Film of the VCU Monroe Park Campus area, ca. 1977

 One frame from the film showing the north side of the 900 block of W. Grace St.

(The VCU Police Department offices now occupy some of these buildings.) 

We are re-posting this item from some months ago because it is too good not to share again. There are two wonderful You Tube videos showing VCU and the surrounding area circa 1977 filmed by VCU art professor Glenn Hamm. The first part of the film is HERE and the second HERE.

Hollywood Cemetery Tour, June 5, 2010

A few contributors of The Shockoe Examiner hosted a tour of Hollywood Cemetery on June 5th (a very hot day, the first of many in June of 2010). Here are a few images from the tour for those interested.

 John Kneebone took this image.

Another image by John Kneebone. This cast iron fence is one of the most decorative in the cemetery.

VCU History Professors: Ryan Smith and Brian Daugherity have a moment together 

- taken by John K.

It was Jefferson Davis Birthday two days earlier and some unreconstructed Confederates were celebrating near the Davis resting place while we toured.  John K. caught the smoke from a muzzle as the Davis ceremonies took place.

Tyler Potterfield led the tour - the James behind him here in a shot by Ray Bonis, who organized the tour.

Image by Ray B.

A "new" addition to Hollywood. I think this frog has been here for about 5 years. We would love to learn more about this - anyone know the story?  Image 

by Linda George.

Another image by Linda.  Very impressive.

Another cross image by Linda.

The guard dog in Hollywood,

image by Jodi Koste.

Trautman, a dog owned by Libby's sister. Libby, who was on the tour,

says Trautman looks a lot like the guard dog and we agree.

Tyler thinks this guard dog is new to Hollywood.

Photo by Jodi Koste.

Jodi Koste., archivist at the Tompkins-McCaw Library at the Medical College of Virginia campus of VCU, took a number of images of the grave stones of medical doctors in Hollywood. 

Another dead doctor in Hollywood - 

with Dr. Charles Brownell and Gay Acompando in the distance.

Photo by Jodi K.

Tyler spoke of the original entrance looking like a ruin and

here's a great shot of that from Richmond, Virginia: Her Advantages and Attractions... 

published ca. 1895 by J. L. Hill Printing Co., Richmond, Va.

Jodi took this image of the "ruin" wall.

Undertaker's Row?

We received an email from a fan of the Shockoe Examiner wanting to know the origin of "Undertaker’s Row" in Richmond. This person lives on the 3200 block of E. Broad across from Chimborazo Park and the city tax assessor classified that block as “Tobacco Row/ Undertakers Row.”< Any ideas? Maybe the city assessor is just wrong?

Is there another area of the city that had a large number of  funeral homes?

Richmond's Carver Neighborhood - Oral Histories and More

The Carver-VCU Partnership Oral History Collection is part of the VCU Libraries Digital Collections.

The collection, available at http://go.vcu.edu/carver, consists of 15 oral histories conducted in 1999 and 2000 as part of a project funded by a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. The project, described as a “Living Newspaper,” produced a play entitled “Sheep Hill Memories – Carver Dreams.” Those interviewed are longtime residents, including Barbara Abernathy, former president of the Carver Area Civic Improvement League, and Dr. Roy A. West, former mayor of Richmond. Also interviewed are newcomers to the community and those who have moved away from the neighborhood. The documentary play, which used information collected from the oral histories and other sources, focused on the history and survival of the Carver neighborhood.

The interviews, presented as MP3 files with complete PDF transcriptions, are part of the ongoing Carver-VCU Partnership that began in 1996. The Partnership's stated goal is to “create a shared urban community with a commitment to improving the neighborhood’s quality of life.” Carver is situated in Richmond, Virginia, just north of VCU’s Monroe Park campus, and is primarily a working class African American neighborhood, home to some 1,500 residents. The oral histories are permanently housed in Special Collections and Archives at the James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries (along with other materials on Carver).

