VHS Battle Abbey

The Virginia Historical Society broke ground in August 1990 on a $12 million expansion that doubled the size of its Battle Abbey headquarters in the Fan District in Richmond. This was one of six total expansions at this location from 1912 to 2006 in what is now a museum of over 200,000 square feet.

This expansion more than doubled the exhibition space within the
society headquarters and helped it become a more public-welcoming institution with a new a lecture hall complex, allowing it to offer more educational programs.

The new wing's design was unique at that time because it involved installing new windows that were specifically constructed to let in light while screening out harmful ultraviolet rays. In addition, sophisticated heating and cooling systems allowed for the precise control of the temperature in more than 25 different sections. Another innovation was the type of sprinkler system used.
This was the second largest job for the Mill in 1991. Total millwork sold to this job was almost $113,000 and the client was frequent contractor Taylor & Parrish. Battle Abbey represented over 10% of all work at Beckstoffer's that year.
For more information on the expansion of the Virginia Historical Society's headquarters go here.

The Founder of the Mill

Henry Beckstoffer was born in 1877 and hailed from Alfhausen, Germany.  He came to the United States in November 1893 and went immediately to Richmond. 

His first known profession was as a grocer.  He started the Beckstoffer's Lumber Mill in 1897. He lived  at 1130 N 28th, just a block away from the Mill.

(UPDATED) He was a father of five children and married to Sophie  Beckstoffer, also a native of Germany.  He died in 1958 and is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, along with Sophie.

White House of the Confederacy

The White House of the Confederacy is one of Richmond's most renowned National Historic Landmarks. Located at 1201 E. Clay Street, it looks almost exactly as it did when it was the executive mansion for the Confederacy and the home of Jefferson Davis from August 1861 to the fall of Richmond in April 1865. The building's restoration, completed in 1988, took almost ten years and cost over $3 million.

Beckstoffer's played an important role in this renovation. In August 1988, they produced $32,314 worth of millwork for contractor Taylor & Parrish for the job. Later the following year, they supplied another $21,000 in millwork for the White House. Given how extensive the renovation was and how specific the task of making the building look like it did one hundred and fifty years ago, one starts to appreciate how difficult a task that the craftsmen at the Mill had to take on.

The White House was originally a two-story neoclassical mansion built in 1818 for Dr. John Brockenbrough, a prominent Richmond physician and banker. In 1857 it was renovated by its then owner, Lewis Crenshaw, a wealthy flour manufacturer, who added a third story and cupola, installed gas lighting and decorated and furnished it in the latest style.

In June 1861, Crenshaw sold the house and its contents to the city of Richmond for the official residence of the Confederate chief executive. During Reconstruction, when Virginia was under martial law, it was headquarters for Military District No. 1 and was returned to the city when Union occupation ended in 1870. The city operated it as Central School, one of the first city public schools, in it until 1890 when it proposed to knock it down to build a new school. At that time it was saved by a group of Richmond women who formed the Confederate Memorial Library Society to save the building. By raising $30,000, they were able to found the Museum of the Confederacy here. Many of those items from their museum are still shown today.

The museum is open for regular tours.

Beckstoffers Mill reborn

The renovation of the Beckstoffer's Mill building is now complete and the first residents moved in in mid-January.  This marks a three year-long effort that included rezoning and subdividing the site, getting all of the necessary City approvals, installing underground utilities, putting in rainwater cisterns, installing brick sidewalks, and finally rehabilitating the Mill for loft style apartments.

For more information, go to Better Housing Coalition's website.

1991 - Year in Review

Looking back 20 years

Total sales in 1991 were $1,089,305, with orders averaging $90,775 per month. As was often the case, December had the most sales.  That month they sold $174,406 of millwork. October and November were also very good months, with each averaging around $163,500.  These three months helped to make up for a very slow first half of the year.

The contractor with the most purchases in dollar value was Custom Products Construction, then Conquest, Moncure & Dunn (CM&D). The largest order at Beckstoffers that year was for $117,000 to Custom Products for a Law Office. This order was placed in November 1991. The second largest single order was placed by T& P for the Virginia Historical Society’s Battle Abbey expansion. CM&D placed the most orders (18), followed by T&P (17).

