"Architecture in Richmond, Va." from the Feb. 1901 issue of the Architects and Builders Journal,

 

Below is the text to a short article on Richmond architects that appeared in the February 1901 issue of the Architects and Builders Journal. The journal was published in Baltimore between 1899 and 1908. It was a monthly periodical subtitled A Monthly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Building, Architecture, & Real Estate and was printed by The Globe Publishing and Printing Co. If focused primarily on architecture in Maryland but also had coverage of the District of Columbia, Virginia, and other regional areas. 

The Library of Virginia has the journal on microfilm. They filmed it from a copy held at the Library of Congress - thanks to a request by Tom Ray, a former librarian at the LVA. I was sent a digital scan of a photocopy of the article by a librarian at the Valentine Museum. The photocopy is from the Valentine's subject folder on Richmond architects. I present the text here so others can easily access it.

Architecture in Richmond, Va.

Architecture in Richmond has more of history, than variety, but is certainly one hundred and fifty years old, for it has been that long since Thomas Jefferson built the present state capitol; one of the finest types of Ionic architecture in the country. That the art in the first century of the city's growth did not die with Mr. Jefferson, is exemplified in the Virginia Medical College, one of the purest types of Egyptian architecture of modern construction, and the Monumental Church, a striking picture, of unique and simple design, and many noble residences of general Colonial style, which rival in beauty and comfort the more pretentious and less gloomy modern dwellings. The modern architecture of Richmond may be said to date back a quarter of a century, for it is within that time that the most imposing structures of this city have been created and they stand as enduring monuments to architects still in the prime of their usefulness.

Capt. M. J. Dimmock, the dean of the architects here, has been peculiarly happy in his contributions to the beauty and utility of the imperishable art, in a place where conservatism has held genius bound for many years in bonds of red brick, and gable roofs. Capt. Dimmock has been the designer and supervisor of the erection of a large number of buildings both public and private. He threw down the sabre at the close of four years service in the Confederate cavalry to take up the pencil and rule, and the very best types of architecture in Richmond are monuments of his genius. Some of these are the Chamber of Commerce, Grove Avenue Church, Hollywood Mortuary Chapel, the all native stone residence of W. H. Jones and scores of other business and residence houses.

The office of William C. West is the oldest architectural establishment in the city, the mantle of the late Albert L. West, one of the ablest men in creative design in the south, having fallen on the son. In the few years since his father's death he has drawn and supervised the construction of a large number of bank, school, church, business buildings and residences in Virginia and North Carolina.

Albert F. Huntt, one of the leading men in his profession in the South, graduated from the Pennsylvania Military Academy both as engineer and architect, and has executed much handsome work. Recently he has designed and planned extensive ware-houses for the American Tobacco Company here, in North Carolina, Oswego, N. Y., Madison, Wis., and the Winnie Davis Memorial School at Luray, Va. A magnificent Indian Bungalow on James River for Mrs. Bullock of Philadelphia is one of his latest productions.

D. Wiley Anderson, a resident of Albemarle county, Va has been a resident of Richmond for ten years and in that time has taken front rank with the designers and originators in architectural circles. He owes his position to natural ability and close personal study and his skill and originality are pictured in many of the handsomest structures in this city.

Carl C. Ruehrmund, is a native of Berlin, Germany and secured his technical knowledge in the Royal Academy in that city and after graduation superintended the erection of several works for his own government. He came to this country in 1881 and was employed in the bureau of architecture of the National Government at Washington, D. C. Being sent to Richmond to remodel the Post Office building he liked the place and settled here. He is admittedly an accomplished architect, as the Henrico County court-house, the state hospital at Williamsburg, Va. and other artistic and substantial creations of his testify.

Benjamin West Poindexter after fifteen years experience in the best architects offices, set up in business for himself in 1899. He designed Union Station Methodist Church, one of the largest church buildings in the state and considered one of the best church designs in Virginia. He has done much other creditable work in the limited time he has been in business.

The firm of Noland & Baskervill is among the youngest and yet perhaps the most important in the amount of patronage enjoyed in Richmond. The firm is composed of Wm. C. Noland and H. E. Baskervill. Mr. Noland is a native of a neighboring county. He studied architecture in Philadelphia and New York and in Europe, while Mr. Baskervill is a Richmonder and graduated from the Engineering department of Cornell, and for eight years held a position in the engineering department of this city under Col. Cutshaw. They entered the field several years ago with youth and ability and have been aggressive as winners of work. They planned St. Luke's Hospital, Virginia Electrical Company's plant, addition to the University College of Medicine and numerous residences. They are now at work on plans for the Virginia Mechanics Institute and Baptist Church, and other important work. 

