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Library of Virginia
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Processed by: LVA Staff
Richmond Esthetic Survey and Historic Buildings Survey, 1964-1965, use digital images available electronically on the website of the Library of Virginia. LibGuide: Richmond Esthetic Survey and Historic Buildings Survey
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Richmond Esthetic Survey and Historic Buildings Survey, 1964-1965. Local government records collection, Richmond (Va.) Department of Economic and Community Development. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, 23219.
These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of records from the City of Richmond Department of Community Development in 2003 under the accession number 40701.
Digital images were generated by the Library of Virginia's Digital Library Program in 2002.
Richmond Esthetic Survey and Historic Buildings Survey, 1964-1965, was processed in 2002 by Library of Virginia Digital Library Program staff in order to facilitate scanning.
The collection was originally on loan to the Library of Virginia for processing and digitization, however, once the project was completed, the Richmond City Department of Community Development decided it no longer needed to access the original records. The records were then officially transferred to the Library of Virginia archives.
Encoded by V. Brooks: September 2023
In 1964, the Historic Richmond Foundation and the William Byrd Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities undertook a survey of historic buildings in Richmond. The Richmond City Planning Commission assisted in underwriting the cost of the survey. Workers carried out the survey in the spring of 1965 under the direction of Paul S. Dulaney and Carlo Pelliccia of the University of Virginia's School of Architecture.
The project confined the inventory to the central part of Richmond, from Boulevard east to Chimborazo Park, and from the James River north to Shockoe Cemetery. The area's concentration of historic architecture, in addition to the amount of change and demolition going on at the time, prompted this focus.
The original concept to document the individual buildings of historical and architectural interest-the Historic Building Survey-broadened with the inclusion of the Planning Commission. In addition to solitary structures, a parallel study was made of blocks, street frontages, and urban spaces in terms of aesthetic values-the Esthetic Survey. The latter study sought to analyze the city's visual assets with the hope that the information would be utilized in future planning decisions. The two surveys are complementary and overlapping, but not identical. For example, some of the historic structures surveyed fall outside of the areas considered by the esthetic survey.
Approximately 750 entries were documented in the historic buildings survey, including some outdoor objects such as statuary and fountains. The study relied heavily on the works of Mary Wingfield Scott's books Houses of Old Richmond (1941) and Old Richmond Neighborhoods (1950). Additionally, researchers utilized a card file, now housed at the Valentine Museum; in which Scott gather information on Richmond's pre-Civil War buildings. The surveyors attempted to expand on the card file's scholarship, but as of 1968, that work was incomplete.
The records generated by both surveys were compiled and copies housed by the Valentine Museum and Richmond City Planning Commission. The Richmond Department of Community Development transferred the latter copy to the Library of Virginia in 2003. The culmination of this documentation effort was the publication of Paul S. Dulaney's The Architecture of Historic Richmond (1968).
Richmond Esthetic Survey and Historic Buildings Survey, 1964-1965, consists of materials generated by various workers under the direction of Paul S. Dulaney and Carlo Pelliccia of the University of Virginia's School of Architecture as part of the Esthetic Survey and the Historic Buildings Survey conducted largely in Spring of 1965.
The collection consists of survey reports and photographs for both the Esthetic Survey and the Historic Buildings Survey, annotated maps of the esthetic survey areas, copies of annotated maps for both surveys, and duplicate inkjet prints of the esthetic and building survey forms.
Richmond (Va.) Property Assessment Records, 1934-1977, can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult Richmond City Tax and Fiscal Records on Microfilm.
Original building survey maps, 1964-1965, are housed at The Valentine Museum.
Material includes an information form for the surveyed area which contains details about the location, traffic, general condition of buildings, use of land and buildings, building color and material, street furniture, pavement materials, plant materials, vistas, surrounding environment, special features and outstanding characteristics, recommendations, and a graph of typical street sections including changes of level. Accompanying the survey forms and maps are 3.5" x 5" black and white photographs showing views of the surveyed area. The number on the reverse of each photograph corresponds to an annotation on the survey map indicating the vantage point from which the photographer took the shot.
Folders are arranged sequentially by an alpha numeric designation [Example: A001] which corresponds to the survey maps, the originals of which are also housed in the folder. Copies of the survey maps are also house in Series III.
Each folder includes a building data sheet for the structure being surveyed. The sheet includes information on street and structure number, block, lot, present owner, original owner, architect/builder, year built, original use, present use, materials, architectural style, number of stories, assessed value, remarks, other documentation (typically references to Mary Wingfield Scott's books and card file), and evaluation of the historical or architectural significance, importance to the neighborhood, desecration of the original design, and physical conditions. The level of detail provided on each structure varies and, often, many of the building data sheet's fields are left blank. Surveyors provided more details for those properties associated with prominent white male historical figures such as Edgar Alan Poe or Robert E. Lee.
Arranged by an alpha-numeric designation [Example: B0001] which corresponds to the unit maps, copies of which are contained in Series III.
Inkjet maps of both the survey and unit maps with annotations corresponding to the folders in Series I and II.
No arrangement
Inkjet copies of the neighborhood survey forms and building data sheets. The neighborhood survey forms precede the building data sheets. These copies were made for an unknown purpose following digitization.
arranged sequentially by their alpha-numeric designation.