USA > Virginia > City of Richmond > City of Richmond > Virginia, especially Richmond, in by-gone days; with a glance at the present: being reminiscences and last words of an old citizen > Part 3
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The old Scotch merchants had known so little of liberty at home, either political or social, that few of them could appreciate our Republican institu- tions, and on returning to the Land of Cakes, they were prepared to become dutiful subjects under
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COMMERCIAL QUACKS.
the comparative despotism that existed there even as late as fifty years ago, as recorded in Lord Cockburn's Memorials of his times .*
COMMERCIAL QUACKS.
It was not only to foreign monopoly of our trade and the consequent abstraction of capital, that the tardy growth of the commercial towns of Virginia and of the country, consequently, is to be attributed. The action of the legislature has always been adverse to the mercantile class, inheriting perhaps from their ancestors a preju- dice against it. Was increase of revenue re- quired, merchants and inhabitants of towns were taxed far higher than agriculturists. The exac- tions for licenses to sell, per centage on sales, tax on insurance, &c., are greater than in any com- munity that has thriven ; besides which, antiquated and useless regulations and restrictions were, and still are retained and even new ones introduced, which are clogs on trade, and cannot but re-act, though imperceptibly, on the agricultural interest, for the benefit only of a few office-holders or sine- curists, and of the political patronage of appoint- ment ; qualification for the duties required being overlooked. When the present Constitution was formed, equality of taxation was to be one of its
* The subsequent part of this chapter was written in 1857.
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features, but a keen member contrived to intro- duce, at a favorable moment, a special exception for licenses, which would enable the legislature to tax merchants higher than planters.
But while the most onerous burthens are laid on commerce, and useless obstructions placed in her track, there is professed at the same time a great desire to promote her interests, to open for her new channels, "to encourage direct trade, and render ourselves independent of the North." Such is the slang-and slang is the appropriate word, where actions contradict professions. If commerce were rid of the practices, maugre the professions of politicians, and left to take care of herself, she would probably thrive much better, and so would all the interests connected with her, which she is constantly accused of oppressing. She could dispense with the assemblages of dry- nurses, who meet at stated periods in various Southern cities, each trying to concoct pap for her own babe, and some of them seeking to nourish foreign bantlings on Southern pap, but contending whether Virginia, Carolina or Georgia shall be the foster-mother and obtain the remune- ration. A member of such a convention, and also of the legislature, after listening to and engaging in discussions on free trade, in the African church, and suggesting impracticable plans to promote it, will the next moment, in the legislative body, aid
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in framing laws which would counteract such plans, were they practicable. These "Commercial Con- ventions," as they are called, composed more of planters, lawyers and politicians than of mer- chants, assemble to discuss subjects of which few of them have any practical knowledge. They would regulate not only our own trade, but that of Europe, and dictate to the nations there, how they should relinquish one of their most impor- tant sources of revenue, for our benefit.
If commerce is ever to thrive in Virginia it will be when her shackles are struck off. At present free trade is not permitted. Useless inspections and costly licenses obstruct it, and among other antiquated fetters, usury laws are retained as betwixt individuals (perhaps on Scriptural grounds), while corporations which have no souls to be d-d, and certainly none to be saved, are in many in- stances specially exempted from their operation. The consequence of this restriction is, that money flows from Virginia to Northern cities where inter- est is higher, and while we thus contribute to their prosperity at the expense of our own, we complain that they outstrip us.
P. S .- April, 1860. The legislature that has just adjourned took the first step toward the eman- cipation of trade from the trammels that have so long obstructed it, by exempting from compulsory
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inspection, flour shipped to foreign ports in Vir- ginia vessels. It is to be hoped that this entering wedge will be driven home in a few years, and trade be unobstructed.
CHAPTER III.
MODERN ANTIQUITIES.
OUR antiquities are so modern, compared even with European (and they are but mere upstarts in comparison with the Egyptian and Asiatic), that the term scarcely seems applicable in America, except with respect to the mounds and ruins dis- covered in the West and South-west.