The project with the most millwork that year was the Virginia Historical Society -expansion, another Taylor & Parrish job. Total sales for this job were $121,347.
Below is a list of some of the more noteworthy orders that year with the contractor’s name in parenthesis:

o CFB Garden Branch (Woolfolk Construction)
o Christian Children’s Fund ( Taylor & Parrish {T&P})
o Doswell Comb Cycle Factory (Conquest, Moncure & Dunn {CM&D})
o Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia (Taylor & Parrish)
o Black History Museum (Woolfolk Construction)
o John Tyler Community College, Bud Hall (Dixie Constructors)
o St. Mary’s Hospital Education Center (Kjellstrom & Lee)
o Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (CM&D)
o Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Evans Construction)
o Highland Springs, Douglas Freeman and Mills Godwin Field Houses (AD Whittaker)
o Jepson Hall, University of Richmond (John W. Daniel & Co.)
o Game & Inland Fisheries (Adkins Construction).

1991 saw an 18% drop in millwork orders from the prior year and total sales that year were basically at the same level as those in 1981. For the five years of records that we have from this decade (1990-1994), this was the worst year.

In 1991 total wages were $549,000 and the Mill had about 18 employees, with 11-12 in the shop and an additional 6 office staff.  Both Ron and Bill worked there full-time, with Ron being the company president.

A front door on R Street

In April 2010 I first learned that there was more to the brick office on the southeast corner of the Mill site than meets the eye. In a conversation with Bill Beckstoffer, he explained that the Mill had not always included a portion of the land where 29th and R come together and that there was a wood and coal business there. He also mentioned this section used to have concrete scales used for this business and that horses were once stabled there. Although remnants of the scales were not apparent, it’s clear that at one time R Street was a front door to this portion of the site. The photo to the right shows the remnants of the gate on R Street.

A little research showed that the business was located at 2832 R street and operated an office out of the brick building on the corner, in what we now know as Ruth’s Beauty Shop. The business was started in 1923 by Phillip L. Farmer, whose home residence was 1201 N 28th (source 1926 City Directory), one of the last houses still standing in the Beckstoffers block. Prior to that he lived on Burton Street and was a carpenter.

By 1935 Farmer left R Street for Jennie Scher Road and Floyd Parsley moved in, running the same type of business as Farmer but called FL Parsley's.  At some point the buisness's focus changed and they sold kerosene and fuel oil, instead of coal and wood.

In 1960, after 25 years at that location, Parsley spread his wings but stayed in the neighborhood, moving to 2600 Nine Mile Road. Although the business’s ownership changed over time, its product was more or less the same, being a fuel and gas station/convenience store up to 2006 when it closed its doors for good.  That vacant gas station is still standing.

Below are Sanborn Maps from 1925 and 1950.  The map from 1950 show the scales, along with the office, coal and wood storage, a building with a gas engine and wood sawing, and a paint shop of some kind.




1950 Sanborn Map

  

1925 Sanborn Map



A peek into a 100 years of life in Church Hill

This article from VCU's Virginia Black History Archives is one I recently ran across while researching Beckstoffers.  It was part of a Church Hill Oral History project carried out in the early 1980s and there is a small portion about the Mill. 

It is remarkable for several reasons.  First, the interviewee /narrator is 102 years old and his mind appears to be sharp.  Second, the interview itself is almost 30 years old and a number of the places mentioned are still around.  Finally, about half way down they mention the Mill and the gentlemen talks about buying lumber for his house from Henry.  I have provided the Beckstoffer's portion below but the whole things is worth reading.  The I stands for Interviewer and the N means Narrator.  His name was Mr. Robert Willis Roane.

I - What about Beckstoffer, did you have any dealings with them?

N - Yeah. He's still running the business now.

I - Yeah. Did you ever have any dealing with them?
N- Oh yeah. I bought lumber from Beckstoffer to build my house.
I- What kind of man, or what kind of family were they?

N- They were friendly.

I- Very friendly.

N- Friendly people. They run a business and all the people around there bought lumber from Beckstoffer and I don't know if he run, I know the old man ain't living, but I guess ...

I - I think his son, one of his sons, or some of the sons are still living.
N - Yeah, and running the business now. The little house set right on 28th Street used to be the office at one time.

I - You say they still run the business.

N - Yeah, I think Beckstoffer still running that. I bought lumber from them many times.

I - So, as far as you're concerned, they were a pretty nice family.

N - Yeah. I don't have no trouble all they look for was their money. Whatver they sold you they expected you to pay for and I bought lumber from them many times. I first bought a couple of lots on Richmond Street and built up my own house. A five room house then. The City take that property and I moved over on 31st Street. And I got a home on 31st Street now.