402 Duncan Street
BUILT: 1891ARCHITECTURAL STYLE: Queen Anne/EastlakeThe main structure of this house is the earliest surviving house on Duncan Street and was built in 1891. A south addition had a kitchen and pantry downstairs with a narrow staircase to another bedroom and a bathroom on the second floor was most likely constructed before occupancy. There were four bedrooms upstairs, including the one in the south addition. A receipt from Thos. E. Stagg & Co. in Richmond for the mantle, corblocks, corbeads, and balusters dated January 1891 confirms the house was near completion at this time.The house is a great example of Eastlake style architecture with its decorative detailing. There are elaborate trusses in the gables, diagonal and curved porch braces, and a variety of wooden wall cladding (shingles and boards).James and Ida Chenery most likely rented the house shortly after it was built from various owners until they purchased it in 1902. They raised their five children here, including Christopher T. Chenery, owner of Triple Crown winner Secretariat. After James died in 1918, Ida rented the south part of the main house. In early 1920, she rented to J. Hall Moore Jr., his wife Emily and their family. The entire household most likely shared the bath and kitchen until the north addition was built. This addition included a bathroom and closet off of Ida’s master bedroom upstairs and a kitchen connected to her parlor downstairs.When Ida died in 1925, Moore bought the house from her children for $5,000. Today, the house is owned by his grandchildren.
106 Howard Street
BUILT: 1912ARCHITECTURAL STYLE: Folk Victorian/American Four Square MixBy 1912, L.H. & Effie Gilman had built this two-story frame home. The property is in the vicinity of the former Ashland Racecourse. It was part of Lot 31 also known as “The Club House Lot” referring to the jockey club attached to the former Ashland Racecourse. In 1871, the RF&P subdivided the former race course into residential lots. Investors bought and sold this lot from 1881 to 1907, when the Gilmans bought it and built the house. The property changed hands a number of times after that.The home is a vernacular style that borrows from Folk Victorian and American Four-Square architecture. By the 1920’s, there were a number of additions including a large second-floor sleeping porch and an attached coal furnace room. The gardens were originally developed by Harry and Jane Gillespie, who bought the house in 1940. The alternating picket fence around the back yard was inspired by the Cooper’s Garden in Colonial Williamsburg. A 1920s photo of the house shows an almost identical fence existed at that time.The current owners, John and Vandi Hodges and their two sons, moved into the home in the fall of 1982. The back staircase and the original tin roof with all the chimneys had been removed – a surprise since most of the rooms had fireplaces. Initially major renovations focused on upgrading the kitchen, family room and bathrooms within the original footprint of the home. Most of the upstairs and the front half of the house were left in their original form. Over time, the screened-in porches were incorporated into a master bath and expanded kitchen/breakfast room, and the old furnace room was converted into a downstairs utility room.
207 Howard Street
BUILT: 1887ARCHITECTURAL STYLE: Stick, or EastlakeIn 1887, Charles G. Shafer purchased a block of three lots bounded by James, Howard, Racecourse, and Duncan Streets in the Racecourse Addition of the town. This house was built on part of Lot 19 by investor Charles G. Shafer in the Stick style or Eastlake style of architecture, which was very current in 1887. Stick Style, was reminiscent of the Tudor styles of the 1500s, especially the exposed frame and half-timbered construction. In Stick-style homes of the late 19th century, however, the stickwork is not structural but is for decoration only. It can be interpreted as part of the Queen Anne style, with its multiple roof and window styles, turrets, paneled chimneys, wrap porches, porch railings with spindle details, and gable peak decoration. The Victorians would have painted the house in earth tones and brought out the stickwork in contrasting colors.A house salesman according to the US Census in 1890, Shafer apparently built the house on speculation and sold it to Sarah V. Paynter. Tax records indicate that the new house was worth $2,000, which was a considerable house at the time. After she died in 1890, Mrs. Paynter’s heirs sold the house to Sallie G. Holladay, wife of Richmond lawyer Addison Holladay. Sallie was the daughter of Charles Gwathmey, developer of the Gwathmey neighborhood about a mile south of Ashland on the Center Street extension.Mrs. Holladay sold the house to Tate and Hettie Taylor Chenery in 1890. Unfortunately, the Richmond firm of Chenery and Peatross, a shoe company, of which Tate Chenery was a priniciple owner, was forced into bankruptcy. However, Hettie’s brother Warren P. Taylor purchased the home so the Chenerys could continue to live there. Taylor sold the house to George O. Allen in 1929 when the Chenerys moved to Richmond.The house had seen 12 turnovers in ownership between 1887 and 1986, when current owner Schuyler Miller bought it, becoming the longest tenant of this elegant old home.
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