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Richmond's History


Cadeho

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Three postings above I talked about old theatres in Richmond and specifically about The Bellevue on what is now known as MacArthur Avenue on the Northside.

Here are some wonderful photos of the Bellevue and one of The Ginter Theatre which was built after the Bellevue. Before it was demolished, The Ginter was used as a live community theatre for a short period and, later, an ice skating rink.

Shirley McLean and her younger brother Warren Beatty lived on nearby Fauquier Avenue. These movie houses on Rappahanock Avenue (later MacArthur) were their neighborhood theatres.

From RVANews:

http://retrorichmond.com/?p=55

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I don't think this has been posted on these boards, but if it has, it's worth reading again.

John Murden of Church Hill Peoples News is the person who deserves the thanks for this story.

Paul Hammond discovered it and and put it up on his Carver & Jackson Ward blog. It's a detailed history of the Richmond/Ashland Interurban rail line. Click the highlighted words under the first photo of the locomotive leaving the station (now Richmond Glass Company) at Laurel and West Broad Streets. (PS: I think the "What is Pantograph Blog" is by Stuart, an occasional visitor to UrbanPlanet. :) )

http://www.cjwn.net/...ain-to-ashland/

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Paul Hammond of Carver & Jackson Ward News took a stroll through the high-rise canyons of VCU's Medical Campus and snapped this photo of The Egyptian building which, I believe, dates to the 1840's when it was constructed as the seat of Medical College of Virginia.

Given its location it is probably one of the least appreciated historical structures in Downtown Richmond. It is on the southwest corner of East Marshall and College Streets (if College Street were numbered, it would be 13th Street.)

Monumental Church (circa 1814) on East Broad between 12th and College Streets is half a block away.

With a bow to the Egyptian theme, one of VCU Medical's newer buildings directly behind this gem has been decorated with an outline of a pyramid. :camera:

http://www.cjwn.net/news/tag/the-egyptian-building/

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I'm working on a map of Richmond's additions and lands... it's almost similar to the neighborhoods and subdivision map except that I'm using the original lands for things I can find. I have an issue trying to figure out exactly what the Adams family owned but it seems almost all of Church Hill and Shockoe Valley. One issue I'm facing in making this map is that it's now blending with other periods in history. It starts with the original town and the additions throughout the 19th century. Then after that I'm using 1877, 1890, and 1901 maps as well as pieces of smaller maps. But the thing is, the outer lands in Henrico changed hands and sizes throughout history. I am not sure how to address this. What do you recommend?

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I'm working on a map of Richmond's additions and lands... it's almost similar to the neighborhoods and subdivision map except that I'm using the original lands for things I can find. I have an issue trying to figure out exactly what the Adams family owned but it seems almost all of Church Hill and Shockoe Valley. One issue I'm facing in making this map is that it's now blending with other periods in history. It starts with the original town and the additions throughout the 19th century. Then after that I'm using 1877, 1890, and 1901 maps as well as pieces of smaller maps. But the thing is, the outer lands in Henrico changed hands and sizes throughout history. I am not sure how to address this. What do you recommend?

This didn't update because of a glitch when I posted... just making it appear as though Burt was not the last to post.

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This story with photo reveals that The East End Theatre on North 25th Street (between Marshall and Clay Streets) may be in line for some kind of renovation and revival (read comments under the picture.)

The story incorrectly identifies it as "The Patrick Henry Theatre." Not so. The building in the picture was built in the late 1930's and named The East End Theatre from its beginning.

There was a Patrick Henry Theatre, which was practically next door to The East End. It had limited stage capabilities (such as a shallow stage house similar to the old Venus on Hull Street.) The Patrick Henry, probably a decade older thanThe East End, was a second-run movie house which specialized in Hollywood "B" westerns whereas The East End presented major studio films after their runs at downtown movie houses.

