Navy Hill
Richmond, Virginia

If you are familiar with the history of Richmond, Virginia, you may be well acquainted with its historic neighborhoods, including Church Hill, Jackson Ward, and the Fan District. But are you familiar with Navy Hill? The Navy Hill section in the city of Richmond was located between 3rd and 10th Streets (within the boudaries of Jackson Ward) and ran just north of Leigh Street all the way to Shockoe Cemetery. Largely demolished in the 1960s, Navy Hill was once a vast and eclectic collection of houses, schools, businesses, and churches.

The construction of Interstates 64 and 95 in the 1960s literally cut Navy Hill in half, forcing most of the area's long-time residents to abandon their homes and businesses.

There is much to be learned about this old Richmond neighborhood. Its early history begins in the 1810s, born in era that Richmond architectural historian Mary Wingfield Scott called Richmond's "Flush Times." From its conception, the district was a diverse socio-economic population. In fact, both blacks and whites, both native Richmonders and European immigrants (primarily German), made Navy Hill their home in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, however, the dynamics of Navy Hill would change. By the last years of the century, the area became predominately African-American, emerging as a close-nit community where neighborhood pride was at the forefront.

A considerable focus of this site is the Navy Hill School -- a place which was full of memories for the neighborhoods' become former residents. The site also offers the researcher insight into the history of Navy Hill by providing analytical text, contemporary maps, personal photographs and even nineteenth century architectural drawings of the Navy Hill School. Indeed, Navy Hill may be gone, but it is certainly not forgotten.

	About This Site (including image credits)		Where was Navy Hill?		Col. Cutshaw's 1893 Navy Hill School
	Navy Hill School		Navy Hill School in the 20th Century
	Sources of Information on Navy Hill		The Provost Marshal's Office		Navy Hill Families

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Where was Navy Hill?

[Click on the map on the right to see the original 1816 map of Navy Hill, courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society.]

   "Navy Hill" was "established" in the early nineteenth century as a subsection of the city's northern boundary. In an era of post-war patriotism, the area was christened "Navy Hill" in honor of the achievements of Virginia's Naval Heroes in the War of 1812.(1) Even today, however, the boundaries of Navy Hill have never officially been defined -- in fact, former Navy Hill residents have frequently disagreed as to the geographic perimeters of the neighborhood. Some have suggested that the east-west boundaries stretched from 1st Street to10th Street while the north-south boundaries extended from Broad Street to Shockoe Cemetery. Still, some residents were not exactly sure where the neighborhood started and stopped, only that it was a vast area of land, mingled with hundreds of homes and businesses.

   Most former residents do agree that the region was a distinct subsection of Jackson Ward, and that Navy Hill had its own unique vitality. Mary Wingfield Scott in Old Richmond Neighborhoods seems to have supported the idea that Jackson Ward and Navy Hill were separate and distinct entities and yet Scott later went on to categorize Navy Hill as an extremely narrow precinct -- made up of only as North Fourth and Fifth Streets.(2)

   The lack of consensus on just where Navy Hill really was highlights the fact that the neighborhood's boundaries have fluctuated over the last 150 years. In fact, the neighborhood's extremities were probably quite fluid as a great proportion of the land in this remote part of the city was developed. Still, early Richmond maps help to determine the original geographic definitions of the Navy Hill area. Indeed, the land mass that would eventually include the Navy Hill neighborhood was acquired by the city of Richmond in 1810. The purchase added an enormous area of land to the city, including the huge region east of Second Street and north of Leigh Streets.

   Shortly after the acquisition, some of the land between 3rd and 10th Streets was divided into lots, and was thereafter referred to as a new Richmond vicinity called "Navy Hill."(3) An 1816 plan referred to the Navy Hill subsection between 3rd Street and 10th Street.

    This map seems to adequately define the neighborhood's east-west boundaries, but what about its north-south limits? Did its southern boundary begin at Broad Street?

   Since the streets south of L or Leigh Street had already been developed and were included in the original eighteenth century Richmond land layouts, it may be assumed that "Navy Hill" was to encompass only the territory north of Leigh Street, excluding both Clay and Marshall. Hence, the idea that Navy Hill consisted of all of the land north of Broad Street must be incorrect.