Among the most respectable in point of age and appearance of which Richmond can boast, is the old stone house of one story, on Main street, which dates probably A. U. C. 1 .- and what is more remarkable has always been in the Egé family. May it long remain in its primitive and respectable condition, or according to the Spanish benediction, " may it live a thousand years."*
A steam corn mill and several other steam
* The benediction was vain. The melancholy announcement "To Rent " appears for the first time on the old door in 1858.
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engines have lately intruded themselves as near neighbors to the ancient and honorable stone house. These mere upstarts are puffing and blowing, and making all sorts of noises in the very ears of Mr. Egé's descendants. It, is enough to arouse the old patriarch from his grave when his old mansion is thus besieged-but if he were to come, he would be astonished by the whistle of the locomotive on one hand, and the blowing off of a steamboat on the other, by lights in his house without oil or candle, by the water of the river flowing in his yard, and above all, by por- traits of his great-grand children, taken "in no- time " without pencil or brush; and when he turned from these pictures, painted by sunbeams, and looked through the deep casements of his window, he would see something like a high clothes-line in the street, along which people carry on a conver- sation with Boston or New Orleans-things never dreamed of in his philosophy.
On the very summit of the high and steep hill north-east of the Ege house, stands the old Adams Mansion, a cotemporary probably, erected by the ancient proprietor, whose domain was separated by Shockoe creek from that of Col. Byrd, the founder of Richmond-from whom he purchased it. That mansion retains its primitive and picturesque ap- pearance, and is kept in fine preservation by its present worthy owner, Mr. Loftin Ellett. The
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old Parish Church of St. John's, which was entitled to precedence for its sacred character, if not for its age, is preserved in its ancient simple architecture, with only the addition of a tower and belfry, which rising in pure white among the tall trees around it, presents one of the most beautiful and conspicuous objects in the many beautiful landscapes of which Richmond can boast.
The Masonic Hall deserves also to be mentioned among the "ancient and honorable " edifices. Its proportions are creditable to the architect, as its good preservation is to the brethren.
The oldest public house in Richmond was "the Bird in hand," on Main street, at the foot of Church hill, lately a ruinous hovel, but now em- bellished with a new front of brick-bats ..
Dickens' eyes might even yet be relieved from the glare of new houses, by the sight of some moss- covered roofs of old wooden ones, cotempora- ries of their neighbor, "the Bird in hand"- such as in Fredericksburg, reminded him of home.
A more modern, and a splendid house in its day, was the City Tavern, erected by Mr. Galt, of Williamsburg, and known as Galt's Tavern. " Hotel" was no more known then than in Meg Dod's palmiest days. But the old tavern having almost miraculously, as a wooden building, escaped conflagration, is now degraded to a workshop: The smoke-stack has succeeded the smoke-jack,
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the table is displaced by the work-bench, and wheels, bands and pullies revolve where minuets, reels and congos were danced at a ball given in honor of General Washington.
A successor to the City Tavern rose on the opposite side of the street, under the title of the Union Hotel, but now called the "United States ;" for taverns like rogues change their names when they lose their characters, and this is a case of reformation under new rulers, and frequent changes of administration.
Bowler's Tavern stood where afterwards was " the Bell Tavern," named after its Quaker founder, and where now stands the City Hotel, or of recent sanctification (Query : the appro- priateness ?) the " Saint Charles Hotel."
Bowler's was a one story wooden house of an L shape, standing on a bank some six feet or more above the street, and reached by a flight of steps, beneath which ran the gutter-sometimes a mill stream in volume.
On some occasions the river, much more aspiring than of late years, would submerge the street and obstruct the approach to the house. An old citizen who died some years ago, said that he had paddled a canoe into Bowler's tavern-and a living
* It has shared the fate of most of its cotemporaries, hav- ing been destroyed by fire in 1858, while in the full exercise of an industrious and useful old age.
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one tells me he has crossed the street there in a boat.
The landlord was a figure to attract notice as a living model of departed fashions. His tall and burly form arrayed in fair-top boots, buff shorts, scarlet vest, green coat decked with large gilt buttons, a cocked hat; his rubicund face, sur- mounted by a carrot-colored wig, to the rear of which hung a long and thick queue stiffly enwrap- ped in black ribbon, except a short brush of hair peeping out at the lower end to show what it con- tained.
