Philip Johnson, one of the foremost architects of the 20th century, designed this building and its accompanying tower as a new headquarters for WRVA Radio. Dedicated in 1968, the structures were composed of poured concrete, and the windows simulated punches made by a machine. WRVA, founded by a local tobacco company in 1925, broadcast with a powerful signal and was known as the “Voice of Virginia.” ChildSavers, a nonprofit provider of mental health and child development services, acquired the WRVA Building in 2003. ChildSavers originated in 1924 when social reformer Martha Patteson Bowie Branch established the Children’s Memorial Clinic in Richmond.
The Henrico County Courthouse of 1896, which still stands on Main Street, Richmond, is the third court building erected on the site. In 1752, the Henrico Court moved to the new town of Richmond from Varina; the land on which the courthouse was erected was donated by the Cocke family, who retained conditional rights to the property,.
[IEAHS] — from a mid-19th century print, showing original courthouse in back
The County Court continued to meet within the bounds of the City of Richmond until 1975, when it was moved to new facilities on Parham Road in western Henrico.
September 2019 — detail of east tower roof
The first courthouse at this site was a simple brick building which is said to have served as the model for the still-standing Albemarle County courthouse of 1764. It was from the steps of this original building that the Declaration of Independence was first publically proclaimed in Richmond on August 5, 1776; the Virginia Gazette reported that most of the town's 1000 citizens were present at the event, and that they reacted to the reading with "universal shouts of joy."
September 2019
Five years later British soldiers invaded Virginia's new capital and in the process destroyed many of the Henrico court records, including most of those dating prior to 1677, The courthouse itself, however, managed to escape serious damage.
September 2019
In 1824 the first courthouse was much in need of repairs, and a committee decided to rebuild rather than repair it. Samuel Sublette was engaged to design the building, and by November, 1825, it was ready for use.
September 2019
This brick structure, which measured 70 by 46 feet, was distinguished by its pedimented portico, three-piece front windows, and flanking doors surmounted by elliptical fanlights.
September 2019 — detail of windows and parapet facing Twenty-Second Street
In the 19th century, the governmental activities of County and City were more closely intertwined than they are today. Prior to the Civil War, all deeds to property in the City of Richmond were recorded in the Henrico clerk's office, and all inhabitants of the City obtained their marriage licenses from the County clerk.
September 2019 — granite entryway facing Twenty-Second Street
In the 1840s the courthouse was moved from its original location in the middle of what is now 22nd street, in order to open that street to traffic. The 1824 building underwent extensive damage during the great Evacuation Fire of 1865, but was subsequently repaired, and served the County until the present 3 1/2 story red brick and granite structure replaced it in 1896.
September 2019 — doorway & window, west side of building
The building, with its recessed front entry and highly-articulated facades, is a late and rather freely-interpreted example of the Romanesque Revival. A distinctive local landmark, it is one of the few examples of the style remaining in the Richmond area, and it will hopefully be preserved. [IEAHS]
(Find A Grave) — architect Carl August Ruehrmund & family
The 1896 courthouse was designed by Carl Ruehrmund, a German-born architect who studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Berlin before immigrating to America in 1881. In 1882 he was living in Richmond and working with Albert Lybrock, another famous Richmond architect, on additions to the Customs House. According to Robert Winthrop, he “may well be Richmond’s most important little known architect” who would design "an impressive number of buildings, including houses, commercial structures, churches and public buildings” throughout his long career. (Architecture Richmond)
September 2019
Today, the building is conjoined with a house at 2117 East Main Street, and the entire structure is owned by a real estate investment company, Zimmerman Inc. Aside from two mannequins displayed in the first-floor window facing the intersection of Main and Twenty-Second it appears little used, but in otherwise good condition for its age.
Surprisingly, this building is not on the Richmond Historic Registry, which seems a shame.
(Henrico County Courthouse is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Print Sources
[HPR] Historic Photos of Richmond.Emily J. & John S. Salmon. 2007.