   Even initially, early maps indicate that the Navy Hill "neighborhood" was distinct from these areas just north of Broad -- the streets which are now part of Jackson Ward.(4) Evidence further suggests that the Jackson Ward area developed a little earlier than the regions specifically referred to in the 1816 plan of Navy Hill. Jackson Ward sites like the James M. Taylor House and the Shockoe Meeting House (now demolished) were erected very early in the nineteenth century, both dating from the 1810s and 1820s. This makes perfect sense when considering the fact that Jackson Ward lands were acquired by the City of Richmond in 1793, twenty-three years earlier than those in Navy Hill.

By 1835, the vast majority of Jackson Ward streets had already been divided into lots while the Navy Hill area, from 3rd to 10th, north of Leigh, had yet to be officially developed.

This fact is particularly bewildering since Navy Hill land had been purchased and divided in the 1810s. With only a few exceptions, the area north of Leigh remained virgin territory until the 1830s -- and even this is an early date.(5) While some anomalous structures like the Jordan Blair House (now demolished) were erected just beyond Leigh Street in the 1830s, most architectural projects were not completed until at least the 1850s or 1860s. By the third quarter of the nineteenth century, both frame and brick houses speckled the areas north of Leigh Street between 3rd and 10th.(6)

[For a larger view of this map, click on the right mouse button, then under the menu click on View Image."]

   Still, one must ask why there was such a long pause between the time the area was initially laid out in 1816 and the time that the region began to be developed in the mid-nineteenth century. The answer to this question may be a matter of sheer convenience. Indeed, those same early maps clearly indicate that a massive ravine enclosed and essentially isolated the Navy Hill area. The land probably sloped severely as it dipped towards a wide branch of the Shockoe Creek, a branch which may have cut right across what later became Duval and Baker Streets. Hence, the ravine and the creek, literally, split the district in half.

   In this sense, the evolution of the Navy Hill region corresponds to Samuel Mordecai's explanation that there was a deep ravine dividing the areas north of Leigh from the rest of the city. In fact, Mordecai suggests that this ravine was "a complete barrier" between Leigh Street and areas to its north.(7) Before 1860, he asserts, the only means of reaching this distant area "without doubling the cape of a ravine" was via "a bridge some hundred feet long and about forty feet high. . ." Even then, this seemingly makeshift "bridge decayed before the remote regions were inhabited by a sufficient number of persons to pay for keeping it in repair." In 1860, after more than thirty years, the bridge had ". . . just been re-established by the construction of a causeway, wide enough for carriages."(8)

   Hence, from the beginning, it appears that the Navy Hill region had to overcome great topographic odds. Mordecai even suggests that the plan to build a sturdy bridge linking Leigh Street with Navy Hill was abandoned several times, and instead, the adjoining lands were simply used to cultivate fruits and vegetables.(9) The eventual building of the bridge or causeway, however, does seem to correlate with the migration of inhabitants into the area. So, by the mid-nineteenth century, after several unsuccessful attempts, the Navy Hill district was finally laid out and fully developed.

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Navy Hill Elementary School

"Richmond, like Rome, is built on seven hills. Navy Hill is
the Hill on which we received our early love and nurturing . . ."
-- Navy Hill School Reunion, 1988

The Provost Marshal's Office

The Navy Hill School has taken on several different forms since its conception a short time after the Civil War. In the beginning, the Navy Hill School operated out of two frame buildings which had originally been located at 10th and Broad Streets (10). After the Civil War, at least one of these "unsightly" buildings was occupied by the Freedmen's Bureau--the organization which undoubtedly planted the seed for the Navy Hill educational facilities. In the late 1860s, the building(s) were finally moved to the corner of 6th and Duval, only to serve as one of the first schools in Richmond which utilized the skills and services of African-American teachers. [There is still some debate as to the original location of the Provost Marshal's building or buildings; the preponderance of sources suggest that the building was at 10th and Broad, a few, however, claim 9th and Broad was the original site].