[End of article.]

- Ray

Letter to Richmond Mayor Avula about the Threat to the Historic Westwood Neighborhood.

Below is a copy of a letter Selden just sent the Richmond mayor. It is a shame that residents of Westwood, a tiny but important community at Willow Lawn Drive and Patterson Avenue, have to once again band together and resist yet another legalistic assault by an indifferent and uncaring City administration. The importance of this neighborhood can’t be underestimated, and the threat to it is very real. The Shockoe Examiner explored the significance of Westwood years ago – please read this entry that illuminates the history of the neighborhood, its role in the struggle for Civil Rights, and why an appeal to the Mayor is so important.                                                                                                                

Dear Mayor Avula:

The historic neighborhood of Westwood is again under attack, and it is remarkable how often this tiny African-American Richmond community has faced destruction and persevered.  Richmond has a terrible record of destroying its Black neighborhoods: Jackson Ward was gutted by I-95, Fulton was turned into an urban prairie, and Navy Hill was bulldozed into Shockoe Valley.

As horrific as all that sounds, none of these disasters of civic planning was fueled by the overt racial prejudice that once drove an effort to erase the entire Westwood neighborhood down to the ground and disperse the families who had been there for generations.  And yet, Westwood prevailed and survived.

In recognition of its astonishing past and fragile present, the community has been recently named to the list of Preservation Virginia’s “Most Endangered” list.  Nevertheless, Westwood is again under siege by an insensitive bureaucratic assault called “Code Refresh.”  This ham-handed revision of the city zoning code would allow more density on the existing street grid.  The affordable homes and lots in Westwood have already felt the attention of developers in their neighborhood, builders who are snatching up houses and properties.

Mashing more density into Westwood’s existing housing stock will forever alter the character of the neighborhood and rising taxes will disperse the current residents.  This triumph of the developer is the result of insensitive and poor planning on the part of the “Code Refresh” proponents.  Places like Westwood desperately need to be exempted from “one size fits all” planning, and Richmonders look to your office to provide the kind of leadership and vision to understand this.

Mayor Avula, a myth in our country exalts real estate developers as kings.  Let’s not allow Richmond’s future to become yet another victim of that horrid idea.  Revise “Code Refresh” to accommodate our past – it is ours to have or lose, and as they well know in Westwood, it is up to us to defend our history.  We need your help and support.

Sincerely, 

Selden Richardson

To contact Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, call the Mayor's Office at (804) 646-7970 or email RVAMayor@rva.gov.  

You can also visit or send mail to the office at 900 E. Broad St., Suite 201, Richmond, VA 23219

Panorama Postcard image of Capitol Square and Surroundings, Richmond, VA, ca. 1907, published by The Albertype Co., Brooklyn, NY

 

Panorama Postcard image of Capitol Square and Surroundings, Richmond, Virginia, ca. 1907, published by The Albertype Co., Brooklyn, NY

There are only a few panorama postcard images of Richmond published before 1930. This rare view, taken from a building on the south side of the 1000 block of E. Main St. opposite what is now the U. S. Court of Appeals Building, originally the U.S. Customhouse. These types of postcards were also called fold-out postcards. 

This building seen on the right is the old Times Building at Main and Twelfth Street. The building was enlarged 1890-1891 from a design by Richmond architect Charles H. Read, Jr. (1846-1904). 

This postcard was published in what is commonly called the Undivided Back Era, 1901-1907, when the back of a postcard was strictly reserved for the address, so senders had to write messages on the front of the card. This changed in 1907 during the Divided Back period, 1907-1915, known at the Golden Age of Postcards, when the U.S. Postal Service allowed messages and addresses to share the back of a postcard. This let images take up the entire front side, sparking a massive craze for illustrated and photographic postcards.

This image is dated from about 1907 - its a view that shows the Virginia State Capitol after the 1904 addition of the two wings added to the east and west ends of the building and before the Divided Back era of postcard publishing. 

The Albertype Company is described below from the catalog record for the "Albertype Co. Collection of North Carolina Photographs," circa 1900-1930s at the library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

The Albertype Co., headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y., produced postcards and other printed materials from 1890 until 1952. The company utilized a specific photomechanical processes process that had been invented by Joseph Albert in Australia in the late 1860s. Albert's process was an improvement on the collotype photographic process. The company had teams of photographers who traveled across the United States taking and buying images depicting people, places, and activities in all parts of the country. The images were published as postcards and marketed to be sold in the locales depicted in the images.

