Roy D. Branum’s "Take Up Thy Cross" and the Murder of Johnny "Gee" - John H. Gallaher.

Some years ago, I was shopping at a Powhatan Goodwill thrift store. I was perusing the vinyl records, often reserved for polka, big band and swing records that are beat up beyond belief. But every now and then you might just come across something special. On this day Roy D. Branum’s country album stood out to me. With its innocent private press styled cover, Branum stands in front of a microphone in plaid golf pants holding a Gibson acoustic guitar.

Front cover of the album Take Up They Cross by Roy D. Branum released ca. 1980.

Upon flipping over the record, I noticed that Branum’s address was a P.O. Box in Powhatan, Virginia. The central Virginia connection was enough to spend $3.99 and bring the record home. Beyond the song titles and credits, the record also had a “In Memory Of” tribute on the back of the record. This record was dedicated to the memory of the bass player in the band, Johnny G. The tribute reads: 

This album respectively dedicated to the memory of my dearest friend. Johnny “Gee” from Tenn. Who dedicated his life to country music: by playing with many of the top stars of country music & spinning country records on his radio show for some 20 years over station WXGI in Richmond, VA. Johnny G. was a wonderful person and really enjoyed making people happy. Johnny G. and I were from the same area, but never met until I came to Richmond, VA in 1975 and it was instant friendship. I’m thankful that I have Johnny G. playing bass guitar on this album. Although Johnny G. isn’t with us now we can still hear his music. Johnny G. was kidnapped, robbed and murdered in Richmond, VA on Sept. 14 1979. For his friends we pray this album will be a blessing and we know we will meet him again when this life is over. We wish to thank WXGI for the use of their equipment and studios for the recording of this album. We also thank Al Lancaster and Leroy Morgan for their fine guitar playing and we treasure their friendship. May God bless all that helped with this album and I pray it will be a blessing to all that hear it.

 

Back cover of the album. 

 

I was immediately struck by the stark bluntness of how Johnny G had died. This wasn’t just a tribute to the death of an old friend; it was a document of a friendship cut short by a terrible tragedy.

I bought the record and went home and placed it on my turntable and was pleasantly warmed by the cozy country gospel sound. Roy D. Branum, who sang and played guitar on the album, and his band played ten gospel classics with twang. 

Branum was born in Tennessee in 1927 and settled in Virginia where he became a member of the May Memorial Baptist Church in Powhatan. He was a member of the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local #100. He died in 2004. 

Albert H. Lancaster, Jr. was the lead guitarist on the album. Born in 1925, he played country shows in Virginia throughout his life. He may be best known for his band The Country Cavaliers who played shows at festivals and bars all throughout the 1960s. They were also the house band on Dominion Barn Dance, a television show on WXEX-TV in the 1960s (the station is now known as WRIC, Channel 8 in the Richmond area). They released one album on Shoestring Records, a Richmond country music label, which probably deserves its own article someday. Lancaster died in 2007.

Image of the Country Cavaliers from The Crew-Burkeville Journal, Sept. 16, 1965. Lancaster is the man with the electric guitar in the image. 

Leroy M. Morgan played rhythm guitar on the album. He was born in 1936 and was Johnny G’s closest friend. He was a Richmond police officer and went on to be a part time announcer and sales manager at WXGI-AM, the Richmond radio station where Johnny Gee worked at as well. Morgan died in 2010. 

Al Lancaster’s lead guitar really shines through on these songs. While enjoying my budget purchase, I began searching for information about Johnny G’s slaying. I learned his murder was committed by Richmond’s notorious Briley Brothers.

I assume readers of the Shockoe Examiner do not need an introduction to the Briley Brothers. They are Richmond, Virginia’s most notorious serial killers. Throughout their spree in 1979, the three siblings, Linwood, James, and Anthony, along with their 16-year-old neighbor Duncan Eric Meekins, committed at least a dozen murders amongst other ruthless rapes and robberies in the greater Richmond area. One of those unlucky victims was John Harvey Gallaher, also known in the local country music world as Johnny G.