This queue oscillated like a pendulum half-way down his back, marking a section of a circle on his coat. A worthy and kind old gentleman was Ma- jor Bowler, and I have introduced him with no feeling of disrespect, but as a fine specimen of the fashion in his day.
In the rear of this tavern, on a steep hill-side, now cut down and occupied by livery stables and slave dealers, were the Falling Gardens, extending down to Shockoe Creek, and the residence of their proprietor, Mr. Lowndes, a fine type of the Quaker in garb and in personal appearance-with his broad-brimmed hat, drab suit, the coat of plainest cut without a superfluous button, waistcoat in same style, both of ample length and breadth, knee- breeches, gray stockings, and silver knee and shoe buckles. Many such figures were then to be seen
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MODERN ANTIQUITIES.
in our streets ; now not one, though some of the sect remain.
Just above his residence, and where now stands the Odd Fellows' Hall, on Franklin street, there stood on a hill nearly as high as is that Hall, two small brick buildings, with as much decoration of cornice and panel work as could well be displayed. These were traditionally (but incorrectly I am told) called the Auditor's and Treasurer's offices. They were erected by Henry Banks, as wings to a grand centre, which was designed to connect them ; but some of Mr. B.'s speculations fell to the ground, and his palace never rose above it. He had the reputation, well-earned, of being a very litigious man, and on one occasion, meeting a gentleman of his acquaintance on horseback, he accosted him and remarked casually, "that horse, Mr. P., is very much like one that I had." "O, Mr. Banks," replied Mr. P., at the same time making a move- ment to dismount, "if you mean to claim the horse, do not bring suit, I will relinquish him rather than go to law."
The Treasury was a wooden house, afterwards occupied as a dwelling by Mr. James Brown, Jr., in the rear of his (now Mr. Webb's) large store. Its security must have rested more on the absence of temptation, than on the strength of the build- ing. On the summit of the high hill, overlooking the Treasury, was the Council Chamber, which 5
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until lately gave name to the hill. Attached to it was a piece of ground called the Governor's Gar- den, on the north-east side of Ross street, of which more anon. But the plain brick building in which " the potent, grave and reverend seignors" of the State assembled in the early years of the Com- monwealth, has disappeared, as has the summit of the hill on which it stood. Ross street, and Mayo and College streets have bored deeply into it, exposing to view the impressions of vast beds of scallop and other shells, a few shark's teeth, and various unmistakable indications, that this lofty hill, overlooking the surrounding country, had once been at the bottom of the now distant ocean. In this, if in nothing else, we may lay claim to high antiquity.
The only other house on Ross street stood nearly opposite to the Council Chamber and had no claim to antiquity, but it excited admiration by the beauty of its elevated position and its Italian aspect. A centre building with wings, and a por- tico in the rear fronting the river displayed an arcade in the entire length of the edifice, command- ing an extensive view of the city beneath, of the country around, of the river, its islands and its falls and its smooth water; with the sails of vessels glancing through the trees in the sinuosities of the stream; of yellow fields of wheat and green fields of corn, with a back-ground of forest, all
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MODERN ANTIQUITIES.
changing their dress with the changes of the seasons ; these combined to form an exquisite land- scape. The residence here mentioned coated in white, embosomed amid tall Lombardy poplars, and the hill-side terraced as far down as Franklin street, presented a charming aspect from the city below. The first occupant of this spot that I re- member, was James Strange, a Scotch merchant, but an American citizen, with a majestic Virginia wife. Their son was a conspicuous man in public life in North Carolina. Their successor was Thomas Gilliat, an English merchant, whose wife and her sisters rendered the spot more attractive ; one of them has long graced the society of Norfolk. The last occupant was Joseph Marx, a merchant of German birth, but of pure American feelings ; and the attractions though changed, still continued. While occupied by him, but during his absence, the whole establishment was consumed by fire. A block of brick dwellings now occupies the site above, and the Metropolitan Hall, with other build- ings and shanties, have supplanted the garden below .* The pencil should depict such scenery as this, to which the pen is entirely inadequate.
