The Rivermont Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [1]
Description
The Rivermont Historic District is located within the northwestern section of the City of Lynchburg, which served as the major transportation, industrial, and commercial city on the James River in the lower Piedmont region of Virginia from the early 19th century through the mid-20th century. The 192.10-acre district consists of the 300-3400 blocks of Rivermont Avenue as well as Riverside Park and a few properties along side streets that face onto Rivermont Avenue. Bounded by the James River on the east and northeast, Blackwater Creek on the east and southeast, Daniel's Hill on the north and Virginia Episcopal Road and the southern end of Boonesboro Road on the northwest, the neighborhood's boundaries are defined by sharp changes in elevation with Rivermont Avenue serving as the central spine. The district is closely linked to the city's historic downtown section, located directly across Blackwater Creek and the Rivermont Bridge.
The Rivermont Historic District is Lynchburg's first planned streetcar community that included a mixture of residential, commercial, and institutional buildings as well as green space and a transportation system incorporated as an integral feature of the design. Buildings represent a wide variety of building types, including single-family residences, duplexes, apartment houses, garages, commercial buildings, churches, government buildings, academic buildings, and hospitals. Other resources include parks, gardens, and several historic objects. The district contains a number of highly significant buildings dating from the late 19th and 20th centuries that represent nearly every major American architectural style of that period, including the Queen Anne, Beaux Arts, Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, Gothic Revival, Tudor Revival, Bungalow, American Four Square, and Dutch Colonial. There are a number of buildings in the district that are the work of some of Lynchburg's leading architects from this period, including Stanhope Johnson, Edward G. Frye, Preston Craighlll, Bennett Cardwell, Bryant Heard, Aubrey Chesterman, Pendleton Clark, Everene Fauber, and Walter Crowe, as well as Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram, Washington D.C. architect William Poindexter, and New York architect Penrose Stout. The neighborhood is a marvelously cohesive collection of buildings designed in most of the major styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Examples of landscape design are less visible but still important, including several gardens by the noted Virginia landscape architect Charles Gillette. As Lynchburg's largest and probably most successful planned subdivision, Rivermont displays several important design features, such as a wide central avenue, parks, schools, and vistas that separate it from older parts of Lynchburg.
Statement Of Integrity
The Rivermont Historic District as a whole maintains a good level of integrity. Modern intrusions in the district are relatively few in number, and the streets and landscape have retained much of their original scale and feeling. The district consists of 281 primary resources and 103 secondary resources for a total of 384 resources. The majority of these resources (371) are buildings. Of the 384 total resources, 82% are historic, including 247 primary resources and 67 secondary resources. In contrast, only 70 resources (18%) in the district are non-contributing either due to their date of construction or loss of historic integrity through alterations. The majority of the resources in the district are considered to be in good or excellent condition. Three resources in the district — the Miller-Claytor House, the Main Hall at Randolph-Macon Women's College, and the Jones Memorial Library — are listed individually on the National Register.
Historic Development And Architectural Analysis
The area known today as Rivermont originally was part of Campbell County until the early 20th century. The former landholdings of the Hutter, Warwick, Scott, and Langhorne families were located to the northwest of Lynchburg in what is now known as Rivermont and are shown on historic maps of Lynchburg from the 1870s and 1890s. This land consisted primarily of small farms, probably growing tobacco and some cereal grains. Very few resources dating to this period remain in the Rivermont area, including the ca. 1845 House, 1304 Oakwood Lane and the Scott Farm Carriage House (3109 Rivermont).
Reconstruction and Growth (1865-1914)
Community Planning and Development
The annexation carried out in 1870 by the City of Lynchburg was the first to take in part of what is now the Rivermont area. The southeastern tip of the neighborhood, extending north two blocks from the present Jones Library building, was brought within the city limits from Campbell County. In 1890 the Rivermont Land Company was founded, one of a number of land companies in Lynchburg, at the turn of the century. Although Lynchburg had grown throughout its history in a generally orderly fashion along a nearly uniform grid pattern of streets, the Rivermont neighborhood was the city's first planned development, as well as one of the first in the nation (Chambers:1981:303-304). The Rivermont and Company was the largest of the many land development companies in Lynchburg during the 1890s, eventually owning more than 7,000 acres in Campbell County and the City of Lynchburg. Joined to the city by the Rivermont Bridge over Blackwater Creek and laid out on either side of curving Rivermont Avenue with its streetcar line, the area soon became an attractive venue for Lynchburg's growing population. The company planned an extensive subdivision, drawing streets, dividing lots, and dictating the size and use of lots. The subdivision was never planned as a separate city, but rather as a suburban area eventually to be absorbed by the City of Lynchburg. City services such as street paving, parks, sewer, and gas lines integrated the Rivermont area with the rest of the city. Rivermont Avenue was paved in the early 1900s; many side streets eventually were surfaced in the 1920s. The first two public buildings in the Rivermont neighborhood were the Rivermont School (demolished), designed by J.M.B. Lewis, and the Lynchburg Fire Company No. 4, both constructed in 1904. The tall brick fire station at 1210 Rivermont Avenue was designed by the architectural firm of Frye and Chesterman in the Classical-Revival style with a bell tower, pedimented gable with modillions, corner quoins and a belt course.
The architectural character of the Rivermont area was determined by several factors. The class of new homeowners building along and moving to Rivermont Avenue in the 1890s and 1900s greatly influenced the size, type and construction materials of residences. The requirements of the Rivermont Company were written into deeds of sale in Rivermont and remained in force long after the demise of the actual development company. These requirements exercised a decisive influence on the type and size of houses erected. For example, residences and buildings located on Rivermont Avenue northwest of Bedford Avenue had to observe a setback of 20 feet. It was also required that they not cost below a certain amount to build (Chambers: 1981:304). Where these guidelines were not in effect, the result was a more tightly built up streetscape, with smaller set-backs, and sometimes a mixed-use commercial-residential appearance. This was true of Rivermont Avenue east of Belmont Street. Topography also played an important role in the design and scale of domestic architecture, as it had elsewhere in Lynchburg. Lots often sloped quite steeply away from the street facade, dictating a narrow street frontage.