Article about the death of John H. Gallaher from the Sept. 18, 1979 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. 

 

John Gallaher was born in 1917 in Hardin Valley, Tennessee, a rural area about 15 miles from Knoxville. There here he gained early experience playing playing country music around Knoxville and on local radio at WNOX along with people like Chet Atkins who was once his roommate. Gallaher was a World War Two veteran. He later spent his thirties traveling the country looking for music work. He eventually settled in Richmond in 1960 where he found his radio spot on WXGI-AM. He became a well-known DJ in the area for his country tunes catalog. A 1975 Richmond Times-Dispatch article about him said he also was playing five nights a week in a band called The Flairs at The Log Cabin Dancehall located at 3600 Jefferson Davis Highway. The band was more than just country, also playing “pops, rock, country to waltzes.”

It was at the Log Cabin where Johnny G’s final hours begin. The country music dance hall was opened by Peter Joseph Pfister, another person who spent his days playing country music on the radio. He was part of the Sunshine Hillbillies on WRNL Radio in the first half of the twentieth century. Pfister died in 1973 but the Log Cabin continued to guarantee a good night out south of the James for years to come.

Image of John Gallaher, aka "Johnny G.", from a profile of Gallaher, written by Norman Rowe published in the May 25, 1973 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The text of the article reads:

Johnny G. (for Gallagher) plays Chet Atkins’ records suite often during his mid-morning and midafternoon deejay shows on the country-flavored WXGI in Richmond. 

But Johnny G.’s connections with Atkins’ career are more than a matter of record. They go back to being roommates in Knoxville when both were playing on “The Midday Merry-Go-Round” on radio station WNOX. Musically speaking, the pickin’ was good — some of the now country music stars were in that act — but from the standpoint of economics, the pickin’s were slim. Johnny G. recalls.

“My dad had a farm some 15 miles west of Knoxville and Chet’s folks lived about the same distance east of Knoxville in a little town called Luttrell. On Sundays we’d hop into my old car and drive out to one or the other’s home, to get one good meal for the week.”

THE TIME WAS SHORTLY after World War II. Johnny G. was getting into show business with a big, upright bass, for the most part, self-taught. Atkins, according to Johnny G., was “a good guitar player in those days,” sort of drifting around the country anywhere he could get a job. “It was that way with most musicians,” the Richmonder recalls.

“Chet had asthma when we were staying together. And many nights when he couldn’t sleep, I’d wake up to find him practicing on his guitar, playing softly long into the night. Chet used to say, ‘Some day, I want to be one of the best-known guitar players in the world.’”

Chet Atkins, Nashville’s No. 1 citizen who often leaves the Country Music Capital of the World to play his instrument with some of the nation’s leading symphonic orchestras, will be in Richmond Friday and Saturday nights, featured with the Richmond Symphony.

This does not come as a real surprise to Johnny G. “Nothing that he does now surprises me any more. He loves the guitar and he’s dedicated to it.”

JOHNNY G. SUMS it up like this: “Chet’s career really took off; mine hardly got off the ground. Now look, he’s a genius and he worked hard for it. He deserves everything that’s coming to him.”

Before Johnny G. settled down to a regular radio spot in Richmond in 1960, however, he had drifted around, from Knoxville to Memphis, from Memphis to Mobile, to Atlanta, to the Carolinas and then to Washington, where he worked for promoter Connie B. Gay, playing with then unknowns like Virginia-born Roy Clark and Jimmy Dean.

Johnny G. recalls, “Sonny James was playing with the Loden Family band, Mom and Pop Loden, their daughters and Sonny. At that time (in Knoxville), Sonny wasn’t singing much, but playing his fiddle.

“Now, Sonny has a unique approach to country music; he’s often using voices to sound like instruments, with perhaps a real guitar and a bass for the rhythm section.

“There was one thing I remember about Sonny James. Whenever he had a Sunday play date, he’d take time out to go to church. I used to go with them sometimes because there was a girl bass player in their band, and I was dating her. No, it wasn’t Sonny’s sister.”