Back of the panorama postcard of Capitol Square. 

-- Ray

Remembering Cindy Jackson (1969-2023), Comic Book Librarian, Great Co-Worker and Wonderful Friend.

 

Cindy Jackson surrounded by boxes of comic books in Special Collections and Archives, VCU Libraries, ca. 2010. She’s holding the first issue of MAD magazine published in 1952.

 

Remembering Cindy Jackson

I want to divert from Richmond history with a remembrance of Cindy Jackson, my longtime co-worker and friend who died at age 53 in 2023. Cindy would have turned 57 this Tuesday,  June 30^th. Cindy managed the comic book collection in the Special Collections and Archives department at the James Branch Cabell Library of VCU Libraries for over twenty years. When Cindy died, there were several online articles about her role as a comic book librarian. These were terrific tributes full of praise for her knowledge about comic books and how helpful she was to library patrons and those in the comic book community. I will provide some links to these articles and other salutes to her at the bottom of this blog entry. I want to share my thoughts about Cindy, who was a generous, thoughtful person. She had many more interests and hobbies than just comic books.

The Special Collections and Archives department at the James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries, has a vast variety of materials that make up its Comic Arts Collection - one of the largest in the nation. It is one of several subject areas that the department collects and preserves. Other collections include the book arts, rare books and periodicals, Richmond history, the history of health care in Virginia, and VCU's University Archives.

I had been working in Special Collections and Archives for about four years when we hired Cindy as a student worker in 1996. After she graduated from high school in Hopewell, she attended J. Seargent Reynolds Community College and then transferred to VCU majoring in Information Systems. She later received a master’s degree in English. Her first job in our department was organizing and indexing the large collection of comic book related and popular culture periodicals donated to the department by M. Thomas Inge. In the early 1970s, Dr. Inge helped establish the Comic Book collection at the library when he was an English professor at VCU. The Inge collection of periodicals numbered over 500 individual titles. By 1999, she completed the list and it’s available on the Internet Archive HERE. She did a great job.

At this same time, she began working on our reference desk, helping students with questions and retrieving materials for patrons and reshelving books and other materials. She became very knowledgeable of the many different types of collections Special Collections houses. In fact, she knew our book and manuscript collections better than most of the heads of our department we had over the years.

Cindy holding a rare copy of All Negro Comics No.1, published in June 1947. It was one of several rare comic books acquired and donated by a long time donor who had asked Cindy what her top ten list of comic books she wanted for the collection. 

 

Over time Cindy became the de facto coordinator of the comic book collection. She became the main staff member who added newly acquired comic books to the collection and updated our comic book database. When she started in the late 1990s, we had about 10,000 comic books (the number varies according to different sources, but this is the number I remember). This did not include the many books or journals we had about comic books, comic strips, etc. – the full focus of what we eventually called our Comic Arts collection. In 2005 (on Christmas Day), she became a full-time employee at the library. The comic books numbered well over 100,000 by the time she died. She bagged and boarded most of them. She KNEW the collection. We had one wealthy comic book donor who began donating materials to us around 2010. In the last few years before Cindy’s death, he would ask her on an almost annual basis what her top ten wish list was for particular comic books. She would share her list with him and he acquired many of those rare items. He was an avid comic book collector and knowledgeable about comic book history. He told me once that Cindy “knew what she was talking about” with her lists – that she always selected not only rare comic books for him to purchase but important and significant ones in comic book history.  

One of our many rare books in Special Collections and Archives – the 1930 first edition of The Maltese Falcon.

Cindy had many other interests. She was an avid reader – she was Always reading a book - and enjoyed our large collection of rare books. One example was a 1930 first edition (once owned by Hunter Stagg) of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. She was a fan of Hammett and named the last cat she owned Dashiell. She owned many cats in her lifetime. She was a fan of trashy novels and quality fiction. Some of her favorite professors were ones she met in the English department as she pursed her graduate degree in literature. She told me several times her family owned a first edition of Gone with the Wind.

 

A Calvin and Hobbes comic strip from 1985. Cindy had her own collection of books at home. She was especially fond of her many Calvin and Hobbes books - she loved that comic strip. One of her Calvin and Hobbes books was published in German given to her by her friend, and former co-worker, Kelly Burrows.

