Downtown
RVA Legends — Patrick Gibson House
A look into the history of Richmond places and people that have disappeared from our landscape.
706 East Leigh Street
Built, circa 1796
Demolished, 1931
Wait, a second. Isn’t this the “Pin Money” Pickles factory? Yes, in fact, it is! Sometimes a location has more than one story to tell about it.
(Library of Congress) — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Richmond (1905) — Plate 72 — showing the factory location of “Pin Money” Pickles
It seems probably that Mordecai was correct in saying that this house was built by Joseph Jackson. Jackson bought the square on January 3, 1795 from the administrators of Patrick Coutts, and while the deed mentions “all Houses, buildings … ” the price, 36 pounds, could hardly have included a two-story brick dwelling. As the value of the property was increased the following year it would seem that Jackson built the house almost immediately. He soon put a mortgage on the property, and in May. 1798 it was purchased at auction by Thomas Rutherfoord. The greatly increased price, 1075 pounds, again confirms the hypothesis that Jackson built the house.
(Find A Grave) — Thomas Rutherfoord
In his unpublished memoir, Rutherfoord gives a curious sidelight on this transaction. Jackson had come to his assistance when Mr. Rutherfoord broke his leg while crossing what is now the square between Main, Franklin. Sixth, and Seventh Streets on a dark night. He returned Jackson’s kindness by buying this house and the land later called Jackson’s Addition but was eventually disillusioned about the young man and tried to save something from the wreck of his affairs for his children. Rutherfoord held the house only two years. In April, 1802 it was first insured, the owner at that time being Bartlett Still, who sold it the following year to Patrick Gibson.
(Speak, Memory: Time Regained) — print of the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811 — Alexander W. Weddell, Richmond, Virginia, in Old Prints. 1737-1887 (Richmond, 1932), plate 12
Mordecai describes Patrick Gibson “as respectable merchant, connected in business with a nephew of Mr. Jefferson.” This seems unflattering for the ancestor of some of Virginia’s most distinguished citizens, until one remembers that the word “respectable’’ was purely laudatory in connotation until long after Mordecai’s book was written. In the Theatre Fire of 1811 not only Gibson’s first wife but a girl who lived with the Gibsons, Nancy Green, whose parents were actors, perished.
Gibson, who had just returned from a trip abroad, escaped the fire and lived to marry again and have a number of children by his second wife.
(Find A Grave) — Nicholas Mills
In 1823, when Gibson’s affairs were embarrassed, the house had been bought by his second wife’s aunt, Mrs. Martha Jones. That Mrs. Jones was revered as the good angel of the household is evidenced by the fact that two of the Gibson children were named for her two successive husbands! After Patrick Gibson’s death she sold the property, in 1828, to Nicholas Mills.
Immediately after his death the whole block from Seventh to Eighth was sold to William Allen of Surry County for $76,244 (Confederate). During the ’seventies the house was occupied by J. W. Cringan and later by the St. Paul’s Church Home for aged women. In 1882 William J. Johnson, who had meantime bought a part of the property, including the house, sold it to Everard B. Meade. During Mr. and Mrs. Meade’s occupancy, which lasted until 1898, the old house had another renascence as the centre for a lively group of young people, who called themselves Mrs. Meade’s “chickens.” The gay foolishness centering around the house at that time has recently been recalled in a pamphlet written by one of those who enjoyed it.
(Facebook) — Mrs. Ellen G. Kidd, proprietor of “Pin Money” Pickles
In 1898 the house was sold to Mrs. Ellen G. Kidd. In a building in the rear Mrs. Kidd began her experiments in cookery which resulted in the famous “Mrs. Kidd’s Pin-Money Pickles.” She owned the house up to 1922, though the pickle-factory had long since moved to larger quarters. After that the property was very run down and was rented to a low class of Negroes. In 1931 the house was demolished.
(Souvenir Views Negro Enterprises and Residences, Richmond, Va) — Y. M. C. A. Rev. S. C. Burrell, Sec’y.
The many outbuildings which had belonged to the place in Gibson’s day had long since disappeared, the block being closely built up. The house itself was probably very little changed. It had a wing which was added sometime before 1811 and a charming two story porch, unique in Richmond, of which the date is unknown, since it is not shown on the insurance policies. The interior woodwork, which was bought by the Richmond Art Company, was beautiful, especially the mantels and an arch across the hall. [HOR]
March 2019 — looking towards 706 East Leigh Street today
Mary Wingfield Scott: a woman of opinions.
As an architectural historian, her two volumes on Richmond houses are priceless, but some of the racist things she says in them are truly cringe-worthy. When she says that it was rented to a low class of Negros, she really means that it was used as the Jackson Ward YMCA. Her comment added nothing to the narrative, and yet she had to say it. Makes you shake your head.
(Patrick Gibson House is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)
Print Sources
- [HOR] Houses of Old Richmond. Mary Wingfield Scott. 1941.