THERE WERE OTHER then unknowns on the Knoxville scene with Johnny G. “Archie Campbell was there for years; he was doing an old-man act and was billed as Grandpappy. He didn’t start playing Archie Campbell until many years later. Don Gibson got his start there and Virginia-born Mac Wiseman was a frequent visitor.

“Homer and Jethro sort of got started there; Chet and Jethro married sisters.”

Johnny G. recalls that Atkins had a brother, Jim, who was a leading singer with Fred Waring, and he invited Chet to come to New York and later arranged for the guitarist to audition on WLW in Cincinnati for that station’s barn dance show.

Somewhere along the way, Chet Atkins was playing in Richmond for a few months, along with Sunshine Sue and WRVA’s Old Dominion Barn Dance.

Johnny G. dislikes the role of name-dropper “because so many people are willing to swear you’re lying” and it’s rare that he mentions his former associates on his WXGI broadcasts here.

After he was getting tired of “playing all the bars in Washington,” Johnny G. felt the urge to settle down in radio somewhere and he got a tip of a job here in 1960, and except for two “extended vacations,” has been here ever since.

ONCE, WHEN HE was playing with a band in Memphis clubs, he had nothing to do in the daytime, so he decided to go to radio announcers’ school. “And to show how good the school was, I became a teacher at the same school after two weeks. But with playing in so many bands in ever so many stations, I sort of knew something about it. After ‘graduation,’ I got my first radio job as an announcer-deejay at WELO, Tupelo, Miss. That’s where Elvis Presley was from, but I never heard of him while I was there.” Then, there was his job with a station in High Point, N. C. “I got fired there. It seems my deejay rival on another local station joined a group that bought our station. This guy said I was trying to imitate Arthur Godfrey, and he fired me.”

Johnny G. denies the alleged Godfrey imitation, but “I did admire the man very much; he was so relaxed on the air. I feel that if an announcer and deejay can be relaxed on the air, then most of his listeners will be relaxed. Besides, I like being lazy, and being relaxed is the best approach to that status.”

IN RICHMOND, Johnny G. created his “Weather Lady” character in monologue directed at this female creature who makes her weather forecast from observations while hanging from a telephone pole.

While Johnny G. may be popular with many listeners in many areas, he is fairly certain he has no friends and/or listeners at the weather bureau. He maintains he doesn’t understand “how those fellows can be wrong so much of the time and at the same time continue to hold their jobs.”

After hours Johnny G. is slapping his (now electric) bass five nights a week with The Flairs band at the Log Cabin on Petersburg Pike. “It’s not a country band ... we play everything from pops to rock, country to waltzes.”

With the background of a rambling music man, why has Johnny G. remained hereabouts for so long?

“Richmond has been good for me and good to me ... I tried leaving a couple of times, but it didn’t work.”

 

Except on Friday September 14, 1979 when Johnny G and (I assume) The Flairs were performing a classic Friday night show at the Log Cabin. Johnny stepped outside around 11:30pm during a break between sets. It was then he had his run in with the Briley brothers and Meekins. Some police reports suspect that Johnny G noticed his car being broken into and that initially led him into the Briley Brother’s trap.

After the capture of the Brothers in late 1979, Meekins became the chief witness in the trial. He testified that they forced Johnny G into his own car, a Lincoln Continental, and drove straight down Jefferson Davis Highway and to Mayo Island, in the middle of the James River. The brothers left Meekins in the car and took Johnny G into the Standard Paper Manufacturing Company building, which was shut down and abandoned just 3 years earlier. It was here that Johnny G was shot point blank in the back with a shotgun and tossed into the James River. The Brothers returned to Meekins and the car with the $6 found inside Johnny G’s wallet. Two days later Johnny G’s body was found in the James River still near Mayo Island. 

Richmond Times-Dispatch, Dec. 11, 1979.

The Briley Brothers would continue their wrath on Richmond for over a month more before eventually being caught towards the end of October of 1979. Linwood and James Briley were both sentenced to death and executed in 1984 and 1985 respectively. Anthony Briley and Duncan Meekins are still alive and incarcerated.