From today's Church Hill Peoples News:

http://chpn.net/news...h-street_17007/

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I wish I could find maps of Bacon's Quarter or know exactly where it was and a map of Falls Plantation. It amazes me that these tracts of land that are now in Richmond were existing in the 1600s... just amazes me how far back our history goes. I wish I knew what things looked like back then.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Actually, D street was Dover. The plank road was west of Belvidere and part of the Westham Turnpike in the town of Sydney's plan. I Street became Marshall, J Street was skipped but there was a Jay Street in Adam's Addition, K Street became Clay, L became Leigh, M Street downtown became Turpin and I believe N Street was Brown... but on the other side of the valley, M was Mason, N was Nelson, O was Otis, P was Pendleton, and Q was Quince. After that R through Y remained those while M through Q reverted to the alphabet. I still think Foushee should have been Washington but one of those was also in Adam's Addition. The streets in Rutherfoord's Addition were named after the other first presidents with the exceptions of Foushee and Henry for Patrick of course.

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I may have ranted about this previously... if I have, I'm sorry... I'm so old now I can't remember what I did a few minutes ago. I may have ranted about this previously... if I have, I'm sorry... I'm so old now I can't remember what I did a few minutes ago. But Richmond's neighborhoods are all misnamed in city documents. I cannot understand this. Henrico and Chesterfield are better organized because they both have all their subdivisions, towns, and whatever marked in detail on their maps. Why is it that Richmond has made up name for its neighborhoods?

Some of the older ones weren't laid out with a name in mind or given at the beginning, such as anything within the original plan of Richmond. Church Hill of course was named because of Saint John's after being Indian Hill and Richmond Hill. However, those names were for the hill itself and then became the name of the area. The boundaries are also unclear but there seems to be a general agreement on them there. Downtown, the area between 1st and 13th, Arch and Clay had no official name that I can find. Supposedly it was laid out by Thomas Jefferson personally. Why it's not called Jefferson's Addition or even Shockoe Hill, I'm not sure. Court End is actually Turpin's Addition and north of it is Johnston's Addition. Jackson Ward is another area that just acquired a name after it was included in a voting district and not even all of Jackson Ward (the district) is recognized as the neighborhood. Why didn't we name the other neighborhoods after Clay, Marshall, and Washington Wards? Monroe Ward again is only a fraction of what was the voting district. The bulk of Jackson Ward and Monroe Wards are made up of Rutherfoord's Addition. Jackson Ward also includes Jackson's Addition which may or may not be ironic, Price's Addition, Baker's Addition, Mann (& others) Addition, Bullock and Haxall's Addition, Judah's Addition, and DuVal's Addition. DuVal's was a huge piece of property which was further subdivided into Barton Heights and a few other smaller neighborhoods.

The area we're calling Rocketts isn't. It actually was at the foot of Libby Hill. There were several additions (Nicholson's and Lester's) and Port Mayo laid out down that end of today's E. Main St. Carver is made up of two subdvisions, Geilston/Buchanan's Spring and Graham's Plan. Oregon Hill is not where it is supposed to be. The original Oregon Hill was destroyed and was east of Belvidere. Today's Oregon Hill is Belvidera and Harvey's Plan as well as a part of the Plan of Sydney. There are others but I wonder why is it that even up to less than 100 years ago these places still retained their original names? Then somehow we started calling them something else? In the counties, what was, still is. Now some of these neighborhoods were further subdivided and had legal identieis of their own. I believe Richmond should honor its past and honor the rightful names of its neighborhoods especially the ones that can be identified by deed. As long as the legal name on the deeds exists, so does that neighborhood. Get it together Richmond.

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I may have ranted about this previously... if I have, I'm sorry... I'm so old now I can't remember what I did a few minutes ago. I may have ranted about this previously... if I have, I'm sorry... I'm so old now I can't remember what I did a few minutes ago. But Richmond's neighborhoods are all misnamed in city documents. I cannot understand this. Henrico and Chesterfield are better organized because they both have all their subdivisions, towns, and whatever marked in detail on their maps. Why is it that Richmond has made up name for its neighborhoods?