    During the War Between the States, the frame structure(s) served as the infamous Provost's Marshal's Office. For "convenience sake," the Office was often referred to as the "Winder Building" after the Richmond Provost Marshal General John H. Winder. According to the Official Guide to the Confederate Government, "the entrance to General Winder's office [was] the door nearest the Capitol Square," and his office hours were 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

View the image of the Freedmen's Bureau at Richmond from Harper's Weekly, December 23, 1865.

A popular (and much detested) site during the war, it was here that passports were officially distributed to war-weary Richmonders. According to one Confederate soldier, the Provost Marshal's Offices were, "filthy" buildings where rowdy clerks roamed the halls and the "smell of whisky" permeated the air.(11)     Continuously "guarded by bayoneted sentinels," the Provost Marshal's Office often received intense criticism from not only Richmond citizens at large, but also from inside the Confederate ranks.  While Richmonders complained that passports were too sparingly assigned and that Confederate officials were overtly hostile, the new government recognized and acknowledged the abuse of power within the Provost Marshal's building and continuously re-assigned the post to different officers -- perhaps with the hope of rooting out the corruption.(12)

In the late 1860s, the former Provost Marshal's Offices were relocated in the Navy Hill district, at 6th and Duval.  One Nineteenth century map suggests that the buildings' primary entry ways faced Duval Street and were actually the gabled ends of the buildings rather than the long east/west sides.   Nonetheless, a contemporary drawing of the school indicates that more "formal" doorways did exist along the long sides of the structures.  We might further suggest that building "A" (the building with its east side facing 6th Street) may have had three doorways at one time:  one at the north gable end, one on the west side (both clearly indicated in photographs/drawings) and a possible third doorway on the east side.  This is hinted by an anomalous window on the east side of the building which looks as if it had been enlarged to accommodate a pre-existing door frame.

     In any case, the buildings were linked by a waist high picket fence, through which one could enter into a kind of tree lined courtyard.  Both of the structures were approximately 34 x 60 feet, each had a simple chimney and what appears to have been an American bond brick foundation.(13)  Indeed, the exteriors of these two buildings were very nearly identical with just a few exceptions:  Building "A" had three second story windows in the north gable and two unevenly spaced windows on the bottom level;  looking directly at the north face of the building, the entry door was situated at the right corner.  Building "B," on the other hand, had only four windows in the north gable and two evenly spaced windows on the first and second stories, but this time the doorway was in the middle, perhaps suggesting a central passage or hallway with rooms on either side.

    Having been removed from their original location, it may be unlikely that the frame building(s) had a cellar, but J.B.Jones indicated that at least one of the Provost's buildings did have an underground level.  This was a place, according to Jones, where "a thousand garments of dead soldiers, taken from the hospitals and the battle field[s]. . ." were housed.(14)

    In the end, it is unclear who provided the impetus to move the frame building(s) from its original location at 10th and Broad.  Several sources indicate that Ralza Morse Manly, a former Chaplain in the Union army, had purchased the buildings himself with the intent of holding classes for African-American children.  Other sources suggest that the buildings were owned by the Richmond Educational Association "of which Ralza Morse Manley was president."(15)   Regardless, of who initially purchased the buildings, by 1869 they were, indeed, owned by the Richmond Educational Association "and other parties engaged in the education of Freemen."(16)

We do know that when the former Confederate office building(s) opened for business at 6th and Duval street, only one of them was used as a school house.  The other was occupied by R.M. Manly and his family, with the rent set at $550.00 dollars a year.    

In 1877, the School Board purchased the 122'x187' Navy Hill lot and the two buildings for some $1850.00.   The new owners enlarged the school house structure the same year by building six additional rooms and a "commodious Assembly Hall."     

More new rooms were in the works by the early 1880s, but within a few years the overcrowded old building had become physically unsafe for occupation.  Hence, by 1890-91, some $20,000 had been set aside for the erection of a new building, and in the mean time, students were housed in several temporary facilities.  The lower grades were held at Dungeon's Church (7th between Baker and Duval) while the higher grades were conducted at Good Samaritan's Hall at Duval and Sixth Street.

    Indeed, a single drawing in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, refers to this building not as "Good Samaritans's Hall" but as the "New School House."(21) [A good source for information on Richmond Public Schools is A Mini-History of the Richmond Public Schools 1869-1992 from which much of the above information was gathered. This unpublished manuscript is available at the Library of Virginia].

