Straightforward... here is the bibliography for the project.
Author: scathedralpl
The Freestyle dominates the Fan – UPDATE
What makes our row on South Cathedral Place isn't just the history of who built it and who lived there, but the style. The row combines the best of the Modern French, Queen Anne and Italianate into it's own cohesive Freestyle cluster. The Freestyle became a pattern in itself in many instances in the Fan. [...]
A chronology of events
Now that I'm completely finished with the report, I can relax a little and share the findings here on the blog. There are a lot of parts and pieces to the research, so I'll be adding them as posts over the coming weeks. I also hope to create a version of the full presentation to [...]
Wrapping up the project
I am in the final stages of wrapping up all of the research I have conducted over the past five months and compiling it into a digestible paper and presentation. This is so rewarding to sew everything together. I feel a little bit stressed about getting it all done before Thanksgiving, but it's doable as [...]
A twin town house recovered
After recovering old photos in VCU's Special Collections and piecing back together the original 800 block of Park Avenue, I was able to determine that two houses that stood at 810 and 812 Park Avenue were parcels that were originally John C. Shafer’s that were sold to Gilbert J. Hunt: February 1, 1888 Deed Book [...]
Gilbert J. Hunt makes headlines, 1901
Although we know that Gilbert J. Hunt was responsible for many handsome residences in the lower Fan area and that it is looking more and more like he was the man responsible for the 811-819 Floyd Avenue row, he was also building in other parts of town. An article on April 28, 1901 in Richmond's [...]
Narrowing down the builders
Just as an exercise in considering and narrowing down the possibilities, I made this chart recently. There certainly could be more names to consider, but I started with the most relevant possibilities. The men I considered mainly include builders mentioned in Drew Carneal's Richmond's Fan District, builders identified in the 1985 Historic District Nomination form [...]
Land transactions between Shafer and Hunt
Got back from the circuit court records room a little while ago, and although I did not find the rosetta stone I was hoping for, I did learn that there was a history of substantial business transactions between John C. Shafer and Gilbert J. Hunt in the conveyance of undeveloped land tracts. After a successful [...]
Suspicions on the builder
Headed back to the city record room to see what can be find about the sale of 901 Floyd Street from Shafer to Gilbert J. Hunt, a prominent building contractor of the period. I'm wondering if there may have been some sort of a deal worked out for the land in exchange for Hunt's services [...]
Neighboring Shafer property ends up in Supreme Court
In 1914, a parcel of land - really a 20' alleyway - a block away from our row was once subject of an appeals case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Apparently, the parcel bound by Park Avenue, Franklin, Shafer and Harrison Streets that was once John C. Shafer's, held an alley connecting Shafer and Harrison Streets, [...]
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