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

Download the 30-page history of the Carver community:
“A History of the Carver and Newtowne Neighborhood,” by Kathryn E. Colwell. [PDF] 

Download the Carver Neighborhood Master Plan. [PDF]

- Ray B.

The Murder of Lillian Madison, 1885

Friday the 13^th, and a murderous lawyer strolls the streets of what is now VCU with his pregnant victim: the murder of Lillian Madison by her cousin, Thomas Cluverius, in 1885.

At twenty minutes to ten on the cold night of Friday, March 13, 1885, one of Richmond’s horse-drawn streetcars drew up to the intersection of what is now Main and N. Harrison Streets (in 1885 Harrison was named Reservoir Street).  The “tughorse” trolley, as it called, stopped on the corner and two people emerged into a light dusting of snow: Thomas J. Cluverius, a lawyer from King and Queen County, and Lillian Madison, his cousin.  

The blue car in this photograph is where Cluverius and Madison left the streetcar and walked south toward the Marshall Reservoir.

The two turned south and walked down the left side of Reservoir Street, passing what is now the School of Education and the Life Science building.  Hurrying because of the cold down the same sidewalk was Dr. Thomas Stratton, who overtook the pair.  The short woman said nothing, but the man turned suddenly toward Stratton and asked if this was the way to Marshall Reservoir.  Stratton said it was, and as he turned on Cary Street, Stratton watched the pair continue on toward the reservoir, and as it turned out, into infamy.   Within an hour the woman would be dead by the hands of the man walking with her, provoking one of the most famous Richmond murder cases of its time.

Dr. Stratton testified that he encountered Cluverius and Madison on this stretch of N. Harrison Street as the two walked to the Marshall Reservoir.

Cluverius was in trouble, and his entire life and respectability was on the point of being compromised by the woman beside him.  Lillian Madison was not only his cousin, but was eight months pregnant with his child.  The pair had had slept together the previous summer at her grandfather’s home and rendezvoused in hotels in the city on other occasions.  Madison had taken a job as a tutor in Bath County, hiding her condition, and agreed to meet her “Cousin Tommy” in Richmond, presumably to find an abortionist who could rid both of them of the increasingly urgent problem of her pregnancy. 

Thomas Cluverius and his cousin, Lillian Madison

The two cousins spent the day roaming the city under the direction of Cluverius, who although from rural King and Queen was familiar with the ways of the big city and futilely searching for someone to perform the abortion.  Witnesses later testified that the two were seen in places as varied as bars and later, a nail factory on Belle Isle.  Understandably, no one was willing at that late date in the pregnancy to assist the increasingly frantic pair. 

Cluverius was in an untenable position: a illegitimate child would ruin his reputation and his young law career which he had just established after graduating from Richmond College (then located in what is now the city's Fan District, the school would later move west into Henrico and become known as the University of Richmond).  It would also bring shame to his family and especially his aunt, Jane Tunstall, who took Cluverius into her home and paid for his education.  The fact the mother of his child was his cousin and related to Mrs. Tunstall only made matters worse.  Cluverius must have felt he had to do something to escape this situation, and drastic action was becoming the only course.

Much of the evidence from Cluverius’ murder trial still exists in the archives of the Library of Virginia, including this poignant note from Madison to Cluverius.  Never delivered, and later torn up by Madison and dropped in her hotel trash can, it reads, “I will be there as soon as possible so do wait for me.”

Madison, for her part, apparently loved her cousin or at least trusted him to get her out of her dilemma.  Perhaps she thought her worldlier lover and relative, well versed in the wicked ways of Richmond, could provide a solution and she could soon return to Bath County to recover.  Perhaps Cluverius told his cousin that they would “meet a man” at the Marshall Reservoir.  It seems the only explanation as to why she would accompany him in the cold and snow all the way out to that unlikely destination in what was then considered the far western reaches of the city.  The fact she would walk half a mile on a snowy and cold March night while so very pregnant speaks volumes about her desperation, and the trust she placed in her cousin, Tommy.