The Good Samaritan Society building was probably erected sometime in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the Navy Hill school buildings perhaps providing the impetus for other more community minded architectural projects on North 6th Street.(22)

The Good Samaritan Hall was a two story, presumably brick structure with two bays on either side of a centrally placed main entry door (although students could enter the building from both the 6th Street and Duval Street sides).  Much smaller than the previous frame school houses,  the Good Samaritan Hall had a hipped roof with a rectangular cupola perched right in the middle.  Considering the 1883 newspaper illustration, Good Samaritan Hall may have served as part of, if not as the "Navy Hill School" for several seasons until another more suitable building was finished in 1893.(23)    

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Col. Cutshaw's New Navy Hill School

The new Navy Hill School was finally finished on April 14, 1893.  The event seems to have been much anticipated with the progress of the school frequently referred to in the 1892-1893 Richmond Planet.    This sound new building was a two story brick structure designed by Colonel Wilfred Emory Cutshaw, Richmond's City Engineer from 1874-1905. [The actual drawings of the building were executed by Reuben Shirreffs, active as an architect in Virginia from 1883-1901. Shirreffs also worked on the Nicholson Street School in Richmond. Both projects were most likely overseen by the City Engineer's office with design specifications supplied by Cutshaw].

Cutshaw (1839-1907) was a native of Harper's Ferry, born on January 25, 1828. He was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and received his training in civil and military engineering.  Cutshaw entered the Confederate army in 1861, under the command of General John B. Magruder and Stonewall Jackson.  Cutshaw was severely wounded in 1864, losing his right leg.(25)   In 1874, Cutshaw became the Richmond City Engineer, designing dozens of notable buildings, including the Navy Hill School.(26)

The Outside of the Navy Hill School

    The Navy Hill School was quite characteristic of Cutshaw's school designs;  in fact, several of Cutshaw's school plans were virtually identical.  The Nicholson Street School, also completed in 1893, was extremely close in design to Navy Hill as was the Moore Street School, built a few years earlier in 1887.(27)     (The Moore Street School, still in operation more than one hundred years after it was built, currently serves as the rear wing of Carver School on Leigh Street).  Especially notable among Cutshaw's architectural motifs were characteristic recessed panels which dramatically marked the space around all of the windows.  The function of such a design, according to Selden Richardson, architectural historian at the Library of Virginia whose master's thesis focused on the work of Cutshaw, was probably to imitate the effect of double story pilasters. This created a kind of grand monumentality without a grand cost.

    Everything about these buildings was monumental;  Navy Hill had large and luminous windows, and the central entry way was wide and welcoming.   This school was certainly functional, but the design also included several aesthetic embellishments which established the building as one of formidable sophistication.  Its projecting central bay showed off a decorative "balcony" over the principle entry that made use of the kinds of ironworks so common on the front porches of the homes in Jackson Ward and, perhaps, in Navy Hill.  A distinctive belt course circumambulated the middle of the structure, while Cutshaw's distinctive "stepped brick courses" topped off each section of the building's recessed panels.  Such multiplicity of material and pattern, including Cutshaw's use of rusticated stone window sills, suggest that the builders were just as intent on providing an architecturally stylish building as they were on creating a functional school house.

    Close examination of early 20th century photos also indicate that the school had decorative vertical brickwork topping all of the windows, and an irregular brick pattern, mostly 5 rows of stretchers to every row of headers although this does seem to vary.  The entire structure was sheltered by a heavy cavetto-like cornice which gave the building a kind of climatic crescendo.  In the end, Navy Hill's functional metal hipped roof was barely visible above the massive cornice.(28)
 
 