* A view of Richmond taken in 1805, is given as an embel- lishment to Bishop Madison's Map of Virginia. In that picture this house and garden are conspicuous as are the Old Council Chamber, Harris' tall house and various other objects recorded in these pages.
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The Council Chamber, and a portion of the beautiful hill on which it stood, became the pro- perty of Col. John Mayo : converted into a dwell- ing, it was his occasional city residence, when by way of variety his family left their country seat, north-west of the city, called the Hermitage, which was anything but a hermitage in point of seclu- sion; for there the reigning belle of the day, as well as other members of the family, attracted many visitors, and General Scott proved, by carry- ing her off against all competitors, that "none but the brave deserve the fair."
Bellville, the beautiful country-seat, named after the gentleman who built it, also became, in 1816, the property of Col. John Mayo at the price of $31,000 (far below the cost), and $28,000 for fourteen additional acres, and was thereafter the residence of the Mayo family ; but both the Her- mitage* and Bellville now present a melancholy aspect. Time and neglect have preyed on the one, and fire on the other, leaving bare walls only to mark the spot.
Another branch of the Mayo family has occu- pied, for nearly a century perhaps, a country-seat south-east of the city, called Powhatan, and reputed, no doubt correctly, to have been the site
* The Hermitage house was burnt in 1857, and part of the grounds were purchased in 1859, by the Agricultural Society, as an eligible spot on which to hold their fairs.
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MODERN ANTIQUITIES.
of a royal residence of the king whose name it bears; but it was not the scene of Pocahontas's romantic rescue of Captain Smith.
The Council-chamber residence was particularly convenient to Colonel Mayo, for with a spy-glass he could see from thence all that was passing on his bridge, a structure which-like the Pyramids of Egypt, each the work of the life-time of the Pha- raoh who was to occupy it-kept the Colonel employed from the prime of youth to a ripe old age, and left a similar occupation to his successor.
The first Capitol in Richmond occupied a very humble site below this hill, and the homeliness of the building was adapted to its locality ; but it may be questioned whether, in that mere wooden barn, more high talent, more political wisdom, and more polished gentility, were not assembled, than have been since in the marred copy of a beautiful Grecian temple, which, in its coat of shabby stucco, crowns the commanding summit of Capitol hill.
The Old Capitol, as it was called till it was demolished, was on Fourteenth (or modern Pearl) street, below Exchange alley, where Mr. Fry has erected some fine stores. The house was a plain one-story building, originally of small dimensions. From halls of legislation it was converted into counting rooms,-bills of exchange were drawn in place of legislative bills-bargain and sale super- seded motions and enactments-for I dare be
-
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sworn that bargain and sale never polluted those Halls when occupied by the Fathers of the Repub- lic, and I hope it cannot be truly charged on their successors. It is lamentable that the same cannot be predicated of the splendid Halls for all pur- poses at the seat of the Federal Government. There corruption stalks abroad in open day, and finds open doors and open hands to welcome her baseness and partake of her bounty, portending ruin to the republic.
An English firm, Donald & Burton, occupied the old Capitol, as did their successors, carrying on a very extensive business. The name of the last one, James Brown, being common to several other residents, caused the soubriquet of " Old Capitol Brown " to be applied to him, while others were variously distinguished. The last survivor of these synonymes still retains the designation of Junior, though he has nearly reached four score, and I hope his juniority will continue for many years more. * With him I will close this chapter of Modern Antiquities.
* This worthy gentleman died in his 79th year, Jannary 3d, 1859, in consequence of an injury received from a locomotive engine, while crossing the side-walk of Broad street.
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MAIN STREET.
CHAPTER IV.
MAIN STREET.