 Map showing location of the Marshall Reservoir, Reservoir Street

(now Harrison) and Beverly Street (now Idlewood Ave.).

As Cluverius and Madison continued south, the houses became fewer along Reservoir Street.  They passed over what is now the Downtown Expressway.  To their left, above the leafless trees of Hollywood Cemetery, the stone pyramid of the Confederate monument was silhouetted against low clouds, reflecting the gas lights of downtown Richmond.  Beyond the pyramid, houselights could be glimpsed, and the smell of wood smoke was in the air from the chimneys of Oregon Hill that spoke of snug homes, warmth, and security.  In contrast, the black hunk of the earthen walls of the reservoir, lightly dusted with snow, loomed up in the distance, cheerless, dark, and foreboding. 

Marshall Reservoir, constructed in the early 1800s, was Richmond’s first municipal water source and still in use in 1885.  The reservoir and the surrounding area would have been familiar to Cluverius as it stood on the path used by Richmond College students on their way to swimming and fishing in the James River.  The facility consisted of a large rectangular brick-lined impoundment of water several hundred feet on each side, a keeper’s house, and a small formal garden beside the street and a gravel path along the top of the earth walls.  Marshall Reservoir stood on the small rise west of Hollywood Cemetery now occupied by Clarke Springs Elementary School, and was demolished in 1934.

 

Cluverius probably had to give Madison his arm to help her up the embankment, and the two then walked for some distance down the gravel path beside the still, black water of the reservoir.  His entire relationship with his young cousin had led inexorably to this night, and to this place.  Perhaps as other avenues had been eliminated and his options closed on him, one by one, the young lawyer had imagined that Madison’s suicide was his only way out of this predicament.  Since she didn’t seem inclined to do away with herself, the situation had to be engineered for her.  The idea that she would travel from Bath County to Richmond just to fling herself in the municipal reservoir in the middle of the night seemed improbable, but for Cluverius there was no time to develop a more sophisticated plan.

Later analysis of the two sets of tracks showed a struggle had taken place between the young man and the diminutive (she was less than five feet tall) and heavily pregnant girl on the gravel path at the top of the reservoir wall.  Cluverius punched Madison in the side of her head with his fist, and she fell backward, down the embankment and into the water, where a combination of her weakened and pregnant condition and the blow to the head killed her.  When her body was later examined, no water was in Madison’s lungs, but the mud from the bottom of the reservoir was found clenched in her fists.  The murderer was probably well on his way away from the scene before the ripples in the otherwise flat, onyx-colored cold water of the reservoir settled around the floating body of Lillian Madison, and were once again quiet.

 This was where Cluverius lived with his aunt and where police officers

from Richmond arrested him six days after the murder of Lillian Madison.

Fleeing Richmond and leaving many clues behind, Cluverius returned to his aunt’s home at the tiny crossroads of Little Plymouth in King and Queen County.  It was here, at his aunt’s house, “Cedar Lane,” that police officers from Richmond arrested the young lawyer, put him in a carriage, and delivered Cluverius to the Richmond Jail in Shockoe Bottom.  

 The Richmond Jail, where Cluverius was held for two years during his trials for the murder of Lillian Madison.  The site of the jail is now buried under Interstate 95 where it runs between downtown Richmond and Shockoe Bottom.

Throughout the city’s history, Richmond has consistently consigned certain types of activities to the Bottom, and before the Civil War the area had been home to the slave trading industry, a slave cemetery, as well as the municipal jail.  The jail was an ugly and windowless collection of various building stages, which began in the early 1800s.  It stood on Marshall Street, on the floor of the valley and tucked against the steep hill below the Medical College of Virginia (now VCU Medical Center).

The scene of Cluverius’ trial was the Hustings Court in the temporary

 Richmond City Hall.  It was the same low building in this photograph marked

“Home Office – Life Insurance Company of Virginia,”

on the block between Broad Street and Capitol Square.