Shortly after the company began to experience financial difficulties in 1891, it ceded control of the area's main thoroughfare, Rivermont Avenue, as well as the Rivermont Bridge, to the city. In 1900 an extension of the city's land area to include Rivermont took the city limits northwest from the 1870 boundary to a line across Rivermont Avenue between Fredonia and Huron Streets (Chambers: 198 1: 356). In 1908 a second annexation absorbed the Rivermont area southeast of Belvedere Street, including Randolph-Macon Woman's College and the nearby area of Randolph-Macon Heights. These expansions helped to increase the city's population, which along with other annexed areas, grew from 18,891 to 29,494 between 1900 and 1910 (Chambers: 1981: 360).
Domestic Architecture
From its beginning the Rivermont neighborhood has consisted primarily of single-family detached residences, usually two stories in height, with gable or hipped roofs often covered with metal standing seam sheets or slate shingles. Houses always faced the street and had auxiliary buildings such as garages and sheds located to the rear of the yard. Building materials included both wood and brick (stone was almost never used as a construction material). Most of the buildings dating from the 1890-1910 period were of frame construction. This was true even of the houses of the wealthy — such as expansive Queen Anne-style residences like the Jones House at 456 Rivermont Avenue. Houses from this 1890-1910 period also share other characteristics, regardless of their size and degree of architectural sophistication. Most were built on raised brick basements, had prominent porches along the front, interior brick chimneys, and double-hung sash windows. Interior plans generally consisted of either a side hall or central passage plan, although the more elaborate Queen Anne style houses of this period featured the asymmetrical flee-flowing plans characteristic of this style. Most houses were given some form of individuality by decorative exterior woodwork such as brackets, shingles, vents, cornices, and porch columns.
Although many houses from this period were built by local (and largely unknown) contractors using stock building patterns, many were designed by members of Lynchburg's highly talented architectural profession. Foremost among these was the architect Edward G. Frye, who excelled in designing Queen Anne style frame residences elsewhere in Lynchburg. Numerous examples of Frye's work, along with his partner Aubrey Chesterman, can be seen in the Rivermont neighborhood. Their designs range from highly individualistic and inventive flame Queen Anne-style residences to small gambrel-roofed cottages and outbuildings.
The lower end of Rivermont Avenue, which because of topography was developed as an area of smaller-scale houses and duplexes, is given added distinction by a number of Frye-designed residences. He was an especially inventive designer of residential architecture in the Queen Anne style as seen in the design for the Jones House at 456 Rivermont, the most whimsical and irregular Queen Anne style house in the city, with its turrets, wings, and semi-enclosed porches and balconies. Other examples include a house built in 1894 at 465 Rivermont Avenue, as well as one built that same year at 471 Rivermont Avenue. They incorporate several features so popular in Queen Anne-style architecture at that time, including such classical references as garlands and swags, patterned slate shingle roofs, and wood shingles used as exterior cladding, as well as asymmetrical towers, turrets, and semi-enclosed balconies. A feature often taken to be Frye's signature is the small triangular louvered vent on the gable ends of both his houses and outbuildings. This characteristic feature appears even on some otherwise quite plain and simple residences, such as the house at 911 Rivermont Avenue. The house built for R. Taylor Gleaves at 1700 Rivermont Avenue shows Frye at his most imaginative. The house, rather low-slung in comparison with the more showy and large-scale houses on either side of it, has a varied outline with a corner turret and protruding dormer hoods. It is one of the few partially stone residences in the Rivermont area.
Aubrey Chesterman, working with Frye, and also with architect J. Bryant Heard, was of only slightly less influence than Frye in the Rivermont neighborhood at the turn of the century. The house Chesterman designed in 1901 for William A. Graves at 2102 Rivermont Avenue is one of his best works in the city. A full-fledged Georgian Revival mansion, it relies on a profusion of classical details to make its architectural point, and is one of the few houses from this period that maintains its appearance on all four elevations, rather than giving into the facadism so often characteristic of this style. Frye and Chesterman are thought to have designed a number of notable Colonial-Revival style mansions including those at 2106 end 2144 Rivermont Avenue and 1510 Rivermont Avenue.
The work of the other major architect practicing in Lynchburg at this time, J. M. B. Lewis, was noticeably less Victorian than Frye's in spirit and execution. The 1903 William Christopher Ivey House at 2024 Rivermont Avenue is Classical Revival in its architectural detail, but is reminiscent of large-scale Victorian town houses built for the nouveau riche in Richmond, Washington D.C. or Atlanta. The George A. Kerr House at 2001 Rivermont Avenue is English Tudor in derivation and rather dour in appearance. Built in 1909, it is one of the first instances of the period revival style house in Lynchburg, according to S. Allen Chambers, whose book Lynchburg — An Architectural History is the definitive work on Lynchburg's architecture and architectural profession over the last 200 years. Another residence attributed to Lewis is the Queen-Anne house located at 3024 Rivermont Avenue, built in 1904-1905.
Commerce
Because the planned subdivision was to be linked to Lynchburg's Main Street and central business district via the Rivermont Bridge, Rivermont itself was not envisioned as a commercial center. Rather, only small business enterprises were projected to cluster along Rivermont Avenue to serve the surrounding residential community. One of the oldest buildings in the Rivermont community is the small one-story brick store, at 400 Rivermont Avenue. Built in 1891, it served variously as a grocery store and warehouse: it was remodeled for use as an office in 1991.
A larger commercial group developed along both sides of the 1200 block of Rivermont Avenue, east of the Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church. Many of these buildings date from the early 1900s after this area was annexed by the City of Lynchburg; builders were forced to follow previous regulations regarding setback and size of buildings. A typical store building was the former Rivermont Pharmacy (demolished) at 1208 Rivermont Avenue, a two-story frame structure dating from the early 1900s. Its original appearance is completely obscured by several later additions, including a sun porch on the second floor.
