders is misspelled. The correct spelling of the name is "T. M. Landers" or Thomas Michael Landers (1851-1926).   

Listing and advertisement for Thomas M. Landers from the 1889 Richmond city directory. 

Landers was the son of John Sanders (abt. 1803-1884), a native of Ireland, and Ann Sanders (abt 1809-1888), born in Virginia. The 1870 census lists John's occupation as a gardener, and that his three children are living in the Sanders household: Morris, age 23, Mary, age 21, and Thomas, age 19. In the 1871 city directory, Morris is listed as a plumber and his brother Thomas as a laborer. By 1873, they are both listed as plumbers. Morris died in 1875. In the 1877 directory, Thomas is listed as both a grocer and a plumber, working in the firm of George & Anthony Bargarmin ("machinists, plumbers, gas and steam fitter's supplies"). By 1885, he is listed as "plumber and gas fitter," 

In 1895, the Richmond City Council appointed Landers the city's inspector of plumbing. The path to this position is a long tale that played out in the city newspapers. The story concerned Landers' clash with long-time city official Charles E. Bolling (1852-1929), then the superintendent of the city water works (and later director of public works). Bolling had refused to renew Landers' plumber's license because of an issue involving work in one building that Landers had performed some years earlier. Landers fought back against what he perceived as an injustice. His permit was renewed and he ended up suing Bolling (and won) over the matter. 

Image of Landers that appeared with the obituary of the long-time city plumbing inspector in the May 15, 1926 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The same image was previously published in the April 17, 1921 issue of the RTD credited to Foster Studio. 

 

Landers died on May 14, 1926 after serving 30 years as head of plumbing inspection. His obituary, published May 15, 1925 in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, notes that Landers was the: 

... chief plumbing inspector for the city of Richmond, and connected with that office for three decades, died yesterday morning at 5:05 o'clock at the home, 2016 Hanover Avenue. The funeral will be from Sacred Heart Cathedral at 10 o'clock Monday morning, and burial will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery.

Mr. Landers, is survived by a widow, formerly Miss Nellie Enright, and the following children: Mrs. Thomas L. Cox, of Chester; Mrs. Charles Halbleib, of Norfolk: George and Thomas Landers, and Mrs. Philip Bannister, of Richmond. His first wife, who died many years ago, was Miss Lena Roscher, of Richmond. Mr. Landers was born in Richmond in 1851, and lived here all his life. He devoted his early business career to the plumbing business in Richmond.

The late inspector was for many years active in public matters, and was interested in fraternal and church affairs throughout his career. He was a member of Richmond Lodge of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, St. Mary's Social Union, Holy Name Society of Sacred Heart Cathedral, and was a member of the American Society of Sanitary Engineers, frequently representing Richmond city at the annual conventions of that society. He was considered an expert in his business and was frequently called upon for expert opinions. The various heads of the Department of Welfare and the City Health Board have frequently commended the late inspector for his loyalty and the efficient handling of the duties in connection with his office. 

Sanders' son, Thomas M. Sanders, Jr. (1887-1936) was appointed chief of the Bureau of Plumbing Inspection a week after his father died. The younger Sanders died ten years later after serving in that position the entire time. 

"Asa Snyder, galvanized iron-work"

Of the five contractors of Queen Anne Row listed in the May 24,1890 issue of the Richmond Dispatch, the Asa Snyder & Co. firm was the most widely known. If you are a Richmonder, you may have seen their work on iron front store facades on many Richmond buildings, including stores on Broad St. and Main St. Or you may have seen their name on coal chute hatch doors on buildings throughout the city. Their work is found in many Richmond buildings. One of their major commissions was for the ironwork for Old City Hall completed in 1894. Architectural historian and City of Richmond city planner, the late Tyler Potterfield (one of the founders of the Shockoe Examiner) wrote about Snyder's iron work in the Old City Hall building:

"Another specialist, Richmond iron founder, Asa Snyder, cast the grills and fencing along with the magnificent cast iron atrium, a masterpiece of cast iron architecture. Snyder, a New York immigrant, was a leader in the development of architectural cast iron in Richmond."  