In the months after Johnny G’s untimely death, Roy D. Branum finished putting together a collection of his songs for the record that began this article. A collection of songs recorded at Johnny G’s radio studio in the late 1970s. A record that would act as the only physical recording of Johnny G’s country career that spanned decades. Ten songs that would hopefully comfort friends and family that missed him.

And to the next person who pulls this record out of a local Goodwill, I hope this article finds you well.

 ------------------

Obituary of Gallaher from the Sept. 19, 1979 issue of The Knoxville News Sentinel. This obituary from his hometown confirms his actual age, not the 47-year-old figure published twice in the RTD.

Listen to Roy D. Barnum’s "Take Up Thy Cross" LP HERE. 

- Brian Baynes

Brian is the owner of Brian's Books, a small bookstore in the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond. He has published the popular comics and manga fanzine Bubbles since 2019, and has run Bubbles Con since 2024, a free comics symposium that takes place at the Richmond Public Library. He has lived in Richmond since 2010 and loves diving into the history.

Rare Postcard views of Broad Street, Richmond, Va, early 1900s.

 

Rare postcard view of Broad Street, looking east from 5th Street., postmarked Oct. 9, 1909.

Back of the postcard shown above. The Valentine and Sons Publishing Co., Printed in Great Britain.

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Rare postcard view of East Broad Street looking east - off the in the distance one can see Broad Street Methodist Church building on the left and what is now Old City Hall building on the right. Postmarked June 3, 1907.

Back of the postcard show above. The card was published by the Tom Jones Publising company of St. Louis which produced "a highly recognizable line of topographical city views printed in a distinct, stark monochromatic blue tint. These cards typically featured cityscapes, community parks, street scenes, and prominent civic buildings."

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Postcard view of East Broad Street - appears to be looking east from 7th Street. Published ca. 1909.

Back view of the postcard shown above published by the Hugh C. Leighton Co., Manufactures, Portland, Maine. 

--- Ray

Styles of Building - A Walking Tour of Richmond Architecture with Prof. John Pollard of Richmond College, 1891.

This article appeared in the April 19, 1891 issue of the Richmond Dispatch. It recounts an architectural history tour that Rev. John Pollard (1839-1911) of Richmond College gave his students in Richmond on April 16, 1891. I thought this was an interesting look at what Richmonders in the late 19th century considered important buildings to study and discuss - as well as the vocabulary they used in discussing those buildings. The article was nearly a column in length. The text of the article appears below. 

John Pollard as he appeared in the 1897 student yearbook for Richmond College (now the University of Richmond). This was the first yearbook published by the school. Pollard was a professor of English at the school from 1886 until 1901. He was pastor of several Baptist churches over the course of his life. His obituary published in the July 15, 1911 issue of the Richmond Dispatch, can be read online on the Library of Virginia's Virginia Chronicle website. He might be remembered most as being the father of one of Virginia's most influential (and interesting) public servants of the 20th century, John Garland Pollard (1871-1937), the 51st Governor of Virginia (1930-1933).

Here is the text to the "Styles of Building" walking tour of Richmond Architecture with Prof. John Pollard, published in the April 19, 1891 issue of the Richmond Dispatch:

STYLES OF BUILDING.

PROFESSOR POLLARD AND CLASS STUDYING ARCHITECTURE.

They View Many Private Residences and Public Structures-Comment on Some of Those Visited.

Professor John Pollard, of Richmond College, and his class in English History spent an exceedingly interesting and profitable afternoon last Thursday in studying architecture, as illustrated in some of the residences and public buildings of Richmond.