Education
One of the most unusual features of the Rivermont neighborhood as originally planned by its developer, the Rivermont Land Company, was the provision for a private woman's college located prominently on Rivermont Avenue. This college, now known as Randolph-Macon Woman's College, was established in 1891, and funded both by the Rivermont Company and by private subscription. Negotiations between Dr. William Waugh Smith, president of Randolph-Macon College in Ashland and the Rivermont Company resulted in the creation of Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1891 on 19.8 acres donated by the development company. The company pledged $100,000 for the college with the proviso that an equal amount be raised to match the gift. Through the efforts of Dr. Smith and others in the Lynchburg community, that amount was raised in a month's time (VHLC: 1979:7).
The college's building committee chose William M. Poindexter of Washington, D.C., as its architect, and instructed him to visit other American woman's colleges, including Goucher and Vassar colleges (Chambers: 1981: 306). His observations convinced him to design a single dormitory and classroom building that could be expanded in the future. His proposed design was a picturesque yet unified Queen Anne-style brick composition adapted for the demands of a collegiate institution. This building, known today as Main Hall, was erected over a 20-year period between 1891 and 1911 (VHLC: 1979: 3). The central entrance tower and eastern wings were constructed between 1891 and 1893; two additional wings were added to the west in 1896. With the erection of the final wing to the west in 1899, the building was completed according to the original Poindexter plan. In 1911 an annex was added to the north of the entrance pavilion, and both East Hall (built in 1903), and West Hall (built in 1906) were connected to Main Hall by arcades.
One of the most important monuments in the intellectual and artistic history of Lynchburg is the Jones Memorial Library (434 Rivermont Avenue), a gift of George M. Jones' widow, Mary Jones. Jones, one of the organizers of the Rivermont Land Company, was also instrumental in the establishment of Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1891. By early 1900 Jones took up the cause of establishing a public library for Lynchburg with the ambition of making it one of the finest in the South. (The only other public library in Virginia at that time was one in Norfolk established by Andrew Carnegie.) Although Jones died in 1903 before the building could be started, the project was continued by his widow Mary who commissioned the local architectural firm of Frye and Chesterman to design the memorial library.
On a much smaller scale was the Piedmont Business College (307-311 Rivermont Avenue), established in Lynchburg around 1888. In 1903 it moved into a handsome brick Georgian Revival-style building at the west end of the Rivermont Bridge. The school offered courses in commercial and shorthand studies, and claimed in 1913 to have educated over 11,000 students (Weaver: 1913: 29). "Thoroughly modern and practical, worthy of the confidence, esteem and patronage of the general public," the school closed at this location in the 1920s and the building was remodeled.
Religion
With the rapid development of the Rivermont neighborhood in the 1890s and 1900s and its emergence as an area of stable, homeowning middle-class families, several older inner-city congregations established mission churches in the neighborhood. A number of these congregations eventually moved to new and larger church buildings along Rivermont Avenue, often sited at strategic corner lots or bends in the road.
After its establishment in 1880 in a small structure on Daniel's Hill, the Rivermont Methodist Church purchased a lot in 1893 on Rivermont Avenue for a new and larger structure (Wiley: 6: 1986). The Romanesque-style brick church at 1018 Rivermont Avenue was completed in 1897 to the design of local architect Edward G. Frye. Rivermont Methodist Church later merged with Centenary Methodist Church and built a new church. The 1893 building was later used by Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and currently is occupied by the Scottish Rite Temple.
The Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church had its beginning in 1886 when a mission chapel was established on Cabell Street by the Young Men's Missionary Society of First Baptist Church. A lot on the corner of Rivermont and Bedford Avenues (1301-1305 Rivermont Avenue) was purchased by the fast-growing church in 1908 (Wiley: 31-32: 1986). The design for the church was prepared by the architectural firm of McLaughlin, Pettit & Johnson, with the drawings probably prepared by the young Stanhope Johnson. The modified Gothic-style Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church is an early example of Johnson's work, executed before he settled into the Georgian Revival style as his preferred period style. The church, reputedly built at a cost of $50,000, was completed in 1911, and enjoys an impressive site along Bedford Avenue.
The firm's design, built between 1905 and 1908 in the monumental Beaux Arts style, was an important addition to the city's literary and educational life, although it functioned as a private library for public use for most of its history. Reflecting its benefactor's hopes that it be a "temple of learning," the library featured elaborate stained-glass windows, representing the "nine grand divisions of human expression." Planned for a capacity of 50,000 books, it also contained children's rooms, open and closed stacks, as well as periodical and magazine rooms. The grounds feature a rather idealized statue of Jones wearing the uniform of a Confederate general sculpted by Solon Hannibal Borglun (1868-1922); a copy of this statue still stands on the campus of Randolph-Macon Woman's College (Chambers: 1981 :366). The Jones Memorial Library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Social/Recreation
The Oakwood Country Club was founded initially as the Oakwood Gun Club (Chambers: 1981: 414). It was devoted solely to trapshooting, guns and horses. Later, a tennis club and bowling alley were added to the fifteen-acre tract on Rivermont Avenue near Rivermont Park. When members decided to build a golf course as well, they sold their property and moved to a larger 100-acre parcel at the western terminus of Rivermont Avenue (Chambers: 1981: 414). In 1914 the architect J. M. B Lewis produced designs for a large Bungalow-style frame and stucco building which still stands today with only a few alterations.
World War I-World War II (1914-1945)
Community Planning and Development
In 1926, reflecting the continued residential growth in Rivermont, with new streets laid out and built upon almost yearly, the city annexed additional areas of Rivermont, bringing the northwestern limits of the city to the Bedford County line at Clayton Avenue. With this annexation came the paving of the remaining streets in Rivermont. Although governmental building activity in the center of Lynchburg continued through the 1920s and 1930s, few public buildings were erected in the Rivermont neighborhood, reflecting the overwhelmingly residential character of the area. By 1921 population growth had put such a strain on the city's schools that a number of new buildings were dedicated and built in record time. Among these was the Garland-Rodes Grammar School (2244 Rivermont Avenue), situated on a hill overlooking a bend in Rivermont Avenue near the entrance to the Riverside Park. Firmly embracing the Classical Revival style for school architecture, the school board commissioned Stanhope Johnson to design this school, which was completed in 1921 at a cost of $130,000 (Chambers: 437). The school building now serves as the Virginia School of the Arts. Another public building constructed during this period in response to the growth of the area was a small one-story brick branch U.S. Post Office (2485 Rivermont Avenue) erected on Rivermont Avenue in 1941 to serve the surrounding neighborhood.