Cluverius’ trial for murder began in the Hustings Court, located in a temporary City Hall.  Richmond was without a municipal headquarters ever since the elegant 1818 City Hall was demolished in 1874.  The resulting empty lot was used for public events until construction began there in 1887 on what we today know as “Old City Hall.”  In the meantime, the City used a low, one-story building at 911 East Broad Street, which housed the Hustings Court.

A Richmond Dispatch article includes a view of

the scene of the murder - click here to view the newspaper.

Throughout his trial, Cluverius remained absolutely implacable, always appearing polite and calm and consistently wearing the same gray suit to court.  The trial with its stoic murder and the doomed and pregnant victim drew national attention, and details of the trial received coverage in newspapers across America.  The evidence was overwhelming, and Cluverius was convicted of the murder of Lillian Madison.  Several appeals were filed over the following months, but the conviction was upheld despite a change in Virginia law after his trial which would have allowed Cluverius to testify in his own defense.  

The date of the execution was set, probably much to the disbelief of Cluverius.  Fresh from law school, he may have had such an abiding faith in the law that, if properly presented and skillfully managed, it could free him despite the blood on his hands.  He never confessed, never broke, never faltered throughout.  Indeed, by the time his trial and various appeals were complete, his aunt, brother, and other family members had all perjured themselves in his defense, so a confession from Cluverius would subject those who tried so hard to save him to prosecution (Mrs. Tunstall, the aunt, also paid for her nephew’s legal expenses).  As with his disastrous relationship with Madison, fate seemed to hold the young man firmly in its grip as he drew inexorably nearer the gallows.

 The rear of the Richmond jail in Shockoe Bottom, showing the

yard where Cluverius was executed January 14, 1887.

Because of the amphitheater-like topography of Shockoe Bottom, hundreds if not thousands of people witnessed the hanging of Thomas Cluverius on a scaffold constructed behind the Richmond jail on January 14, 1887.  In addition to those who stood on rooftops and looked down on the scene from the hillsides, a large crowd was admitted to the jail yard.  A great roar went out from the throng when Cluverius was brought outside into the winter sunshine of Shockoe Valley.  Mounting the scaffold, he said little other than a few words to his spiritual advisor.  A reporter standing nearby said Cluverius’ face was bright red with shame and fear as a black hood was placed over his head.  

From the Daily Times of Richmond, Jan. 15, 1887 - Read the article HERE.

Unfortunately for the condemned man, the Sheriff decided to use an innovative braided silk rope that did not break Cluverius’ neck on the drop, as was intended.  Instead, the bungee cord-like rope stretched and Cluverius slowly strangled to death.  A deputy had the uncomfortable duty of mounting the scaffold, putting a foot on each side of the trap and pulling the condemned man up a few feet as Cluverius thrashed about, since his feet were by then practically touching the ground.

This large magnolia tree marks the Tunstall family plot behind their former

house in King and Queen County and is the burial place of Thomas Cluverius.

Both the murderer and victim were believed to have been buried in unmarked graves due to the ignominy of their fates.  This isn’t true.  Cluverius’ body was claimed by his brother and returned to his aunt’s home in King and Queen County where he was arrested almost two years before, and buried in a family plot in the field behind the house.  Today, no marker other than a small cast-iron fence remains in the Tunstall burying ground, but an enormous magnolia tree guards the spot.  When that tree finally falls, the graves of one of Richmond’s most famous murderers and the anguished aunt who tried so hard to raise, educate, and defend him will probably vanish under the plow.

The grave of Lillian Madison in Richmond’s Oakwood Cemetery.

Lillian Madison’s relatives buried her in Richmond, in Oakwood Cemetery.  The body of her unborn son, removed during autopsy, was placed in the coffin beside her.  Today, a group of walnut trees shade the Madison plot in a quiet corner of the old cemetery, and as the decades roll by, lush moss threatens to overtake the stone.  The soft white marble of her grave marker has weathered until it has become hard to read the dread date of her death on March 13, 1885. Likewise, the seasons are slowly erasing the name of the murdered girl which was once on the lips of so many people in Richmond, and which was spoken in such tones of sympathy and horror at her fate.