[IEAHS] Inventory of Early Architecture and Historic Sites, County of Henrico. Jeffrey Marshall O’Dell.1976, 1978.
[RVCJ03] — Residence of S. W. Travers, 602 West Franklin Street
Because you know someone’s got to do it.
[RVCJ03] — Samuel Winfield Travers
S. W. Travers & Co. is a firm name notable in the fertilizer trade, not of Richmond alone, but of the South. It is notable as that of a house manufacturing on a large scale, and enjoying a very large and steadily-increasing trade.
(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 87 — showing former S. W. Travers House location
It was established ten years ago. Mr. S. W. Travers, the head of it, came here from Baltimore, where he had been in the same line of business. He had not been long a resident before he began to be esteemed a real acquisition to the business community. He has been especially active in public affairs of a commercial character.
November 2019 — looking towards 602 West Franklin Street at center left
He has enlisted for the entertainment of visiting bodies of distinguished strangers, has contributed liberally himself, and canvassed for funds for that and other public purposes, and has been actively identified in the work of the Chamber of Commerce for the last four years. He has taken a prominent part in the deliberations and the work of that body.
[IOR] — Young Men’s Christian Association Building, circa 1886
He has been chairman of its committee on Inland Trade for three years, and has recently been elected to the office of second vice-president of the Chamber, as an officer of which his portrait is one of those upon the frontispiece of this work. He is prominent, besides, as secretary and treasurer of the Richmond Chemical Works, and is president of the Young Men’s Christian Association. [RVCJ03]
(Digital Commonwealth) — advertisement for Orchilla Guano
They are the sole importers of Orchilla Guano for the Southern States, and this is their leading brand. The Orchilla Guano takes its name from the island from which it is brought, lying near the coast of Venezuela, to which government it belongs.
(Atlas Obscura) — a guano mine on Peru’s Chincha Islands, circa 1860
The guano is the deposit of sea birds feeding upon fish, hence is verv rich in Phosphorus, in the form of Phosphate of Lime. It was first introduced in York county, Pennsylvania, and Harford county, Maryland, and its sales are now enormous in those counties alone; and from this nucleus its sales have spread over many States, and now number thousands of tons each year.
(Chronicling America) — advertisement, The Farmville Herald — Friday, April 21, 1899
Orchilla has won a fine reputation for grain and cotton, but for growing grass and clover it stands perhaps without an equal It is said to produce clover where it would never grow before, and in this way it has brought up some of the poorest lands of Eastern Virginia to equal any in the State.
[IOR] — advertisement in Industries of Richmond, 1886
The "National" is an old and well established brand of fertilizer, and has won a fine reputation in growing tobacco, especially fine yellow tobacco. The "Capital" is the new brand of the firm, and thev have adopted as a trade mark the "Capitol" building at Richmond, Va., which has a place, not only in the history of Virginia, but of the Southern States. In its halls were held the counsels of the congress of the fallen Confederacy, and many a "Johnny Reb" will recall the stirring events of the times in viewing the fine cut of the building at the head of this article.
(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 46 — showing former guano warehouse
The goods are of the highest standard guaranteed analysis, and are placed on the market strictly upon their merits. Ample means, backed by intelligence and push, coupled with a free use of printer's ink, has enabled this house to assume a position in the field of fertilizers without a parallel. [IOR]
November 2019 — looking toward Twenty-Second & Dock Streets
The factory of this firm is at Twenty-second and Dock streets. It has a capacity of 100 tons daily, which is equal to 30,000 tons a year. They manufacture a special fertilizer for each of the following crops, namely : Tobacco, cotton, corn, peanuts, wheat and vegetables. [RVCJ03]
Today both locations associated with S. W. Travers are no more, both of them transforming into everyone’s favorite downtown necessity — parking lots.
(S. W. Travers House is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Print Sources
[IOR] Industries of Richmond. James P. Wood. 1886.