Domestic Architecture
Residential construction continued during the period between the wars. By 1914 the area of greatest growth in the Rivermont neighborhood had shifted away from the lower Rivermont area and towards the section northwest of the 1300 block of Rivermont Avenue. Topography and the building restrictions written into many deeds dictated that these houses were larger than those generally found in the lower Rivermont Avenue neighborhood. A large number of houses were built of brick, although wood, or wood covered with wood shingles or stucco continued to be popular also. Garages became much more common; they were still placed well to the rear of the property, sometimes accessed by narrow alleys running from the side streets. Although some quite notable examples of Queen Anne style-architecture stand in this section of the neighborhood, most dwellings show the influence of the Bungalow, American Four Square, Colonial Revival, and later, the various period revival styles — Georgian Revival, Spanish Colonial, and Tudor Revival.
As S. Allen Chambers, in his book Lynchburg — An Architectural History has pointed out, this period witnessed both a change in the exterior appearance of residential architecture and a change in room arrangements. Room sizes and arrangements in houses from this period varied according to their function and use and freely incorporated modern conveniences. At the same time, the exterior shell took on a more formal and axial appearance. In addition, the rise in popularity of the Georgian Revival style caused a decline in the ubiquitous front porch in favor of front or side porches and a more spread-out appearance. This feature was encouraged by the generally larger size and more level topography of lots in this part of the neighborhood, particularly west of Randolph-Macon College. Thus ended one feature so often criticized about the architecture of Lynchburg: "narrow houses with reasonably good facades, but in the rear tall, ugly things on stilts set on steep slopes" (Scruggs: 1976: 203).
While Frye had dominated the Lynchburg architectural scene at the turn of the century, architect Stanhope Johnson dominated it in the post-World War I period. Working individually, or in partnership as McLaughlin, Pettit & Johnson or Johnson and Brannan, Johnson was responsible for more public, religious and residential buildings in the Rivermont neighborhood than any other architect during this period.
Johnson's work evolved in several stages. His earliest residential designs, done as a partner in the firm of McLaughlin Pettit & Johnson, adhered basically to the Bungalow and American Foursquare modes of design and was similar to the work produced by the architects Heard & Cardwell. Many homes incorporated such typically Craftsman-style features as leaded glass, diamond-pane windows, tapered brick or wood piers on the front porch and simple, wide window and door trim. A good example is the house at 2140 Rivermont Avenue. In the mid- and late-1910s Johnson's residential work moved away from the earlier American Foursquare designs towards a very individualistic classicism. Many of his residences were frame and mixed such elements as patterned wood shingles, hip-roofed dormers, and leaded glass panes with striking classical porticos and doorways. The house at 2132 Rivermont Avenue, built circa 1915 is a good example.
Also at this time Johnson was developing a unique building style dubbed "Spanish Georgian" by architectural writer S. Allen Chambers in his book Lynchburg — An Architectural History). Features of this style included a stuccoed exterior, arched windows, and Spanish tile roofs, along with more traditional Georgian features as a classical portico, doorway and a generally symmetrical exterior. Two of the best examples are seen at 3002 Rivermont Avenue, where some even vaguely Mayan-influenced decoration is used, and the Clinton deWitt Jr. House at 2301 Rivermont Avenue, a slightly smaller version of the house he designed for James R. Gilliam, Sr. in Garland Hill. Other residential commissions were in the more traditional Georgian Revival style. The Ford House, built in 1915 at the corner of Rivermont and Norfolk Avenue, although incorporating a tile roof, is imposing and symmetrical, with a prominent portico and much Georgian-style woodwork. By the 1920s Johnson, who had left McLaughlin Pettit & Johnson by this time, had firmly established himself as a master of the Georgian Revival style.
The Georgian and Colonial Revival styles were also enthusiastically adopted by a number of other prominent architects practicing in Lynchburg during this period. One of the most prolific was architects during this period was Pendleton Clark. Two of Clark's most notable works are his own residence at 104 Lee Circle (built 1930) and the Pettyjohn House at 3115 Rivermont Avenue (built 1931). The Pettyjohn House is traditional Georgian Revival at its best and is inspired by the 18th-century plantation houses along the James River. Clark's own house is more in the Virginia vernacular mode, with a more formal front facade extended to the rear by several gable-roofed additions. Other examples of Clark's work can be seen at 2233 and 2313 Rivermont Avenue, both designed in the early 1920s.
By the 1920s a number of planned subdivisions within the Rivermont neighborhood had emerged. Among the two most prominent were those situated along Lee Circle and Oakwood Place, both at the far western edge of Rivermont Avenue. Both subdivisions are given dignity by their prominent entrance gates along Rivermont Avenue. Here the properties are even larger than those found along most of Rivermont Avenue, with consequently larger houses. The many well-to-do residents of these areas commissioned expansive homes in a wide variety of architectural styles, mostly by Lynchburg architects Stanhope Johnson, Pendleton Clark, and Craighill and Cardwell. One exception is the Norman-influenced house at 105 Lee Circle which was designed by the New York society architect Penrose Stout in 1924.
Several apartment houses were built during this period, although these were concentrated almost exclusively in the area west of the college. Stanhope Johnson's Woodstock Apartment (2934 Rivermont Avenue) of 1919 was among the first to be built, and was a well-executed Georgian Revival building. The Parkmont Apartments (2910 Rivermont Avenue) were designed in 1915 by Charles Bossom and continued the tradition of brick apartment houses. Several much larger complexes face it across the street, including the Cavalier and Mayflower Apartments (2900 block Rivermont Avenue), built in 1930 and 1931 respectively. Although, they are domestic in scale as well as in their decoration, they do not resemble the large-scale apartment houses built during this period in larger Virginia cities.
Landscape Architecture
To complement many of these houses of the 1920s and 1930s, several owners commissioned the famed Richmond landscape architect Charles Gillette to lay out their gardens. Gillette is known to have worked on nearly fifteen separate commissions in Lynchburg between the 1920s and the 1950s, including the grounds at Kriselea at Rivermont Avenue and Langhorne Road, the Perkins Residence at 3116 Rivermont Avenue, and the gardens surrounding the Miller-Claytor House, moved to Riverside Park in 1936. He is also thought to have consulted on several planting plans for Randolph-Macon College during the 1930s and 1940s.
