Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

As our first native-born architect, regularly trained for the profession, Robert Mills is worthy of the interest of his colleagues today, and of the long and loving years of study which H. M. Pierce Gallagher has given to his career in an article in the Architectural Record, of April, 1929. Harrison, Hoban, Thornton, Hadfield and […]

The John Marshall House, situated at Ninth and Marshall Streets, is among the few old homes in Richmond which retain their original lines and preserve something of their old-world atmosphere. John Marshall, born in 1755, son of Thomas and Mary Keith Marshall his wife, as youthful soldier, rising young lawyer, recognized statesman, and consummate jurist, […]

This attractive building occupies a lot cut off from the northeast corner of the Capitol Square. It is considered by competent authorities to be a striking example of domestic architecture of the early years of the nineteenth century. When Richmond became the capital of Virginia in 1779, no provision was made specifically by law for […]

The first capitol in Richmond was temporary. Later, its present site on Shockoe Hill was selected, and the corner stone laid on August 18, 1785. Its real architect was Thomas Jefferson who, in his design, followed the classic line of the Maison Carree of Nismes. The building may be said to have introduced the classic […]

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, situated on the corner of Grace and Ninth Streets, has from its beginning been identified with the life of the city and the commonwealth. The corner stone was laid on October 10, 1843, and on November 11, 1845, the church was consecrated by Bishop Meade. The building is of Corinthian style, […]

THE Lee House, at 707 East Franklin Street, was built in 1845 by Norman Stewart, a prominent citizen of Richmond. Structurally, it is unchanged since General Lee’s family occupied it, even to the worn, nickel-plated door knobs. The Lees rented it furnished, so no furniture of theirs was ever here. After 1865 the house had […]

Sabine Hall, one of the ancestral homes of the Carters, is situated in Richmond County near Warsaw, the county seat. Its private road leaves the highway shortly before reaching Warsaw and winds for a mile through the woods to the lodge. The woods adjoining the lawn are composed entirely of native trees, mainly oak and […]

Mount Airy, the distinguished ancestral home of the Tayloe family on the Rappahannock River, in Richmond County, is of interest because of its unusually beautiful situation and as a fine example of the house and surroundings of an early Virginia planter of the wealthiest class. This interest is further increased by the knowledge that the […]

Stratford Hall was built about 1730, by Thomas Lee, president of the Council and acting governor of Virginia. It is of distinctive architecture, unlike any of the other famous colonial houses of the Old Dominion. The walls are in the out-line of a capital H, the wide wings meeting in a great central hall thirty […]

It has been said that it would take a Milton or a Shakespeare to portray the beauty and dignity of Christ Church in Alexandria, the church in which Washington was a vestryman, and where worshipped the aristocrats of Northern Virginia. Like many of the colonial churches in Virginia, Christ Church was built upon the site […]