[Read more about the murder at the Chronicling America site which has digital versions of several Virginia  newspapers. Here is an article about the murder from the Shenadoah Herald, March 27, 1885 - the article is entitled "A Horrible Tragedy."]

- Selden Richardson

What block is this in Richmond?

Can you guess what block of Richmond this is?

Let us know by leaving a comment - just click on "comments" below. 

Four Hints:

 1.) These buildings were torn down by VCU. 

2.) The image is dated March 1978.

3.) This street is now closed to traffic.

4.) Other structures have now replaced these demolished buildings.

New Park House, Gambles Hill, Richmond, 1929

Image is from Richmond Magazine, February 1929. The building resembles Pratt's Castle which was also located on Gamble's Hill.

Shockoe Examiner - One Year Old

The Shockoe Examiner

is one year's old as of yesterday

- with a total of 105 posts!

For our second year we hope to

add one or two more contributors

and cover more topics In Depth.

We also plan on doing a

series on Richmond Mayors.  

Let us know what you think of our blog.

And Thanks for visiting,

Tyler, Ray, Catherine, and Selden
--

Rare views of Industrial Richmond, ca. 1910s.

Richmond's factories in the 1910s and 1920s produced a variety of goods including furniture, wagons and other farm equipment, tobacco products, paper, and products made from iron including stoves and locomotives.

For EXTRA Large views of these top three images,

click on the image Twice - You'll see some great details. 

Richmond's industrial center in Shockoe along the James. These three rare images provided by Richard Bland.

Looks like Pittsburgh!

Read the 1901 article HERE.

Or read the Industrial Section of the Times Dispatch from Nov. of 1910.

The Lee Range, produced by the Richmond Stove Company, 1897-1898

Established just before the Civil War, the Richmond Stove Company was one of those firms whose factory buildings were located in what is now Shockoe Bottom.  

The Richmond Stove Co. was the South's largest manufacturers of stoves in the late 19th century. By the 1890s it manufactured 15,000 to 20,000 heating and cooking stoves yearly selling them throughout the South. William J. Anderson became president in 1883, serving in that post until his death in 1911. For much of that time Robert G. Rennolds served as Secretary and Treasurer [many sources have used an alternate spelling for Rennolds -- spelling it as "Reynolds" which is incorrect.]

The company originally manufactured ornamental iron. It dominated the iron industry until the late 1800s, when the supply of iron from the mines slowly began to diminish. When decorative ironwork became too expensive, and the demand for iron decreased, the company changed its product line to stoves, ranges, and heaters. The stove works in Richmond covered nearly a block of ground at East Main and Twenty-Fifth Streets. A three-story warehouse on the opposite side of Main Street functioned as the company's offices. 

After the death of Anderson in 1911, the firm was managed by E. A. Rennolds as President, Superintendent Benjamin Booz, and Secretary and Treasurer was R. G. Rennolds. In the 1920s the company was absorbed by another local business, the Southern Stove Works. In the 1950, the Southern Stove Works was reorganized as Southern Steel and Stove Company. In 1962 the company became Southern Industries Inc. 

Check out their 1897-1898 catalog. 

-- R.B.

Images of Richmond from LIFE magazine

Monument Avenue, from LIFE magazine, early 1930s.

Click on the image twice for a much larger view.

The image above is the first you will see when you go to Google Images and search under LIFE Magazine images for the term "Richmond, Virginia." Hard to get an exact fix on the date on this image - the cars look like they are from the 1920s.  LIFE began publishing in 1936 but they could have easily had acquired older photographs along the way.

LIFE magazine was one of the nation’s most popular magazines with a circulation at one point of more than 13.5 million copies a week. It was published from 1936 through 1972, although its heyday was during the 1930s through the mid-1950s. It appeared as a monthly from 1978-2000.

