They came from miles around

Prior to 1972, many of the region's hospitals were concentrated downtown. In 1920, there were 10 working hospitals between Monroe Park and city hall. There were also a handful of hospitals to the west of Belvidere St. By mid-century, some of these early downtown hospitals began to expand and relocate.

Johnston-Willis Hospital, now part of a mega-complex in Chesterfield County, is pictured below as it stood at 6th and Franklin, just down the block from today's John Marshall Hotel. Dr. Willis lived in the working hospital:

Johnston-Willis Hospital. 6th and Franklin St. Ca. 1912.

Retreat for the Sick (pictured below), at 12th and Marshall, was "where most Richmond physicians cared for their patients" at the turn-of-the-century.

Retreat for the Sick, 12th and Marshall. Like the original Johnston-Willis, this building is also long gone. Later moved to the Fan, where it now operates as Richmond Retreat Hospital.

There are several other early downtown hospital buildings that do still stand, most of them now function as apartment buildings.

Building of the day

At the corner of Grace and Madison Sts, directly across from downtown police hqs, stands the building pictured below. This frame building is among only a few in the city that dates to the 18th-century. At the time of its construction it was more of a country estate.

Previously known as the Call House, the building became home to several private schools.

This photo was taken in the 1930s, when the building served as the Bliley Funeral Home.

Richmond before I-95, part two: The expressway that almost was

Until the late-1950s, N. Lombardy Street was part of U.S. Highway 1. The narrow street handled East Coast traffic from Broad Street to just above Virginia Union University. In 1960, the Chamberlayne Parkway was completed and became the new leg of Highway 1-301. By that time, the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Toll Road (I-95) was up-and-running, and out-of-town traffic now had speedy passage through the city. But before I-95 was conceived, the State Planning Board had other ideas for an expressway.

The expressway was proposed in 1946 and would have included today's Belvidere St. Tolls would be charged on commercial vehicles only.

The planning sketch below shows Monroe Park being dissected by a planned on-ramp for Franklin St. The main east-west streets (Cary, Main, Franklin, Grace, Broad, Marshall) would have crossed over the proposed expressway -- where Belvidere now intersects them with stoplights.

View is toward the north, from Cary St. and present-day Belvidere.

Richmond before I-95, part one

Before Interstate-95 was carved through the Richmond in the late-1950s, all East Coast traffic funneled through the city on U.S. 1-301. The photo below is from 1946; it shows gridlock-like conditions at the intersection with Hull Street. The view is south, toward Petersburg.

The Mosby area, post-Emancipation

Central State Hospital, the sprawling facility housing the criminally insane just outside of Petersburg, began in (what is now) Richmond city limits. The primitive complex was adjacent to today's Mosby and Fairmount Avenues.

After Emancipation in Virginia, some former slaves were given small tracts of land on which to raise their families. But many others were left to fend for themselves. A portion of them wound up in local jails on minor charges of theft. By 1868, the small jails were overburdened with destitute freedmen.

Howard's Grove, former Confederate military hospital, was quickly converted into a complex for "the care and treatment of sick and homeless (African-Americans)." The site spanned both sides of today's Mosby Street.

According to several sources, such as Dr. Wyndham Blanton's Medicine in Virginia in the Ninteenth Century, the complex rapidly destabilized -- due to crowding -- and in 1885 moved to its current location on the edge of Petersburg, as the Central Asylum.

Second Street Rowdies: Jackson Ward in the 19th-Century

Second Street is best known for being the former main street of Richmond's African-American community. During Richmond's period of enforced racial segregation -- 1896-1964 -- black merchants, bankers and physicians thrived around this corridor in Jackson Ward.

But prior to the 1880s, the Second Street corridor was a gritty neighborhood of working-class European immigrants. From descriptions given, Second Street was not unlike the hardscrabble neighborhood on Oregon Hill.

Samuel Mordecai, in his 1856 book Richmond in By-gone Days, described the neighborhood: "On the north side of Broad, between Second and Third streets… now built up with shops, the names on which would indicate a German colony. Indeed, the line of Broad street is occupied chiefly by Germans."

Mary Wingfield Scott's book Old Richmond Neighborhoods speaks of the German immigrants living in Jackson Ward, noting that Second St. was "considered a tough street." The plight of VMI cadets housed nearby, during the Civil War, is also mentioned. The cadets picked-up additional battle experience here, being constantly engaged by the "Second Street rowdies."

Wingfield-Scott goes on to point out that African-Americans began moving into Jackson Ward in the later part of 19th-century. The migration of the original German inhabitants isn't clear.

This Little Building

A little more than a year ago, Dr. Robert A. Kravetz inquired about the origins of this tiny old building, which is discreetly nestled in a corner of VCU Medical Center and I-95. His curiosity, in turn, fueled mine. I became determined to find out the origins and age of this humble old structure.

What I began to find caused some eyebrows to be raised. The research is ongoing. A very detailed summary of initial findings -- along with old and rare photos of the tract -- is located on this separate page: http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqpmfq/.