                                          
The Inside of the Navy Hill School

The 72.1 x 116.0 foot new school was, indeed, much larger than both of the former frame structures, this time with sixteen classrooms and a principal's office.(29)  The rooms, divided by a central hallway, were spacious and airy, with four large windows lighting each classroom.  Indeed, proper air circulation was key, especially since it was believed that "without ventilation diseases [were] spread and minds [were] clouded. . .;"(30)    By the time Cutshaw began designing the Navy Hill School, there was already a kind of philosophy behind public architecture, an official rubric of school design which promoted health and prosperity.  As early as the 1860s, R.M. Manly and company had toyed with the notion of proper classroom equipment and layout.  One Freedman's Bureau report from 1867 insisted that "The alleys [in the classrooms]  between the rows of desks must not be less than 17 inches, should be 20 to 24 if the size of the room will allow.  The outside passage against the wall of the room (side and back) should be 3 feet . . ."(31)    In this case, Manly even drew a diagram of the way he believed the schools' desks should be designed;  hence, from the beginning those involved with the physical formation of African-American schools were set on creating schools that were both comfortable and functional.  And, as might be expected, by the turn of the century, architects and educators seemed to be working together to furnish the classroom and the school building itself with the most efficient, most aesthetically pleasing equipment that would also be conducive to a positive learning environment.  It was a general belief that the "School [should] be the most attractive place in the community."(32)   The school was a site where an abundance of trees, flowers, and shrubs were to add shade and beauty to the school yard and to the community.   Of course, the Navy Hill School yard was relatively small at only .5 acres and did not allow for too many suburban embellishments.(33)

    For the most part, however, the Navy Hill School was still as conducive to learning as any institutition with larger school facilities.  The school's large windows not only provided ventilation, but they also provided ample reading light in the classrooms.(34)    In this respect Cutshaw's schools matched, if not exceeded, the standards set by the "Society of Illuminating Engineers" in the 1920s who recommended that "the height of the top of the window be at least 50 per cent of the room width, and that the glass area be at least 20 per cent of the floor area."  Richmond schools (like Navy Hill), according to the author of the report, had exceeded such requirements since the turn of the century.(35)   It was clear that, even in the late 19th century, Cutshaw's schools were setting a standard to which later school architects would gladly adhere.  By the second quarter of the 20th century, school architecture followed a standard list of guiding principles -- principles that took into account the same issues of light, ventilation, and function that Cutshaw's school had subscribed to a few decades earlier.

    Inside Cutshaw's building, there were two primary floors and a basement.  This lowest level included the boys and girls bathrooms, a lumber room, the janitor's niche, and the principal's office while the first and second floors were predominantly devoted to classroom space.(36)  Inside each school room, vertical wooden planking culminated in a kind of functioning "chair rail" which doubled as a chalk tray for pint-sized pupils.(37)
In any case, the rooms were fitted with extensive blackboards, all with soft, dull finishes to reduce glare.  Totaling over 70 feet in length, these blackboards wrapped around all four sides of the typical classroom.(38)  The top quarter of the walls, however, were simply whitewashed and used to display the masterworks of Navy Hill's budding artists.
 

The School in the Twentieth Century

    By the turn of the century, the area around the school had evolved into a seemingly endless neighborhood where thousands of Richmonders lived and worked.  Landmark community sites like Navy Hill School were especially well known and were easily accessed by just about everyone.  In fact, with Richmond's extensive transportation system, one could travel by railway or by street car and be dropped off within a block of the school itself.(39)

    Still, the history of the Navy Hill School in the twentieth century was, unfortunately, one of gradual decline.  By the 1920s, Richmond's African-American schools were inflicted with an intense over-crowding dilemma, and Navy Hill School was no exception.  In that same decade, there were only 806 available seats at Navy Hill, but some 1,089 students to occupy them.  This invariably meant that classes were staggered during the day and the evening, with a kind of "part-time" or double shift necessary.  Charles Robinson, Richmond's post-Cutshaw school architect, asserted that in order "to accommodate the 2, 500 pupils that would reach school age in 1925-1930, " a Navy Hill addition would have to be erected.(40)

    Sometime after 1913, at least one addition to the existing school was erected.  Navy Hill added of a kind of unattached "open air classroom" which housed ill children, including those inflicted with tuberculosis.(41)     At the all white Madison School, on Madison and Cary Streets, open air classrooms were also in use.  Here, school officials installed canvas curtains to "protect the children from the weather. . . "  And even though the windows in this structure were always open with no heat provided, the children were given suitable blankets to keep them warm during the harsh winter months.   This type of "care", according to one 1914 report, enabled physically challenged children to "keep up with the work of the grade, and show marked physical improvements  as well."(42)