Commerce
Small-scale businesses continued to serve the Rivermont neighborhood during this period. Grocery stores, bakeries, and confectioners occupied a number of the other buildings on the closely built up 1200 block of Rivermont, including the buildings at 1222-1226 Rivermont Avenue, probably built in the 1920s by the architectural firm of Clarke & Crowe. Another commercial area was developed along the 2400 block of Rivermont Avenue adjacent to Randolph-Macon Woman's College. The shops in this block catered mostly to college students, faculty, and the nearby neighborhood of single-family residences and apartments. The most notable building on this block is the former A & P Grocery/College Pharmacy at 2494-2496 Rivermont Avenue, a handsome brick building with Georgian/Spanish Colonial Revival features designed in the late 1920s by architect Stanhope Johnson. The former College Shop drugstore was located to the west at 2920 Rivermont Avenue. This one-story brick building from the 1920s now serves as a restaurant.
In 1928 the former Piedmont Business College building at 307-311 Rivermont Avenue was remodelled to serve as the Fauber Funeral Home. Its handsome portico was added at that time. It presently functions as an office building. The W. D. Diuguid Funeral Home is housed in a rambling Georgian-Revival style brick building at the corner of Fitzhugh Place and Rivermont Avenue, designed in 1930 by architects Clark & Crowe. The company is successor to the G. A. Diuguid Company, which established undertaking and cabinetmaking facilities in Lynchburg in 1817, making it the city's oldest continuously operating business and one of the oldest in the South. The company moved to its present location from its longtime place of business at 616 Main Street.
Education
Continued growth in both the reputation and student enrollment at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in the early 20th century led to the erection of other academic and residential buildings on the grounds of the college (Chambers: 1981: 437-438). Smith Hall was built at the southwest corner of the campus in 1920-1923 and marked the introduction of classical design to the college's architecture. It was designed by architect Stanhope Johnson, with the noted Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram serving as consulting architect (Cram served as the architect for Sweet Briar College in nearby Amherst County from 1901 until his death in 1942). The serenely classical Presser Hall, designed as a music auditorium by Stanhope Johnson in 1929-1930, stands at the southeastern edge of the campus.
Religion
The period after World War I was a period of increased church building activity in the Rivermont neighborhood, as existing religious groups outgrew their buildings and new congregations were formed. An example of the former were the two Methodist congregations which merged in 1922, retaining the name Centenary Methodist. In 1923 the congregation commissioned architect Stanhope Johnson to design its church and Sunday school buildings. The latter was completed first in 1923; the church building not completed until 1926. Centenary United Methodist Church, designed by Stanhope Johnson and patterned after James Gibbs' St. Martin-in-the-Field Church in London, is the most prominent church building in the neighborhood. Its belltower contains the bell formerly used at the Third Street Methodist Meeting House, the mother church of Methodism in the city. The Rivermont Presbyterian Church (2424 Rivermont Avenue) congregation also outgrew its building on Rivermont Avenue at Cabell Street. In the early 1920s a lot was bought on Rivermont Avenue at Quinlan Street for the purpose of erecting a new church. Completed in 1925, the Georgian Revival church building was designed by the well-known Lynchburg architectural firm of Craighlll and Cardwell.
Health Care/Medicine
Another major institution that would serve as a cornerstone to the Rivermont neighborhood was established at the western end of Rivermont Avenue with the founding of the Virginia Baptist Hospital in 1916. The Virginia Baptist General Association named a committee in 1916 to recommend a "suitable place for the location of the Virginia Baptist Hospital" (Virginia Baptist Hospital: 1974: 3). Sites were considered in Lynchburg, Bedford, and Charlottesville, with the former city selected in 19 19. In 1920 the hospital's first Board of Trustees purchased the 26-acre property of Walter Jones on Rivermont Avenue for $25,000. By the 1920s the Rivermont neighborhood, although nearly fully developed, was considered an ideal location for this much-needed hospital serving Lynchburg's growing population. Its elevated location, good streetcar transportation, and lack of unhealthy industrial complexes nearby were considered important advantages. In a report by Mr. Henry A. Christian recommending the Jones property location, he imagined an "ideal hospital with extensive graded grounds of much beauty and great value to the patients. Such a hospital will not merely be a hospital, but a sanitorium and health center, a place to prevent, as well as cure sickness" (Virginia Baptist Hospital: 1974: 3) In 1921 the Board decided to consult Dr. Winford Smith, Superintendent of Johns Hopkins Hospital, on the design and layout of the ideal hospital. On the advice of Dr. Smith, the board decided that the style of buildings was to be
a low rambling style, with central building four or five stories high, connected to other proposed buildings two or three stories in height by terraces or bridges. These types of buildings were particularly desirous due to the fact that in this climate the patients should be kept out of doors as much as possible, about eight months of the year" (Virginia Baptist Hospital: 1974: 3-4).
Lynchburg architect Stanhope Johnson was selected as the designer for the new hospital, with C. W. Hancock and Sons serving as building contractors. Johnson's design, somewhat altered in its final form, envisioned a series of buildings arranged on a single east-west axis. The building, like many of Johnson's architectural commissions during these years, was in the Georgian Revival style. The Main Hall was the first to be built and opened its doors on July 12, 1924. The hospital was soon recognized as a superior facility and was classed as A-1 standard by the American College of Surgeons.
Building activity continued throughout the 1920s. Hospital Board President O. B. Barker donated funds for the construction of a nurses' classroom and dormitory building; the Barker Building was completed in 1925, with Johnson again serving as architect. The first graduating class of nurses in 1927 consisted often girls, many of whom stayed on at the hospital. A large addition to this building was erected to the south in 1948-1949 (Virginia Baptist Hospital: 1974: 8).
