AKA, Academy of Music
103 - 107 North Eighth Street
Built, 1884 (1886?)
Remodeled, 1899
Burned, 1925
[RVCJ93] — original building
Someone call the Fire Marshall!
[RVCJ93] — original interior
It would seem from the numerous membership of the various societies devoted to music at Richmond that the name of the votaries of the Heavenly Maid here is, literally, legion. On the roll of the Mozart Musical Association are 1,000 names; and this list is not, as in some cities of the country, largely representative of the residents of foreign birth and extraction, but rather of the native.
(Encyclopedia Virginia) — Dr. James B. McCaw
The monthly concerts of this Association are a characteristic feature of the social life of the city. They are held in the Mozart Academy of Music, a theater owned by the Association, but leased from it, and under another management for dramatic representations, that cost the Society $45,000 to build. Dr. J. B. McCaw, a prominent physician of the city, is president of the Mozart Association; Jacob Reinhardt its director; and leading business men are its trustees.
[RVCJ03] — after 1899 remodeling — note the addition of the box office at center and the removal of “Mozart” from the parapet
The Mozart Academy of Music, situated at Eighth and Franklin streets, is the principal theater of the city. It is, comparatively, a new house, is handsomely furnished, and is appointed for stage purposes in modern fashion. It seats 1,600, and at a pinch will accommodate. 3,000.
[RVCJ03] — Thomas G. Leath — lessee & manager of the remodeled theater
Plays requiring 500 persons can be put on in it. Under its present management, that of Mr. Edward Hamilton Cahill, lessee, the very best shows on the road are presented in it. He has made it successful, where those who had it before him failed.
[COC] — sometime between 1908 & theater’s burning in 1925 — note the removal of the box office and the addition of the illuminated sign
The entire booking of the Mozart will be taken in hand by Jefferson, Klaw A Erlanger under the designation, "directors of the circuit," with Mr. Cahill as lessee and manager here. In order to improve the house for the class of shows to be presented, extensive alterations and repairs are to be made. These alterations will cost some $10,000, and when they are completed Richmond will have a theater the equal in every respect of any in the land. [RVCJ93]
May 2018
Maybe Rocket Werks is overthinking this, but being able to increase capacity from 1600 to 3000 people sounds like a fire hazard. Perhaps they had forgotten about the tragic theater fire of 1811 that led to the building of Monumental Church? Sometimes memory is too short.
In any event, when the Academy of Music burned in 1925, it made way for the expansion of the former Federal Reserve Building.
Urban Scale has a nice article that speaks at length about this forgotten theater, part of a much larger series about the history of theatrical performance in Richmond. Well worth checking out. They also identify the 1886 construction date, as opposed to 1884, supplied by A Century of Commerce.
(Mozart Academy of Music is part of the Atlas RVA Project)
Sources
[COC] A Century of Commerce, 1867-1967. James K. Sanford. 1967.
[RVCJ93] Richmond, Virginia: The City on the James: The Book of Its Chamber of Commerce and Principal Business Interests. G. W. Engelhardt. 1893.
[RVCJ03] Richmond, Virginia: The City on the James: The Book of Its Chamber of Commerce and Principal Business Interests. G. W. Engelhardt. 1903.
Back around Nov 2020, Nolan had this idea to write 12 full band arrangements of holiday tunes to be released (on YouTube) for each of the 12 days before Christmas. A call was put out on social media for musicians, and the rest, as they say, was history.
(Ancestry) — looking towards 9 North Eighth Street, date unknown
William B. Cook: competitor to Asa Snyder, and no shallow man he.
(Library of Congress) — Beers Illustrated Atlas of the Cities of Richmond & Manchester, 1877 — Plate K — showing foundry location
It is only your shallow man who believes in luck-who limits his faith to the ruling of a star or the casting of a planet. The laws of gravity, of chemistry, of botany, and the other natural laws, are not more fixed and certain in their operation than those who push their way up the plane of social and rational life, and there develop their influence in the struggle which every man makes in life, from the boy's game of play up to the crowning act of individual achievement in work. The sublime faith that believes in the stars-that looks up and out upon the deep-vaulted night, and tries hard to formulate a faith that all men can accept and rationally founded-may be admired by us for the grandeur and vastness of the problems it seeks to solve;
[HILL] — advertisement in Hill's Richmond City Directory, 1874-75
but a little reason, not too shallow or superficial in quality, will soon bring us back to the more rational basis of cause and effect, the same arithmetic of which may be accurately computed as the threads of an even web. Law is the basis of everything, and although it works by invisible hands and feet, it treads steadily in one path, and brings out the uniform result. The lucky man is the one who perceives the chance of success, and seizes it at the right moment to make the success his own. He may be thwarted time and time again by adverse or unforeseen contingencies, such as no proper forecast, can effectually guard against; but a resolute faith in cause and effect in the industrial dogma that something comes from something and nothing comes from nothing, will bring him out successfully in the end.
