Wholesale and Retail, Wines and Liquors
Mr. S. W. Robinson, Prop.
Corner 18th and Franklin Sts.
Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va. D. A. Ferguson & Co. 1907.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 45.
Richmond Planet, Volume 12, Number 3, 5 January 1895. Spottswood William Robinson, Sr.
21-23 North Eighteenth Street
Spottswood W. Robinson was born in King William Co., Va. Dec. 15, 1858, attended school in the country only six months and has never attended any educational institution since. He left King William Co., and came to Richmond and stayed with Dr. O. A. Crenshaw attending to milk dairy etc. He remained with him about one year. He then went to Mr. N. J. Smith and remained with him in business from '71 to '79. At that time he went into business for himself on Main St., bet. 18th and 19th Sts. He removed then to 16 N. 18th St., and from there to his present location, No. 23 N. 18th St. (Richmond Planet)
And there’s Masonic Hall right behind where this used to be.
The Haxall house is a three-story, Italian Villa style structure of sandstone colored stucco, scored to imitate ashlar. There is a projection for the full height of the building in the center of the entrance facade.
October 2019 — showing raised portico
On the first floor level is a raised portico with arched openings, supported by four fluted columns with capitals composed of a simple necking, an egg-and-dart patterned echinus, and a flat abacus. The portico has a panelled entablature with a dentiled cornice. Two large pilasters flank a recess which leads to the front door. The recess is framed by an elliptical arch, sidelights, and pilasters. The front door frame repeats this design in walnut. The door itself is a double one with cutglass and walnut panels.
October 2019 — showing basement windows, semi-circular balcony, & eyebrow windows
The fenestration of the entrance facade is symmetrical. The basement windows are half-sized with elliptical arches and are devoid of ornament. The windows on the first floor arc double-arched units with cast iron hood mouldings, decorated with coats-of-arms in the centers and pendantls at each end. There are semi-circular balconies with iron railings at,.the bases of the windows. The second floor windows are single-arched with the same hood mouldings, but without the coats-of-arms. They have simple trim and stone sills. The two windows in the projection correspond to the height and treatment of the first and second floors respectively.
October 2019 — showing dentiled cornice
The house is crowned by an elaborate, double-bracketed, dentiled cornice. The fenestration is continued into the cornice by "eyebrow" windows framed by single brackets. At the top of the central projection, the cornice arches to form a semi-circular pediment. The right wall of the house is blank except for two narrow, semicircular arched windows on the first and second floor levels which are flush with a wing which projects at this point from the house. The windows in both the main body of the house and the .wing are semi-circular arched with hood mouldings, simple trim, and· stone sills. The cornice continues around the main part of the house, but not into the wing. The end wall of the wing is stuccoed "ashlar" and is blank.
October 2019
The left facade is fenestrated in the same manner as the front of the house with a half basement window, single-arched windows on the first and second floors, and an "eyebrow" window in the cornice. The windows are spaced in the center of the facade so as to form pairs. On the first floor level, there is one long semi-circular balcony for both windows. All the windows have simple hood mouldings and stone sills. The cornice continues. The auditorium entrance joins 'the house at the end of this side.
The sidewalk in front of the Bolling Haxall house was originally paved in hexagonal bricks. These unusual paving blocks were regarded as evil by some members of the Richmond populace, and nurses would lead their charges into the gutter rather than have them traverse the bricks of ill omen.
Today, there are two cast-iron, horse-head hitching posts in front of the house. These once stood on Capitol Street where they were used for the horses of the state legislators. There is a fine cast-iron fence set in granite around the fronof the house. This iron-work is believed to have been cast by George Lownes, who did a similar, signed fence in Hollywood Cemetery.
(Richmond Weddings)
The first floor of the interior of the Haxall house consists of a long entrance hall running the length of the house from the front door to the back porch. To the right of the entrance is an octagonal-shaped library, and to the left is a double parlour, separated by sliding doors. Beyond the library on the right-hand side is the semi-circular stair hall with sculptural niches and the walnut stairway added during Dr. Willis' residence. At the top of the stairwell is a stained-glass dome. At the rear of the house is a second hall with a fireplace, as well as three, large double doors which originally opened onto the porch and now lead to the auditorium.
