The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-04-22

VIII There are two landmarks Of our old
Town that should be borne In mind by
Fl MI who may be Interested In It's follllda-
ton and progress These are It's eastern
81 Snnd western limits, or, rcsPectNcis'
d rwnty- nth and Eighteenth streets.
f1Yhy should the survey OF John Mayo
abegin on the line of the former ana nal,
$on the limo of the latter? Inc reason
10 @obvio,,s TO enter the town by the
way, Of Rocltetts there was nul one W. -
# l,ue open--Lcstcr Street---rccently SO
manned after John Lester, one OF our
rs & carly harbour masters. TO ascend Rich-
Il mord Hill no other way was known put
{ ia nv the old road--originaly designated
Aats twenty. Strcet--tEat led up from, the
4 n Main Street to st. Johns Church, The
2 Oldest houses, apparently, Of that historic
q Hill lie west Of this eastern landmarks
and were probably In existence several
I'll wears before ST. Johns was established
s8 @q3 BE twccn Rockctts--namcd after Bald
!et Win Rocket, tho oldest known Of our
\ 4 Observation-Disclosures I'wcnty-nfth Street
nv houses were few and far between. l
# remember but two, not including War
&S wiclrs tobacco warehouse, situate on
XXI tho south side Of Lester Street, which
X had been built after the May fresh of
4 s177l OH the southeastern extremity OF
y Z Fosters Rope Walk.
~ Above the eastern boundary brick and
81 wooden tcncments had been erected
long before the survey Of Mayo in 1888.
{&s In other words, there was n town and
H there were townspcople within the lines
Il Of Twenty-ffth and Eighteenth Streets
h before the scheme Of the foundation of
II the city had been protected by William
II Byrd the younger.
But why did the survey halt at the
81 latter street. and not at the next one
fas farther west and now known and called
III by the name OF Seventeenth Street? An
5E apparently good reason Is that there was
then no such street in existence all the
way up to Grace and all the way down
$S to the river
Roadway there might have been
+ through the creek bottom, but mover a
stveet until the commons had been raised
N up ana the present grade established. I
have mentioned this creek bed as Il
sG commons, and so it appears to have
been until the city authorities, by tho
# advice of certain eminent lawyer-com-
#t nissoners, condemned it, and after
wards appropriated all its waste lands
VI to other uses than those designed by
III l3yrd.
Before the conversion OF these COM
8 mons into streets, aeyways and build
ing sites, Shockoe Creek presented In
II seasons of rain and flood the appear
Hit ance Of q lake, whose shore lines ex-
tended westward nearly up to tho
lis present Fourteenth Street Communi-
cation between the jewellers on either
~ side of the creek was at length facili-
ated by the erection Of causeways across
8S dts beds on lines conformable to the yraes
g&f established for tho commons One may
E5555 safely assume that all the tencments, or
Pan houses other than tencments, built upon
Hub the lines of the causeways, came later
81 a than those near to and east Of the in
tcrsection Of Eighteenth with Cary,
Main and Franklin Streets.
Sg5s 1t is highly probable that the 'BricI
s@2 Row situate on the south side of Main
8 Street between Fourteenth and Thr-
teenth Streets, had beon in existence
}. n before the intervening space between
the creek and the former street was In
54Sh condition to justify the erection Of
5s substantial houses. The earliest notice
Eli of the brick Row which l have, sven
4 ii occurs in Sanord's Life OF Herman
4 Blenncrlasset.' Escorted by troop Of
guards, the supposed accomplce of Burr
turned the Brick Row In 1907. and rode
ss up TO to his lodgings at the Washington
Tavern Mordecai TN Bygone Days
IS makes Il note of tho Brick Row, but tells
gtls little of the Main street below it
IS and west of Shockoe Creek.
656 1.-THE earliest impression on my mind"
says that reminiscent, "of the Main
Street tand it was the only one on which
the buildings were not few and far be-
tween is that tue honaaps We're of wood,
y and Generaliy..of ,onc or two stories IN
@S height. On the west OF Shockoc Creek
4 Two OF these yet remain. One Is few
doors below the spot where Bowlers, tho
!, Bell, the City and st. Charles northeast
z corner of Main and Fifteenth Strcetsl
i have successfully offered their accom-
t5 modatlons 10 travellers: a small two-story
I, r, f.. n fS,t