Frances Leigh Williams

“ Today Richmond is a commercial, industrial, financial, medical and educational center of the South, and one of the fastest growing industrial centers in the nation. Richmond’s industry has been stable and resistant to wide fluctuations in business cycle.
Cities, after all, are but larger patterns of individual people. People who have been tested by time and tribulation and yet come out smiling, full of faith and courage, never fail to command our admiration. ”

“ No one can long live in the mellowness of Richmond without feeling 5 that here is a calm that is not dead but gay, an ease and a friendliness that is real and not assumed, a determination to build always for the future but never to forget the heritage of the past which is our inspiration, a will to be of such a quality that we cannot fail to give strength to the nation, going always forward in the spirit of those who would surmount the obstacles of the present in order to attain goals inspired by ideals of right and justice. ”

“ In Richmond, Capital of the Old South, an industrial, commercial, educational and financial center of the new, nothing is left undone to make every convention meeting in this city successful and enjoyable. ”

“ Here on Fifth Street, between Cary and Main, are several examples of the stately houses which made life in Richmond in the nineteenth century the gracious thing that it was. On your right are two old homes which have passed from the hands of the families that built and loved them. At the southeast corner of Main and Fifth Streets used to stand the Allan home where Edgar Allan Poe lived to young manhood with his foster parents. On the northwest corner of Fifth and Main Streets is an interesting octagonal house, built prior to 1814 by an early mayor of Richmond. ”

“ Immediately beneath Gamble’s Hill curve are the remains of the once vital Kanawha Canal, Virginia’s earliest great westward transportation system, of which George Washington was the first president in 1785.
Across the canal is the Tredegar Company, iron manufacturers, which has rounded out more than a century of service, having furnished munitions in the country’s last four wars. Here was rolled the armor-plate for the “Merrimac,” which, with the “Monitor,” made history in Hampton Roads in the first battle between iron-clads. ”

“ The adjoining Museum building contains a growing collection of permanent Richmond exhibits and the largest costume department in the south. The Indian collection emphasizes archaeological material from Virginia and North Carolina. Changing exhibitions illustrate past and present city activities and interests. Facing the garden is the Studio of the sculptor, Edward V. Valentine. The Bransford-Cecil Memorial House, in the Greek Revival style of the 1840’s, contains a gallery-lecture room; a Research Library, with extensive pictorial material illustrating Richmond’s history ”

“ Here at “The Commonwealth,” the mid-town men’s club of the city, the Richmond German Club gives the “Germans,” which are the most formal and unusual features of Richmond’s social life, somewhat comparable to the Philadelphia Assemblies and Charleston’s St. Cecilias. ¶ Continue eastward on Franklin to First Street.
City Library
The modern building on the southeast corner is the main City Library, a gift to the city, of the late James H. Dooley. It was built in 1930 on the site of the birthplace of James Branch Cabell, Virginia author. ”

“ Some enjoy trips to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, historic Hampton Roads and Fort Monroe, the beautiful Skyline Drive, the battlefields surrounding the city and the many diversified industrial plants, while others participate in their favorite sport or seek diversions in the many forms of entertainment to be had. ”

“ Across the ravine on the extreme right is the State penitentiary, ably run along modern lines.
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Bringing your eyes along the crest of the same hill sloping down towards the river, you will see Hollywood Cemetery, where lie buried two Presidents of the United States, James Monroe and John Tyler; the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis; General J. E. B. Stuart, Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, “the pathfinder of the seas;” Fitzhugh Lee (General R. E. Lee is buried in Lexington, Virginia) ”

“ John Marshall House
City Hall
The large gray stone structure on the southeast corner of Broad Street is the City Hall. Dedicated in 1894, it was built on the site of the old City Hall, erected in 1816 and condemned in 1874. This building contains the offices of the Mayor, the City Manager and various municipal departments. ¶ Cross Broad and continue on Tenth to Capitol Street. Turn right on Capitol one block to Ninth. Turn left on Ninth to entrance of Capitol Square. ”

“ You are now in the heart of the tobacco district of Richmond. For blocks may be seen Richmond’s famous “Tobacco Row.” ¶ Turn left on Cary to Twenty-first, left on Twenty-first to Main, left on Main to Eighteenth Street; right on Eighteenth one block to Franklin.
10 Oldest Masonic Hall
The wooden building on the right is the oldest Masonic hall in continuous use in the United States which was built originally for Masonic purposes. Governor Edmund Randolph was among the many prominent Virginia Masons who participated in the corner-stone laying in 1785. ”

“ The Country Club of Virginia boasts one eighteen-hole golf course and one short course at this club, and a very fine eighteen-hole course up the James River, where the Club has another smaller clubhouse, skeet shooting traps and river sports. ¶ Continue out Three Chopt Road to Towana Road, which leads to the University of Richmond.
University of Richmond
Social Center and Gymnasium · University of Richmond
The University of Richmond includes Richmond College, a college of liberal arts and sciences for men ”

“ The museum is the largest art museum in the South and has gained a national reputation because of its biennial exhibitions of contemporary American paintings as well as many other special exhibitions. ”

“ It was here that proud Lord Cornwallis was forced to surrender to General George Washington and his continental forces in 1781. The original fortifications erected during the great siege of Yorktown have been restored. ”

“ MEDICAL CENTER: Institutions and specialists of wide renown. Medical College of Virginia—with schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing; 17 hospitals with 3,527 beds.
30 The Williamsburg-Yorktown-Jamestown Area
The Governor’s Palace at Williamsburg
Only an hour’s drive southeast of Richmond on Route 60 is the most historic area to be found anywhere in America. ”