After the 1910s and 1920s, however, additional "improvements" were halted despite the need for more classroom space and less dated equipment. By 1936, the problem of over-crowding in African-American schools was one that could no longer be ignored.  In fact, the over-crowding issue seemed to be debated weekly in local Richmond newspapers, with the final outcome always the same:  more space and more supplies were imperative for the proper upkeep of Richmond's African-American schools.  Navy Hill school was on the top of the list for necessary repairs and improvements as were Armstrong, Buchanan, and Sidney schools.   "Each of these schools [had] more than sixty pupils enrolled for every available class room."(43)     But, the prospect was that over-crowding at Navy Hill would get much worse before it would get any better, the need for more space becoming more and more dire every year.

    By 1944, the City School Board had slated Navy Hill School for eventual abandonment, to be replaced by a brand new facility.(44)   Nonetheless, this new facility never really manifested itself in an up-dated school house;   Despite the fact that school officials predicted that Navy Hill's enrollment would reach its highest peak ever in the early 1950s,  "a multi-purpose building. . . used as an auditorium, cafeteria, and gymnasium" was the only new building intended for Navy Hill School.(45)    Still, such a building was much needed by the school's students and was urged by Navy Hill's 1948 Parent-Teacher Association.(46)   Indeed, as early as the 1940s, it had been a great concern that Navy Hill School did not have its own adjacent recreational areas.  Hence, city officials devised a plan that , in the future, a new Navy Hill School would be erected on a five acre site that would easily accommodate "a variety of recreational facilities. . . "(47)

Although the school building itself was never moved, plans for a recreational facility were implemented on the existing site.  Bidding for this addition opened on June 6, 1952 with several different firms vying for the project including Howard-Mitchell Construction Company; Ballou & Justice (who eventually developed the project); Conquest, Moncure & Dunn;  and A.H. Ewing's Sons.(48)   In the meantime a dearth of steel halted the city's plans for additional school facilities even though some $130,000 had already been set aside for construction.  All obstacles considered, the final cost estimate of the new Navy Hill addition exceeded $249,000.(49) This new building (currently the site of the Children's Museum of Richmond located at 740 Navy Hill Drive) was constructed on the south side of the old school house and was a one and one half story red brick structure.  Punched with large windows, this additional half story, made for a predominantly open space appropriate for a gymnasium and /or cafeteria.  The building's primary entryway faced North Sixth Street, and the entire complex was surrounded by a waist high chain-link fence.
    At this stage, however, little is known of the true original interior of this building.  What we do know is that the Navy Hill School had an ill-fated future.  By 1955, city planners had already begun to speculate on the possibility of tearing down several blocks of existing homes in the Navy Hill area--these areas targeted for civic center projects and parking lots.(50)   This discussion would, inevitably, begin a trend in Richmond city planning.  In 1965, the debate shifted from the location of proposed civic centers, to the expected route of a new interstate roadway--a roadway that would eventually wipe out not only most of the Navy Hill neighborhood, but also the Navy Hill School itself.    Just twelve years after the new "gymatorium" was completed, school administrators forced the closing of the seventy-two year old Navy Hill School.  The school was officially shut down during the week of September 14, 1965.  Its remaining pupils were, in the meantime, transferred to Baker and Carver schools.(51)   The Navy Hill School building itself was demolished by January 1, 1966, making way for the construction of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike.(52)
    The gymatorium, however, did escape the fate of the main school building.  In fact, a few years after the demolition of the school house, it was proposed that the gymatorium be turned into a "trade center," city officials allotting some $400,000 for the redevelopment of this site.  Nonetheless, the site was later deemed inappropriate for such a facility because of the "skyrocketing land values" of the region around the proposed Coliseum.(53)
    In the meantime, former rehabilitation councilor, Jackie Flammia asserted that the gymatorium served as a vocational evaluation center, training young adults to be more adept in the work force.  Some years later in the early 1980s, a new museum called the Richmond Children's Museum, transformed the one time "gymatorium" into a rich and colorful educational facility.  In the year 2000, the property will again change hands as the Children's Museum moves to its new location on Broad Street, next to the Virginia Science Museum. The Navy Hill gymatorium will be demolished, though like the school and the rest of the Navy Hill neighborhood, it will be gone but not forgotten.
 
