A look back at 1961

Fifty years ago total orders were $231,728 or an average of $19,310 per month. 1961 was a down year compared to sales in other years around that time. Although my records only go back to 1956, this was the lowest sales amount of the 1950’s or 1960’s and represented a 20% drop in sales from the prior year. However, this seemed to be an anomaly because the next year orders increased by 46% to total over $337,000.

As was often the case, December was the month with the highest sales volume. The largest dollar value for a Millwork job that year was placed by contractor Conquest, Moncure & Dunn in December for $30,654 for St. John Vianney Seminary. To read more about this project, click here. Kayhoe Construction placed the most orders with nine for a total of $19,088.

Some of the notable orders that year were the State Chamber of Commerce building (contractor: Russell Blank), a Day Care Recreational Building for the Memorial Foundation (contractor: Alexander Construction), the Southside Baptist Church (contractor: Bass Construction), a job for the Dillard Paper Company (contractor: Bass Construction) and the Hyman-Meyers Residence on Wilton Road (contractor: Russell Blank).

The Mill’s configuration was virtually identical to the way it was on the day it closed in 2007 and it had all of the same buildings, with a few buildings on 1208 N. 28th having been added in the mid fifties.

Herman and Bernard Beckstoffer were both the proprietors of the Mill at that time, according to the Richmond City Directory.

Looking Back

Over the next few weeks I will be posting snapshots of the business in ten year increments, starting with 1961.  Each will tell a little about the sales, the contractors who were frequent clients that year, and the interesting projects that the Mill worked on.  Stay tuned.

The mansion to end all mansions

River Run Manor (shown here) is a four story, 20,000 square foot Georgian mansion located in Goochland County, Virginia overlooking the James River. Completed in 1987 after 6 years of construction, this house is known county-wide.

It was the dream house of Edith and Bill (William Blair) Massey and still resides in the Massey family.

Sitting on a 60 acre parcel of land, this house has 40 rooms, 11 baths and 5 half-baths. Its many over-the-top features include 24-karat gold fixtures, Italian marble flooring, marble baseboards, 18 feet columns with 23- karat gold Corinthian capitals, a sauna, a steam room, and 12 inch modillion block egg and dart crown molding. The house has a separate floor consisting entirely of servants' quarters and is the equivalent of a residence in itself with a kitchen, living room, with a fireplace, library, four bedrooms and two baths. In addition, River Run Manor has a lower ballroom that can seat 150 people for dinner. Features in this 24’ x 39’ ballroom include a Waterford-style chandelier of antique Strauss crystals, handcrafted red oak spiral staircase and balcony , Louis XV carved marble fireplace and 24 feet from floor to ceiling. It was built by Taylor & Parrish (T&P), a contractor who frequently ordered millwork from Beckstoffer's.

For the Mill it represented the largest millwork job for a private residence they ever did and one of the largest 2 or 3 jobs in its history. While reviewing the 45 page order sheet, I ran across a diverse mix of materials such as heart pine, red wood, walnut, red oak and cedar. The first order for millwork was placed by T&P in October 1984 and orders came through the rest of 1984 and then sporadically in 1985 and 1986. All told, Beckstoffers produced $658,039 in millwork for the Massey house and the Massey job represented almost 30% of all sales in 1984 and just under 15% of sales in 1985.