Building VCU’s President's House

James W. Allison Papers (1891, 1893-1896), Architects’ Correspondence
This online collection of correspondence is from the papers of James W. Allison, a late 19th century wealthy Richmond businessman. The collection includes over 100 documents - letters and a few telegrams - concerning the construction in 1894-1896 of what is today VCU’s President’s House, 910 W. Franklin Street. Fully 104 of the documents are from the hands of the architects that Allison hired to design his mansion. Much of the correspondence includes replies to questions by Allison during the construction of his house. The letters also describe the selection of such elements as fireplace mantles, gas-and-electric fixtures, decorative tiles, and scenic wallpaper.

Soon after the Civil War, James W. Allison (1833-1898) established the seed and fertilizer firm of Allison & Addison with Edmund B. Addison. By the 1890s the company had expanded greatly and become one of the most successful fertilizer producers in the South. The earliest letter in the collection is from Allison to his wife, Minnie Clemens Jones Allison (1870-1927). It notes their intention to construct a new house. A year later they chose the site on W. Franklin Street, at that time Richmond’s most fashionable residential neighborhood. At the time of his death in 1898, Allison left an estate of nearly one million dollars.

In 1938, the Allison family sold the house to Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), the forerunner to VCU on the Monroe Park campus. The building was used as the residence of the head of RPI for thirty years. Since 1968, when VCU was formed, it has served as the main offices of the President of the University. James W. Allison, Jr. (1894-1979) donated the collection of his father's papers to VCU Libraries in the early 1970s. They contain original architectural drawings, correspondence, and other materials. The James W. Allison papers are a valuable resource for those interested in late 19th century architectural history. These documents are housed in Special Collections and Archives at the James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries. For more about the collection, see the finding aid for the James W. Allison papers.

The Architects: Percy Griffin and T. Henry Randall
Allison chose the New York architectural firm of Griffin & Randall to design his house. Both partners boasted fine architectural pedigrees. Percy Griffin (1866-1921) graduated from the architectural school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1884 and then worked in the office of H. H. Richardson. T. Henry Randall (1862-1905) had also worked for Richardson after attending Johns Hopkins University, MIT, and the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris. Randall, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, was the partner who decided on the Colonial Revival design of the house – making it one of the first of that style of houses built in Richmond. It pre-dates other early Colonial Revival houses on Monument Avenue by some 10 years.

The correspondence also details the demise of the firm. In 1895, Griffin and Randall decided to part ways in the middle of the construction of the Allison house. As the letters indicate, Allison was forced to choose which architect he wanted to oversee the completion of his house. Randall, who was the senior partner and who had the most influence over the building’s design, was selected.

For more information about the architectural history of the house, see Ray Bonis and Melissa A. Zimmerman, “The VCU President’s House, 1896-1996: From the Colonial Revival to the World Wide Web,” The Styles of Virginia Architecture: Abstracts of the Fourth Annual Virginia Architectural History Symposium, 1996 (Richmond: VCU School of the Arts, 1996).

Editorial Note
The following transcriptions of correspondence from the James W. Allison papers were prepared during the spring 2006 semester in History 691, “Topics in Documentary Editing and Scholarly Publishing,” taught by John Kneebone, in the graduate program of the VCU Department of History.

Each document has been given a title, consisting of the names of the author and the recipient and the date of the document. The editors followed a conservative transcription policy. Words in the transcripts are spelled as they are in the original documents. Textual notes follow the procedure of italicizing editorial comments within square brackets, described by David L. Vander Meulen and G. Thomas Tanselle, “A System of Manuscript Transcription,” Studies in Bibliography, 52(1999):202-213.

A provenance note in brackets follows each document. Most of the documents are signed autograph letters (ALS) but a few are documents recording texts of telegrams. Because changes in letterheads reflect the dissolution of the architectural partnership of Percy Griffin and T. Henry Randall, texts of letterheads appear in the provenance note. It was James W. Allison’s practice to preserve the letters in their envelopes, on which a summary of the letter’s contents was docketed. The docketed notes on the envelopes are reported in the provenance note.

The following silent emendations have been made. The formal elements of the letters—address, date, salutation, and closing—have been standardized in their location on the page (at the left margin) only. Words broken or hyphenated at line ends in the documents have been restored. Ampersands and other symbols representing the word “and” in the documents have been standardized to “&.” Superscripts have been dropped to the line. To facilitate possible future online access to the transcripts along with the document images, the transcriptions mark page changes with square brackets and an italic statement of the image number online.