 

NOTES:

1. See the Enquirer, May 20, 1815.

2. Mary Wingfield Scott, Old Richmond Neighborhoods. Reprint of 1950 Edition (Richmond: William Byrd Press), 1975.

3. An 1816 plan of this region indicates that the lots were at least "261 feet in length", and between 45 and 135 feet wide. According to contemporary Mutual Assurance Society records, most of the individuals who purchased Navy Hill lands (Henry and Matthew Lacy, John Burfoot, Thomas Sta_____, Thomas H. Miten____, William Lowness, William Jones, John Staples, Matthew H. Rice, John Goddin, Peter Ralston, John G. Gamble, and David Dovington/Dorington) had other properties on the southern side of Broad Street or what was, at that time, known as H Street. In 1815, for example, Matthew H. Rice owned a dwelling house on the block between F and G, and 6th and 7th Streets. Rice's house was valued at $2000.00, the kitchen at $250.00, and the stable and carriage house at $200.00. It is unknown, however, if Rice's lot or any of the other Navy Hill lots were purchased for the intent of occupation or rent. In either case, the Navy Hill lots were relatively expensive, ranging in price from $4050.00 to a more reasonable $495.00. But, despite the purchase of the lands and lots, the area does not seem to have been developed until much later.

4. Samuel Mordecai, in Richmond in By-Gone Days, wrote that "Jackson's Garden" was "situated on Leigh Street, extending from Second some distance west, in a portion of the city now designated [on] the map as 'Jackson's Addition.' " See page 223 of Richmond in By-Gone Days for this information.

5. There are exceptions to this date. The house (still standing in early 1999) at 612 N. 3rd Street was reportedly built in the 1790s. This, however, does seem to be the exception.

6. Mary Wingfield Scott's notes and photographs, available at the Valentine Museum, were essential in discerning this information. Richmond City Directories were also helpful in determining population patterns.

7. Samuel Mordecai, Richmond in By-Gone Days Reprint from 1860 edition (Richmond: Dietz Press, 1946), 76.

8. For all of the aforementioned quotes, see Mordecai, 288.

9. Mordecai, 289.

10. Courtesy the Library of Virginia., pg. 10.

11.  J.B.Jones, Rebel War Clerk's Diary, edited by Howard Swiggett (New York:  Old Hickory Bookshop, 1935), 114-115, 124..

12.  Jones, Rebel Diary, 67

13.  Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Virginia , Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1879.  National Archives Trust Fund, 1978.  Microfilm Reel 11, n.p. Courtesy the Library of Virginia.

14. Jones, Rebel Diary, 114-115.

15.  Martha Owens, "The Development of Public Schools for Negroes in Richmond, Virginia 1865-1900" (Master's Thesis, Virginia State College, 1945), 21.

16.  Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1879.  National Archives Trust Fund, 1978.  Microfilm Reel 11, n.p. Courtesy Library of Virginia.

17. Owens, 21-22.

18.  Richmond Public School Report 1921/22-1925/26, p. 128-129.

19.  Ibid, 21-22;  "Navy Hill School," provided by the Richmond School Board, See Below.

20.  "Navy Hill School"  by the Richmond School Board, 142.; The Richmond Times Dispatch article "Note on Navy Hill," dated Nov. 3, 1953 suggests that Sixth Grammar was conducted in the basement of Albert V. Norrell's home.

21.  Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 21, 1883, p. 353.

22.  The first time the Good Samaritan Society appears on a map of the Navy Hill area is ca.1876.  See Richmond Maps included.

23.  This type of fluid movement of school classrooms from one site other more commercial or civic minded location does not seem to have been uncommon in 19th century Richmond.  In fact, from early on, school sessions were conducted wherever there was space.  One school session was even offered at Dill's Bakery in the heart of Richmond.  There were few public "schools" that were originally erected as such;  instead property was transferred for educational uses--this was evidently the case with many Confederate buildings after the war.

24. One example is recorded on January 21, 1893.

25.  "West End Avenue Bears Soldier's Name," Richmond Times Dispatch  June 21, 1953.

