Holly Lawn

Site Name: Holly Lawn

Date of Construction: ca. 1901

Reason for Construction: Built to be one of the mansions to house Richmond’s “new money” families.

Site History: As the “new money” population began to grow, so did the number of larger mansions in the city of Richmond.  Wiley Anderson, a prominent architect known for some of the monument avenue mansions he designed, was commissioned by insurance agent Andrew Beirne Blair to design another extravagantly huge house to be put on the market.  The house was originally bought by Charles B. Cooke, but it changed owners relatively frequently until it was purchased by Leslie Stack and Frank Rizzo in 2004.  Some of the more notable owners were Dr. Ennion G. and Anna Williams who named the property Holly Lawn after the numerous Holly Trees surrounding the house and Graham Peroke who gave the use of the house to the Council of Gardens Club who added an auditorium wing.

Area History: Post Civil War Richmond was on the way to expansion and improvement, and the national movement towards creating an “ideal suburb” led to the development of what would become the Bellevue neighborhood.  Lewis Ginter and John Pope were instrumental in creating the neighborhood and were responsible for purchasing land around Brook road including “Hickory Hill” and turned the once farmland into a thriving suburban neighborhood.  Although Holly Lawn isn’t technically a part of Bellevue, it more than compares to the larger homes on Pope Avenue, the street within the enclave that features the largest house built in the neighborhood.  

Changes in Site: Until fairly recently, Holly Lawn has been well preserved and has kept most of its original structure, aside from the low auditorium that was added to northern exterior  of the building in 1973 by the Council of Garden’s Club. However, a storm that hit the Richmond area in June 2016 left the historic site damaged by a fallen 175 year old oak tree that destroyed the front portion of the home, including the main bedroom, the second floor widow’s walk, and the porch roof. The current owners of the house have launched a project to rebuild Holly Lawn and restore and retain its unique intricacies and historic character as they do so.

Changes in Surrounding Area: The suburban neighborhood known as Bellevue was annexed by Richmond in 1914, and by the 1920s, the Bellevue neighborhood blossomed as a middle class neighborhood, with the help of a growing middle class and the arrival of the automobile, which made it easier for middle class families to move back and forth from the cities and the suburbs. By the 1940s the majority of Bellevue’s historic homes had already been built, resulting in the wide range in architectural styles in Bellevue’s homes. The age and unique styles of the homes in this area played a factor in the devastating loss caused by the June 2016 storm that damaged this neighborhood, destroying homes, cars, trees, and power lines. Since the storm, the neighborhood has been making efforts to recover what was lost or damaged by the storm, and repair the historic buildings that suffered damage from wind and fallen trees.

Reflection: During this project, we learned about the one of the most difficult obstacles caretakers/owners of historic sites have to deal with in relation to the maintenance of historic sites - natural disasters. Unpredictable and inevitable, damage caused by natural disasters can throw a wrench into any maintenance/ reconstruction effort made for a historic site. The restoration of the site, while staying true to the original site is extremely difficult as well, and sometimes, it is impossible to retain everything the original site had. While the effort to restore Holly Lawn is difficult and ongoing, it forces one to appreciate the things Holly Lawn has that haven’t been destroyed by the storm, as well as the lengthy efforts the homeowners have gone through to keep this historic site alive.

Sources

Childlers, Doug. "After the storm: Homeowners launch a months-long rehab of Holly Lawn." Richmond

   Times Dispatch. Last modified August 13, 2016. Accessed March 17, 2017. http://www.richmond.com/

   realestate/features/great-homes/article_8d510fe2-60b9-11e6-8cae-a7c1f76d6114.html.


"History." Bellevue Civic Association. Accessed March 18, 2017. http://bellevueweb.org/history/.

Jr., Harry Kollatz. "A Very Fine House." Richmondmagazine.com. March 01, 2012. Accessed
February 16, 2017. http://richmondmagazine.com/home/latest/history-of-holly-lawn/.

Monfort, Ashley. "Storm destroys historic homes in Richmond's Bellevue neighborhood." NBC12 On Your

   Side. Last modified June 17, 2016. Accessed March 19, 2017. http://www.nbc12.com/story/32249996/

   storm-destroys-historic-homes-in-richmonds-bellevue-neighborhood.

Moomaw, Graham. "Historic Hermitage Road home damaged by storm in hard-hit North Side." Richmond

   Times Dispatch. Last modified June 7, 2016. Accessed March 16, 2017. http://www.richmond.com/

   news/local/city-of-richmond/article_876c67d2-b548-5053-9d00-391a5f43e98d.html.

U.S. Department of the Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, “National

Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form,” Holly Lawn, 1982. Accessed February 15, 2017. http://dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Richmond/127-0055_Holly_Lawn_1982_Final_Nomination.pdf