The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-07-16
LOCAL MATTERS.

STATE PROPERTY IN RicHnoSD-How II
WAS AcoUIRED.-There has been alway.
some mystery as to the source from whics
the State procured the Capitol Square anc
other property owned by her In Richmond
In 1860 the Attorney General was directed
to investigate and report on the same. out by
reason OF the war shortly breaking out no
thing was done by him. and the matter rested
until the present summer. Strange TO say,
in the archives of the Government there was
no record which would show what property
was owned by the State, and the idea pre-.
vailed that the Capitol Square and Armory
! property we're donations to the State, with
reservations that when these properties
should cease to be used for public purposes
they should revert to the donors or their
heirs. Some said that Colonel Byrd, others
that James Gum, some that Parson Bnch ,n-
an, others toat DR.. Turpin, bad presented
the grounds DOW enclosed and known as the
| capitol Square. But recent examination
| made 6y Colonel Bassett French, under
authority OF the Executive, shows conclu-
| siyely that the title of the State was neither
| acquired BY gift or purchase, but by the ex.
ercse of the right of eminent doman-a con-
demna'lon under writ of dd quod ddn1nunl.
In 1779 the House Of Burgesses ordered
Williamsburg TO Richmond, and appointed
certain commissioners, known as Directors
of Public Buildings," to select suitable
site In Richmond west OF Shockoe creek for
the public buildings, and directed them to
have the same condemned to the use of the
State, declaring that upon the execution OF
the writ and its return TO the clerk of the
County Court of Henrico the rights Of the
proprietOrs should be divested and trans.
ferred to the State in absolute dominion, apy
want of consent or capacity to give consent
Notwithstanding. This was in 1779. The
courthouse of Henrico, with Its records,
was destroyed in 1871, and the proceedings
under the writ Of ad quod dan1nun1 cannct
now be found; but by reference TO the Ex-
ecutiye journals, the journals of the General
Assembly, and the Auditors office, enough
has been found that as to seventeen Of the
twenty.siX lots embraced in the public square
the "Drectors Of Public Buildings" "pursued
their instructions to condemn, and that the
values ascertained by the jury were paid to
those respectively entitled to them. An ex-
bausting search has not developed to whom
the remaining uine lots belonged, but from
their several locations In the present square
it is beyond reasonable dispute that they
were obtained in q similar manner. The
great trouble has arisen from the destruction
of the public records; and when we remem.
Der that many were actually destroyed by
Arnold, and that others were hauled in open
wagons from Richmond to Charlottesville,
across to Bedford, and again to Richmond; !;
and that in more recent years the public
offices in the Capitol were used as cook.shops
by the Federal<, tae wonder is that anything
Is left TO afford information as TO the revoiu-
tioDary period. This trouble was aggravated
by the fact that the earlier journals of the
Assembly were not indeyed, requiring a
thumbing page by plge. The Armory pro.
perty is not involved in such mystery. The
records of the District Court in which the
proceedings of condemnation were bad were
destroyed in April, 1865; but the Auditors
office shows the payments Of the valuation
to the original propretors. The land on
which the public warehouse was built was
obtained by purchase at different periods, as
were the grounds included within the Peni-
tertiary property.