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In the year 1856, William H. Grant, a prominent
Richmond tobacconist, built at 1008 E. Clay Street an
imposing mansion in the exuberant, romantic ante-bellum
style of the 1850s. The handsome facade embraced three
full stories and a cellar with an elaborate and
balustered entrance porch, a striking cornice, and
Romanesque styled windows (complete with large cast-iron
hoodmoulds above them). The house commanded a prominent
location on what is now called “Court End.” Among its famous neighbors today are such distinguished
structures as the White House of the Confederacy, the
Valentine Museum, the Wickham House, the Benjamin Watkins
Leigh house, and, just to the east, the MCV Alumni House
(a partial reconstruction of the original Maupin-Maury
House -- the reconstructed version was completed in 1999
and houses the Gross Center, named for Paul Gross,
an alumnus of the Department's MHA program).
For some additional interesting details about the house, see the copy of the original insurance policy that was taken out on the house in August of 1856.
Both William H. and his brother, James H. Grant had tobacco warehouses in the tobacco warehouse district of Richmond (built in 1853; Architect: Samuel Freeman). Like many of the warehouses at the time, both William's and James' warehouses served as hospitals during the Civil War. James' warehouse no longer exists. But, William's warehouse still stands at 19th & Franklin Sts, although it is now an upscale condominium.
Extensive genealogical research conducted by some friends of the Department (Nedra Luke and Emily Rusk, with the occasional assistance or Roice Luke) has successfully identified a few descendents of William H. Grant and his wife Amanda. As a result of this effort, a number of the Grant descendents gathered for the first time in the Grant House on December 4, 2004. Hit the following link for a pdf file containing a few Grant House slides.
As a
bitter outcome of the combined stresses of the Civil War
and its aftermath and some formidable family crises, the
Grant family in 1871 sold its beautiful home. The House
then passed through a number of hands until November 20,
1894, when it became the site for The Sheltering Arms
Free Hospital (later simplified to Sheltering Arms
Hospital). The early mission of the Hospital, to
“succor . . . the sick, suffering poor,” drew
the affections, resources and energies of many concerned
citizens, physicians, and nurses into the service of
ailing, impoverished Virginians. The Hospital moved to
the Richmond Memorial Hospital campus in 1964.
Some major
additions and changes were made to the building in the 70
years that it housed the Sheltering Arms Hospital, including
raising the north wing from two stories to three and
adding a connecting wing to the Leigh house on the west.
Some Interesting History
A fascinating part of the history of the Grant family
is a supposed scandal and subsequent murder that
eventually contributed (in addition to post-war problems
in their tobacco business) to the family's need to move
from their home. Apparently, James Grant (we say "apparently" because James was acquited, despite overwhelming evidence against him), William H. Grant's oldest son, murdered H. Rives Pollard, publisher of the Southern Opinion. (See the typed version of Pollard's obit, as published in Harpers Weekly December 12, 1868; see Pollard's picture). Pollard had published an offending article about James' sister Mary Elizabeth Grant.
You can get the gist of the "scandal" and murder
from the
following excerpts extracted from microfilms obtained from
the State Library of Virginia.
The Fatal Article.
The following was published on the front page of the
Southern Opinion on Saturday, November 21, 1868.
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An Elopement, so-called on Clay Street --
An Upper-Ten Family Concerned -- Dreadful
Demonement.
“Oh no, we never mention `em”
-- old air.
The Indian Summer has passed away, and with it
has passed a fair and radiant daughter of one of
our first citizens -- a nabob of Clay street -- a
gentleman who, suffice it to say, holds the very
first position in the wealthy and fashionable
circles of the city. The daughter, the rebellant
Helens of the family, is beautiful beyond
description, but her beauty did not prevent her
from falling desperately and irretrievably in
love with a young gentleman of semi-militarie connections,
who it appears, some months ago, plighted his
troth and accepted the tiny hand, grasping it
within his own --
“Never to be parted; never for
aye.”
Nobody suspected a messalliance, much less the
father, until last Saturday night when the
daughter, who was the light of his household,
fled to parts unknown, or at least, only guessed,
in company with one (a masculine) who should ere
then have been proclaimed his son-in-law.
The runaway parties have been heard from, and
it is now said that the lady proclaimed herself a
wife of some six months, and that her affianced
in the choice of her after life.
“What God hath joined together let no
man put asunder.”
The gay young man, who has whisked away the
angel, is a Lothario named Horace Ford, of
Goochland county, which county ought to be proud
of him, as it doubtless is. Horace is an orphan,
just plunging into his teens, and has lost both
of his parents by death. Much property accrued to
Horace in the shape of money, chattels, goods,
etc., and having converted the whole into
“ready rhino,” Horace ventured for a
swim in the sea of gay life and love. He met Miss
Mary Grant -- a beauty --
“Met perchance the usual way.”