(Richmond Weddings)
The plan of the second floor is similar to that of the first, except that the partition has been removed between the double parlour in order to form a larger room for parties and meetings.
In addition to the double-spiral, walnut staircase and the dome preserved from Dr. Willis' day, the panelled walnut wainscoting which he added to the walls of the entrance and stair halls also remains. The doors and door frames that face into the entrance area are panelled and carved in walnut.
October 2019
The octagonal library on the first floor has been restored to its nineteenth century appearance. The original, carved, pink marble mantel is complemented by a patterned ceiling painted in subtle browns, beiges, pinks, and greens. The walls are painted in shades of brown, beige, and white to imitate panelling. There are walnut, glass-front bookcases in four of the corners of the room.
(Richmond Weddings)
The double parlours have elaborately carved, white marble mantels. The doors and windows have white trim with small colonettes at the sides leading up to a cartouche in the center of an elliptical arch. This same design is used with slight variation for all of the door and window frames on the first floor.
There is a cove moulding around the top of all the first floor ceilings and plaster work around the bases of the crystal chandeliers. The second floor is much simpler in its decorative treatment. The three fireplaces are all of white marble in a simple design. The frames of the doors and windows are squared-off, not arched as on the first floor, and have only a plain moulding.
October 2019
When repairs and redecorating of the club were undertaken in 1961 and 1962, the walls of the octagonal-shaped library were discovered to have been painted to simulate paneling in the nineteenth century. The ceiling also yielded evidence of painting in an elaborate design. The walls were repapered at first, but in 1965-1966, Miss Mary Wingfield Scott made it possible for the library to be returned to its original decor.
October 2019
In 1965-1966, the House Committee of the club supervised major structural and redecorating repairs to the house. The cupola was strengthened and repainted, deteriorated cornice mouldings and dentils were replaced, and the exterior of the building was restored to its original sandstone color (obtained from iron filings) with the stucco finish scored to imitate ashlar. Curved iron details over the windows were discovered, and the cast iron balconies around the windows were made visible by the removal of box bushes.
(Pinterest) — Old Dominion Nail Works, February 1948
Bolling W. Haxall was the fifth son of a prosperous mill owner, Philip Haxall. The former Haxall began his career as a clerk in the Haxal Mills and became a partner in 1842. He had a wide range of business talents 'for he was also the president of the Old Dominion Iron and Nail Works and had an interest in the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. His obituary in the Dispatch of June, 1885, referred to him as “a most energetic successful man of business, whose advice was often sought and highly valued. His house is a testimony to his material success and to the taste of the time.
(Richmond Weddings) — showing walnut stairway
Haxall sold his house to Dr. Francis T. Willis in 1869 and I moved to the block west, across from Linden Row. Dr. Willis made several changes in the house. He added a beautiful walnut stairway and frescoed walls with hardwood wainscoting on the main floor. His eye for beauty led to tragedy, however, for his daughter, Emily, a sleepwalker, was killed in a fall down the curving staircase. In despair, Dr. Willis sold the house in i900 to the Woman's Club, which had: been formed by Mrs. L. L. Lewis in 1894 for the literary culture of its members; for their intellectual, social, and moral development, and to strengthen their individual efforts for humanity.
To pay off their mortgage, the ladies of the club rented the second and third floors of the house and the outbuildings as apartments In 1916, the burgeoning enrollment of the club required the addition of an auditorium to the back of the house. This partially destroyed. the rear porches on two floors.
(Richmond Weddings) — auditorium
The auditorium was enlarged in 1924. 1928 saw some major changes on the interior of the Bolling Haxall house. A partition was removed from.between the double parlour on the second floor in order to make a large assembly room- The third floor was converted into studios with a separate entry and stairway, and a balcony was added to the auditorium. (VDHR)
October 2019 — trees giving us the finger
Yet as wonderful as the Women’s Club truly is, it has clearly been targeted by the Insidious Tree-Architecture Conspiracy, that dread cabal that has conifers everywhere laughing at the human species. What can you do but shake your fist in silent rage?
(Bolling Haxall House is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
AKA, Maybee House
2605 East Franklin Street
Built, 1859
September 2019
A former orphanage, right on top of Church Hill.
