#treearchitectureconspiracy

[RYMCA] — branch building in 1886??

America’s urban streets of the 1800’s and early 1900’s were filled with questionable activities for young men of the day. Richmond’s Shockoe Valley, with its well-known red-light district was a prime example. To protect and save railroad workers and other impressionable youth, a partnership was formed by the major railroad lines and the National YMCA in Cleveland, OH in 1872. (RVA Apartment.com)

[RYMCA] — YMCA information pamphlet — Why Should I? Five Good Reasons Why I should be a Member of the Railroad Young Men’s Christian Association

YMCA programs for rail employees became its largest effort for blue-collar workers until the decline of the nation’s railway workforce. Rail management and workers liked the Railroad YMCA because it offered employees a decent alternative to flop houses, brothels and saloons.

(RVA Apartment.com) — undated photo of the YMCA baseball team

Richmond’s Railroad YMCA opened in October 1909. It would serve men working on the Chesapeake and Ohio; Seaboard Air Line; Southern; Atlantic Coast Line; and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac. Located at Main Street Station, the building offered showers and tub baths, a swimming pool, a gym, soap and towels, a reading room, checkers, chess, dominoes and social events.

(RVA Apartment.com) — early 1900s

Sleeping space was available. Also available were a bowling alley, poolroom, auditorium, kitchen and ladies’ parlor. The cost for building and equipping the structure came to about $100,000.

May 2019

A period brochure promoting membership promised benefiits that included exercise opportunities, career-related courses, entertainment and religious activities. Again, classes appealed to many.

Most courses related directly to railway operations: air brakes for trains, basic math, algebra and geometrical and mechanical drawing

May 2019

The Railroad YMCA also offered a networking system—known as the Confidential Counsel. Members completed a card, asking for the advice of a physician, lawyer, businessman, minister or YMCA secretary or physical director. The goal was to link men to honest counselors who could guide them through practical and spiritual problems.

May 2019

The Richmond Railway YMCA even played a key role in the social and family life of area rail employees. Family outings were a regular program feature. In summer 1909, for example, the Y sponsored a family trip to Buckroe Beach. [RYMCA]

May 2019

By 1944, the Richmond membership grew to as many as 2000 but as automobile travel became more and more popular, the entire Railroad YMCA movement had seen its heyday. The Richmond Branch ceased operation December 31, 1971. (RVA Apartment.com)

May 2019

Despite the issues regarding the origination date, this building is flipping beautiful, to the point that the stone railing has been reconstructed, as seen above.

City of Richmond says this was built in 1907. RYMCA has a photo that says 1886, so it’s unclear what the actual construction date happens to be. Perhaps the YMCA existed on this site in some form prior to the construction of Main Street Station and the new building. It’s really not clear. This is not helped by the fact that Robert Winthrop’s Architecture in Downtown Richmond starts with Main Street Station and just overlooks the building next door, but alas, you have to draw lines somewhere.

May 2019

Of course, let us not forget that this building is also a victim of the Insidious Tree-Architecture Conspiracy, a dark cabal of incomparable madness, sneering at the human condition seeking betterment via contemplation of architectural wonder.

(Railroad Branch YMCA is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)

Print Sources

(VCU) — Frederic William Scott

Frederic William Scott, founder of the brokerage firm Scott and Stringfellow, was one of the most influential financiers in Virginia. In 1893, Scott and Charles S. Stringfellow Jr. organized the firm of Scott & Stringfellow, investment bankers, which was his principal business until his death. Scott also became involved in many other business interests, eventually became a director of several of the country’s largest corporations, including the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Scott was director of Merchants National Bank, which was established in 1870 by his father and grandfather.

(VCU) — Frederic William Scott & Elisabeth Mayo Strother — rocking their best F. Scott & Zelda, way before F. Scott & Zelda

In 1893 Scott married Elisabeth Mayo Strother. They had five plans for the site, however, they were already underway before the land had been obtained.