(Ancestry) — William Bennett & Jane Bath Cook on their wedding day, October 10, 1850
The owner of the Phoenix Foundry, Mr. William B. Cook, is a happy exemplification of the correctness of these reflections. He is a hard worker, and has had some hard rubs with "Adverse and unforeseen contingencies." He has been burnt out no less than three times in twenty-five years, but by dint of perseverance and the best of all personal qualities--pluck--he has risen each time, if not Phoenix-like, from the ashes of a previous establishment, yet like a resolute and determined man, who, when one chance fails him, is ready, nothing daunted, to strike for another.
(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1886) — Plate 15 — showing former foundry building now a livery
With him, work is victory. He takes no chances at luck, and consequently draws no blanks. Each blast of the forge, and each blow of the hammer, is what he has faith in, and leaves the rest to fortune. There are larger and more imposing establishments in Richmond, but his political economy is not to cut the throat of their competition, but to establish his own. No man is prouder of the prosperity of Richmond, arising from the other and larger establishments, than the energetic and public-spirited owner of the Phoenix Works. He seeks to share only in the general prosperity, and demands patronage only as he may show himself worthy of it.
[CHAT] — advertisement for Phoenix Foundry in Chataigne's Directory of Richmond, 1881
The Phoenix Foundry is on the east side of eighth street, between Franklin and Main. Prior to November, 1871, it was run by Messrs. Cook & Viles, but since that time Mr. Cook has been the sole proprietor. He employs a large force and turns out a large variety of general castings, besides manufacturing iron railings, balconies, verandahs, columns, caps, sills, vault doors and frames, and all kinds of iron work for buildings. In fact, about everything this side of the line of Architectural iron work is successfully turned out in his establishment.
July 2015 — showing three-tiered verandah of the Stephen Putney House, cast by Phoenix Foundry [CAW]
His building is a large three-story brick, on Eighth above Main, with the foundry in the rear of it, and two stories above for machinery, woodwork, and pattern loft. He has recently completed and put up the large and comodious burglar & fireproof safe vault, in the new banking house of Messrs. Issacs, Taylor and Williams, on the corner of Thirteenth & Main Streets, which is said to be the largest safe ever manufactured south of "Mason and Dixon's line." Whether this be so or not, it is certainly large enough to satisfy and one that what our home institutions cannot do in the way of manufacturing mammoth safes, need not be sought for elsewhere.
(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 10 — showing former foundry building to become a News-Leader Printing site
Mr. Cook is also constructing iron fronts for buildings, and doing not a little to the architectural taste and beauty of our city. The iron work for St. Mark's Church (Episcopal) is from his establishment, as well as numerous verandahs, balconies, railings, etc., of iron, put up during the past two or three years in different parts of the city. The iron work to the new office building of the Gas Works at Rocketts, with fine iron verandah and steps, was furnished by Mr. Cook. He has lately filled orders for Norfolk, for points in North and South Carolina, and other parts of the South, and he is confident he can compete, in quality and style of work, as well as in price, with any similar establishment in this or any other city.
(ProQuest® Sanborn Maps Geo Edition™) — Sanborn Insurance Maps of Richmond (1924) — Plate 10 — showing former foundry building now vacant
Mr. Cook has had an experience of twenty-five years and upwards at the business in which he is now engaged. Born in an adjoining county, and coming to Richmond when he was a mere boy, he has spent his apprenticeship and whole business among us. He has had, as we have before intimated, some pretty severe rebuffs of fortune; but he has come out every time with a resolution to strike ten blows for success where he had only struck five before.
(ProQuest® Sanborn Maps Geo Edition™) — Sanborn Insurance Maps of Richmond (1950) — Plate 10 — showing former foundry building now an auto parking lot
Starting first as a partner of Barnes & Co., he was afterwards of the company of Lownes & Cook, then of Cook & Viles, and now has the Phoenix Foundry as his own-- a foundry appropriately named from the circumstances already referred to, that on three several occasions he has seen his different establishments reduced to ashes.