[RVCJ03] Richmond, Virginia: The City on the James: The Book of Its Chamber of Commerce and Principal Business Interests. G. W. Engelhardt. 1903.
Built, circa 1853 (Twenty-Second Street) & before 1889 (Franklin Street)
[IOR] — looking towards16 North Twenty-Second Street
A tobacco king who could walk to work.
(Library of Congress) — Beers Illustrated Atlas of the Cities of Richmond & Manchester, 1877 — Plate L — showing J. B. Pace Tobacco Factory on Twenty-Second Streets between Main & Franklin Streets
The J. B. Pace Tobacco Co.—Manufacturers of Twists, Coils, Navy, Plug, and Smoking Tobaccos, J. Ehrmann, President. Twenty-second street, between Main and Franklin streets. This is one of the largest and best equipped tobacco manufacturers in this country.
(Library of Congress) — Beers Illustrated Atlas of the Cities of Richmond & Manchester, 1877 — Plate M — showing the other J. B. Pace Tobacco Factory on Twenty-Second Streets between Main & Franklin Streets
They employ between three and four hundred hands, and have a capacity for turning out 10,000 pounds of tobacco a day. They make more fine bright twist, coils, and light pressed goods than any factory in the United States, and this is what has made the reputation of the house.
(VCU) — 1889 Baist Atlas Map of Richmond — Plate 1 — showing an additional factory building at 2201-2211 East Franklin Street, mislabeled as “J. B. Page”
They have an established trade all over the United States, and ship to India, England, Canada, Africa, South America, the Sandwich Islands, and British Columbia. They make about two hundred and fifty brands for home consumption.
(EBay) — J B Pace Tobacco Co. Cross Swords Plug Cut Tobacco Tin
The "J. B. Pace twist" and "light pressed," are their leading brands. They employ five commercial salesmen on the road. John H. Neimyer, Jr., is the superintendant of the manufactury, and has been since the present company was formed.
(Find A Grave) — James Baker Pace
He is formerly of New York, where he had seventeen years experience in the same line. These works, which occupy almost an entire block, were founded in 1865 by James B. Pace. [IOR]
August 2016 — Pace-King at 205 North Nineteenth Street
Pace had the good fortune to live a convenient four blocks distant from his place of business, at least until 1876. He then built a new crib at 100 West Franklin Street, deemed by Mary Wingfield Scott to be one of three Richmond houses competing for sheer ugliness*, and sold the Nineteenth Street House to Mrs. Jane King, the Ice Queen. [ORN]
(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 57 — showing the changes in ownership
Tobacco made Pace a wealthy man, leading him to investments in other areas like the railroads and banks. By 1893, he was serving as President of the Planters National Bank, and seems to have left the tobacco business behind him. By 1903, the properties on Twenty-Second and Franklin Streets were either vacant or under management by other tobacco concerns. [RVCJ93]
September 2019 — looking towards 2201-2211 East Franklin Street
The guts of J. B. Pace’s tobacco world have been largely swept away. The Franklin Street building is still there, but the one that stood at 9-11 North Twenty-Second (far right) is just a parking lot today.
September 2019 — looking towards 16 North Twenty-Second Street
Despite the Insidious Tree-Architecture Conspiracy fouling the view, It appears that 16 North Twenty-Second was consolidated into a much larger structure that became William P. Poythress & Company, which today, like so many former Shockoe Bottom industrial buildings, has been converted to apartment space.
(J. B. Pace Tobacco Co. is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Note
* The other competitors were the Alfred Harris, Jr. House at 518 West Franklin, which is no longer standing, and the Ginter House at 901 West Franklin. Mary Wingfield Scott — never afraid to share her opinion.
Print Sources
[IOR] Industries of Richmond. James P. Wood. 1886
[ORN] Old Richmond Neighborhoods. Mary Wingfield Scott. 1950.
[RVCJ93] Richmond, Virginia: The City on the James: The Book of Its Chamber of Commerce and Principal Business Interests. G. W. Engelhardt. 1893.