"...the atrium is an outstanding example of and a high point for cast iron architecture in Richmond."

The cast iron atrium in Richmond's Old City Hall was produced by the Asa Snyder & Co. firm. In 2024, Quin Evans, a historic preservation firm, restored the atrium. From their website:  

The building’s last renovation, which took place in the 1980s, superimposed a polychrome paint scheme throughout the major historic spaces. Based on historical finish analyses, our design restores the original palette: off-white plaster walls and ceilings, oak woodwork, and painted wood graining on cast iron elements in the atrium. We also restored the atrium laylight and replaced the skylight above with an energy-efficient reproduction.

The attractive cast-iron fence that surrounds Old City Hall was produced by the Asa Snyder & Co. firm. Image from the "Richmond Iron" website of the O. K. Foundry Co.  

Due to their long history and contributions to the city's architectural heritage, Asa Snyder & Co. probably deserves its own blog post (or better yet, a book-length study). The Shockoe Examiner will explore their history at length in the future. But for now, the goal of this essay is to keep their profile as concise, but still complete, as possible. 

Advertisement for Asa Synder & Co. from the 1889 Richmond city directory. The ad. was published a year before Queen Anne Row was built. 

The firm was founded by Asa Snyder (1825-1884), a native of New York, who moved to Richmond in 1851. His firm was detailed in an article entitled "Ironwork in Richmond" published in the Sunday magazine section of the Oct. 23, 1938 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The article focused on the research that Richmond architectural historian Mary Wingfield Scott had compiled for the Valentine Museum in the 1930s. Her research materials are housed in the museum's library collection. On Snyder, the article wrote:

Born in 1825, he early clerked in his farmer father's country store, went to school at an academy, worked in New York City, was in business in Pennsylvania, and returned home to farm a while.

In 1851, he visited Richmond with his brother-in-law, Foundryman A. J. Bowers. Charmed with the city, they leased a lot opposite the Tredegar Iron Works on the James and Kanawha Canal for 10 years, built and began to make stoves.

In 1855, they branched out to do ornamental iron work. Their first effort, and the first in Richmond, was the lavish iron-decked facade of old Ballard House hostelry, which they adorned with cast-iron pillars, veranda, balconies, cornices, fence, and gate. Between '59 and '60, Snyder similarly trimmed the Spotswood, another fashionable hotel, and later many Main Street business houses, which still wear Snyder designs on their much-painted facades, whose scrolls, cornices, and trimmings have come to look wooden with many years and much paint.

Two branches - stoves and iron work - were too much for the firm and Mr. Snyder and Mr. Bowers dissolved it in 1856. But Snyder continued at stove-making until 1865, at Tenth and Cary Streets. He continued through the war, when his foundry, "being the only works in the Confederate States, prepared to make outfits for the camps, he was employed by the Confederate government and did faithful work for the cause of his adopted State," according to his obituary of August, 1884, in the Dispatch. His daughter, Miss Annie Lee Snyder, explained to Miss McCormack [Helen McCormack (1903-1974), then head of the Valentine Museum]  that he made iron utensils, kettles and such for the Confederate army, was paid largely in produce, built a supplementary warehouse adjoining his Fourth Street home and shared his earnings of produce with his neighbors.

In 1873, Snyder separated the stove-making company from the architectural production works. The announcement by the firm shown below from the Richmond Dispatch, Jan. 31, 1874, gives a snapshot of the large variety of architectural iron work they produced. 

