Richmond Public Library, 1937

Click on the image twice for a larger view - John W. De Groot worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the late 1930s as an illustrator and writer. He provided many of the illustrations for the TD's Sunday Magazine section at that time period. This issue, dated April 11, 1937, is courtesy of Richard Bland. 

The (James H.) Dooley Memorial Library, 101 E. Franklin Street, was built 1929-1930. The library was an Art Deco-style building designed by Baskervill and Lambert. A new and much larger Richmond Public Library building built in 1972 now surrounds the old building. The original entrance hall remains as the lobby of the western half of the new building [thanks to Ann C.!]. Funding for the Dooley Library originated from a $500,000 bequest by Sallie May Dooley (1846-1925), wife of Major James H. Dooley (1841-1922). The Dooleys gave their large estate, Maymont, to the City of Richmond to be used as a park after their death.

Richmond was one of the last cities of its size in the nation to build and operate a public library. In 1901 Andrew Carnegie’s offer to donate $100,000 to the City of Richmond to erect a public library was initially accepted by City Council. Despite efforts by supporters of a public library, led by Robert Whittet, Sr. of the publishing firm Whittet and Shepperson, funding by the city was never allocated. Carnegie’s demands that the city find and purchase a site and allocate $10,000 a year for the maintenance for a library were considered too costly by the city.

Those early efforts did lead to the formation of a citizens’ campaign for a library in the 1910s and 1920s. As public support grew, City Council finally agreed to fund a public library. Richmond’s first public library operated from 1924 to 1930 at 901 W. Franklin Street, the former residence of Major Lewis Ginter (1824-1897). In segregated Richmond African Americans could not use the library. In 1925 the city opened the Rosa D. Bowser Library for African Americans. Named for Rosa L. Dixon Bowser (1855-1931), a civic leader who was considered the first African American female school teacher in Richmond, the library was located in the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA at 515 N. 5^th Street.

When did Richmond's Public Library integrate?

- Ray B.

Three Famous Spiral Staircases in Richmond.

This image of the spiral staircase in the clock tower of Old City Hall was taken by Selden Richardson in 1999. Was the cast iron staircase produced by Asa Snyder and Co., the Richmond firm which provided the ironwork for the rest of the building? The building was completed in 1894 and designed by Elijah Myers of Detroit.  

Click on all images twice for a much larger view.

Selden's image of a great looking spiral staircase got us thinking - what other spiral stairs existed in Richmond?

Image of the factory and grounds of the Richmond Architectural Iron Works and Stove Company founded by Asa Snyder (1825-1884). The company was established in 1851 and continued through the early 1920s.  

Postcard image of what is now Old City Hall, postmarked 1909 - 

from Rarely Seen Richmond.

This image is a recent acquisition from eBay - it shows the staircase in Pratt's Castle, built by William Abbot Pratt in 1853 and demolished in 1956. The image is from a Chicago newspaper's photograph morgue acquired by the eBay seller. Was this iron staircase a product of Asa Snyder and Co. or another Richmond firm?

The reverse side of the staircase image from Pratt's Castle shows the caption by Wide World Photos used in February of 1946 in an undetermined Chicago newspaper.

Postcard image of Pratt's Castle, ca. 1910.

From Rarely Seen Richmond.

What looked like a Gothic fortress was actually an iron-plated house built for William A. Pratt, who ran a daguerreotype gallery on Main Street in the 1850s. This peculiar house had rooms with varying heights, elaborate stained glass, and four towers offering great views of the city - as well as the cast-iron staircase. Pratt sold the house in 1865 seven years after he moved to Charlottesville. The building was purchased and demolished by the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company in 1956. Today, the headquarters of Ethyl Corporation are located on this site.

Our final image of a Richmond spiral staircase is from the early 1950s showing a group of Richmond teenagers from the local YWCA Phyllis Wheatley Branch in what was then the Rosa D. Bowser Library, used by Richmond's African Americans (Richmond's Public Libraries were segregated - as was the Richmond YWCA). The library was named for Rosa L. Dixon Bowser (1855-1931), a civic leader who was considered the first African American female school teacher in Richmond.

