Richmond’s “Character Home”

Virginia Lieutenant-Governor James H. Price leaned on his shovel and smiled at the assembled businessmen gathered around him.  It was a warm Saturday afternoon in May 1936, and as they faced the camera a newspaper photographer captured the moment.  “The efforts of local builders to create modern as well as interesting homes,” intoned Lieutenant-Governor Price, “…is very commendable.”  

Price joined the group at a site in what was known as “Sauer’s Monumental Floral Gardens,” a Richmond subdivision located between Monument Avenue, Libbie Avenue, Broad Street and Willow Lawn Drive and developed by the Sauer family. Richmond was enjoying the biggest building boom since the 1929 stock market crash, so Price’s intent in attending this event may have been to emphasize the relative prosperity in Virginia under Governor George Peery as Virginia emerged from the hard years of the Great Depression.

 

Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 17, 1936.

Or maybe it was the sales ability of the two builders that persuaded the Lieutenant-Governor to appear.  They were Thomas Carr and Sig Hutzler, two entrepreneurs who had a taste for marketing.  They were laying the foundation of not only a unique house, but also a blizzard of advertising and promotion that would surround and presumably sell their product, “The Character Home.”  The two builders derived this awkward title from the slogan of their company, Hutzler & Carr: “Builders of Homes With Character.”

Also in attendance at the groundbreaking was their architect, Edwin F. Sinnott, who designed what was to be the “first Character Home” in Richmond.  A biographical dictionary of Virginia architects noted that Sinnott did not have a formal education, but instead learned his craft in the role of assistant to major figures in Virginia architecture, like Duncan Lee.  Sinnott had a long career, filled with diverse projects such as duplicating Carl Ruehrmund’s 1909 bank building for John Mitchell, Jr. on the corner of Second and Clay. 

Sinnott also designed the Richmond Community Hospital building, currently under attack by its owner, Virginia Union University and threatened with demolition. Sinnott created the recently restored Art Deco Henrico Theater in 1940 and continued to keep up stylistic trends in architecture over the decades.  One of his last commissions was for a stylish mid-century style office building on Byrd Street in 1960, complete with concrete screen wall.

 

“The Character Home,” as it appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 6, 1936.

 

Sinnott said, "The architectural style of the ‘Character Home’ will be a modified type of early domestic architecture and will include several modern innovations which will add to the comfort of the owner.” Among the innovations at the heart of the “Character Home” are its concrete floors and walls.  Termite proof and low maintenance, it provided the rock-solid foundation on which the “Character Home” was based.  The longevity of the copper roof over the entire house and rear wing was also promoted as was extensive use of copper piping throughout the house.

 

 

“The Character Home” at 1308 Lake Avenue, as it appears today.  

 

Glass brick was another innovative building material used in the “Character Home.”.  Sinnott chose to use the material to brighten interior spaces that might have otherwise seemed dark.  When it was completed in August 1936, the doors were thrown open and the house and its furnishings were available for inspection until 9:00 p.m.

 

Richmonders who toured the concrete “Character Home” saw it complexly furnished by the Thalhimer’s Department Store.  Furniture on display in this setting was available for purchase by the public, and entire rooms of furniture were promoted as being the same as seen in the “Character Home.”  

 

 

Entire suites of “Character Home” furniture was available downtown at the Thalhimer’s store on Broad Street.  Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 11, 1936. 

 

 

 

Contractors and tradesmen were invited to become part of the promotion of the “Character Home” and multiple pages touted their products and involvement.

 

In September 1936, Richmonders were cautioned that the inspection period for the “Character Home” was ending after “thousands” had toured the house, admiring its unyielding concrete floors, its concealed telephone wiring, and linoleum-covered walls.  Perhaps it was a home too advanced for Richmond tastes because it was an entire year later that the house finally sold to Arthur Bates, a merchandiser for Thalhimer’s great Richmond rival, Miller & Rhodes Department Store. 

Even though it was always referred to as the “first” home of its type, no other “Character Homes” were built.  Despite their talent for self-promotion, the firm of Hutzler & Carr fell apart and by 1940 was listed by the Commonwealth as inactive for two years and their business certificate cancelled. 

Richmond Times-Dispatch, September 17, 1936, reflecting the popularity of touring the “Character Home.” 

 

In 1936, Sig Hutzler said, “One hundred years from now the ‘Character Home’ will be standing just as sturdily as on the day it was completed, immune from fire, rot, termites, weather, and depreciation.”  After the passage of eighty-eight years, the house does appear perfectly preserved and as though it will meet Hutzler’s prediction.  The home retains its famous copper roof, and the lot it stands on and its tall trees around it have aged gracefully along with the neighborhood.  As late as 1947 it was still referred to in a real estate ad as the “Character Home,” but that name seems to have faded from memory entirely.  Today, Richmond’s “first Character Home" is just another large 1930s home in Richmond’s West End, and on the surface very similar to many others.  Nevertheless, the story of the “Character Home,” its creation, materials, and promotion marks yet another now obscure but once widely known part of the city’s architectural history.

 

-Selden