Richmond Public Library, 1937

Click on the image twice for a larger view - John W. De Groot worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the late 1930s as an illustrator and writer. He provided many of the illustrations for the TD's Sunday Magazine section at that time period. This issue, dated April 11, 1937, is courtesy of Richard Bland. 

The (James H.) Dooley Memorial Library, 101 E. Franklin Street, was built 1929-1930. The library was an Art Deco-style building designed by Baskervill and Lambert. A new and much larger Richmond Public Library building built in 1972 now surrounds the old building. The original entrance hall remains as the lobby of the western half of the new building [thanks to Ann C.!]. Funding for the Dooley Library originated from a $500,000 bequest by Sallie May Dooley (1846-1925), wife of Major James H. Dooley (1841-1922). The Dooleys gave their large estate, Maymont, to the City of Richmond to be used as a park after their death.

Richmond was one of the last cities of its size in the nation to build and operate a public library. In 1901 Andrew Carnegie’s offer to donate $100,000 to the City of Richmond to erect a public library was initially accepted by City Council. Despite efforts by supporters of a public library, led by Robert Whittet, Sr. of the publishing firm Whittet and Shepperson, funding by the city was never allocated. Carnegie’s demands that the city find and purchase a site and allocate $10,000 a year for the maintenance for a library were considered too costly by the city.

Those early efforts did lead to the formation of a citizens’ campaign for a library in the 1910s and 1920s. As public support grew, City Council finally agreed to fund a public library. Richmond’s first public library operated from 1924 to 1930 at 901 W. Franklin Street, the former residence of Major Lewis Ginter (1824-1897). In segregated Richmond African Americans could not use the library. In 1925 the city opened the Rosa D. Bowser Library for African Americans. Named for Rosa L. Dixon Bowser (1855-1931), a civic leader who was considered the first African American female school teacher in Richmond, the library was located in the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA at 515 N. 5^th Street.

When did Richmond's Public Library integrate?

- Ray B.

Waterfront scene of Modern Richmond, February 21, 1937, by John De Groot

"A Waterfront Scene of Modern Richmond" - image by John De Groot (1915-1995)

- from the February 21, 1937 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Click on the image for a larger view - then click again on the image.

John W. De Groot worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the late 1930s as an illustrator and writer. He provided many of the illustrations for the TD's Sunday Magazine section at that time period. This issue is courtesy of Richard Bland. For more images by De Groot just look at our side panel of topics we've discussed and click on his name.

The Valentine Richmond History Center Wastes Not on an Exhibit that Wants Not.

"Prize Room in  a Richmond Tobacco Factory"

image by John DeGroot (1915-1995)  from the October 22, 1939 

issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Sunday Magazine and Book Review section. 

(click for larger view - then click on image again for an even Larger view)

The following excerpt from the Valentine Richmond History Center website  concisely summarizes their important new exhibit:

Waste Not Want Not: Richmond's Great Depression, 1929-1941 shows life in Richmond during the Great Depression, which lasted from October 1929 until the U.S. entered World War II. In the midst of calamity, Richmond residents joined other Americans in an explosion of political, organizational and cultural creativity. The exhibition tells this story with objects, images, ephemera, and costumes from the History Center’s collection.

Through images and artifacts the exhibit shows a very different City from the one we know today, but one from which we are not that far removed.  As a child with parents born in 1929 and the nephew of a businessman who survived the depression with the creed “waste not, want not,” I realize how close Great Depression is to my own time.

The most memorable elements are the great collection of Richmond Depression-era paintings that are seamlessly woven into the exhibit. The Valentine Richmond History Center has a superb painting collection that it should do more to show off in its permanent and rotating exhibitions. I am sure that many of us would enjoy a permanent on-line exhibit of its painting collection.

Oh, I do digress. 

Dr. Edward Ragan, a new curator at the Valentine (see his interview in Style about the exhibit) has finely crafted a must-see exhibit that will remain up through September 10, 2010.

We hope that a book on this important era of Richmond History might be forthcoming from Dr. Ragan and look forward to his next exhibit at the Valentine. 

- Tyler P.

What's the history of the "Egyptian Building, Medical College of Virginia" ?

[Click for larger view.]

"Egyptian Building, Medical College of Virginia"
from the July 19, 1936 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch's
Sunday Magazine and Book Review section.

This is the second image we have reproduced by John W. De Groot (1915-1995) - the first one is Here. De Groot worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the late 1930s as an illustrator and writer. He provided many of the illustrations for the TD's Sunday Magazine section at that time period. This issue is courtesy of Richard Bland. I will be posting more on De Groot and his great illustrations of Richmond scenes in future posts.

The Egyptian Building, 1223 E. Marshall Street, built 1844, was designed by Philadelphia architect Thomas S. Stewart (1806-1889) and is considered one of the finest extant examples of the rare “Egyptian Revival” style. The building was originally built for the Medical Department of Hampden-Sydney College which in 1854 became an independent entity, the Medical College of Virginia (MCV).

The building featured three lecture halls, a large dissecting room, and an infirmary. Stewart also designed the building’s enclosure – granite obelisks for gateposts and a cast-iron railing running between herm figures, often mistaken for mummies.

In 1938-39, the Richmond architectural firm of Baskervill and Son made modifications to both the exterior and interior, including creating a neo-Egyptian auditorium. The Egyptian Building is still used by students, faculty, and staff on the MCV campus of VCU.

Visit the Archives of the Tompkins-McCaw Library for more information about MCV's history.

- Ray B.

Night Scene on Franklin Street, 1938.

[Click on image for larger view]

"Night Scene on Franklin Street" from the February 13, 1938 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Sunday Magazine and Book Review section. The view is from E. Franklin Street looking down Third Street.

The color illustration by John W. De Groot (1915-1995). De Groot worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the late 1930s as an illustrator and writer. He provided many of the illustrations for the TD's Sunday Magazine section at that time period. This issue is courtesy of Richard Bland. I will be posting more on De Groot and his great illustrations of Richmond scenes in future posts.


-->The Central National Bank Building, built 1929 at 219 E. Broad Street, was known for decades to Richmonders as the Central Fidelity Bank building. At twenty-two stories it was the tallest building in the city for decades. The Art Deco skyscraper was designed by John Eberson (1875-1964), a noted New York architect best known for his design of movie theaters. Local architects Carneal and Johnston shared in the work and design of the building. The large neon sign that stood on the top of the building changed colors according to the weather forecast for the next day.