 

Some other favorites from that site include:

Monroe Park Terrace Apartments (now VCU's Johnson Hall).

The house on the left is now demolished. This image also appears to pre-date the 1930s.

This is one of several that are labeled "Segregation Hearings."
Here's the label for this one:

Segregation Hearings, Virginia

16 yr. old segregationist holding confederate flag & "STATES RIGHTS" sign, wearing patch covering eye lost campaigning against integration in public schools, during hearings in state legislature of bills defying Supreme Court decision banning segregation.

Location:	Richmond, VA, US
Date taken:	1956
Photographer:	Margaret Bourke-White

Civil War historian and local newspaper editor

Douglas Southall Freeman, saluting statue of Robert E. Lee while driving to work.

Location:	Richmond, VA, US
Date taken:	1940
Photographer:	Alfred Eisenstaedt

More can be found HERE.

- Ray B.

Franklin Terrace, 812 W. Franklin St.

Image from the Richmond Magazine, 1934.

The only Spanish Eclectic style of architecture to appear along West Franklin Street. Built ca. 1924, "the Franklin Terrace Apartments were built of stuccoed brick, four stories in height. Its seven-bay symmetrical facade has two projecting bays with balconies on the third floor shaded by pent pantiled roofs. The fourth-floor balconies each include a three-part arcade under the gable of each bay. At the corners of the roof are what appear to be false parapets of stucco over brick accented with exposed brick headers, possibly mimicking bell-towers. The original roof would have had orange Spanish tiles, though they have been replaced with orange composition shingles."

In the late 1980s, an elevator shaft was appended to the center of the facade. As this is an example of the Spanish style, a beige-brown stucco color most likely would have been original. It is now painted institutional grey.- From "The Fifth Avenue of Richmond": The Development of the 800 and 900 Blocks of West Franklin Street, Richmond, Virginia, 1855-1925." By Kerri Elizabeth Culhane

An image of the building from the 1990s

The building was designed and built by the Davis Brothers - they built hundreds of houses and commercial buildings in the Fan District and what is now the Museum District. 

The building has long been used by VCU for its Art Foundation program.

 VCU has made some major  improvements.

800 Block of W. Franklin Street, 1897.

The 800 block of W. Franklin Street looking west.

Image is from Art Work of Richmond, published by W.H. Parish Publishing Co., 1897. The VCU Franklin Street Gym occupies most of the space on the left now. On the right, the first house closest to the frame is still extant - it is the Buek-Thurston House, 808 W. Franklin St., built for Charles E. and Sue Williams Buek, 1893-1894. The architect was Peter J. Lauritsen of New York City.

The street is unpaved. Most of the houses have wrought or cast iron fences. Numerous mounting stones for horse and buggies can be seen in front of many of the homes (they would often have the initial of the family's last name on the front of the stone). 

For more about the houses on the 800 and 900 blocks of

W. Franklin Street. click HERE.

Click on image twice for a Much larger view.

- Ray B.

700 block of W. Franklin Street, ca. 1890.

Image of the corner of W. Franklin and Laurel streets, looking East, ca. 1890. 

On the right is the cast iron fence of the Ordway House which was moved to the North Side of Richmond in 1915 to make space to build the Monroe Park Terrace apartment building (now VCU's Johnson Hall). Just down the street on the right is a wooden fence marking the boundries of Monroe Park. On the left is the 700 block of W. Franklin Street - three houses stood on that block followed by Park Place Methodist Episcopal Church, built 1886, destroyed by fire in 1966. VCU's Brandt Hall and Rhoads Hall occupy the spaces of those houses today. Notice the trolley on the left being pulled by a mule - GRTC buses still cross this route.

Postcard image of the 700 block of W. Franklin Street, opposite Monroe Park, ca.1910.

Google Map image of W. Franklin and Laurel Streets today.