The Mundy Building, providing 52 additional beds and other facilities in a two-story Georgian Revival-style brick building to the east of the Main Building, opened in 1926. The operating rooms of this building and the Main Building and the Mundy Building were air-conditioned in 1938, one of the first hospitals in Virginia to introduce this feature. In 1941, a maternity and obstetrical department was added.
Social/Recreation/Arts
As Lynchburg continued to grow into a modern Southern city, its need for cultural and recreational amenities also increased. In 1921 a small group met in the rooms of the Lynchburg Woman's Club to discuss the possibility of establishing a Little Theatre in Lynchburg (Woodson: 1928: 8). This group presented light comedies and spoken drama, rather than the more commercially popular musical numbers of the day. By 1928 the group had purchased a lot at the corner of Rivermont Avenue and Rhodes Street and obtained the donated services of the architectural firm of Clark and Crowe and landscape architect A. A. Farnham (Woodson: 1928: 9). The large brick building was completed in 1931 and has served as a theatre for small dramatic groups beside the Little Theatre, as well as the home of the Hill City Lodge of Masons.
In 1922 Rivermont Park was closed and its Casino sold and dismantled, the surrounding area had become too valuable and was soon developed for residential use. Recognizing the need for recreational facilities to replace the one lost by the closing of Rivermont Park, the city authorized that a new facility, known as Riverside Park, be laid out and it opened in 1922-1923. The 47-acre tract, shown on historic maps of the area as intended for park use as early as 1891, was originally the site of the city's old smallpox hospital (Chambers: 1981: 437). Winding paved paths were constructed, along with a swimming pool, and a popular "Alpine Walk" including a rock overlook running along the bluffs overlooking the James River. In 1924 a stone bandstand and bath house were built and the park was greatly improved with ornamental shrubs and flowers (Annual Report: 1927: 66). In 1936 the Miller-Claytor House, Lynchburg's oldest dwelling, was moved to Riverside Park in honor of the city's 150th anniversary celebration.
Transportation
Transportation has played a vital role in the growth and success of the Rivermont neighborhood throughout its history. From the beginning the neighborhood has been linked to the rest of Lynchburg by a vehicular bridge, making Rivermont an integral part of Lynchburg's transportation network. Between the 1890s and the early 1940s Rivermont Avenue was served by streetcars of the Lynchburg Traction and Light Company. The only physical reminder of this era is a the ca. 1927 Lynchburg Light Traction Car Barn (401 Rivermont Avenue). By World War I the trolley car was sharing road space with the automobile, and during the 1920s, most of the neighborhood's streets were paved. Resources associated with the automobile include two historic gas stations. A one-story stuccoed brick gas station, for many years owned by the Rivermont Oil and Supply Company was built in 1926 at the west end of the present bridge at 306 Rivermont Avenue. At 1201-1203 Rivermont Avenue is the Watts Super Service Station, another stuccoed brick gas station, built in the mid-1920s with a few Art Deco and Spanish Revival architectural touches. A wing was added to this station in the 1940s; it is still in operation as an automobile repair facility.
The New Dominion (1945-present)
Domestic Architecture
Several large modern apartment complexes were built along western Rivermont Avenue in the 1960s and 1970s, replacing a number of older Queen Anne-style residences that had either deteriorated or had been converted to apartments long ago.
Commerce
The commercial areas on Rivermont Avenue have declined economically over the last 20 years and many of the buildings have suffered a loss of architectural integrity. Two former grocery stores at 1200 and 1300 Rivermont Avenue have been demolished in recent years. The other commercial buildings on the 2400 block are either modern or have been refaced with brick over the years, although they generally preserve the scale and setbacks of the original buildings. A small one-story Georgian Revival brick bank building across Rivermont Avenue dates from 1954 and was designed by architect Pendleton Clark.
Religion
Church construction has continued into the post World War II period in Rivermont. The First Church of Christ-Scientist congregation, established in Lynchburg in 1898, worshipped at the old Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Victoria Avenue between 1920 and 1953. In 1955 they moved into a new building of Georgian Revival design at 2901 Rivermont Avenue. A new Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, built of native Virginia greenstone and designed by architect Preston Craighlll, was completed on Langhorne Road in 1955. Fist Christian Church was built in 1955 on the 3100 block of Rivermont Avenue.
Health Care/Medicine
Virginia Baptist Hospital continued to expand to provide hospital services to the growing city in the second half of the 20th century. Other buildings added over the years have more than tripled the size of the original 1920s complex. The Krise Building was added in 1956, the Ford Wing in 1968, and the English Building in 1978. Numerous renovations have been carried out in the older buildings as well, maintaining the hospital's reputation as a modern and up-to-date medical facility. In addition the hospital has done an excellent job of maintaining the attractive park-like appearance of the front landscaping, one of only a few significant green spaces still largely intact along Rivermont Avenue.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The Rivermont Historic District is significant as Lynchburg's first planned streetcar community that included a mixture of residential, commercial, and institutional buildings as well as green space and a transportation system incorporated as an integral feature of the design. Developed at the end of the 19th century by the Rivermont Land Company, the neighborhood is closely linked to downtown Lynchburg by the Rivermont Bridge over Blackwater Creek and reflects the city's growth and prosperity from the turn of the century through the mid-20th century. The district includes a wide variety of building types, including single-family residences, duplexes, apartment houses, garages, commercial buildings, churches, government buildings, academic buildings, and hospitals as well as parks and gardens that represent nearly every major American architectural style of that period. A number of the resources in the district are the work of some of Lynchburg's leading architects from this period, including Stanhope Johnson, Edward G. Frye, Preston Craighill, Bryant Heard, Aubrey Chesterman, Bennet Cardwell, Pendleton Clark, Everette Fauber, and Walter Crowe, as well as Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram, Washington D.C. architect William Poindexter, and New York architect Penrose Stout. With resources important in the areas of domestic and religious architecture, landscape architecture, commerce, health/medicine, education, and recreation/arts dating from the 1890s through the 1950s, the Rivermont Historic District is eligible on the local level for listing on the National Register under Criteria A and C.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Settlement to Society (1607-1750); Colony to Nation (1750-1789); Early National Period (1789-1830); Antebellum Period 1830-1861 In the early 18th century, the first English colonists moving west from the Tidewater region entered the Lynchburg area, some of them crossing the James River at what was known as the Horseford, located to the west of the present Rivermont neighborhood. In addition, Scottish Presbyterians from Pennsylvania and Maryland moving up the Valley of Virginia crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains at several points and settled in the Lynchburg area around 1742. Settlement by Quakers moving to the Lynchburg area from Tidewater Virginia and Pennsylvania dates from the 1750s.
