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The Brown-Allison-Moore House

819 West Franklin Street, built ca. 1892.

819 West Franklin Street, date of image unknown, courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center. Continuing in the Richardsonian Romanesque style is the Brown-Allison-Moore House, which once stood at 819 West Franklin Street. The building was built ca. 1892, six years before the William J. Anderson House at 1000 West Franklin Street. The original owner of 819 West Franklin Street was Richard L. Brown (1838-1900) who thrived in Richmond as a successful merchant. At the end of the 19th century he was a partner with Brown, Davis, & Company, described in his obituary as the largest wholesale grocers in the city. Brown lived a greater part of his life in Church Hill, but relocated to the thriving West End district on West Franklin Street in 1892. Although the architect is still unknown, two sources have given us the name of the stone mason. He is William R. Mason, the same mason who would later work on the Anderson House at 1000 West Franklin Street. The similarities between the two are evident and are discussed below.

Architectural comparisons of the Brown-Allison-Moore House with the William J. Anderson House.

The most striking similarities between the two buildings are the sculpted brownstone facade. Like the Anderson House, 819 was constructed with an asymmetrical facade with masonry walls that alternate rectangular rock face and polished brownstone. The building's entrance incorporated a decorative balustrade that sat below an entryway identical to the Anderson house. Two round arches adorned the entryway and oversized window incorporating stained glass semicircular fanlights, which rested atop a brownstone wall, and two 'milk-bottle style' Tuscan orders with foliate capitals.

Close up image of 819 West Franklin Street, date of image unknown, courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center.

Click on each image for a larger view.

One difference between the two houses is the placement of the loggia. In the Brown-Allison-Moore house it is placed at the third story. The loggia is recessed and is covered with arched springs, which also rest on the same Tuscan orders that are echoed at the entryway. Below the loggia is an oriel, or protruding bay window, which seems to sprout out of the sculpted base. In addition, a fantastic creature can be seen peering out of the foliage which encompasses the oriel window's base. In typical Romanesque fashion, a three story cylindrical tower incorporates the facade. Again, a conical roof tops the tower with an eclectic style onion dome decoration. This time only one rinceau band is found on the tower. Although the band contains no creatures or beings, it does show interlocking foliage.

Detail of bracket on 819 West Franklin Street, date of image unknown, courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center. Detail of bracket of 1000 West Franklin Street, image by Jennifer Watson, VCU Creative Services.

With the help of a few surviving photographs, we can see that the west side of the home at one time had a decorated stained glass window and like the Anderson house an Italianate bracketed crown resting above a side doorway. The bracket on the left is from 819 West Franklin Street. The bracket on the right is from 1000 West Franklin Street.

After Mr. Brown's death in 1900, the building would have two residential owners, W.H. Allison and A.W. and M.E. Moore. In 1939, the Brown-Allison-Moore house was purchased by Richmond Professional Institute (RPI -- now VCU) for $15,000 and was renovated to facilitate a women's dormitory. RPI published a student yearbook annually, which often showed photographs of the dormitories and student classrooms. It is with these annuals that we are able to step inside of the Brown-Allison-Moore House and see what seems to be the main parlor room.

With the growing demand for more space at RPI, 819 West Franklin Street regretfully was demolished in the late 1950s to provide space for the college's gymnasium. 819's last appearance as a dormitory is in the 1955 RPI student annual. Although one could question this decision by RPI some 50 years later, a piece of the old Brown-Allison-Moore house can still be seen at the site today behind the West Franklin Street Gymnasium.

This image shows the back part of what was 819 West Franklin Street. This section of the building has been incorporated into VCU's Franklin Street Gymnasium. Image by Jolene Milot, 2002.

Grave stone of Richard L. Brown (1838-1900) in Hollywood Cemetery. Image by Jolene Milot, 2002. Grave stone of Richard L. Brown (1838-1900) in Hollywood Cemetery. Image by Jolene Milot, 2002.

Gravestone of Richard L. Brown (1838-1900) and his wife, Elizabeth Frances Gregory Brown (1839-1894) in Hollywood Cemetery.

Grave stone of Richard L. Brown (1838-1900) in Hollywood Cemetery. Image by Jolene Milot, 2002. Grave stone of Richard L. Brown (1838-1900) in Hollywood Cemetery. Image by Jolene Milot, 2002.

Details of grave stone and mason's mark shown on the right. The mason was A. J. Wray, whose stone works were located at 328 and 330 South Cherry Street near Hollywood Cemetery. According to Richmond, The Pride of Virginia (1900), Wray had been a stone mason in Richmond since the end of the Civil War. The book lists other monuments he erected in Hollywood Cemetery, including ones for John Pope and one for P.H. Mayo described as a "handsome memorial of his ancestors."