RVA Legends — Thomas D. Jones House

115 West Twelfth Street
Built, 1789 & 1870
Demolished, after 2002
VDHR 127-0859

How can a legend be on the Virginia Historic Register?

Another surviving Georgian-style dwelling is the Dr. Thomas D. Jones House, 115 West 12th Street. It was built, prior to 1811, by Thomas Treadway. Dr. Jones, a well-known Manchester physician, purchased the house in 1912. The two-story dwelling with a raised basement and a molded brick water table is constructed of brick laid in a Flemish bond pattern. It features plastered brick jack arches with keystones at the openings. A major yellow brick addition of was built in 1897. [VDHR]

(VCU) — 1889 Baist Atlas Map of Richmond — Plate 10

That was in 2002, when it was listed as one the many buildings in the Registration Form for VDHR No.127-0859, the Manchester Residential and Commercial Historic District.

The substantial brick dwelling at 115 West 12th Street, built ca 1814, is best known as the home of Manchester physician, Dr. Thomas D. Jones. It stands, set back from the street, on lot number 105, purchased from William Byrd’s trustee, by Thomas and Mary Turpin of Powhatan County. The lot was sold in 1797 to Manchester merchant, Archibald Campbell. In 1798, Campbell insured a frame house on this lot, measuring thirty-two feet by eighteen feet, for $500. Campbell died owing money and Thomas Treadway bought the property at public auction and sold it to Edward Johnson in 1811.

August 2014 — facing the corner of Twelfth & Bainbridge Streets

Johnson sold it in 1814 to Robert Cary Jennings and Jennings insured the brick house and kitchen for $3,400. Jennings sold the property in 1817 to Branch Cheatham who owned a tavern on Hull Street. The house was enlarged in the 1870s, ownership changed hands numerous times until it was purchased by Dr. Thomas Jones in 1912 for $8,000. The Freeland and Jones Houses are similar Georgian-styles dwellings built in an era when wealthy Virginia planters and merchants emulated the style of choice among the gentry in the British Isles. This style also reflected Virginia’s economic and social ties to Britain after the War of Independence. (VDHR)

Time flies. Today the first floor is Brewer’s Cafe, and the rest of the new building is apartments.

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