The Old Confederate Soldier's Home, Richmond (now the site of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts).

The image quiz from our last post was generated from this image - page #3 of the Richmond Dispatch, May 31, 1896 that was found on Chronicling America.

Larger view.

The newspaper was highlighting some of the memorials to the Confederate Army because of the reunion of Confederate Soldiers that was taking place in Richmond that week.

Regarding the Soldier's Home - here are some great postcard views:

In the early 1880s an effort to help the plight of a growing number of destitute Confederate veterans was organized in Richmond. In March of 1884 the Robert E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans was incorporated. In November of that year organizers purchased a 36-acre tract located at the corner of Grove Avenue and the Boulevard, the former property of the Anthony Robinson, Jr. family.

Some of the smaller structures - houses where the old soldiers lived 

- can be seen here along Sheppard St. This postcard dates ca. 1910.

The Robinson House, an Italianate-style building built 1851, can be seen here on the left. It is one of two extant buildings of the original Soldier’s Home grounds. The other is the Confederate Memorial Chapel, designed by Marion Dimmock (1846-1908) and built in 1887, located at the corner of Grove Avenue and Sheppard Street. This post card is postmarked 1924. The Robinson House was moved about 200 feet during recent renovations to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Postmarked 1914.

The interior grounds of the Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers’ Home included a number of frame buildings, many built in the Gothic revival style. A cafeteria, hospital, and recreation hall stood on the Boulevard side. At its peak the Soldiers’ Home averaged some 300 residents. In later years the cafeteria was open to area residents for dining. 

This postcard has two hand stamp dates - one reads 1912 and the other 1913.

The back of this post card, ca. 1910, reads:

"Situated in a beautiful grove, in the western portion of the City, are the comfortable cottages (several of which are shown in this view) in which reside some 275 Confederate Veterans. Here these honored heroes of a hundred battles, 'by [?] subdued' are spending the evening of life calmly and fearlessly awaiting the inevitable summons to spread again their tents on the eternal campground."

- Ray B.

The Boulevard and How It Grew - From Soldiers’ Home to the Home of World Class Museums

(Postcard image of the Old Soldier's Home - ca. 1910

now the grounds of the VMFA.)

From the Fan District Hub we learn about the following:

The Boulevard and How It Grew: From Soldiers’ Home to the Home of World Class Museums opens at the VHS on Sat., May 1.

Through twelve photographs, postcards, illustrations, and a map, the exhibition will give visitors a brief look at the 115-year-history of the block currently occupied by the VHS, the VMFA, the Robinson House, the Confederate Chapel, the United Daughters of the Confederacy building, and the Robert E. Lee Camp Memorial Park .

“This exhibition documents the steady evolution of the museum block, showing that like Rome, it was not built in a day,” said Jeffrey Ruggles, VHS curator of prints and photographs and curator of The Boulevard and How It Grew exhibition. “Because there are buildings still standing that date back over a century, there is often confusion among visitors and residents about who owns and runs which structure. I hope that this exhibition helps clear up some of that confusion by showing how each part of the puzzle developed. I also hope that visitors realize that the institutions that occupy this block are significant in ways that reach far beyond the city of Richmond, and even the state of Virginia.”

The exhibition tells how the thirty-four acres of farmland that was purchased from the Robinson family in 1884 developed into buildings that house extensive collections and impressive exhibitions related to world art and Virginia history. The Boulevard and How It Grew closes at the VHS on July 18, 2010.

Admission to the exhibition is free.

“This block has been in transition for most of its existence,” said Paul Levengood, VHS president and CEO. “We are glad that the construction is almost finished and visitors will be able to experience two world-class museums free of charge. Art and history — the defining filters for studying civilization within feet of each other.”

– The information above was provided by Jennifer M. Guild with the VHS - thanks to the Fan District Hub for bringing this exhibit to our attention.

- Ray B.