Lewis Ginter Recreation Association

Architect: Duhring Okie and Ziegler
Dates: 1901
Address: 3421 Hawthorne Avenue

The story of the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association, or LGRA, is linked inextricably to the development of the Ginter Park neighborhood. Wealthy Richmond tobacco baron Lewis Ginter built an early streetcar suburb north of the city beginning in the late 1800s. Today’s LGRA was erected on the dollar of Grace Arents, Ginter’s niece. Arents was also a principal benefactor of Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens which has become a Richmond institution. Just two years after LGRA’s construction, Ginter Park and Richmond shared the honor of running America’s first electric street cars.

Though the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association’s three massive stories are of a scale much greater even than Ginter Park’s grand homes, its arts and crafts details and playful paint colors give it a quaint appearance. Duhring Okie and Zeigler Architects of Philadelphia secured the commission on the basis of the many buildings they designed in Chestnut Hill, one of Philadelphia’s most prosperous streetcar suburbs. LGRA’s central staircase case and flanking tudor style wings recall the grand urban apartment homes of the Boulevard, but wide setbacks from both Walton and Hawthorne Avenues are suburban in character.

The Lewis Ginter Recreation Association has served many functions throughout its long history, often simultaneously. Initially it was host to Ginter Park’s first school and its Town Hall. Following the 1914 annexation of the town of Ginter Park the existing building, then known as the Old School House, was turned into a community center. In this capacity it served as a meeting place for many groups over the years including the Ginter Park Women’s Club, Garden Club, an American Legion post and a masonic lodge. The congregations of both St. Thomas Episcopal and Ginter Park Baptist Churches initially met in the building. The Ginter Park Citizen, a small circulation newspaper, was headquartered and published there as well.

Today the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association remains an important part of the neighborhood. One of its primary roles is a pool house: three swimming areas have been added over the years. The cavernous interior spaces can be rented for events and host a variety of community functions. All of this is housed in an exterior that has remained largely unchanged over its 100 plus years of history. Hopefully, the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association can continue to contribute to the neighborhood for another hundred years, in whatever capacity.

D.OK.

Photographs by author