(Children’s Home Society of Virginia) — Our Receiving Home and Central Office, 2605 East Franklin Street, Richmond, Va.
The Children’s Home Society of Virginia was organized in 1899, and chartered by the General Assembly on 30 January 1900. Inspired by the work of the National Children’s Home Society, it was born of concern on the part of its founders for the plight of abandoned and neglected children. As stated in its charter, the Society’s goal was “finding family homes for homeless, indigent, or dependent poor children in the State of Virginia, and other purposes incident thereto.”
(Children’s Home Society of Virginia) — Children’s Home Society of Virginia first Board of Directors
The Board of Directors selected John Garland Pollard as the Society’s first president and the Reverend William J. Maybee as state superintendent. Maybee, who was to hold that position for nearly 30 years, articulated the ethos of the Society when he wrote in 1903 that “We are not to imagine that children of humble birth are therefore inferior, on the contrary the homeless child of the street is of the same clay as the petted darling of the wealthy…Both Christianity and civilization may be quite correctly measured by their treatment of childhood.”
(Chronicling America) — advertisement for Children’s Home Society of Virginia in The Presbyterian of the South — June 25, 1919
The Society received children in one of two ways, parental placement or court commitment. Representatives of the CHS traveled the state gathering children who were made wards of the Society and brought them back to Richmond. The children then underwent “a thorough system of renovation” that included the provision of “clean and comfortable garments,” basic etiquette training, and examinations by medical and psychological doctors.
(Chronicling America) — advertisement for Children’s Home Society of Virginia in Richmond Times-Dispatch — Sunday, June 8, 1919
Initially, wards were placed under the care of Rev. Maybee’s wife, Mary McLeod Maybee, and the Belle Bryan Day Nursery. In 1905, the Board purchased a house at 2605 East Franklin Street to serve as a receiving home and central office; another receiving home was opened in Roanoke in 1920. Local advisory boards around Virginia handled much of the recruitment and screening of foster families, and helped monitor foster placements. Those children who were never adopted remained the responsibility of the CHS until they reached adulthood, became self-supporting, or married.
(Chronicling America) — advertisement for Children’s Home Society of Virginia in Richmond Times-Dispatch — Sunday, June 15, 1919
Change came to the Society in 1926 when it joined the Child Welfare League of America and began a process of reorganization based on League observations. Their recommendations touched on a variety of areas including fire safety in the receiving homes, hygiene, nutrition, record-keeping, the manner of disciplining the children, the selection of foster homes, and other topics. One major adjustment resulting from the study came with the shift to a staff of trained social workers.
(Library of Virginia) — Virginia Historical Inventory Photographs, Works Progress Administration Collection — 1937
With its budget coming entirely from donations (and, starting in 1930, from the Richmond Community Fund), the Society struggled financially in its early years. By the early 1930’s it was in danger of closing under the weight of $50,000 in debt. Led by then-Governor John Garland Pollard and other prominent supporters, the state-wide “Spring Emergency Campaign” of 1931 yielded enough funds to erase the Society’s debt and bring a measure of financial stability. The Society later partnered with the United Way for several years as an additional source of funds.
The receiving home was closed in 1934, signaling the Society’s move to an emphasis on temporary boarding home (foster) care in advance of permanent adoption placement. (Children’s Home Society of Virginia)
(Library of Virginia) — Virginia Historical Inventory Photographs, Works Progress Administration Collection — 1937
Madge Goodrich researched this house in 1937 for the Works Progress Administration of Virginia.
The Children's Home Society of Virginia was an orphanage. The society owned the house from 1905 till 1921. It was conducted for a number of years by Dr. Mabie (sic), who later moved the orphanage to Highland Park. The house is often spoken of as the Mabie House, from this fact. The children were under the age of twelve and four. The house being too small for their numbers, the Society rented a part of the house at the west for about five years.
Although Madge was not able to determine a date, the City of Richmond calls it at 1859, so we’ll roll with that. She does note that it was owned by Hector Davis at the time, and sold the following year to Alexander Walker. (Library of Virginia)
The Children’s Home Society of Virginia is still going strong, now performing their worthy function in the Near West End on Fitzhugh Avenue.