Such business energy and capacity as he has shown, and such faith in his work as the means of ultimate triumph, entitled him to a liberal if not generous share of public patronage. [GILL]
April 2020 — looking towards the former location of 9 North Eighth Street
The growth of the Main Street canyon — the stretch of high-rises that today runs between Twelfth and Sixth Streets — and the proximity of the former iron works to it, did not bode well for its future. Some time after 1924 it was demolished and became a parking lot, a condition that probably lasted until the building that is now 8th & Main Apartments was constructed in 1968.
That’s a lot of changes for one location: foundry, livery, print shop, parking lot, office building, plus whatever else it was before the Evacuation Fire.
(Phoenix Foundry is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Print Sources
[CAW] Cast and Wrought. Robert P. Withrop. 1980.
[CHAT] Chataigne's Directory of Richmond, VA. 1881.
[GILL] Richmond Directory 1873-74. R. W. Gillis.
[HILL] Hill's Richmond City Directory (Chesterfield and Henrico Counties, Va.), 1874-75.
R. L. Peters
Interior Decorator and Furnisher
Fine Wall Papers, Upholstery and Drapery Materials, Velvets, Brocades, Linens
Period Furniture of Unusual Beauty nad Occasional Pieces for both the Formal and Informal Rooms of the Modern Swelling, including Reproductions of Famous Old Italian Pieces
Lace Draperies, Rugs, Lamps and Shades.
Interior and Exterior Painting and Finishing
109 N. Eighth Street, Richmond, Va.
Interior Decorations and Furnishings
Suitable For All Interiors
Fine Furniture, Draperies, Upholstery and Drapery Fabrics.
Rugs, Art Goods,
Old Scenic and Other Wall Papers, Painting and Finishing
For Homes and Public Buildings.
R. L. Peters
Interior Decorator and Furnisher
109 North Eighth Street, Richmond, VA.
Madison 1602 Correspondence Solicited
Guide Book of the City of Richmond, 1918. Louise Nurney Kernodle. 1918.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 10.
Northern Neck News, Volume 49, Number 39, 10 February 1928.
109 North Eighth Street.
Right next to the old Mozart Academy of Music, before the Old Federal Reserve Building took up residence, eventually transforming into the sprawling Patrick Henry Building.
[ADR] — building in 1981 before the trees covered the exterior ornament
The Bank of Virginia, formerly the Morris Plan Bank of Virginia, was built in 1931 by Hoggson Brothers at 800 East Main Street. This three-story, seven-bay wide, limestone-clad Beaux Arts-style bank has a rounded corner with a shallow stepped parapet at the northeast corner of 8th and Main Streets. The first-story is six bays wide with rusticated limestone blocks.
July 2019 — showing door detail
Colossal fluted Doric columns that extend the full height of the building delineate the entrance bay at the curved corner and support the building‟s entablature. The door is framed by an elaborate limestone surround with griffins and carved stone cresting. On the second story, there are six bays, of which the four center bays are recessed behind the colossal columns.
July 2019 — showing roundel
There is a roundel with a carved eagle above the second-story window in the left bay. On the third story, there are five bays, four of which are recessed behind the colossal columns.
(Valentine Museum) — Hotel Stumpf exterior — Cook Studios
The Morris Plan Bank of Virginia was constructed in 1931 at a cost of $280,000by the Hoggson Brothers, an architectural firm from New York City that was active between 1922 and 1935. The bank itself was originally located in the former lobby of Stumpf Hotel, which stood at the northwest corner of Eighth & Main until the new building was completed. (VDHR)
(National Portrait Gallery) — Arthur J. Morris — painted by David Berney, 1949
A Morris Plan bank was a type of bank first established in 1910 to lend money to individuals who couldn't obtain loans from mainstream banks. Fidelity Savings & Trust Co. was the first Morris Plan bank; it was founded by Virginia lawyer Arthur Morris. By 1931, there were 109 Morris Plan banks operated via the Morris Plan Co. of America. However, that number declined after the economy recovered from the Great Depression and commercial banks began offering similar loans.
July 2019 — showing entryway rosette
Morris Plan banks were notable for their unique lending strategy, which benefited poor and working-class borrowers. Morris Plan banks did not require collateral for loans, but instead considered the character and community standing of applicants by requiring an applicant to submit two references from peers of similar character and financial status. (Investopedia)
July 2019 — window railing detail
Sadly, the exterior is all that remains of the Hoggson Brothers' classical goodness. By the time Architecture in Downtown Richmond was written, no significant interior remained. [ADR] It served as office space to Signet Bank and the Virginia Department of Social Services, and then stood vacant until 2016 when it was purchased by The Monument Companies, and converted into a new downtown apartment space, 8th & Main. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
(Morris Plan Bank Building is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Print Sources
[ADR] Architecture in Downtown Richmond. Robert Winthrop. 1982.
