Thursday, August 4, 2011

Rare view - 818 W. Main St., Richmond, Va - What is now the Main Street side of the Landmark Theatre, ca. 1870-80s??






The back of the image reads:

818 W. Main St., Richmond, Va.

Katie and Lunelle Cheatham

at the gate

Eunice Binns at window.

“Jif” the mocking bird in cage.

Now site of Shrine Temple. [The Richmond Mosque, or what we call now, the Landmark Theatre]

Birthplace of K. Sewell Wingfield.

[Thanks to Sean Yeager on helping to figure out some of the names and the date range! See his comments - he looked at the original Ebay posting for clues.  Good work!]

8 comments:

Sean Yeager said...

The names appear to be Cheatham and Binns. Also, the "Lucille" looks like it is "Lunelle" based on other lettering styles.

Doing some research on the names it appears possible that this could be relevant, though the 1920 date would almost certainly be wrong if it is Lunelle in the picture, or Lunelle was a passed down family name: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85034438/1901-07-24/ed-1/seq-6/;words=Cheatham+Lunelle

Sean Yeager said...

More lettering style work: the name "Eunice" is "Emmie"!

Sean Yeager said...

Browsing further into the ebay posting, it's definitely Emmie Binns. If the date of her birth is correct (1870), the photo of 1818 W Main is likely in the 1875 range, given the height of the girls in the picture (in relation to the fence.)

She's also #9 in the school photo from 1889, making her 18 or 19 in the photo.

Excellent find! Fascinating where these leads can take you.

Shockoe Examiner Staff - see bottom of blog entry for the specific author. said...

You said it and thanks for doing the research.

- Ray

AJ said...

Catherine (Katie) Cheatham was born abt 1878, Lunelle b. Jan 1880. There father, Walter, died in a horrible train accident just as Katie was to be married. In the 1900 Census, the family was living at 703 Grace St. In the 1880 Census, the family was on Perry St, near 9th, in Manchester. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038614/1900-06-05/ed-1/seq-1/;words=Cheatham+Atlantic-Coast+Coast+Atlantic+Line+lined+line+Walter

AJ said...

Emma Binns was born abt 1871 to John S. and Ellen J. Binns. She married William Wingfield abt. 1891. In 1880 she was living with her family at 818 Main St. West. In 1900, she and her husband and children are living in her widowed mother's house, still at 818 Main St.
And can I just mention how embarrassed I am to have written "there" instead of "their" in the previous post!

Ray said...

AJ - that's so great you did that research - thanks so much.

- Ray

Gibson Worsham said...

Ray- I am untangling part of the history of Monte Maria/Richmond Hill. I have found an undated Richmond newspaper article on "Taylor's Hill," roughly the same area, written by Emmie Binns Wingfield.

Gibson