Tuesday, June 8, 2010

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.

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