Talked delicious nonsense, won her heart, then
half inclined to earnestness threw it away. Ah!
me!
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The Family's Defense of the
Daughter. Published in the Richmond's Daily
Dispatch, Wed., Nov. 25, 1868.
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"We are informed
that there was no elopement whatever; no
gentleman in the case. The account given by the
members of the family . . . is that Miss Grant
wished to visit a young lady friend in
Philadelphia . . . . Her parents withholding
their permission, she made up her mind to go any
way . . . . but . . . the friends . . .
telegraphed that the young lady was there, and,
had been taken suddenly ill. Young Mr. Grant [we
assume, James] and his mother went immediately to
Philadelphia, and as soon as she was well enough
to come home, which was on Friday [we assume this
was Nov. 20], the whole party returned to
Richmond." |
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Assassination of Henry Rives
Pollard. The following is an excerpt of an article published in the Southern Opinion on Saturday,
Dec. 5, 1868 by Rives Pollard's brother, Albert A. Pollard. Albert was a writer and newspaper founder and editor, who with his brother Rives established the Southern Opinion. Edward also authored several books, one of which critiqued the failed confederate government -- the title of that book was “The Lost Cause.”
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"A sad but severe
duty devolves upon the present writer . . . now
that the body of the late editor, his murdered
brother, has been deposited in the grave . . . .
On Saturday, the 21st of November there appeared
. . . an article reflecting . . . injuriously on
a member of the family of William H. Grant. . . .
In the morning of the 24th . . ., H. Rives
Pollard drove out from his residence on the Grove
Road, and . . . alighted . . . at the
stepping-block very near the corner of Main and
Fourteenth streets. . . . when suddenly a
deafening report appeared to break the air and to
explode all around him; there was a cruel splash
of shot on the brick wall; a mist of blood in the
troubled air; and he whom God had given life . .
. fell dead in the broad sunlight . . . . In a
room in the third story of the high building . .
on the corner of Main and Fourteenth streets, was
found James Grant; in the corner of it a double
barreled gun, . . . one barrel loaded, the other
empty; and on the table a Colt's revolver and two
Derringers, all loaded." |
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The Indictment. Published in the Richmond's Daily Dispatch, Wed., Feb. 17,
1869.
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"The Grand jurors
of the Commonwealth of Virginia in and for the
city of Richmond . . . upon their oaths present
that James P. Grant, on the 24th day of November,
in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-eight . .
. in and upon the body of Henry Rives Pollard . .
. feloniously, willfully, and of his malice
aforethought, did make an assault . . . with a
certain double-barreled gun . . . charged with
gunpowder and divers leaden missiles commonly
called buckshot . . . shot off to, against, and
upon the said . . . Pollard . . . did strike,
penetrate, and wound the said . . . Pollard in
and upon the right side of the neck and upon the
right side of the body of him . . . giving him .
. . divers mortal wounds, of which . . . he . . .
instantly died. And so the jurors . . . do say
that the said James Grant . . . did kill and
murder, against the peace and dignity of the
Commonwealth of Virginia." |
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The Defense. Published in the Richmond's Daily Dispatch, Thurs. and
Fri., Mar. 4 & 5, 1869.
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The 8th and 9th days of
the trial: 8th:
The defense wished to introduce the newspaper
article as evidence, arguing: "while . . .
Mr. Grant did not kill Mr. Pollard . . . it was
thought best to show that even if [he did], he
was perfectly justifiable. . . . [H]e would say
that he did no less than attack that which every
woman holds most dear, and which every man stands
ready to defend -- female virtue."
9th: "Mr. M. Y.
McDowell was then called . . . He said: I am a
resident of Philadelphia. I . . . am intimately
acquainted with Mr. Grant and his family. Mr.
Johnson: Will you tell the Court anything you
know of Miss Grant's visit to Philadelphia in
November last? The Court: What does this have to
do with the case?"
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The Ghost of 1008 East Clay
Street. For a fun, but somewhat
apocryphal
article on the murder written by a descendent of Leroy Grant, a brother of William H. Grant, father of the murderer, James, see:
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Robert Grant Willis,
"The Ghost of 1008 East Clay Street,"
The Richmond Quarterly, Vol. 9, # 3, Winter 1987
(pp. 32 - 35). In that article, Bob summarized
how he learned of the history, by saying: "I
had heard of the scandal in hushed tones all my
life and as recently as a week ago from my
ninety-four-year-old mother who, in a moment of
lucidity, quietly cautioned, "We are not
supposed to remember that"." |
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