801 East Leigh Street
Built, about 1816
Demolished, 1893
[HOR] — looking towards 801 East Leigh Street
Both the date and the original appearance of the Hayes-McCance house are uncertain. Like the Adams-Van Lew house, it is a composite, but no insurance policy can be found to show how much of it was the work of Dr. John Hayes.
(Library of Virginia)
Dr. Hayes was the son of James Hayes, publisher of the Virginia Gazette, who had died in 1804. Three years later his son advertised his professional services to “the citizens of Richmond and its vicinage.” He and his mother, who had been Ann Dent, lived in a wooden house in the middle of what is now Leigh Street, on a large tract which James Hayes had bought in 1798.
[HOR] — garden portico
By 1816 Dr. Hayes had started building a substantial and highly finished brick dwelling on the southeast corner of Leigh and Eighth streets. On January 31, 1817 he offered it for sale, but apparently did not get the price he wished, since it was not sold till long after. In September of that year Mrs. Hayes deeded him the property, which her husband had left to her. The fact that there is no mention of the house in this document and that it was not fully taxed until 1822 does not alter the probability that it was completed in 1817.
(Walmart) — Cholera Broadside Issued By The New York Sanatory Committee During The Cholera Epidemic Of 1849
Dr. Hayes died in 1834. Family tradition makes of him an accomplished violinist and reports that he died of cholera contracted while caring for his patients. Though his death occurred two years after Richmond’s great cholera epidemic, this legend is possibly correct, as an article published the day after his death mentions that there were thirty-six cases of the disease in Richmond, with fourteen deaths.
(LOC) — Beers Illustrated Atlas of the Cities of Richmond & Manchester, 1877— Plate F — note the extent of the McCance ownership of the block
Two years before, John Hayes had sold his property, with land running back to Clay Street, to Thomas Green for only $5030. At that time the improvements were valued at $2750, which was increased in 1833 to $6000, and in 1834 to $15,000. Such a change as this could hardly be accounted for by the carriage house and other outbuildings which we know Green added, nor by the elaborate arrangement of the grounds.
It was Green who first insured the house in 1833, and thus it is only as he altered it that it is known to us today. Thomas Green was a speculator in Land Warrants. He had mortgaged his house and, becoming insolvent, sold it and moved to Washington. It was bought in 1842 from the mortgage-holder by Thomas W. McCance, who paid $15,000 for the property.
(Find A Grave) — Mann S. Valentine II
The McCances owned the house for over forty years and were living there as late as 1888, when the mortgage-holders sold it for $9000 to Mann S. Valentine II. Thomas W. McCance died the following year, “at his residence, 712 E. Marshall St.” Born in 1813, he had started in business working for his uncle, James Dunlop, and was associated all his life with the firm that later became Dunlop, McCance. Before the War, Dunlop, Moncure & Co. were importers and commission merchants, located at the northwest corner of Cary and Eleventh Streets.
(Virginia Places) — Dunlop Mills
After the War this firm was succeeded by Dunlop, McCance, which conducted a milling business exclusively. Thomas W. McCance was president of the Dunlop and McCance Milling and Manufacturing Co. which succeeded Dunlop, McCance. They occupied the magnificent building still called the Dunlop Mills at the south end of the present Fourteenth Street Bridge and were counted among the leading millers of the country.
October 2018 — looking towards 801 East Leigh Street
Unlike the Adams-Van Lew mansion, the Hayes-McCance house was less a composite than a pure Greek Revival mansion, of the most magnificent sort. It really should be placed in the line of architectural succession beginning with the second Brockenbrough house and continuing through the Westmoreland Club, the Barret house, and the Nolting house. It is hard to know whether the proportions, the beautiful cornice, truly Greek, or the magnificent portico in the rear is more to be admired. Its demolition, in 1893, is a calamity only exceeded by the loss of the Van Lew house. Each was perfect in its way, both had lovely settings, both were essential links in the study of early Richmond’s architectural evolution.
Today, of course, this former architectural marvel has been replaced with a parking lot that serves the John Marshall Courthouse and other municipal offices.
(Hayes-McCance House is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
#eighthstreet #us22 #usroute22 #downtowncincinnati #cincinnati #centralbusinessdistrict #walnutstreet #sunset Besides spending time with my son, I travel. Cincinnati is a great city to visit. Besides he lives there. I often take pictures of scenic areas. #cincygram (at Cincinnati)
