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Moldavia

AKA, Randolph-Gallego-Allan House 3 South Fifth Street Built, 1800 Demolished, 1890

[HOR] — facing the main entrance on Fifth Street

A prototypical massive Southern mansion, right next to the original location of Second Baptist Church. It only took up a third of an entire city block.

“Moldavia,” generally called the Allan house, got its nickname from the names of those who built it, Molly and David Meade Randolph. In the deed for the land Randolph is called “Gentleman,” while the distinguished man from whom he bought it, John Wickham, is merely “Counselor and Attorney at Law.” The house was built in 1800, and two years later Randolph offered it for sale, describing it as “that very commodious, finely situated, two-story Brick Dwelling House . . . (more eligible in point of situation perhaps, than any in the city) and completely arranged offices….” Mordecai’s unflattering picture of Randolph explains why he was forced so soon to part with his new home. He was “Marshall of Virginia until the election of Mr. Jefferson, and being one of those federal office-holders who would neither ‘die nor resign’ the only alternative was to remove him.”

[HOR] — facing the south portico, with Second Presbyterian (left) & Second Baptist (right) in view

The Randolphs did not actually sell the house until 1804. Afterwards the indefatigable Molly opened a boarding-house that was famous for its hospitality. The cook-book which she compiled became as much the vade mecum of old Virginia housekeepers as Marion Harland’s cook-book was for a later generation. David Meade Randolph, “soldier of the Revolution,” lived until 1830, when he died near Yorktown.

(LOC) — Beers Illustrated Atlas of the Cities of Richmond & Manchester, 1877 — Plate K

The succeeding “Elector of Moldavia,” Joseph Gallego, was a native of Spain but had lived in Richmond at least since 1784. In 1798 the mills bearing his name were built. With David Ross and J. A. Chevallié, Gallego was a founder of the milling industry, which became second only to tobacco in Richmond’s economy. Gallego and Chevallié married sisters, and Mrs. Gallego perished in the Theatre Fire of 1811. Her husband never recovered from this blow and died in 1818.

(Virginia Historical Society) — portrait of Joseph Gallego

How much of “Moldavia” was built by the Randolphs and how much by Joseph Gallego is hard to determine. Unfortunately the first insurance policy taken out with the Mutual Assurance Society dates from 1820, when house and outbuildings were complete. From the increase in valuation for taxes during Gallego’s ownership, from $4000 in 1804 to $18,000 in 1810 and $36,000 in 1813, it is evident that he must have made changes. That these all consisted in added outbuildings (of which there were eight) is improbable. What seems likely is that he added the wing on the north with its triple window, and possibly the portico overlooking the river.

April 2017 — marker for the John Allan house, South Fifth Street

In 1825 John Allan, the foster-father of Edgar Allan Poe, inherited a fortune from his uncle William Galt, and in July of that year he bought Gallego’s late home. There Allan’s first wife died, there he quarreled with the youthful Poe when the latter contracted debts at the University of Virginia. To this house Allan brought his second wife, and in it their three sons were born. There, in 1834, “Jock” Allan, as Mordecai calls him, passed away. Mrs. Allan lived on there until her death, long afterward, in 1881.

(The Poe Blog)

The house had been little changed except that another room with a three-sided bay had replaced a porch in the rear of what was probably Gallego’s addition. After Mrs. Allan’s death it was rented to various people. Many Richmond women remember attending the art classes held there by Miss Lillie Logan. The young ladies from Miss Mary Johnson’s school marched down from the Call house to have their art lessons. The “very door” where the Raven had perched on the bust of Pallas was pointed out by some lively imagination!

April 2017 — facing 3 South Fifth Street today

The house was full of that haunting presence. When my own grandfather rented it (briefly) about 1882, his daughters would cower beneath the covers, hearing the ghost of Poe on the stairs—“though it might have been mice!” Finally, in 1890, eight years after Mrs. Allan’s estate had sold it, the house was demolished. [HOR]

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