(Children’s Home Society of Virginia is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Monroe Park is situated on land acquired in 1851 by the City of Richmond. Planned to serve as a park for the stylish western suburbs. It was first used for the site of an agricultural exposition and later as a camp site for Confederate troops before being developed for recreational use in the 1870s.
August 2019 — looking towards Grace & Holy Trinity Church & Altria Theatre, formerly known as the Mosque
With the rapid growth of the western suburbs of Richmond at the turn of the 20th century, the park provided an ideal setting for the monumental Gothic Grace and Holy Trinity Church, the Italian Renaissance Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, and the Moorish Mosque Auditorium.
August 2019 — looking towards Johnson Hall, formerly Monroe Terrace Apartments
These buildings, along with several late 19th-century townhouses which recall the earlier residential character of the park, and two impressive apartment houses of the 1920s, create an architectural ensemble which is unique in Virginia for its monumental character and stylistic diversity.
(JSTOR) — Charles H. Dimmock — November 5, 1863
In 1850 the only public park in Richmond was Capitol Square. With a population of 30,280 at that time, this single open space was no longer sufficient for the growing city's needs, and in. 1851, city councilman Charles Dimmock proposed that parks be acquired near future major residential areas. In 1851-52, seven and one-half acres of land were purchased to become Western Square. This square would later become Monroe Park.
(Virginia Memory) — drawing from Richmond Progress article, 1882 — Old Fairgrounds Now Monroe Park
The site being beyond the city limits and to the west of developed residential areas, the park was not developed for two decades. In 1854 the property was used by the Virginia State Agricultural Society for a fair. The fair was vis±ed by President John Tyler and General Winfield Scott and was celebrated as a major civic event in the antebellum period.
August 2019 — looking towards Sacred Heart Cathedral
By the late 1870s residential development had expanded to the west, and the park was indicated on maps of the period with an arrangement of curved paths, similar to those in Capitol Square. By 1889, this original scheme had been replaced by the present configuration of straight walks. The central feature of this design was a tall, granite, rustic pyramid from the apex of which water gushed. The pyramid was similar to the memorial erected to Confederate dead in Hollywood Cemetery in 1869.
August 2019 — looking toward Checkers House
The Monroe Park feature was surmounted by a metal pipe structure supporting an electric light. Adjacent to this odd pyramid was a wooden bandstand. In the first decade of the 20th century the pyramid was replaced with a four-tier, castiron fountain cast by J.W. Fiske. In 1971, the fountain was recast by the Robinson Company. The bandstand was replaced by the Checkers House in 1939.
August 2019 — looking toward VCU’s Lindsay House designed by Marion J. Dimmock
Serving as a residential square from the later 19th century into. the first part of the 20th century, the park by 1930 was surrounded by high rise apartments and major public buildings and churches. As the area aged it became less stylish as a residential neighborhood and the Richmond Professional Institute, the forerunner of Virginia Commonwealth University, expanded into the older houses of the area.
(Library of Virginia) — aerial view, Monroe Park — February 6, 1951 — Adolph B. Rice Studio
By the later 1950s the residential character of the district was lost, and several proposals were made to destroy the park by extending streets through it, converting it to parking space, or erecting a medical center on the site. These proposals were all rejected and the park remains a major public amenity today.
(Library of Congress) — Wickham Statue — photo taken between 1905-1920
As was typical of 19th-century practice, the park became a site for monumental sculpture. The foundation for a huge rotunda dedicated to Jefferson Davis was laid in the park in the 1890s, but this impressive scheme was abandoned in favor of a more modest monument erected on Monument Avenue.
August 2019 — World War II memorial
A bronze statue of General William c. Wickham was dedicated in 1891, and in 1911 a monument to Joseph Bryan was unveiled. Smaller monuments to Fitzhugh Lee and the dead of World War II were erected in the later 20th century. Only the Wickham Statue was related to the park's axial plan. (VDHR)
August 2019 — looking towards the Prestwould
By the early 2010s, the park was showing its age needed more than just TLC. It was closed to the public in 2017 and underwent a 22-month, 6 million dollar restoration that improved security, added a bioretention wall to make it self-sustaining, 132 new trees, 13,000 new shrubs and plants, and wi-fi (WTVR). A project of that size and duration will always have fault-finders, but on the whole, the Monroe Park Conservancy and the city did good.
