Sometimes, even after almost two years, I find books at work that I've never seen before. Most of the time, I suspect it's because a co-worker has taken the book to their desk and never officially "checked" it out. Bad employees, bad!
Original
Images property of the Valentine Museum Collection
Well, here are two great resources for historic pictures of my neighborhood; Architecture in Downtown Richmond by Robert P. Winthrop and the oversize gem, Broad Street Old and Historic District: Richmond, Virginia, both were compiled and published by the Historic Richmond Foundation and are out of print.
The magic of the oversize one is that is has panoramic shots of city blocks as they looked in the 1920s and then again in photographs from 1986. The most amazing thing about that is that you get to see wonderfully ornate (Edwardian Baroque?) building facades that were covered up in later years with "modern" facades in order to look contemporary. These are now the buildings most in danger because people think they are boring and plain. If only they knew?! Oh, to do an updated version of this book today!
Example: 13-17 East Broad Street, the Charles Stores, Co.
The magic of the oversize one is that is has panoramic shots of city blocks as they looked in the 1920s and then again in photographs from 1986. The most amazing thing about that is that you get to see wonderfully ornate (Edwardian Baroque?) building facades that were covered up in later years with "modern" facades in order to look contemporary. These are now the buildings most in danger because people think they are boring and plain. If only they knew?! Oh, to do an updated version of this book today!
Example: 13-17 East Broad Street, the Charles Stores, Co.
Original
The building went from Victorian brick to Art Deco stucco to...a parking lot.
Images property of the Valentine Museum Collection
Here is a view of this building under renovation in 1986:
ReplyDeletehttp://dig.library.vcu.edu/u?/rca,887
Here is a photo of the building after it was destoryed by fire in 1989:
http://dig.library.vcu.edu/u?/rca,892
The dates may be wrong.