Richmond Dispatch, Jan. 31, 1874

Snyder died in 1884, but the firm continued under the direction of his son, Asa K. Snyder (1859-1892), and Benjamin J. Atkins (1836-1895). At the time Queen Anne Row was being built in 1890, this profile published in 1886 was an accurate description of the company. It appeared in The Industries of Richmond: Her Trade, Commerce, Manufactures and Representative Establishments. It reads:

Thirty-five years ago this establishment was founded by the late Asa Snyder in a very moderate way, but it gave genuine evidence of enterprise from the start, and in a few years it became a noted landmark of the business industry. War, fire, and financial strife, have battered at its doors, but it still stands a monument to the enterprise of its founder. Its contributions to the trade reflect the greatest credit on the mechanical skill of those employed in its several constructive departments. They find a large and steady demand from Virginia and West Virginia, North and South Carolina, for their beautiful and reliable goods of architectural designs. They employ sixty hands and have a capacity for making five tons of castings per hour.

Their specialties are all kinds of galvanized, cast and wrought iron used in building, which embraces vault doors, elevators, fence and balcony railings, verandas, skylights, cornices, window hoods, steeples, &c. They are also manufacturers of Hayes' Patent Skylight, Hyatt's Patent Area Light, for which they control Virginia.

Messrs. Asa K. Snyder and Benj. J. Atkins comprise the present firm of Asa Snyder & Co. They were both members of the firm at the time of the death of Mr. Asa Snyder, in 1884, and have continued under the same firm name.

Mr. Asa K. Snyder was born and raised here and was brought up in the iron trade. He is also in the pig iron and foundry supply brokerage business.

Mr. Atkins resides in Manchester. He has been connected with this house for twenty years and has been a partner in the concern since 1877.

This image of the Asa Snyder & Co. foundries located at 1008, 1010, 1012, and 1014 E. Cary St. appeared with the profile in The Industries of Richmond: Her Trade, Commerce, Manufactures and Representative Establishments (1886).

Image of the Asa Snyder & Co. foundry and works located at 1008, 1010, 1012, and 1014 E. Cary St. from the Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Richmond, 1886, Library of Congress.

A profile of the firm in Richmond, the Pride of Virginia (1900) noted that: 

Its record includes the furnishing of structural iron for the following buildings, among the many extensive orders of the past few years: City Hall, Masonic Temple, All Saints' Episcopal Church, store of Julius Meyer & Sons, Richmond; library in the new State Department building, Washington, D. C.; Enterprise Building, Fredericksburg; First Presbyterian Church, Hughes Building, the Wither's Building, and the Post Building, Newport News; True Reformer's Hall, and a theatre at Norfolk; Bachelor's Quarters, Fortress Monroe; W. P. Dickerson's Hall, Farmville, Va..

Asa Snyder & Co. provided the ironwork for the roofs that top the turrets found on three of the houses of Queen Anne Row.  Galvanized iron, where a zinc coating is applied to the metal to prevent rusting and decay, was one of the firm's architectural products.

Each of the galvanized metal roofs is shaped differently. On 212, the pattern is a pointed hexagonal shape; 216 has a rounded hexagonal pattern; and on 220, there is a dome-shaped roof. Each roof is topped with a metal finial.  

In 1895, after the death of his brother, Asa K., George J. Snyder (1861-1950) headed Asa Snyder & Co.  Six years later, in May of 1901, there was a large fire at the foundry on E. Cary St. The damage was extensive. They built a new, smaller foundry on the 700 block of E. Cary Street. In 1905, the company became part of the newly formed Richmond Manufacturing Company, which produced "architectural and ornamental iron works and wire." By 1908, that company ceased operations, thus ending the decades-long history of Asa Snyder & Co. Fortunately, its legacy in Richmond can still be seen in numerous buildings and on the city's streetscape.

One last look at Queen Anne Row. This is the back of 220 W. Main St. It brings to mind something my friend Edgar MacDonald told me once or twice when talking about Richmonders and the city's architecture. Sometimes they try to show off by putting on makeup and a pretty dress or a good suit. But in reality, we are all the same behind our facades. He'd say:  "Richmond is full of houses with Queen Anne fronts and Mary Ann behinds."

- Ray Bonis