(VCU) — Carriage House blueprint

Frederic Scott had already approached Noland & Baskervill to design a carriage house for the property – drawings held in the Virginia Historical Society are dated July 1902. Although an unusual reversal on the way most domestic projects are commissioned, it is generally believed that the shrewd financier contracted the smaller building first as a trial run for the larger project.

May 2018 — completed Carriage House

The result is remarkably well-appointed for a carriage house – picturesque massing, close attention to detail and rich materials are hallmarks of the little building’s design. The half-timbered Tudor-style building is much more elaborate than other carriage houses of a similar size and appears to be exactly what it is – an individual project rather than a subsidiary outbuilding.

(VCU)

Evidently, the Scotts were pleased with the carriage house and commissioned Noland & Baskervill to design the main residence in 1906. As a friend of Frederic Scott’s, the commission fell to Henry Baskervill, who developed the design that same year.  By March 1907, the firm had created plans, and drew up specifications in October 1908.

May 2018

The Scott-Bocock House represents a highly unusual example of Beaux-Arts domestic architecture in Virginia. Although the Beaux-Arts style was applied to the design of commercial structures – most notably bank design – and to other public buildings in Virginia, the style did not achieve the dominance in Virginia that it did in the Northeast.

(VDHR)

Situated on one of Richmond’s grandest residential streets, the house’s pale classical austerity stands in sharp contrast to its more florid and eclectic revivalist neighbors. Heavy classical elements combine to present the fashionable street with a commanding façade. The interior of the Scott house is no less impressive than the exterior. Encompassing some 40,950 square feet of finished space distributed across three stories, the interior of Scott house is one of Richmond’s most striking.

(Rosegill) — Mary Wingfield Scott

Members of the Scott family are among the most significant figures in the preservation movement in Richmond. Elisabeth Scott Bocock, the middle child of Frederic and Elisabeth Scott, was a founding member of the William Byrd Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, where she began to share her cousin, Mary Wingfield Scott’s, passion for preservation. Together, Bocock and Scott alternately encouraged and cajoled city and state officials to preserving Richmond’s historic architecture. They became adept at raising funds (often quietly augmented by their own) to purchase and restore threatened historic properties. In 1956, Bocock helped found the Historic Richmond Foundation, an organization designed to move quickly to rescue a threatened historic property.

May 2018

As is often the case with grand residences, the Scott-Bocock House was used as a political tool whose intent is to overawe the visitors with its grandeur and coerce them round to the thinking of the owner. In this case, however, the house was the center of a long-standing and influential campaign to preserve Richmond’s architecture. The house represents not only the work that was accomplished within its walls, but also the lives of two extraordinary and dedicated women who worked tirelessly to protect Richmond’s architectural heritage. (VDHR)

May 2018

A beautiful house, well maintained by VCU (except for the hideous wooden fence on the porch), but sadly also a victim of the insidious Tree Architecture Conspiracy. You may not be a conspiracy theory person by nature, but the evidence is too overwhelming, and you cannot pretend there isn’t one.

(LOC) — John Russell Pope, rocking his best Howard Roark look

Richmond's Broad Street Station ranks among the Commonwealth's most distinguished and ambitious works of architecture. The design for this monumental edifice was provided by John Russell Pope, one of the most prominent architects of his day, whose work includes the designs for such nationally famous landmarks as the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art.

[OHFYH] — 1926

Completed in 1919, after a construction period of two years, Broad Street Station was among the last of the great rail terminals to be built in what has been termed the "Golden Age of Railroads."

(VDHR) — 1971 nomination photo

Pope's monumental design symbolizes the importance that train travel once had in America. Neoclassical in form, the station is dominated by a vast, domed, central waiting room, flanked by two wings, and a long projection or concourse on the rear from which access to the tracks is obtained. A passenger enters the static via a hexa-style-in-antis, Roman Doric portico surmounted by a full entablature and a parapet. The interior of the portico has a coffered, barrel vaulted ceiling. Crowning the central portion of the building is a saucer shaped, copper dome, supported on a low octagonal drum with large lunettes on its four greater sides. The three-storied wings are separated by simple pilasters into three bays on their front and rear facades and six bays on their sides. There are cast-iron and glass canopies supported by ornamental brackets around the first fl'or level of each of the wings for passenger unloading. The entablature and a slight parapet continue around the wings and into the long, rear concourse.

