Images of buildings are vital to researchers interested in architectural history. A little-known source for images is the stationary used by late 19th and early 20th century businesses. Envelopes and billheads also served as advertisements and were often illustrated with images of storefronts, factories, and warehouses.
This image of an envelope postmarked on February 15, 1911, shows the building used by the Chas. G. [Gottlieb] Jurgens’ Son, Furniture and Carpets (established in 1888). The store was built 1906-1907. What makes this image especially interesting is that it shows the original top two floors which were lost to fire in 1921. Here's my short bio of the company:
This image of an envelope postmarked on February 15, 1911, shows the building used by the Chas. G. [Gottlieb] Jurgens’ Son, Furniture and Carpets (established in 1888). The store was built 1906-1907. What makes this image especially interesting is that it shows the original top two floors which were lost to fire in 1921. Here's my short bio of the company:
Charles G. Jurgens (1846-1893)
was born in Brunswick, Germany and "came to Richmond in early childhood"
with his family. He served in the Confederate military and after the war
"went North to complete his trade as a cabinet maker.” His father,
Frederick Jurgens (1811-1876), was also a cabinet maker and appears in Richmond
city directories from 1866 to 1877 as such. Charles G. Jurgens shows up as a
cabinet maker in city directories beginning in 1873. He is listed as a cabinet maker
in the 1880 census. He began operating a furniture store in 1880. After his
death in 1893, his son, John
Frederick Burchardt Jurgens (1872-1928), took over the business. The business
began operating out of new building built for the company in 1907 located at 217 W. Broad
Street, corner of Broad and Adams.
Jurgens, Inc. declared bankruptcy in 1963 and the firm was taken over by the
Lewis Furniture Co.
in a March 3, 1907 article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
- Ray B.
2 comments:
Temple Lodge No. 9 was one of numerous Masonic Lodges which met in the Temple across the street from the Jurgens store. An apprentice in the Lodge, Bro. G. C. Richardson, age 36, was a city firefighter and was killed in the Jurgens fire when a wall collapsed. The Times-Dispatch of March 14 reported that five were dead and two were missing. Ironically, a newspaper account of the construction of the store (Times-Dispatch, June 6, 1906) indicated that it would "come close to being fire-proof, if it is not absolutely so."
Grover Richardson was my grandfather
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