The Quaker merchant John Lynch (1740-1820) founded a river settlement at the site of present-day Lynchburg in 1757. In addition to operating a ferry across the James River near the Horseford, he also built a tavern, tobacco warehouse and several dwellings, as well as a tobacco warehouse across the river at Madison Heights. In 1786 forty-five acres of Lynch's property lying to the east of Blackwater Creek and the present Rivermont neighborhood were laid off into building lots and established as the town of Lynchburg.
In 1805 the town was incorporated and its boundaries extended in several directions, the first of numerous extensions of the city's limits by annexation. Most development in Lynchburg during the 19th century occurred east and south of the riverfront settlement area. The area currently comprising the Rivermont neighborhood was not incorporated into Lynchburg until 1900 and was largely undeveloped farmland during the 19th century. During the early and mid-19th century Lynchburg was known chiefly as a center of the tobacco industry and was at one time the largest tobacco inspection station in the U.S. It also developed as an important transportation center, especially after the James River and Kanawha Canal reached the city in 1840. The profits from the tobacco trade and its related industries were so enormous that by 1851 Lynchburg ranked second only to New Bedford, Massachusetts as the wealthiest city per capita in the country. The railroad arrived in 1854 when the east-west Virginia and Tennessee Railroad opened. In 1860 a north-south rail route was opened up by the Orange & Alexandria Railroad.
The antebellum years were a period of steady population growth in the town, and a number of new neighborhoods, including College Hill, Diamond Hill, Garland Hill, and Daniel's Hill, were partially laid out and subdivided into building lots, although none of these was formally annexed by the city until the 1870s. Daniel's Hill was the only neighborhood north of Blackwater Creek to experience much development during this period, with most of Lynchburg's growth directed towards the south.
The area known today as Rivermont originally was part of Campbell County, although a small part of its southeastern tip was incorporated by the City of Lynchburg after its annexation of Daniel's Hill in 1870. At that time, the surrounding area was made up of small-scale farms.
Civil War (1860-1865)
There was little military activity in and around Lynchburg during the Civil War, despite its importance as a transportation and manufacturing center. A number of earthen defenses were built around Lynchburg in 1864, with the so-called "outer defenses" built to the west and outside of the then-corporate limits of the city in Campbell County, in the present Rivermont neighborhood.
Reconstruction and Growth (1865-1914)
Into this bucolic environment came the Rivermont Land Company, one of a number of late-19th-century land development companies in Lynchburg that hoped to capitalize on the state-wide speculative boom in real estate. Formed in April 1890, the company included many of Lynchburg's leading citizens on its board. It purchased nearly 7,000 acres to the northwest of the city in the first year of its operation. The tract was surveyed and platted by Edward S. Hutter, whose nearby home, "Rivermont", in Daniel's Hill gave its name to the new development (Chambers: 198 1: 302).
The Rivermont development was planned primarily as a residential community, although it was also envisioned that commercial enterprises and even light industry would locate in the Rivermont neighborhood. Both a hotel and a woman's college (later Randolph-Macon Woman's College), along with a park and a streetcar line operated by the land company, were also part of the original plan for the subdivision. Rivermont is significant as one of the nation's first planned communities, with a number of different building types, green space, and a transportation system incorporated as an integral feature of the design. Rivermont was not planned as a separate city, however, but as a suburb of the City of Lynchburg. Thus, its connection to the city was vital to the subdivision's success and the construction of a bridge spanning Blackwater Creek between Rivermont and the Basin area was its first order of business. The bridge, considered an engineering marvel for its day, was completed with much fanfare and civic celebration in April 1891 (Chambers: 1981:303).
Although the development seemed to possess several potential advantages, the Rivermont Land Company faced financial difficulties almost from the beginning, made worse by the uncertain business and financial climate of the 1890s in Virginia. In 1891 the company pledged $100,000 towards the establishment of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, with an equal amount raised from wealthy local citizens. The hotel initially planned by the Rivermont Land Company was never built. By June of that year, the company's stock was already selling at a discount and it divested itself of the streetcar system, which was reorganized and renamed the Lynchburg and Rivermont Street Railway Company. In 1893 the company became insolvent (Chambers: 1981: 306). By 1894 the land company sold off the Rivermont Park to a private company which operated it as an amusement park for a number of years. A casino was built that featured theatrical and vaudeville productions as well as dancing.
The financial problems of the Rivermont Land Company appeared to have little effect on the rapid development of the Rivermont community, however. Construction of residences along the development's main thoroughfare, Rivermont Avenue, as well as on numerous side streets began almost immediately. The area soon attracted a middle- and upper-middle class segment of the city's population who enjoyed the ease of streetcar transportation, such amenities as the park and playground, and larger building lots than often were found in the rest of Lynchburg. Numerous impressive Queen Anne and Colonial Revival-style residences were built by some of Lynchburg's wealthiest families, often employing such architects as Edward G. Frye, Aubrey Chesterman and J.M.B Lewis.
The annexations carried out by the city in 1900 and 1908 added that part of Rivermont east of Belvedere Street. By that time Rivermont had acquired several urban amenities. Among the largest was the Jones Memorial Library, a privately endowed library situated near the foot of the Rivermont Bridge on Rivermont Avenue. Financed by the widow of philanthropist George M. Jones as a memorial to him, and built by the architectural firm of Frye and Chesterman, the library was one of the finest in Virginia. The Fire Station No. 4 was built on Rivermont Avenue in 1904, also designed by the architect Edward G. Frye.