The Professor, before setting out on the tour of inspection, delivered to his class a lecture, in which he showed how some knowledge of architecture was almost in-d dispensable to the student of English history. He showed that though architecture has its root in utility, yet a building might be exceedingly well suited to human uses and at the same time possess no architectural character. Architecture appears only when considerations of beauty are prominently combined with considerations of utility. He also explained that in the proposed study his object would not be to unfold the principles and history of this art, but to give to each student such a practical acquaintance with the main features of the principal styles as would enable him hereafter to recognize these styles whenever seen, and thus indirectly stimulate an interest in the whole subject of architecture. He said that the ancient peoples that developed architecture of their own were the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hindoos [sic], Persians, Greeks, and Romans. In Richmond we seldom meet with any ancient architecture but that of Greece and Rome. The only exception to this remark-certainly the only prominent exception-is the Medical College.

ADOPTED FROM THE GREEK.

The Grecian and Roman styles (including their various modifications and revivals) we see very frequently. The Professor reminded the class that the Romans scarcely did more than adopt the architecture of the Greeks, who developed three orders-the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian, which represented respectively the strong, the chaste, and the elegant. These the Romans adopted, and added the Tuscan and the Composite, the former being the Doric simplified and the latter a modification of the Corinthian. The Greek orders can be best distinguished by the columns used in each, and the columns by their capitals. Passing, then, from ancient architecture, the Professor rapidly sketched, one after another the Norman or Romanesque style, the Gothic in its three different stages of Early English, Deco- rated, and Perpendicular, the Queen Anne, and the French Renaissance. This preliminary discussion was regarded as sufficient to enable the class to understand what they would now be invited to personally inspect.

THE IMMORTAL WALTER.

The Second Baptist church was first visited. The style was recognized as Doric. The massive fluted column was commented upon, and the abacus immediately beneath the architrave. As he gazed on this striking portico some pleasing memories came to Professor Pollard. He had been credibly informed that the architect of this building was Thomas U. Walter, the man that has made himself immortal in designing the dome of the Capitol in Washington and in superintending its erection. When the Professor was a student at Columbian University [a predecessor school to today's George Washington University in Wash., D.C.], Mr. Walter was his Sunday-school teacher for three years. While the class were at the Second Baptist church Mr. A. L. West, a well-known architect of this city, came up by a happy coincidence. Though hastening to his office, he tarried for a moment and gave the young men some valuable suggestions concerning that art to which he has devoted his life.

SPOTTED BY SPARROWS.

The Professor and his students next stood before the imposing facade of St. Paul's Episcopal church. The style was recognized as Corinthian, and special attention was called to the very graceful fluted columns and to the volutes and acanthuses forming the capitals. Among the evils that the English sparrows have inflicted on our city none is to be more regretted than the necessity of hiding to a considerable extent the beauties of those Corinthian capitals at St. Paul's. Park-Place Methodist church is pure Gothic and very strikingly exhibits that style in its early English stage.

The next building visited was the Capitol. It was noted as an illustration of the Ionic order. Comment was made on the contrast between the Ionic and Corinthian column. The capitals of both present the volutes, but in the Ionic they are conspicuous and uncombined, while in the Corinthian they are small and combined with foliage ornamentations. The occasion was embraced for giving some facts in the history of this historic building.

The Medical College was next visited. The Professor saw an "old fo' de war auntie" standing near and asked her what building it was. "Dat," said she, "iz dee Medikle Kollig." She was then asked what its style of architecture was. She was somewhat nonplussed, but putting on a knowing look, she said: "Dat-dat iz whar dey maik dokters."

This building is exclusively Egyptian, a fact known by the pyramidal front, the winged globe and the inverted bell capital. It is to be regretted that such a fine specimen of this ancient style is not in a more conspicuous position.

HIDDEN BEAUTY.

In passing the Richmond Female Institute it was seen that its design is not especially marked, but inclines to the Italian. Several of the students suggested that perhaps, like Westminster Abbey, its most lovely and striking features were within. "Yes, young gentlemen," replied the Professor, with a twinkle in his eye, “the remark is true, but that architecture is from the Divine Hand and we must herefore pass on."

The new City Hall, which, like Solomon's Temple, has been years in building, was not overlooked. Here the Gothic was met for the first time. The structure, however, is not wholly Gothic. The mansard roof would seem to connect it with the French Renaissance. The door-arches seem to illustrate the Transitional-the style prevailing in England about the twelfth century, when the Norman was passing into the Gothic. The most of the windows are conspicuously Gothic, and so far as the unfinished state of the building will allow one to judge, they must be assigned to the early English stage of the style to which they belong. It must be admitted that the architect has made a happy combination.