26.  For a comprehensive look at Colonel Cutshaw see, Selden Richardson, "Architect of the City:  Wilfred Emory Cutshaw (1838-1907) and Municipal Architecture in Richmond" (Master's Thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1996), 35-44.

27.  Ibid, 38.

28.  Construction information provided by the Fire Insurance Report:  Properties of School Board, City of Richmond, VA 1947.  Available at the Library of Virginia.

29.Architectural Plans of Navy Hill School.  Courtesy the Library of Virginia, City of Richmond, Office of the City Engineer, Architectural Plans and Drawings--part of a large cache of Richmond city architectural plans and elevations dating from the late 19th to the early 20th century.

30.  "Beautifying Our Schools," Issued by the Department of Public Instruction of Virginia, 1911.  Virginia Pamphlets, Vol. 60, 6, 12.

31.  Records of the Superintendent of Education:  Role 1:  September 30, 1867, pg. 285.

32.  "Beautifying our Schools," 1911, 14.school yard, approximately 0.5 acres.  A report taken in the 1940s indicates that African-American school properties were typically smaller than those of white schools.  On average, African-American school properties were about 1.26 acres, while those of whites was significantly more. 

33. Of course, one must also take into account that by mid-century, the majority of white schools had migrated to the suburbs while black schools remained in the heart of the city.

34.  Indeed, the desire for natural light vs. artificial light manifested itself an increase in window size and a decrease in the relative size of the mullions.  See the Report on Richmond School Housing, 1925, p. 43. for more information.

35. Charles M. Robinson, Report on Richmond School Housing Survey  (Richmond, Virginia, n.p., 1925), 6.

36.  See architectural drawings of Navy Hill School, courtesy Sheldon Richardson and the Library of Virginia.  It is of great significance that this school was designed with indoor bathroom facilities. Other contemporary Cutshaw schools had outdoor privies.

37.  The 1925 Report Richmond School Housing suggests, however, that such architectural features were also implemented primarily to keep the children from marring the walls.  The report goes on to say that the traditional wooden wainscoting was relatively "unsanitary"  and "almost as bad [as] plaster on account of appearance."  41-42.

38.  Report on Richmond School Housing, Richmond, Virginia: 1925.  40-41.

39.  The Public Schools of Richmond, Virginia  (Richmond:  Department of Supersedence of the National Educational Association, 1914), 7.

40. Charles M. Robinson, Report on Richmond School Housing Survey.  Richmond, Virginia, 1925, 62-63.

41.  This open air classroom is barely visible in several photographs from the 1940s.  The photos confirmed oral reports that the open air classroom was "like an old hothouse."

42.   The Public Schools of Richmond, Virginia (Richmond:  Department of Superintendent of the National Educational Association, 1914), 18-19.

43. "Other Negro Schools are Packed Also But Richmond Survey Indicates Relief of Armstrong Most Important," Richmond Times Dispatch , January 8, 1936.

44 "School Board Urges New Buildings:  Drastic Program to be Studied in May," Richmond Times Dispatch, April 29, 1944.

45 "Negro School Enrollment Hike 3 1/2 Times Greater Than White"  News Leader, September 7, 1949;  "$172,804 Low Bid Made for Addition to Negro School,"  Richmond Times Dispatch, June 6, 1952.

46.  "School Aid Asked by P-T-A Groups," Richmond Times Dispatch, October 26, 1948.

47.  The Scope of the City Plan (Richmond, Virginia:  Richmond City Planning Commission, 1949), 32.

48. "6 Firms Here to Draw Plans for Schools," Richmond Times Dispatch, November 28, 1950.

49. "Navy Hill School Work Bids are Sought,"  Richmond Times Dispatch, May 9, 1952;  "Richmond Negro Schools Jammed Despite Postwar $8,140,601 Expenditures," Richmond Times Dispatch, January 26, 1956.

50. "Leigh Street Block Zoning is Due Study," Richmond Times Dispatch, August 23, 1955.

51."Road Forces School Closing," News Leader, September 14, 1965.

52.  "Navy Hill School,"  Richmond Times Dispatch,  September 15, 1965.

53.  "Navy Hill School Plan Hits Snag,"  Richmond Times Dispatch, August 6, 1998.