 Image of the Conway Robinson House

from Old Richmond Neighborhoods.

The building stood at 515 N. 5th Street and was built in 1849 by Conway Robinson (1805-1884), a lawyer and president of the R.F. and P. Railroad. Mary Wingfield Scott (1895-1983) wrote about the house in Old Richmond Neighborhoods, published in 1950.

She wrote:

"In the 'seventies [1870s] the Conway Robinson House, 515 North Seventh, was the home of general T. M. Logan. From 1883 to 1914 it served as the Presbyterian and Methodist Old Ladies' Home, and since then has been the headquarters of the Phyllis Wheatley (Negro) Branch of the Y.W.C.A. The house, probably designed by Henry Exall [a Richmond builder  - more on him below] has been considerably altered by a mansard roof. The most striking feature of the interior is the spiral stair, which runs up to the third floor, and for this reason as well as its rather unattractive newel-post and trim may be contemporary  with the mansard rather than the original construction. At present the stucco of the exterior is painted a staring white that contrasts disagreeably with the bright green woodwork."
 
- page 270, Old Richmond Neighborhoods (1950) by Mary Wingfield Scott.

Obviously, Miss Scott did not spare words when it came to her descriptions of houses. The Conway Robinson House was torn down in the 1960s [?].

She concluded that Henry Exall, active in Richmond 1845 through 1891, was the builder of the Conway Robinson House. Exall was a prolific builder - his obituary suggested that he had designed "fully one half of the houses built in Richmond prior to the War." He is the architect credited with designing Morson's Row on Governor's Street.

Do you know of any other spiral staircases in Richmond buildings? Let us know.

I know of one other - it was a cast iron spiral staircase and was located in the Scott-Bocock House, now part of VCU's Monroe Park Campus. Unfortunately it was removed from the house by VCU in the early 2000s - I'm going to see if I can track it down. Maybe its in storage at VCU.

- Ray B.

The First 125 Years of the Medical College of Virginia - published in 1963.

A new addition to the VCU Libraries Digital Collections: The First 125 Years of the Medical College of Virginia, available at http://go.vcu.edu/mcvhistory.  MCV celebrated its 125th anniversary in 1963, culminating in the publication of this volume. Issued as hard- and soft-back publications in the college’s bulletin series, the 96-page photo history, largely the work of Thelma Vaine Hoke, was the college's first full-length history. Hoke pulled photographs, letters, documents, reports, and publications for the book from a rich collection of historical materials gathered and preserved by James Ralph McCauley, who served as secretary-treasurer for the college and secretary for the Board of Visitors from 1902 until his death in 1950.

MCV is now 172 Years Old - it was founded in 1838.

Visit the VCU Libraries' Digital Collections at http://dig.library.vcu.edu/

And visit the Archives of the Medical College of Virginia

at the Tompkins-McCaw Library on the MCV campus of VCU.

-- Ray B.

Madison School, Corner Cary and Madison St. (1872-1973) and Playground Kids, 1940s.

 
Madison Playground, 1940s

I love the dress up this kids (now probably in their late 70s/early 80s)

are wearing. And look how they decorate their bikes.

Image courtesy Richmond Parks and Recreation. 
For Much Larger View, Click on Image Once, then Click Again

There's a great online resource created and maintained by the Richmond Public Schools Board entitled "Richmond Public Schools: A Mini History: Bits & Pieces" - It lists all known, past and present, Richmond Public Schools.

They describe the index of schools as such: "Much of the history of the Richmond Public Schools was recorded in the context of a segregated society, and the reader should readily discern between pre- and post-desegregation observations.  The terms “black,” “colored,” “Negro,” and “white” in this booklet should not be considered offensive as they have been used according to the custom of the particular period.  Since 1962, the division has omitted such racial designations from its reports and publications."