Religious activity occurred rapidly in the Rivermont neighborhood during the years between 1890 and the First World War. A number of older congregations in downtown Lynchburg or Daniel's Hill, including the Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists established mission churches in the area, all of which grew to full-fledged status within a few years. The entire history of the Lutheran Church in Lynchburg can be traced in the Rivermont area. In 1907 the congregation built its first church in the city on Victoria Street, moving to the former Rivermont Methodist Church on Fitzhugh Place in 1920. One of the largest churches built during this period in Rivermont was the Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church at the intersection of Rivermont and Bedford Avenues, designed by the architectural firm of McLaughlin, Pettit & Johnson.
World War I to World War II (1914-1945)
The 1910s and 1920s were periods of great physical growth and expansion in the Rivermont area. Although the neighborhood is primarily residential in character, most of its churches, school and commercial buildings date from this period. The Centenary United Methodist Church, the Rivermont Presbyterian Church, and St. John's Episcopal Church were built in the 1920s. Both Centenary and St. John's were designed by the architect Stanhope Johnson, who emerged during this period as Lynchburg's premier designer of residential, religious, and institutional buildings.
Randolph-Macon Woman's College entered a period of stability and undertook a large physical expansion. Smith Hall was completed in 1921 and Presser Hall in 1929; both buildings were designed by Stanhope Johnson, with Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram serving as consulting architect for the design of Smith Hall. These buildings injected a note of classicism on Rivermont Avenue. The Garland-Rodes Grammar School was built on Rivermont Avenue in 1921 to alleviate crowding at the old Rivermont School on Ruffner Place. During this period the Piedmont Business College, founded in Lynchburg in 1888, closed its doors at the building located at the foot of Rivermont bridge at 311 Rivermont Avenue; the building was remodelled with a classical portico and reopened in 1928 as the Fauber Funeral Home.
Most of the streets in the Rivermont neighborhood were paved during the 1920s. Development continued unabated with the new Randolph-Macon Heights subdivision created during this period. Lee Circle and Oakwood Place were also developed in the late 1910s and 1920s as exclusive neighborhoods at the west end of Rivermont Avenue. Most of the residences in these two neighborhoods were designed by Stanhope Johnson, or his chief rival, the firm of Craighill & Cardwell.
The Virginia Baptist Hospital was founded in 1916 and the first building, Main Hall, was erected in 1924. The hospital soon became Lynchburg's leading medical institution and was accredited by the American Society of Surgeons. Most of the buildings on the grounds of the hospital, including the Mundy and Barker Buildings, were designed by Johnson, and followed his traditional Georgian Revival precedents.
Commercial buildings in Rivermont were mostly confined to small, discrete commercial blocks along Rivermont Avenue. A number of grocery stores, laundries, and bakeries were built in the 1920s along the 1200 block of Rivermont Avenue. The 2900 block also contains some commercial buildings from this period, including the handsome Georgian/Spanish Colonial Revival building formerly housing the College Pharmacy at 2496 Rivermont Avenue. The influence of the automobile is seen in two gas stations from this period erected along Rivermont Avenue. Diuguid Funeral Home, one of Lynchburg's oldest businesses, relocated its operations from Main Street to a handsome Georgian Revival-style building on Rivermont Avenue building in 1931.
Cultural and recreational amenities flourished during this period as well. Riverside Park was opened in 1922-1923 and in the mid-1920s received a number of improvements, including a pool, bandstand, and nature paths. The old Rivermont Park was dismantled and redeveloped during the 1920s and 1930s, with Riverside Park becoming the principal open green space in the neighborhood. Lynchburg's Little Theatre opened in a new building on Rivermont Avenue at its intersection with Rhodes Street in 1930. The Lynchburg Arts Club was also housed in a building on Rivermont Avenue.
Among the changes to the transportation system in Rivermont during the inter-war years was the construction of a concrete casing for the old metal Rivermont Bridge in 1926-1927 and the gradual decline of the city's trolley system which ceased operation around World War II. This bridge was replaced by the present reinforced concrete bridge in 1972, thus replacing an important historic resource linking the two sections of Lynchburg.
By the 1930s Rivermont had reached a mature stage of its development. While a number of houses were built at the far western edge of Rivermont Avenue, most subsequent building activity was in the form of apartment houses, such as the Mayflower and Cavalier Apartments. The Rivermont Post Office was erected in 1941 and improvements were made to Riverside Park.
The New Dominion (1945 to Present)
Today Rivermont remains a desirable neighborhood and has seen continued preservation and restoration efforts. New construction has been relatively limited and generally unobtrusive. Several apartment buildings were constructed between 1960 and 1980 in the area around Randolph-Macon College, but these are in a compatible Georgian or Colonial Revival style.
Commercial buildings have also been built in the Rivermont neighborhood over the last twenty years. A few brick commercial buildings stand along the 2400 block of Rivermont Avenue, but are two-story in height and of brick construction, thus blending in with the surrounding architecture. Growth has also occurred at both the Virginia Baptist Hospital and at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, but significantly, this growth has respected the wide green space each facility has along the front of Rivermont Avenue.
Bibliography
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Chambers, S. Allen. Lynchburg: An Architectural History. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1981.
Chataigne, J. H. Chataigne's Lynchburg City Directory, Containing a General Directory of the Citizens of Lynchburg and Danville and Town of Liberty, Richmond, VA: J P Bell & Co., 1874.
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Selections from the Work of Craighill and Cardwell., Architects. (Lynchburg), 1929.
Dames & Moore. Historic Architectural Survey: Rivermont Avenue Neighborhood, Lynchburg, Virginia. Final Report prepared for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the City of Lynchburg, August 1995.
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Acknowledgements
The majority of the text for this nomination was taken from the Historic Architectural Survey: Rivermont Avenue Neighborhood, Lynchburg, Virginia. Final Report prepared by Dames & Moore for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the City of Lynchburg in August 1995.
The author would also like to thank the Friends of Rivermont for their sponsorship of this nomination and invaluable assistance in its preparation. In particular, Marilyn Martin and Annie Massie helped a great deal with research and preparation of materials. Other members volunteered to assist in the field verification of the 1995 survey. William Inge shared his extensive research and historic materials on buildings in the area. S. Allen Chambers graciously provided a tour of the neighborhood and reviewed the final nomination. Annette Chenault and Stephen Lester of the City of Lynchburg Department of Community Planning and Development provided base maps and property owner information.
Street Names
Rivermont Avenue