GOTHIC CHURCHES.

In passing from Seventh street up Grace the class noticed that most of the churches on this thoroughfare are of the Gothic (or pointed) style. In the Grace-Street Presbyterian church the decorated Gothic was observed-i. e., the upper parts of the windows are ornamented with curvilinear tracery.

The new Grace-Street Baptist church received attention. It is a fine illustration of Norman architecture. The massive square tower and the arch forming a perfect semi- circle are conspicuous. It has the appearance of being formed "for endless years." Domestic architecture was not forgotten. The features of many prominent residences were explained. It was found that the older residences having architectural character are classical in their features, while those building and but recently built exhibit to a greater or smaller degree the Queen Anne style, which is marked by Norman arches, conspicuous gables, cylindrical bay-windows, and ornamental brick work. It was interesting to observe that in the porches of two of the new residences on Franklin appeared Moorish columns, which belong to the style of architecture illustrated in the far-famed Alhambra.

VARIED BUT PLEASING.

The tour concluded with an inspection of the main building of Richmond College. Its exact architectural character is not easy to determine, though the architect has certainly succeeded in producing a pleasing effect. It can scarcely be doubt- ed that the general style is that of the French renaissance, a style that grew out of a revival of classical architecture in France during the time of Napoleon III. It was introduced into this country by American architects that had been trained in the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.

THANKED THE PROFESSOR.

The professor and his class would have been glad to extend their architectural studies to other buildings in our city, where it is evident that architecture is receiving more attention than ever before: but the sinking sun, which by this time had touched the horizon, gave admonition that the tour must end. A call upon Pizzini was a pleasant incident of the afternoon. When refreshments had been served Mr. Thomas Gresham, of the class, stepped forward and in a neat speech thanked Professor Pollard for the entertainment and instruction he and his fellow-students had derived from what they had heard and seen.

 

- Ray 

A New State Capitol in the West End? The Meteoric Rise and Fall of a Planned Government Complex

William Tuck was a pragmatic kind of Virginian.  He grew up on a tobacco farm in Halifax County and developed into a canny lawyer and politician, becoming Governor in 1946. His red-clay origins may have given him a conservative and no-nonsense attitude, especially concerning labor relations, but Bill Tuck knew a bad idea when he saw one.

The financial situation with the State government was becoming increasingly serious early in Tuck’s term.  In 1947, he wrote to the heads of State agencies, directing them to report any unspent funds and outlining what these agencies would do to help with a growing budget deficit. These agencies were warned that there may be revenue shortfalls for the next two years.

Governor William M. Tuck (1896-1983). From the collection of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.

Despite the budget problems, Tuck was faced with the demand for more space for State offices.  The economic boom that occurred at the end of World War II had to be served by a growing number of public servants, departments, and bureaucrats and the traditional seat of government in downtown Richmond was running out of room. The Richmond News Leader reported that “Some departments such as Taxation, Purchasing and Printing, Health and Agriculture, are so crowded that workers are almost sitting in each other’s laps.”

On August 17, 1948, Governor Tuck and the State’s Public Building Commission revealed a secret plan that had been under development for months. “Reliable sources said this proposal was advanced more than a year ago by at least two men high in State government,” reported the Richmond News Leader, “…and that it received some support from some influential outside sources.” There is just the slightest whiff of conspiracy about the initial identification of this site as suitable for the new Capitol, and the mention that the property had recently been surveyed did nothing to dispel this idea.

The approach to the 1948 Capitol complex would have run straight through the site of today’s Epiphany Lutheran Church at 1400 Horsepen Road.

A tract of land at the far end of Monument Avenue was proposed as the site of a completely new Capitol complex, which would stand on a slight rise called Fort Hill. The existing Capitol would be repurposed as a “Shrine to the South” museum, an institution described as, “a Southern museum without equal in the old Confederacy.” The old Capitol Square would be connected to the new seat of government 6.5 miles to the west by a “parkway” that is today’s Monument Avenue.