Below is their entry for Madison [Elementary] School:

Madison School 101 South Madison Street (Corner Cary & Madison Street)

Named for the adjacent street which commemorates the name of James Madison, fourth President of the United States. On January 1, 1872, the School Board authorized the purchase of a lot at this location for the site of a new school to replace rented rooms on Cherry Street. For the first three months of the 1872-73 session, classes were scattered in various parts of the district in such rooms as could be rented; the new eight-room school was occupied January 1, 1873. It was reported that the building "is an ornament to that portion of the city." As the community grew, it became necessary to add four more rooms in 1888. Blown up view of the image above. On January 1, 1872, the School Board authorized the purchase of a lot at this location for the site of a new school to replace rented rooms on Cherry Street. For the first three months of the 1872-73 session, classes were scattered in various parts of the district in such rooms as could be rented; the new eight-room school was occupied January 1, 1873. It was reported that the building "is an ornament to that portion of the city." As the community grew, it became necessary to add four more rooms in 1888. In 1912, this school was replaced by a more modem building of twenty-four rooms and a roof garden. For the 1911-12 session and the first months of the 1912-13 school year, classes were conducted at Grace Arents and at St. Andrew's School (corner of Cherry & Cumberland Streets) until the new Madison was occupied in December. (The 1914-15 annual report includes picture and floor plan of Madison School by School Architect Charles M. Robinson.) Another view of Madison School. Image courtesy Richmond Parks and Recreation. Madison housed Richmond's first open-air school, a tent-like structure on the roof garden where the tuberculosis patients lived and slept. It was regarded as a separate school and is said to have been the first of its kind in Virginia and one of the first in the United States. In 1933-34, a general industrial arts laboratory was installed for sixth grade pupils. Madison School was closed in June 1968; the building was demolished in 1973, to make way for an expressway. [Another victim of the Richmond Expressway! - Ray B.]. Approximately.4 acre of the playground was transferred to the Safety Department for a fire station at Jefferson & Canal.

Enrollment: 1874-1875 691 1912-1913 871 June 1968 368 (final) Architect: 1912 Charles M. Robinson Cost: 1912 $97,681 Original Building 18,104 Lot 821 The City owned part of the lot (valued at $2,000) and appropriated it to Madison School. Principals: 1872-1876 E. W.Cone 1876-1887 John A. Cunningham, Jr. 1887-1939 William G . Jones 1939-1943 DeWitt C. Beery 1943-1958 Clyde Busby 1958-1968 Nellie Celeste Jones   Learn more about Richmond's Public School History at:   "Richmond Public Schools: A Mini History: Bits & Pieces" - Ray B.

"Meet Me in the Bottom" - Documentary about the "Negro Burial Ground" in Richmond, to be broadcast May 25th and June 29th, WVCW (Comcast Channel #24)

"Meet Me in the Bottom" -- a documentary about the Burial Ground for People of African decent (ca. 1750-1816)  located north of Broad Street, between 15th and 16th Streets -- will be broadcast Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 9:00 pm -10:00 pm  and Tuesday, June 29, 2010  at 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm  in Richmond on WCVW (Channel 24 for local Comcast Richmond customers). 

The burial site is the oldest municipal cemetery for enslaved and free Blacks known to exist in the Richmond area.  An 1810 map shows the Negro Burial Ground near Broad Street and Shockoe Creek.  Today, the Burial Ground sits adjacent to a parking lot owned by VCU.  In fact, there are questions as to whether the Burial Ground lies beneath the parking lot. Activists and other groups have protested what is seen by many as a desecration of sacred ground. This documentary tells the story of community efforts aimed at reclaiming the Burial Ground as the final resting place of their ancestors.

The film won the Best Documentary category and the Audience Choice Award at the Virginia Independent Film Festival and has just been accepted for screening at the South Film Festival in Leigh, PA.  To purchase the DVD, visit burnbabyburnproductions.com    The documentary was created by Dr. Shawn O. Utsey, Chair, Department of African American Studies

Style Weekly Magazine, 4/28/2010, "Breaking the Chains" - While Virginia prepares to mark the 150th anniversary of its secession from the union, Richmond searches for how best to tell a most difficult story: its role in the domestic slave trade.