Some of the older ones weren't laid out with a name in mind or given at the beginning, such as anything within the original plan of Richmond. Church Hill of course was named because of Saint John's after being Indian Hill and Richmond Hill. However, those names were for the hill itself and then became the name of the area. The boundaries are also unclear but there seems to be a general agreement on them there. Downtown, the area between 1st and 13th, Arch and Clay had no official name that I can find. Supposedly it was laid out by Thomas Jefferson personally. Why it's not called Jefferson's Addition or even Shockoe Hill, I'm not sure. Court End is actually Turpin's Addition and north of it is Johnston's Addition. Jackson Ward is another area that just acquired a name after it was included in a voting district and not even all of Jackson Ward (the district) is recognized as the neighborhood. Why didn't we name the other neighborhoods after Clay, Marshall, and Washington Wards? Monroe Ward again is only a fraction of what was the voting district. The bulk of Jackson Ward and Monroe Wards are made up of Rutherfoord's Addition. Jackson Ward also includes Jackson's Addition which may or may not be ironic, Price's Addition, Baker's Addition, Mann (& others) Addition, Bullock and Haxall's Addition, Judah's Addition, and DuVal's Addition. DuVal's was a huge piece of property which was further subdivided into Barton Heights and a few other smaller neighborhoods.

The area we're calling Rocketts isn't. It actually was at the foot of Libby Hill. There were several additions (Nicholson's and Lester's) and Port Mayo laid out down that end of today's E. Main St. Carver is made up of two subdvisions, Geilston/Buchanan's Spring and Graham's Plan. Oregon Hill is not where it is supposed to be. The original Oregon Hill was destroyed and was east of Belvidere. Today's Oregon Hill is Belvidera and Harvey's Plan as well as a part of the Plan of Sydney. There are others but I wonder why is it that even up to less than 100 years ago these places still retained their original names? Then somehow we started calling them something else? In the counties, what was, still is. Now some of these neighborhoods were further subdivided and had legal identieis of their own. I believe Richmond should honor its past and honor the rightful names of its neighborhoods especially the ones that can be identified by deed. As long as the legal name on the deeds exists, so does that neighborhood. Get it together Richmond.

Sneak peek... I still need to look at the old records and plats for a lot of the subdivisions. Also the Fan is made up of a few as well. I may add them.post-8815-0-66185900-1310607312_thumb.jp

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Another sneak peek. The additions that created Richmond. The larger pic includes the original additions and the surrounding tracts of land that would be later subdivided into Richmond's neighborhoods and subdivisions. Information compiled from various maps between 1809 and 1901.post-8815-0-28722800-1310612141_thumb.jppost-8815-0-29181100-1310612189_thumb.jp

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Franklin Street has maintained a certain panache over the centuries and a goodly number of fine homes, high rises and commercial establishments line the thoroughfare from Lombardy Street to Libby Hill Park.

Traveling east on Monument Avenue there is a majestic view of the St. James Episcopal Church spire as the road narrows and morphs into Franklin Street.  Continuing east from Stuart Circle Franklin traverses the heart of VCU past a number of high rise dorms and apartment buildings as well as Monroe Park.  The five-star Jefferson Hotel. Richmond Public Library, Linden Row, several historic mansions, the newly upgraded John Marshall Residences, and office towers line the road until it is blocked at 9th Street by the old Bell Tower in Capitol Square.

After a few jogs via 9th, Bank, 15th, Main Street Station and the Farmers Market, East Franklin resumes where it bagan in the 18th century as "F" Street in Shockoe Bottom.  From there, Franklin continues up hill past residential buildings converted from warehouses, old homes as well as newly built structures and ends atop Libby Hill at 29th Street.      

Here is a colorful story about Franklin Street's history from today's Richmond dot com:

http://www2.richmond...ges-ar-1225760/

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Sorry.  The above didn't work.

But if you want to see the company's portfolio, including The Egyptian Building and other projects in Richmond, hit the highlighted Commonwealth Architects in the body of this news story, then click "Historic Preservation" on the left side of the page.

http://www.wvec.com/...-125067319.html

(Fingers are crossed hoping it works.)

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