A plan in the collection of the Library of Virginia shows the State Capitol and the new seat of government 6.5 miles away at the intersection of Horsepen Road and Monument Avenue.

In this detail of the proposed new “Capitol Hill,” the State buildings are shown in red. Note the Civil War-era earthworks still on the “Fort Hill” site. Notations show approaches from various points around Virginia.

As planned, Monument Avenue would cross Horsepen Road and turn into a series of looping drives around multi-story buildings. A new airport was mentioned as one of the features of the plan, which could have resulted in the revival of a nearby airfield that was built in 1941 but soon abandoned. The Shockoe Examiner profiled that airport earlier this year. 

This newspaper photo illustrating an automobile accident shows the undeveloped condition of what is now the West End of Richmond. This view is looking east from the intersection of Libbie Avenue and Monument Avenue. The Richmond News Leader, March 31, 1948.

The design of the new “Capitol Hill” would have taken Monument Avenue into the heart of the Fort Hill neighborhood. The campus would have consumed the area now occupied by hundreds of suburban houses and a portion of the Henrico Doctors Hospital site.

The plan for the new Capitol was hardly an amateur effort, as the principal architect was Merril C. Lee, the respected creator of numerous major Virginia buildings. Consulting architects included a “Who’s Who” of prominent Richmond architects: Baskervill and Son, Carneal & Johnston, and Marcellus Wright & Son. Cost estimates for the complex of buildings were not released, but it would mean an expenditure of millions of Virginia taxpayers’ dollars, and Governor Tuck knew it.

The Richmond News Leader headline announcing “Tuck Reveals ‘Capitol’ in West End” ran on August 17, 1948.  The following day, an equally large headline read, “Tuck Gets Barrage of Protests on Plan to Move ‘Capitol Hill.” Governor Tuck made no secret of how he felt about this remote Virginia Capitol but apparently felt obliged to hear all proposals for expansion of State offices. For Tuck, a strong advocate of fiscal responsibility, the price tag was too much, and the tidal wave of immediate and vocal opposition must have been impressive. The Governor probably enjoyed being near the Capitol and State offices where they were: a five-minute stroll instead of a twenty-minute commute up and down Monument Avenue from the Governor’s Mansion.

With the cost, the inconvenience, the overwhelming public sentiment for keeping Virginia government where it was, the project had a swift end. On August 18, the News Leader concluded, “Indications were today that the West End idea would die aborning.” 

Without Tuck’s support, the “Capitol Hill” in the West End disappeared without a ripple.  All the architects involved stood down from what might have been one of largest and most significant design and building programs the Commonwealth had ever seen. Instead, the following year, Virginians contented themselves with an inexpensive beautification plan for Capitol Square, with new planting and walkways. No more was said about ranks of massed office buildings looming over the West End.

The plan for the new Capitol complex was added to the collection of the Library of Virginia, the repository of several ambitious (and failed) plans for Capitol Square. The Shockoe Examiner explored one of the more vivid plans in 2014. 

Another take on this topic was written by Harry Kollatz, Jr., "Office Space - Virginia’s government almost moved to Henrico County" for the Nov. 2023 issue of Richmond Magazine. 

-Selden

 

 

Rare view of the Construction of the City Hall building of Richmond, Virginia, ca. 1887.

 

This image of the "Stonewall" Jackson statue in Capitol Square (unveiled in 1875, removed in 2026) shows a glimpse of the construction of what is now Old Richmond City Hall. The image is from a small publication entitled "Richmond Indelible Photographs" published in 1890. While the book was published in 1890, I determined that the image probably dates from about 1887 when construction on the City Hall building was begun. 

The Shockoe Examiner published another rare view of the construction of the building several years ago. Here's a link to that blog post.

Image of the cover of the publication "Richmond Indelible Photographs" published in 1890. It was for sale on eBay in Sept. of 2026. 

- Ray