Slave Trade as a Commercial Enterprise in Richmond, Virginia - National Register of Historic Places and the Johannas Design Group, April 2007. 

Burial Ground for Negroes, Richmond, Virginia: Validation and Assessment Research Summary - A 16-page report prepared by the Department of Historic Resources, June 25, 2008. 

Preliminary Archaeological Investigation of the Lumpkin's Jail Site (44HE1053), Richmond, Virginia - Prepared For the City of Richmond by Matthew R. Laird, Ph.D., James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia, May 2006

- Ray B.

Resources on Slavery in Richmond, Virginia (A VCU Libraries web site)

A (semi) new site on Resources on Slavery in Richmond, Virginia was created by VCU Libraries' Special Collections and Archives. Please visit the site and let them know what you think of it - what other resources can be added to this site? Email: libjbcsca@vcu.edu
 

Style Weekly Magazine, 4/28/2010, "Breaking the Chains" - While Virginia prepares to mark the 150th anniversary of its secession from the union, Richmond searches for how best to tell a most difficult story: its role in the domestic slave trade.

Slave Trade as a Commercial Enterprise in Richmond, Virginia - National Register of Historic Places and the Johannas Design Group, April 2007. 

Burial Ground for Negroes, Richmond, Virginia: Validation and Assessment Research Summary - A 16-page report prepared by the Department of Historic Resources, June 25, 2008. 

Preliminary Archaeological Investigation of the Lumpkin's Jail Site (44HE1053), Richmond, Virginia - Prepared For the City of Richmond by Matthew R. Laird, Ph.D., James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia, May 2006

- Ray B.

Rare view of the construction of Old City Hall, ca. 1894 - from a stereoview.

(click on image for larger view, then click again for giant view)

This rare image of the construction of Old City Hall in Richmond is from a stereoscopic card entitled "Bird's Eye View of Richmond" produced by the Vernon Portrait Gallery, A De Lemos, Proprietor, 107 E. Broad Street, Richmond, VA., ca. 1894 (that is when Old City Hall was completed - construction began in 1886).The card was lent to us by William "Bill" H. Hartstock.

The image is taken from the top of the State Capitol building. You can see the steeple of Broad Street Methodist Church, which stood on 10th and Broad Street, just to the north of Old City Hall. 

To learn more about Old City Hall click on the National Park Service's Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel site.

Here's what the original card looks like.

If you have old stereo views of Richmond
that you would like to share, contact us!
Just email Ray at ray44richmond@gmail.com

- Ray B.

Waterfront scene of Modern Richmond, February 21, 1937, by John De Groot

"A Waterfront Scene of Modern Richmond" - image by John De Groot (1915-1995)

- from the February 21, 1937 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Click on the image for a larger view - then click again on the image.

John W. De Groot worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the late 1930s as an illustrator and writer. He provided many of the illustrations for the TD's Sunday Magazine section at that time period. This issue is courtesy of Richard Bland. For more images by De Groot just look at our side panel of topics we've discussed and click on his name.

Future of Richmond’s Past Public Forum, May 12th - Harris Hall Auditorium, VCU Monroe Park Campus, 7-9 pm

VCU Hosts the Future of Richmond’s Past Public Forum as Part of an Ongoing Conversation about the City’s Shared History

5/5/2010
Plan to join the Future of Richmond’s Past for a public forum hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University.

• Wednesday, May 12
• 7 to 9 p.m.
• Grace E. Harris Hall (formerly the VCU Business Building)
• Harris Hall Auditorium
• 1015 Floyd Ave.

Participants will have a unique opportunity to provide feedback to questions about Richmond’s history and see audience results instantly through interactive audience polling technology.

Richmonders have spoken, listened and learned at community meetings. Where are we now? The program continues the Future of Richmond’s Past conversations about our city’s shared history. Join presidents of VCU, Virginia Union and the University of Richmond and leaders of our city’s cultural and historical institutions.

Free parking will be available in the VV Lot at the corner of Harrison Street and Floyd Avenue, as well as the West Main Street Parking Deck, 801 W. Main St. Parking passes will be provided.