(Bluffton University)

In June, 1951, a section of the massive dome slipped because of lightening damage. One hundred twenty feet of a concrete ledge surrounding the dome collapsed and loosened the tile covering of the dome. This necessitated the removal of the rest of the tile, and a replacement with copper sheathing.

May 2018

Unlike many stations of its era, Broad Street does not have one large train shed, but rather, a series of covered platforms below the concourse supported by cast-iron Ionic columns. The placement of the station on a promontory of land created an ideal position for the tracks at the base of the slope.

May 2018

Entrance to the station can also be had from the one-story east west axis, which crosses the longitudinal axis just behind the main lobby. At the intersection, there is a square hall with a high, flat, coffered ceiling. Four Ionic, granite columns demarcate this passage on the northern and southern sides.

(Bluffton University)

The interior of the station has a long axis running north - south, crossed by a shorter east-west axis. From the portico, one enters an expansive, octagonal-shaped space which serves as the main waiting room. On each of the four larger sides of the octagon is an arch. Two of the arches are supported by two Ionic columns, and two are blocked in with granite and decorated with Ionic pilasters. The soffits of the arches are lined with  rosetted coffers. Above each of the arches is a large lunette, underlined by a dentiled cornice which circumscribes the room.

[OHFYH]

The four smaller angles of the octagon have semi-circular niches, lined with rosetted coffers, leading to smaller waiting and baggage rooms. The dome arches 94 feet over this whole section, which contains the ticket counter and mahogany benches for waiting passengers.

[CRVA] — former Byrd Street Station — 1940s

Broad Street Station replaces two earlier stations that served the historic Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. When its immediate predecessor, located between Byrd, Canal, Seventh, and Eighth Streets, became too crowded to handle both comuter and long distance passengers, it was decided to reroute the larger passenger trains to the west end of town and erect a new terminal to serve them. The grounds of the Hermitage Country Club were chosen as the site of Pope's neo-classic edifice.

[OHFYH]

Although the volume of traffic through the station has greatly dwindled in recent years, Broad Street Station still serves the trains of the R.F. &P. and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroads, and also houses the central offices of the R.F.&P. Despite its decline as a major transportation center the station remains a monument of civic and commercial pride expressei through architecture. (VDHR)

(Photographs by Roger Puta) — 1969

So wrote Elizabeth Cheek for the Department of Historic Resources in 1971, and the decline was clearly the writing on the wall. Amtrak moved all passenger train operations to the new Staples Mill Road station in November 1975, and Broad Street Station was sold to the Commonwealth the following year.

May 2018

Fortunately that was not the end of the story. The same month it was sold, the former station became the new location of the Science Museum of Virginia, and the train kept on rolling. Governor Mills Godwin unveiled the museum's first permanent exhibit gallery in 1977, and in 1983 Ethyl Corporation helped fund the addition of The Dome, an OMNIMAX theatre and planitarium.

May 2018

Today, the Science Museum is a worthy steward of this handsome building, expanding exhibit space in 2013, and adding an SR-71 Blackbird in 2016. Alas, the fly in the ointment is the ruined view from Broad Street, courtesy the insidious Tree Architecture Conspiracy.

(Broad Street Station is part of the Atlas RVA Project)

Sources

[CRVA] Celebrate Richmond. Elizabeth Dementi, Wayne Dementi, Corrine Hudgins. 1999.

[RVCJ03] — original building

Though a minor industry here, perhaps, compared with tobacco, iron, fertilizers and etc., the Dyeing and Cleaning business merits remark, and taken in the aggregate is by no means small. There are about eight or ten concerns in it, not counting the smaller ones or the carpet cleaning business, in some cases associated with it.

(LOC) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 101 — showing ‘Victor Renovating Works’ — no one is perfect, right?

There is one house interesting as the highly successful venture of a lady. It has agents throughout Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, who forward work to it by express, delivery, after renovation, being effected in the same manner. This house is prepared for work in all departments, whether cleaning, dyeing, scouring or the dry process known as "French" cleaning.

