Richmond, Va. Architecture and History

Richmond, Va. Architecture and History

Architecture

The idea of a Singing Tower as a proper World War Memorial was first born in the mind of Granville G. Valentine, Chairman of the Virginia Citizens Carillon Committee. The beauty of this conception communicated itself to others, until eventually the entire State was captivated by the thought of Singing Bells proclaiming from their lofty tower the praise and unforgettable glory of Virginia’s war dead overseas, as well as Virginia’s living sons and daughters who served in the World War.” So says the 1932 Dedication Program I bought (less than four bucks). The twenty-page booklet notes that the tower’s height of 240 feet, coupled with the ground elevation of 240 feet above sea level, made it “the highest structure, measured from sea level, within the capital of Virginia.” Located in “the western suburbs of Richmond,” and housing sixty-six bells, the builders also included public rooms for displays and a terrace “suitable for use as a reviewing stand.”

A series of inaugural events, held in October and November, are listed. The first dedication event included “Onward, Christian Soldiers” played on the bells, various speeches, and the laying of wreaths. On the following weekends, music selections included “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Dixie,” “Ave Maria,” “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” and various Chopin, Mozart, and Handel pieces which don’t mean much to me. Also, for you multi-culturalists: a “Hawaiian Love Song,”: “Aloha Oe”; “Golden Crown,” a Negro spiritual; “Londonderry Air,” an “Irish Tune”; the “Russian Melody,” “Volga Boat Song”; and “The God of Abraham Praise,” a “Jewish Melody.”

Finally, what dedication program is complete without acknowledging donors? Some of my favorites: Pollard & Bagby [these days known as purveyors of, ah, inexpensive apartments], Emerick Chevrolet Sales Corp., the Young Men’s Shop, Sydnor & Hundley, Rowlett Bicycle Co., Rosenberg Delicatessen [gotta look up that address], Richmond Art Co., and Schwarzschild Bros. The only national companies I recognize for certain are Sears-Roebuck Co. and F. W. Woolworth. (I’m not sure about Standard Drug, Hammond Co., and a couple of others.)

Of course, this weekend the Carillon neighborhood sponsored its famous Arts in the Park. S. says they do issue those pink and black event banners to every household. The tower and surrounding park work well as public space, still. No matter the “reviewing stand” serves skateboarders and families in the park may not know what the building memorializes.

History

Links:

Valentine Richmond History Center homepage.

Virginia Historical Society homepage.

Thomas Fortune Ryan (1851-1928) profile by Edwin Slipek, Jr. Nelson County-born Ryan became a robber-baron type, funded the construction of Sacred Heart Cathedral, the murals at Battle Abbey, and (in part) Richard E. Byrd's South Pole flight.

Original Writing

Terror in the Tunnel:

Church Hill Tunnel Collapse: October 2, 1925

(This is the long version of a handout I wrote for a Valentine Musuem event.)

On the rainy afternoon of 2 October 1925, engineer Thomas J. Mason opened the throttle on Chesapeake and Ohio locomotive number 231. The passenger engine and its train of ten empty flatcars moved slowly in the eastern portal of the Church Hill tunnel . . ., passed beneath Broad Street, and stopped about eighty feet short of the tunnel’s western entrance. Mason’s brakemen uncoupled the flatcars so that workers who were enlarging the Church Hill tunnel could fill them with excavated earth, then he began to move toward the western portal.

Suddenly, as number 231 passed beneath Twentieth Street, a few bricks fell from the old tunnel roof. Splashing into puddles on the tunnel floor, they broke some connections in the lighting system and threw the four-thousand-foot passageway into total darkness. As workmen fled through the eastern portal, carpenters felt an ominous gust of wind.

“Watch out, Tom,” cried Mason’s fireman, Benjamin F. Mosby, “she’s a-cominig in!” But it was too late. As one hundred feet of the tunnel ceiling collapsed, number 231 was crushed.

(Thomas B. Huger, “Tom Mason at the Throttle: The Collapse of the Church Hill Tunnel.”)

Timeline

February 1872 – Construction began on tunnel

January 1873 – Several houses lost and half of a city block sank due to a tunnel collapse; work resumed

December 1873 – C&O Locomotive 2 drove through, dedicating the tunnel

1902 – The C&O stopped using tunnel, which had become primarily a quick route for trains to and from the Fulton Gas Works

September 1925 – C&O begins enlargement of tunnel, to ease traffic on Marshall St. viaduct

October 2, 1925 – Western end of tunnel collapses on engine and workmen: many escape from tunnel opening, one from train (he died later), but at least two die in tunnel

October 3 – 11, 1925 – Shafts dug in what is hoped to be a rescue effort, but soon is admitted to be a recovery effort

October 11, 1925 – Dead engineer pulled from locomotive; search for other men fruitless

1926 – Sand used to fill tunnel and it was sealed up

1962 – Eastern end of tunnel still used by C&O as transfer track; small (?) sinkhole in Jefferson Park

1989 – Tennis court lost and two houses damaged when a portion of the eastern end of the tunnel collapsed

2000 – Events held marking the 75^th anniversary of the disaster

Details

Geology: Church Hill made mostly of blue marl, a clay that is readily saturated by rain

Disaster, October 2, 1925

Tunnel collapsed, leaving holes up to 30 feet deep
Rainy day
Steam shovel brought in to dig out engineer; withdrawn because it caused more cracking in soil – too dangerous
20 minutes earlier, children returning home from school would have been killed

Tunnel

4,000 feet long, from about 18^th to 31^st Streets
Under Jefferson Park, some houses, former Nolde Bros. Bakery
80 feet deep - from top of tunnel to highest point of hill
Built by Chesapeake & Ohio Railway

People

Engineer Tom Mason
- Found dead “at the throttle” 9 days later
- C&O employed 300 men in the rescue effort
- Buried at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church
Fireman Benjamin F. Mosby
- Escaped tunnel, but died of injuries (including scalding)
- Buried at St. John’s Episcopal Church
Richard Lewis, laborer
- Buried in tunnel
H. Smith, Laborer
- Buried in tunnel?
About 125 men working that day
- Many, working close to the tunnel entrance, escaped from rubble or pulled free of it with minor injuries.
- Period papers described laborers so glad to have survived they sought no professional treatment for cuts, scrapes, and even broken limbs.
Firemen, police, and the Red Cross contributed to the disaster recovery

Train

Chesapeake & Ohio Locomotive 231
Still located about 160 feet from 18^th Street end of tunnel

Sources

Clippings files at Valentine Richmond History Center

Delaitre, Frederic. Forgotten Tunnels. “Church Hill Tunnel.” Online at

http://perso.club-internet.fr/fdelaitre/Richmond.htm. (Last updated 9/27/2000.)

Griggs, Walter S. A History of the Church Hill Tunnel. [Richmond, Va.]: University of Richmond, 1963.

Huger, Thomas B. “Tom Mason at the Throttle: The Collapse of the Church Hill Tunnel.” Virginia Cavalcade 34:2

(Autumn 1984), pp. 59 – 63.

Richmond Public Library, Clippings file. Three clippings online at:

http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/info/libsources/nwsprclptunnel.htm

Family

Nephew

The Nephew tries to put my eye out

In the pink. Christmas 2005.