THE earliest impression on my mind of the ap- pearance of the Main street, (and it was the only one on which the buildings were not "few and far between,") is that the houses were of wood, and generally of one or two stories in height. On the west of Shockoe creek two of these yet remain. One is a few doors below the spot where Bowler's, the Bell, the City, and St. Charles, have succes- sively offered their accommodations to travellers ; a small two story house, for many years past a tinner's shop, but very many years previously the property of the worthy " Minton Collins, seeds- man," who showed his gratitude by bestowing it on the daughters of his hospitable friend Mr. Wiseham. The other wooden structure, which has escaped demolition-though time has nearly effected it-is the house at the corner of Main and Fourteenth or Pearl streets, and this, like some folks, artfully conceals its natural complexion and its antiquity, under an artificial exterior, a
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coat of plaster and paint, though it is sometimes betrayed by the laths. *
The Brick Row, thus distinguished of old for its exclusiveness, commenced at this spot, and ex- tended up to what was Crawford's Corner, now the Dispatch office, corner of 13th street; where the same cannon has stood guard against the assaults of drays and wagons at least sixty years. The square diagonally above the old gun was, I think, the next that could boast of brick fronts, and these, where not replaced by new ones, now show marks of antiquity. The opposite square was the third to obtain such distinction, and its most con- spicuous edifice was the Eagle Tavern. Pursuing an angular course from the upper corner of the Eagle Square, as it is still called, though the eagle has flown, we see the last of the brick rows that stood, at the beginning of the present century, on
* Half of this ancient edifice disappeared soon after it was recorded in these pages, and one of brick rose on the site, mounted on wooden stilts, between the legs of which a splendid display of jewelry shone through large windows of plate glass. But the most marked and to us novel distinction which this corner house presents, is "the Town Clock," for such name it merits, being the only public time-piece in the city that informs the eye and ear of the progress of time.
The State time-keeper retains its pristine simplicity after half a century's constant use. It is the only clock whose hand is one of flesh and blood, and which, without showing its face, strikes the hour all the year round, unless the operator should happen to be wound up instead of the prompting time-piece.
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MAIN STREET.
Main, between 11th and 12th streets, and that row has risen a story, by an Irish process of depres- sion; the street having been cut down until the cellars were brought to light and converted into shops. The only four story house in the city was " Harris's building," at the upper corner of the square, and this grew up, or rather down, to be of five stories, when its elevation (like Cardinal Wol- sey's) caused its downfall; it had aspired above the reach of its protectors, the fire engines, even aided by the great Fire King, Sewall Osgood, and it expired in a blaze, not more glorious than the cardinal's, though like him, resigned to its fate, i. e., if as well insured in "The Mutual," as the car- dinal was in the monastery. Seawell Osgood shall also go down to posterity if I can carry him there. He was more useful to the city than a host of loud-mouthed, pot-house politicians, and served it by a fluency and a use of liquids different from theirs. Osgood was a Yankee blacksmith, and a most prompt and efficient fireman. With the ac- tivity of a monkey, he would, in an instant, be perched on the peak of a roof, or wherever the fire was hottest and his efforts could be most available. But Osgood's talents were adapted to every occa- sion. One for example: at the muster of a militia company no musician was present. Osgood slung the drum over his shoulder, and, with drum-stick in his left hand and the flute in his right, he
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tooted and rub-a-dubbed at the head of the com- pany, which marked and kept time as correctly as if they had the Armory band before them.
Nearly opposite to the present Exchange Bank stood a large wooden building, which, in my youth- ful days, was Mrs. Gilbert's Coffee House ; not a news-room, but truly what its name imports; and here tea, coffee and chocolate were dispensed to customers, seated around the fire in winter, or at the open windows in summer. In after years, and under other occupants, it assumed the name of the Union, and afterwards the Globe Tavern, and it closed its career, a few years ago, as an "oyster and beef-steak house, with other refreshments," under a skillful mulatto woman, whose canvas backs, soras and other delicacies of the season attracted many customers. The great Globe is "dissolved, leaving not a wreck behind," and the splendid store of Kent, Paine & Co., the first specimen in Richmond of the Broadway style of dry goods palaces, has risen on the spot.
Main street was then not a smooth road to travel either on horseback or on foot. No portion of the carriage-way was paved, and the side-walks only here and there, and with ups and downs. The dealers, who wished to entice the ladies to their shops (stores, I beg pardon), would present a paved entrance; those who sought rougher cus- tomers offered a rough reception, over gravel or
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MAIN STREET.
cobble stone. Dust in summer was insufferable, and in winter the mud would be ankle deep, and in some places "up to the hub." By way of making crossings, a narrow mound of ashes and cinders would be raised across the street, and woe to him or her who, on a dark night, deviated from the right path.
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