Tag Archives: marble

First National Bank Building

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First National 2


Alfred Bossom
825-827 East Main St
1913

The First National Bank was founded eight days after Lee’s surrender in Appomattox, when all Richmond banks’ charters had been revoked by the Federal Government. It merged with the National Exchange Bank and, after surviving the financial crisis of the 1890s, needed a new office building, for which Alfred Bossom was hired.

Bossom was an English architect responsible for stately banks and hotels across the nation, and was with the firm on Clinton and Russell when asked to design the building. Bossom’s other commissions in the city include the Monroe Terrace Apartments, the Prestwould Apartments, and the Mutual and Virginia Trust Buildings (in collaboration with Carneal and Johnson), adjacent to the First National Bank Building, forming a prominent early 20th Century financial core on Main Street.

Like the much of the rest of Bossom’s work, the First National Bank Building is proud neoclassicism with crisp detailing. The exterior exhibits clearly the three sections attributable to most neoclassicist works, especially taller ones: base, shaft, and capital; a symbolic continuation of the proportions found on the 50 foot tall fluted Corinthian columns at the foot of the bank. Neoclassicism was a common style of banks and other institutions who wanted to evoke the order and authority of great civilizations in history.

The structure can claim to be the first skyscraper in Richmond, and held the title of tallest building until it was surpassed by the Central National Bank Building 17 years later. Since its birth it has undergone a fair amount of change; the larger original cornice was replaced in the 1970s in an effort to modernize the structure’s appearance, and while the building avoided a transformation into condominiums in the 1980s, it was converted into apartments in late 2012. Under Commonwealth Architects, the building underwent a $30 million renovation. The renovation relied on historic tax credits, with key features of the building, like the marble detailing and ceiling vaults in the first floor former bank space, kept intact.

The new life of the building adds much-needed residences to the area, joining the nearby John Marshall as recently converted, high-profile historic apartments. It is encouraging to see the First National Bank Building, so iconic in Richmond’s past, assume an active and important role in the city’s contemporary downtown.

M.F.A.

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

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Sacred Heart 1


Architect: Joseph Hubert McGuire, architect
Date: 1906 with 1996 renovations by Robert P. Winthrop
Address: 800 Cathedral Place

Virginia-born New York industrialist Thomas Fortune Ryan and his devout wife, Ida Barry Ryan, gave much of their considerable wealth to Catholic causes and institutions along the east coast. But nothing in their benevolence compares with the architecturally spectacular cathedral they donated to the Catholic Diocese of Richmond in the first decade of the 20th century. It is the world’s only cathedral paid for by a single donation. For many years Richmond parishioners had worshipped at the seat of the Roman Catholic Church there, Saint Peter’s, an elegant but much smaller church on East Grace Street. In the years following the installation of electric streetcar systems in 1888 however, the city’s residential population moved ever westward—and churches and synagogues followed. The site chosen for the new cathedral was on a site the diocese already owned directly across Laurel Street from Monroe Park.

The Ryans awarded the commission to Joseph Hubert McGuire (1865-1947), a New York City-based architect who had studied how to adapt the classical architectural idiom to modern uses at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. For Richmond, McGuire designed a Renaissance revival structure entered by passing under a colossal portico of six Corinthian columns. Fireproof tiles by Rafael Guastavino cover the porch’s ceiling (Guastavino also provided tiles for a number of major New York buildings and the city’s subway stations, the latter developed in part by industrialist/philanthropist Ryan).

With its flanking, twin towers, the church recalls vaguely St. Paul’s Cathedral, Christopher Wren’s London masterwork. Virginia granite and Indiana limestone are used on the exterior. And like St. Paul’s, a high dome rises dramatically at the crossing of the nave and transepts. The interior décor of the church is especially well articulated.

If the sanctuary is one of Richmond’s great single buildings architecturally, McGuire also delivered a highly successful complex of supporting buildings, including a bishop’s residence and church house. These are linked by a number of loggias of varying heights to establish the sense of an ecclesiastical village that has grown over time.

The richly hued stained glass windows were installed in the 1950s.
And in the 1990s some interior spaces were rearranged to reflect changes in the Catholic litany. Most notable was moving the high altar from the apse to the crossing. A crypt directly under the altar, reached by a circular granite steps, is the final resting place of Richmond bishops and members of the Ryan family.

E.S.

 

Scott House

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Architect: Noland and Baskervill
Date: 1911
Address: 909 West Franklin St

The Scott House (formerly the Scott-Bocock House) is a truly Richmond structure, its decades of history almost as impressive as the grand neoclassical façade. Elizabeth and Frederic Scott bought the property from Lewis Ginter in 1903, and soon thereafter commissioned the popular firm of Noland and Baskervill to design the magnificent estate. The couple is buried at Hollywood Cemetery and their daughter, Elisabeth Scott Bocock, moved into the house in the mid 20th century. While there, she founded the Historic Richmond Foundation, the 2300 Club, and the Hand Workshop (now known as the Visual Arts Center of Richmond). In the 1960s, the house was subdivided and used as dorms for VCU students, which continued into the 90s. A renovation in 2004 led to the Scott House opening its doors to the public, and the designation of the building as a Virginia Historic Landmark.

The historic Marble House in Newport, Rhode Island was chosen as inspiration for the Richmond structure, which was itself modeled after the Petit Trianon in Versailles. It stands proudly removed from West Franklin, an exception to the block’s density. The stately house, a handsome combination of limestone and terra cotta, is grounded by green-tiled wrapping terraces and a porte-cochére, shaded by trees in the house’s garden. Oxidized copper and careful cast iron work beautifully balance the gravity of the building’s exterior. Oversized fluted columns with Corinthian capitals give the mansion a sense of monumentality.

The interior is a classic example of the American Renaissance style, originating in the 18th century. The occupant moves through the public, symmetrically divided rooms with no hallways on the first floor, structured around a main entrance stair which lies under a magnificent stained glass dome. Servants’ quarters are to the rear of the building, and a large English style carriage house is hidden behind the mansion. The Anderson Gallery, constructed in 1888 from the former Ginter House stables, also stands behind the Scott-Bocock House. The splendor of the structure is a reminder of Richmond’s insurance-and-banking glory days in the early 20th century, when it was an indulgent capital of the South.

M.F.A