The editors are identified by their initials following the provenance note for each document that they edited. The editors are: Amy Adams (AA), Mary Bezbatchenko (MMB), David Carroll (WDC), Candi Caudill (CEC), Taylor Coble (TOC), Teresa Doherty (MTD), Thomas Hanna (TMH), Alyssa Holland (AGH), John Kneebone (JTK), Mary Richie McGuire (MRM), Jessica Munsch (JBM), Kay Peninger (KCP), Laura Ping (LJP), Vicki Rogers (VR), Suzanne Shepherd (SS), Arthur Striker (APS), and Morgan Thomas (MT). Additional edits were made in 2023 by Cynthia Blaise (CB), Katie Condon (KC), Margaret Kidd (MTK), and Irina Rogova (IR).

Copyright
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgment of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.

Credits
This collection was digitized in 2006 by archivist Ray Bonis for the class. Metadata Librarian Mary Anne Dyer created the metadata for this digital collection. Further editing work on the transcriptions and metadata was done by librarian volunteer Virginia Stone Metadata Librarian in 2012.

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Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 October 20

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing specifications for staircases and floors.
Letter from James W. Allison to Minnie Allison, 1894 October 27

James W. Allison

Letter from James W. Allison to his wife, Minnie Clemens Allison.
Letter from James W. Allison to Minnie Allison, 1894 October 29

James W. Allison

Letter from James W. Allison to his wife, Minnie Clemens Allison.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 October 30

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison defining specifications and values for crystal plate, polished plate, and plate glass.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 November 1

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing door "crashers" and "bumpers" and objections to running rain water into sewers.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 November 4

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison concerning the issue of which architect will finish the house.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894, November 6

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison concerning the moving of the office and drawings of the firm.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 November 6

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison regarding the dispute between architects.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 November 7

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison noting the draughtsman remaining with his firm.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 November 8

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison discussing the conflict between the architects.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 November 9

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing estimates on the interior and supervision of the work.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 November 13

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison concerning estimates of the interior work from Purdy.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to Stowe & Nuckols, 1894 November 20

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to Stowe & Nuckols requesting the return of some drawings for Mr. Allison's house.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 November 20

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing work started by Purdy on the ornamental work for the house.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 November 23

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison advising him to do nothing in the matter between Griffin and Randall until he hears from Griffin again.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 November 26

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing Purdy's estimate of the dining room and work in the library.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 November 28

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison discussing Griffin's differences with Mr. Randall.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Griffin, 1894 December 3

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing work in the dining room and library.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 December 6

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison requesting a reply regarding the dining room finish.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 December 10

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison discussing the possibility of arbitration with Mr. Randall.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 December 12

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing the dining room finish.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 December 18

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison discussing settlement of Mr. Griffin's disagreement with Mr. Randall.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1894 December 19

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison concerning dining room and library finishing.
Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison, 1894 December 27

Percy Griffin

Letter from Percy Griffin to James W. Allison discussing their previous meeting.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 January 8

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison concerning estimates for the library finish.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 January 9

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison regarding estimates for blinds in the dining room and library.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 January 12

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison concerning estimates for work in the library.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 January 19

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing hinges for blinds and other dining room and library estimates.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 January 25

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison noting Stowe & Nuckols' need for a personal interview in order to make estimates.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 February 16

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison discussing details for fireplaces and library finishing.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 February 28

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing finishes in the library.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 March 4

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison noting progress of wood work for the dining room.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 March 12

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison noting that changes in the drawings will be sent.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 March 14

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison discussing details of the hearth facings.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 March 21

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing specifications for the flooring.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 March 29

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing paint specifications and samples.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 April 3

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing issues with paints and stains and details of fireplaces.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 April 8

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing finishes and issues with paint defects.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 April 10

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing stains and estimates for fireplace facings.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 April 15

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison regarding his upcoming visit to Richmond.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 May 7

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. H. Randall to James W. Allison discussing hardware specifications.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 May 13

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison enclosing certificate for delivered materials.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 May 15

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison discussing the Purdy delivery, registers and his visit to Richmond.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 May 27

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing the responsibility for setting of mantles and trim, and specifications for doors and hardware.
Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 June 1

Griffin & Randall

Letter from Griffin & Randall to James W. Allison discussing carpet strips and Mr. Randall's trip to Richmond.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 June 18

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison discussing details of fastenings, tiles, and mouldings.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 July 9

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison noting change in travel plans due to his mother's death.
Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison, 1895 July 29

Henry T. Randall

Letter from T. Henry Randall to James W. Allison discussing postponement of visit to Richmond and offering to find less expensive wallpapers.

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