2221 Grove Avenue
Richmond, VA, USA

National Register of Historic Places - John Whitworth House (VDHR 127-248-0001)

Statement of Significant:

Both the house and garden at 2221 Grove Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, are significant for their association with the eminent landscape architect Charles F. Gillette, FASLA. The period of Gillette's residence at 2221 Grove Avenue coincided with the most productive years in his professional career. During the 1920s and 1930s, Gillette collaborated with architect William Lawrence Bottomley, the "master of the Neo-Georgian," while earning a reputation as a master of residential site planning. Gillette designed gardens for several Bottomley houses along Monument Avenue and in Windsor Farms in Richmond, and around Virginia. Other Gillette projects included landscapes designed for historic Virginia houses, such as Kenmore in Fredericksburg (1924-1940), the Nelson House in Yorktown (1915-1925), and Virginia House (1927-1932), and Agecroft (1928) in Richmond, which confirmed and exemplified Gillette's talent and reputation. In 1933, Gillette was made a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in recognition of his skills as a master of his craft. Over the course of his career, Gillette created over 1537 garden plans in New England, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic regions. Of known projects, the highest concentration in any state was the 615 designs executed for Virginia clients, including residential, commercial, civic, religion- and school-affiliated patrons. Gillette's talent meaningfully transformed the Virginia landscape throughout the duration of his sixty-year-long career. The Gillette gardens at Virginia House and Agecroft remain today as two of the most distinctive and acclaimed designed landscapes in Virginia.
Stylistically, the house is not only unique for its age and anomalous character in the Fan District, but for the learned "Georgianizing" that is reflective of the Colonial Revival period in which Gillette chose to remodel it. Gillette's private garden in the rear of 2221 Grove Avenue exemplifies the architect's skill and talent at transforming landscapes, and is significant for its reflection of the architect's personal vision.

Historical Background and Significance
What is now the Fan District was once known as the town of Sydney (or Sidney) in Henrico County. Much of Sydney consisted of land owned by Colonel Harvie, who died in 1806 leaving the property to his son, Jaquelin. The streets of Sydney were laid out in the first quarter of the nineteenth century and the land owned by Jaquelin Harvie was divided up into numbered four-to-a-block plats. For $650.00 in October of 1856, John Whitworth acquired plats 237 and 238, encompassing the southeast corner of Grove and Strawberry Streets and the northeast corner of Strawberry and Federal (now Floyd) Streets. It was on plat 238 that the house was built. The overlap of the Greek Revival and Italianate details, the deed and tax history, and map evidence indicate that 2221 Grove Avenue was constructed ca. 1857, possibly breaking ground the spring following the acquisition of the land by John Whitworth. Whitworth deeded the property in 1868 by release to John Frederick Fox for $3,000.00. A release suggests that a mortgage was held by Whitworth on the house and that Fox may have been a tenant earlier than 1868.

Number 2221 Grove Avenue is one of the oldest standing structures in the Fan District today. Only a handful of mid-19th century frame house have survived the Fan's transformation from a fairly rural area into a densely developed urban neighborhood. Frame houses were relatively inexpensive and easy to construct, thus their early proliferation. They often fell victim, however, to termites, fire, and Richmond's humidity. The house passed through the hands of a number of owners before being acquired by landscape architect Charles F. Gillette in 1923.