210 Hospital St
Richmond, VA, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Almshouse, The (Boundary Increase) / West Building; Richmond Nursing Home

Statement of Significant:

The Almshouse site is recorded in the City of Richmond Tax Assessor's office as number 000-02331001. The section of the site being nominated begins at a point on the north side of Hospital Street about 450 feet northwest of the intersection with 5th Street; thence extending about 320 feet along said side; then about 180 feet northeast; thence about 190 feet northwest to a point on 2nd Street about 180 feet northeast of its intersection with Hospital Street; thence about 660 feet northeast along said side to the south corner of the intersection of 2nd Street and Valley Road; thence about 60 feet northeast along said side to the CSX right-of-way; thence about 590 feet southeast along said right-of-way; thence about 530 feet southeast to the point of origin.
Numerous changes have modified the appearance of the front and side elevations. A wing was added to the rear of the eastern most pavilion in 1929. This wing preserved, for the most part, the original design. The rear elevation originally had open galleries of frame construction running the length of the building, giving access to wards on each floor. These were removed in 1953, and enclosed glass-and-concrete porches of an International-Style appearance replaced them, similar to that found on the Main Building.
On the interior of the West Building, modifications have been made out of necessity over the years, and little of the original is visible. Sheetrock and plaster partitions set every bay di- vides what were originally open wards on each floor. Furthermore, space in the pavilions has been subdivided by other more temporary partitions obscuring their original floor plan. No features of the original interior remain.

Floors in the West Building have been covered with vinyl tile, though the original tongue-and-groove pine flooring apparently remains beneath them. It is visible in certain areas.

The main portion of the West Building appears to date from 1908. Its function was that of a charity hospital for black residents of Richmond, where, in addition, medical students from the Medical College of Virginia were given clinical instruction.

The Garage is of unknown history but is clearly significant to the overall Almshouse complex. The building is basically a two-story masonry and wood frame two bay garage. It has no significant interior detail.

The bounds have been drawn to include the Main Building, a ca. 1950 one-story Administration Building, the West Building and the Garage (as illustrated on the attached plat).

The nominated acreage is bounded on the northeast by the Seaboard Coast Line right-of-way, on the southeast by the Hebrew Cemetery, on the southwest by Hospital Street, on the northwest along a line which follows 2nd Street to a point approximately 40' to the south of the West Building and then immediately to the west of the Garage. This boundary includes all structures judged to contribute to the historic integrity of the site.

The exterior of the West Building is defined along a central linear axis and is composed of three symmetrically spaced pavilions linked by hyphens. Each pavilion is two stories tall, three bays wide, and rises above a raised full-story basement. Each hyphen is two stories high and four bays long; they are also raised above a full-story basement.

Fenestration on all elevations is balanced, and windows are symmetrically spaced in each unit. On the front elevation, the raised basement level has 3/3 square-headed windows and wood sash. Both the first and second floor windows in each hyphen also contain 3/3 square-headed windows with wood sash but with a 3 lite fix transom above each double hung window unit. The windows on the second level have cut stone lintels.

The central pavilion has a raised concrete pedimented porch supported by paired concrete columns. This central porch is flanked by pairs of 3/3 windows with transom. The porch is not original.

The three pavilions are not crowned by pedimented gable as is the case with the Main Building. Instead, each has a gable roof which intersects at right angles with the hyphens. Beneath the cornice there is an unadorned stucco freeze.

The Garage is a simple two-story masonry structure with two garage bays on the ground floor.

National Register of Historic Places - Richmond Almshouse (Additional Documentation) / Richmond Nursing Home;See Also:Almshouse, The (Boundary Incr

Statement of Significant:

The Richmond Almshouse, built between 1860-61 as a place of refuge for the city's poor, is a rare Virginia monument to the great reform ferment of the antebellum period. While public attention was directed to social reform, sanitation, and health needs through- out the United States in the 1850s, Southerners in general and Virginians in particular associated "reform" with "abolitionism" and so kept generally aloof from the more zealous efforts of their Northern contemporaries. Richmonders shared in this notable lack of enthusiasm for reform issues; however, by 1859 the city's need to accommodate its growing poor white population could no longer be ignored. In that year, the Richmond Common Council decided to replace the old city poorhouse, built prior to 1810, with a new building that reflected Richmond's impressive standing as the leading tobacco center in the nation. Designed by City Engineer Washington Gill, Jr., the prodigious Italianate structure served during the Civil War as the first major hospital of the Confederacy and as a home and school for the Virginia Military Institute cadets from 1864 to 1865.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Action to build the Almshouse began in May 1859, with the formation of a "Committee on the Poorhouse" by the Richmond Common Council. Upon the committee's recommendation, the Council decided that the city's old poorhouse was beyond repair and that a new building should be erected on the same site. This resolution was adopted on February 13, 1860, and plans for the new building, designed by City Engineer Washington Gill, Jr., were selected. After advertising for subcontractors, the Council awarded contracts on June 11, 1860, to the following firms: carpentry work, Mr. George Minor; painting, Mr. William A. Wyatt; plastering, Mr. William H. Johnson; and brickwork, Messrs. Williams and Ragland. Gill served as Richmond's first City Engineer from 1853 until 1869. Besides his work on the Almshouse, he supervised several other large projects, including the dredging of the James River channel (1853-54), the construction and installation of two twelve-inch water pumps with waterwheels (1855), the building of a tunnel under the James River canal for the passage of the city pump mains (1857-58), and the implementation of a new street numbering plan for Richmond (1866). Gill, who was employed by the James River and Kanawha Company before he became City Engineer, lived at 107 East Main Street during the period in which he supervised construction of the Almshouse.

Work proceeded on the building during the remainder of 1860, and mention of its progress was recorded in the Richmond Dispatch of August 11 of that year: ". . .the walls of the Almshouse are going up and (it) will probably be finished. . .by next winter. The building is a mammoth one, and when completed will be very convenient in all its arrangements." Work halted in June 1861, with the outbreak of the war, and the building was soon converted and leased to the Confederacy as General Hospital Number One. At its peak, the hospital housed over five hundred soldiers and was recorded in an article in the Richmond Whig of August 17, 1861, as being the best-managed hospital in Richmond. From December 1864 until the eve of the evacuation of Richmond on April 12, 1865, the alms- house acted as a temporary headquarters and school for cadets of the Virginia Military Institute. The school at Lexington had been burned by Northern troops in the Valley Campaign. During the evacuation of the city, the building was damaged slightly by the explosion of a nearby powder magazine. This event was recorded in a photograph taken by Mathew Brady, now in the collection of the Valentine Museum.

Following the war, the Almshouse served again as an asylum for the city's poor as well as a hospital. During Reconstruction, a Confederate veteran ran the institution with military discipline until a more sympathetic Republican appointee assumed management of the home. Occupied more with the task of providing gas, light, and water service to the capital city than with the work of caring for the poor, the City Council made inadequate allowances for running the hospital, and the building was in constant disrepair through- out the rest of the 19th century.

In 1909 the first annual report of the State Board of Charities and Corrections was issued in Richmond. A document of the Progressive Era in Virginia, this study reflected a growing concern within the power structure of the Old Dominion for maintaining social order among Virginia's poorest inhabitants. The description of the Almshouse in the report showed clearly that Richmond had the largest and most impressive almshouse in the state. Religious services were held there several times a week, indicating a concern for the spiritual well-being of the paupers. Those who were able assisted in performing domestic duties in the home. Some amusement was provided for the almshouse residents, including occasional visits to the city, but failure to obey the rules resulted in the withdrawal of these privileges. It was urged by the visiting committee who wrote the re- port that separate dining facilities be maintained for men and women. Segregation of the races was maintained without question. The visiting committee found the sanitary arrangements in the building more than adequate, with provision for such modern conveniences as steam heat, gas or electric lights, running water, and indoor plumbing.

The existence of the Almshouse in Richmond represents a traditional concern for the poor in Virginia that can be traced back to the parish vestries of colonial times. The history of the Almshouse suggests, however, that this feeling of obligation toward the poor has sprung as often from a desire to maintain social stability as from a deep philanthropic concern. The Almshouse, later called the Richmond Nursing Home, continued to serve the less-fortunate members of the Richmond community until the late 1970s. Today the building is empty, and its survival is questionable unless an appropriate use for it can be found.