(Chronicling America) — Richmond Times-Dispatch — Sunday, June 27, 1909

Three of the ten houses referred to above have complete and modern plants. The smaller concerns often, are patrons of the larger. The bulk of the business is the cleaning and dyeing of apparel. Lately, however, there has grown up a very considerable carpet cleaning business. There are three concerns in that branch alone. One house makes fine mattresses also; another weaves rugs; a third does wall paper cleaning. [RVCJ03]

[RVCJ03] — W. J. Glasgow, proprietor

Uh, do any of these businesses have NAMES? Rocket Werks is just curious. And while City of Richmond dates the construction of the building as 1890, Englehardt states that the business was established in 1896. Unless this was used for another commercial facility (in Oregon Hill? Really?), one of these two is WRONG.

May 2018 — showing parapet medallion

In any event business for Victory must have been good. At some point after 1905, the building was expanded to include 409 South Cherry, doubling its size. While the new building generally mirrored its neighbor, and the parapet medallion was centered to cover both, 409 was considerably less detailed.

May 2018 — showing corbelling at 407 South Cherry

No attempt was made to mimic the decorative first floor pilasters, nor did 409 have the same rich, beautiful corbelling as the 407 facade. Pity.

The building was converted to residential space in 2013, and today goes by the Victory Apartments moniker. At the time, the proposed conversion met with resistance from the Oregon Hill neighborhood association. While their concerns were understandable, we are fortunate not to lose this hidden gem.

(Victory Renovating Works is part of the Atlas RVA Project)

Sources

(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards)

As originally designed and built the Customs House was a handsome granite Italianate style building placed in the middle of the block between Bank and main Streets, with its narrow end of axis with the State Capitol. Because of the steep grade of the site, the Main Street facade was three stories while the Bank Street facade was only two. 

(VDHR) — 1968 nomination photo

The Bank Street facade was originally five bays wide with the center three bays spaced closely together and projected slightly forward. Its entrance was framed by a central one-story triple arch porch one bay in depth. On the Main Street side, the building sat on a rusticated basement containing five arched openings Each side of the building contained seven wide bays with their center three bays also slightly projected. 

April 2018

It should be noted that all the openings in the Customs House were crowned by some form of round arch. Quoins emphasized the corners of the building and the while was crowned by a bracketed cornice and shallow hipped roof. A series of wide brick chimneys around the base of the roof gave the building's skyline an almost crenelated effect.

(GSA) — Ammi B. Young

The original Post Office and Customs House was designed by the Boston architect Ammi B. Young, one of the most important architects of the Greek Revival period. Captain Albert Lybrock of Richmond acted as supervising architect. The building as completed in 1858, and three years later, with the outbreak of the Civil War, it was taken over by the Confederate government.

(Biography.com) — Jefferson Davis

During the war years the Confederate Treasury Department as well as the office of President Jefferson Davis were located in hte building. In 1867 when President Davis was returned to Richmond to stand trial for treason, the trial was held in the District Courtroom in the Customs House.

(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards) — showing short wings

In 1899 short wings were added to to either side of the original mass at the front and back. In 1910 the building was raised one story and a large wing was added, extending the building to Tenth Street. The building was again enlarged in 1930 by the addition of an eastern wing, thus filling out the entire block.

April 2018

In spite of all the additions and renovations the Customs House has undergone, the original architectural character has been retained and incorporated into the newer sections. The building in its present form is still a most pleasing composition and possesses all the vigor of Ammi B. Young's original concept. It is unfortunate that none of the historic interiors survived, although the present courtroom is in the same location as the original one. (VDHR)

April 2018

It is equally unfortunate that the building has been subject to attack by the insidious Tree Architecture Conspiracy, Nature’s hateful scheme to obfuscate the decorative elements of numerous well-designed structures.

April 2018

It is plainly evident at the Customs House, where the diabolical trees, under the seemingly innocent guise of urban greenery, work to conceal the stone eagles on the Main Street facade.