She was a big music fan, had many albums and CDs. I remember her saying that her oldest brother, John, turned her on to rock music of the 1960s and 1970s. In high school, she saw a good number of shows by the Dave Matthews Band in Richmond. I know she was a big fan of Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers amongst other bands. She even turned her father on to Tom Petty and Sheryl Crow. Oh yes, she introduced him on to Seinfeld too. She was very southern in that she referred to her house in Hopewell as “Daddy’s house.” After the death of her mother, a longtime nurse at a Hopewell hospital, she lived with her father until he died.  

She was a big fan of the Batman, especially the revamped version that appeared in graphic novels. She was an avid TV watcher and would always recommend shows to me. Her taste ran from comedies like The Big Bang to horror shows like The Walking Dead. Her office was decorated with comic book paraphernalia and other popular culture items – including a growing collection of Funko Pop figures, including one of the character Daryl Dixon of the Walking Dead. She even had a large Batman piece of art created by a local artist specifically for Cindy. It showed Batman peeking into her office window.

Cindy was also a sports fan. She, her father and two brothers enjoyed NASCAR and attended races often at the Richmond Raceway. She liked watching college basketball. Her favorite team was Duke. She loved movies – I think she saw the first Twilight film a good ten times in the movie theater. She confided to me that her favorite film at one time was The Shawshank Redemption.  We even celebrated her birthday one year with a Shawshank Redemption themed birthday lunch.

Cindy loved to cook and share recipes. She especially liked to make baked goods and often shared her recipes with other library staff. She and I often talked about food and what we wanted to get for lunch at work. I remember one year when I kept bringing up how much I wanted homemade, southern style cornbread, she bought me a new iron skillet for Xmas and gave me her recipe for her version of cornbread, which included a tablespoon or two of Duke’s mayonnaise. The gift included all the ingredients needed for the cornbread including a bottle of Duke’s.

She loved her parents and her two brothers. She spoke of them often. And of her niece and sister-in-law. Her brother Stephen would call almost daily at around 2 pm after Cindy’s late lunch so they could catch up on their day.  

In the department, Cindy was the person who ordered our office and archival supplies. She loved going through those kinds of catalogs. She was very efficient and always seemed to get us the best Stuff. I often asked her to address envelopes for me because my handwriting was awful while her penmanship was clear and precise.

Cindy always had cool looking U.S. Postage stamps and was always sending out mail to her friends and pen pals on wonderful looking stationary. She made a great pen pal friend in Australia. As a kid, Cindy was a Garfield comic strip fan, and I know she had and used Garfield postage stamps.

She was friends with many staff members from departments throughout the library including many staff in Starbucks and those working on the Information desk with whom she would chat with as she made her in and out of the building. She was especially fond of Dave Morrison, the building manager, and Gregory Kimbrell, who organized events in the library. She was on a first name basis with professors from several VCU departments and with many of our long time library donors. Edgar MacDonald, the Cabell Scholar who we considered a staff member in Special Collections and Archives, enjoyed his conversations with her. And he relied on her for helping him with his computer problems – he often said she “worked miracles.” She was also helpful to students on their projects – and not just on comic book topics but on other subject areas of we had holdings of in our department. Over the years, we employed dozens of student workers in the department, including interns and part-time workers. Many of them helped Cindy over the years with the management of the comic books and with projects like setting up exhibits. They were lucky to have worked with her too.

Cindy and I spent a lot of time working together at the Special Collections and Archives reference desk, which gave us a chance to get to know each other incredibly well. Whenever I struggled to articulate a vague thought or remember the name of an actor or some well-known personality, she could decipher my meaning from just a few words. It was like she could read my mind.

Her last year was a tough one. She had a stroke in January of 2022 and had to leave work to recover at home. She was in and out of the hospital that year. I hoped her health would improve. I kept wishing a nurse or doctor would spend more time with her to help in her rehabilitation. I last spoke to her just before Christmas in December of 2022. She was in the hospital. She died early the next month. Her brother Stephen was so helpful to her that last year (let alone years before that). And I was so glad that there was an outpouring of love and remembrances of her after death was announced. She would have been very touched and appreciative of the many things people said and wrote about her. I think she leaves two legacies – the Comic Arts collection (which they should name after her) and the friendships she made during her life.

O

The James Branch Cabell Library on the Monroe Park campus of VCU. The Special Collection and Archives department is located on the fourth floor of the library.

 

One of my favorite memories of Cindy was when I would get to the Cabell library early – which was not often -- and see Cindy sitting on the low concrete wall in front of the library not far from Floyd Ave. where she parked. This was usually just before the library opened at 7:30. She would be surrounded by little birds and several squirrels. She would feed them before she entered the library. They would often follow her as she walked down the sidewalk to the library. I told her a few times that she looked like Mother Nature surrounded by happy animals. She liked that.

Often, long time co-workers become good friends. I was lucky to know Cindy, to benefit from her work as a colleague, and to have her as a friend. I still miss her, and I know I am not alone in that feeling. Right now, the Special Collections and Archives department is undergoing a major expansion and renovation to the space it occupies on the fourth floor in the Cabell Library. Cindy used to joke that Special Collections and Archives would keep growing and eventually take over the flour floor – well, she was right. They are close to doing that with these renovations. The department will be closed until 2028. After they reopen, visit the department and ask for a comic book or a graphic novel. Or donate a comic book or a related item in her name. That would be a wonderful way to remember and celebrate her life and work.   

- Ray

Below are links to articles and other online sources about Cindy and her work with the Comic Arts Collection at VCU. 

In early 2023, State Senator Ghazala F. Hashmi (now the Lieutenant Governor) filed a Senate Resolution honoring the life and legacy of Cindy. It's an excellent salute to her work and legacy. You can read it HERE. My guess is that managers at the VCU Libraries' were responsible for sponsoring that effort. 

Later in 2023, a book entitled Comic Books, Special Collections, and the Academic Library was published. It was edited by Kate Morris and Brian Flota, librarians at James Madison University. The book is dedicated to Cindy. The dedication reads:

Dedication

We would like to dedicate this book to Cindy Jackson, a highly respected member of the Comics Librarian community, who passed away at the age of 53 as this book was being completed. In her role at Virginia Commonwealth University, she oversaw the growth of one of the largest and most important academic library comics collections in the United States. Cindy was instrumental in guiding the editors of this book when they initially began collecting comics at James Madison University. She, along with Yuki Hibben and Andrea Kohashi, wrote the first chapter of this book, "Collecting Comics: Transcending Barriers and Building Community."

After Cindy died there were several online articles about her life and work. They included one by VCU News, Cindy Jackson, who oversaw VCU’s Comic Arts Collection, dies at 53 which was very thorough; another by VCU Libraries entitled: Queen of Comics Cindy Jackson, who oversaw VCU’s Comic Arts Collection, leaves legacy that was also good. She used to call herself jokingly the Queen of Comics. The Commonwealth Times published Influential, passionate VCU Comic Arts Collection Specialist dies at 53. There was also an excellent post on Facebook about Cindy that can be accessed HERE. In 2011, Cindy and Celina Williams, a long time worker in Special Collections and Archives who worked with Cindy on the comic book collection, were profiled by Rich Griset in Style Weekly in a cover story called Secret Powers: The massive comic-book collection on the campus of VCU isn’t just one of Richmond’s best-kept secrets, it’s one of the largest in the country. Lastly, VCU News has done several stories on the comic book collection over the years and often they included Cindy in the articles. They can be found HERE. 

“Richmond, on the James River, in Virginia” - An Engraving from "The Slave States of America" published in 1842.

 

“Richmond, on the James River, in Virginia” appears opposite page 413 in James Silk Buckingham’s second volume of The Slave States of America (published in London by Fisher, Son & Co. in 1842). Buckingham (1789-1855) was a British journalist and social reformer. The Slave States of America serves as both a travelogue and a critique of the American institution of slavery published just decades before the Civil War. One chapter of the book, about 20 pages, devotes itself to describing life in Richmond. Although published in 1842, Buckingham's travels in the south, including Richmond, took place primarily in 1839. 

Image from the Contents of the book showing subjects discussed in the chapter on Richmond. 

Read the chapter on Richmond HERE.

This steel engraving print of the city was composed by William Henry Brooke (1772-1860) - his name appears on the bottom left of the image. F.S.A. indicates he was a "Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London." 

The engraver was William Henry Capone (active c. 1832–1855). His name is seen on the bottom right. Capone was an English line engraver and printmaker and specialized in travel drawings and topographical sketches into steel plate engravings. 

From left to right one can see: Benjamin Henry Latrobe's Virginia State Penitentiary building, Robert Mill's Richmond City Hall, and Thomas Jefferson/Charles-Louis Clérisseau's Virginia State Capitol. 

There are two different copies of Vol. 2 of The Slave States of America available on the Internet Archive. The image above is taken from THIS version - which is listed on the site as "The slave states of America [microform]." A second version, simply titled "The slave states of America" is available HERE. The print seen in the first version is a better quality image although its cropped. You can see the entire print in the second version but it has a good amount of foxing. 

I hope you follow the link and read the description of the city. In the future I will post an essay on Buckingham's visit to Monumental Church. 

- Ray