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Downtown
Feds identify ‘significant’ ongoing concerns with Virginia special education
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
By Nathaniel Cline
After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.
“We have significant new or continued areas of concerns with the State’s implementation of general supervision, dispute resolution, and confidentiality requirements” of IDEA, stated the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
The U.S. Department of Education first flagged its concerns in a June 2020 “Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report” on how Virginia was complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, following a 2019 visit by the Office of Special Education Programs.
IDEA, passed in 1975, requires all students with disabilities to receive a “free appropriate public education.”
The Virginia Department of Education disputed some of the federal government’s findings in a June 19, 2020 letter.
Samantha Hollins, assistant superintendent of special education and student services, wrote that verbal complaints “are addressed via technical assistance phone calls to school divisions” and staff members “regularly work to resolve parent concerns” by providing “guidance documentation” and acting as intermediaries between school employees and parents.
However, some parents and advocates say systemic problems in how the state supports families of children with disabilities persist. At the same time, a June 15, 2022 state report found one of Virginia’s most critical teacher shortage areas is in special education.
“Appropriate policies and procedures for both oversight and compliance, and their implementation, are crucial to ensuring that children with disabilities and their families are afforded their rights under IDEA and that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is provided,” said the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.
While the U.S. Department of Education wrote that it believes the Virginia Department of Education has resolved some of the problems identified in 2020, including resolving complaints filed by parents and creating a mediation plan, it said it has identified “new and continued areas of concern” and intends to continue monitoring Virginia’s provision of services for students with disabilities.
Among those are ongoing concerns over the state’s complaint and due process systems that “go beyond the originally identified concerns” originally found. The Office of Special Education Programs writes it has concluded Virginia “does not have procedures and practices that are reasonably designed to ensure a timely resolution process” for due process complaints.
The department also said it has concerns over the practices of at least five school districts that are inconsistent with IDEA’s regulations.
The decision comes after the U.S. Department of Education announced in November that Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school district, failed to provide thousands of students with disabilities with the educational services they were entitled to during remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virginia is also facing a federal class-action lawsuit over claims that its Department of Education and Fairfax County Public Schools violated the rights of disabled students under IDEA.
Parents involved in the case said the Virginia Department of Education and Fairfax school board “have actively cultivated an unfair and biased” hearing system to oversee challenges to local decisions about disabled students, according to the suit.
Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said in an email that “VDOE continues to work with our federal partners to ensure Virginia’s compliance with all federal requirements, as we have since the ‘Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report’ was issued in June 2020.”
The federal government said if Virginia could not demonstrate full compliance with IDEA requirements, it could impose conditions on grant funds the state receives to support early intervention and special education services for children with disabilities and their families.
Last year, Virginia received almost $13.5 billion in various grants linked to IDEA, according to a July 1, 2022 letter to former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, who resigned on March 9.
James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, blasted Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration after the findings were released.
“While the Youngkin administration has been busy waging culture wars in schools, his administration has failed to meet basic compliance requirements with the U.S. Department of Education for students with disabilities,” Fedderman said. “This failure threatens our federal funding for students with disabilities and is a disservice to Virginia families who need critical special needs support.”
Downtown
Richmond 911 callers can soon provide feedback on calls for service via text message
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
Some 911 callers in Richmond will begin to receive follow-up text messages next week asking for their ranking of the service they received and additional information.
Beginning March 20, those who call 911 with some types of non-life-threatening emergencies will receive a text message within hours or a day after the call with a short survey about the service they received on the call.
The Richmond Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using the feedback from callers as another way to ensure that it is continuing to deliver excellent emergency services to Richmond.
“It is very important that those who receive the text message answer the questions as accurately as possible, based on the service they received on the call, not on the response from first responders with different agencies,” said Director Stephen Willoughby. “We use the feedback that callers provide to monitor and improve our 911 services to Richmond residents and visitors, as well as the other measurements of service that we have in place.”
Those who would like to offer feedback, but do not receive a text message, are encouraged to email [email protected] or call 804-646-5911. More information about offering commendations or filing a complaint is on the department’s website athttps://www.rva.gov/911/comments. In addition, the department conducts a full survey of adults who live, work and study in Richmond every two years. More information about those surveys and results are at https://www.rva.gov/911/community-outreach.
The Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response is using a third-party vendor, PowerEngage, to send the text-message surveys and report the results. Text messages may be sent for other uses in the future.
More information about the text-message surveys, from the news release:
- The answers that callers provide in the text message have no effect on the service provided to that caller.
- Callers who do not want to participate in the text-message survey would simply not respond to the text message. They also may reply STOP to opt out of future text surveys from DECPR.
- Callers should not use the surveys to report any other emergency or request help. They would need to call or text 911 for immediate help. To file a police report or request nonemergency public safety help, call 804-646-5100. For other city services, call 311, visit rva311.com or use the RVA311 app.
- Those who have further questions or would like to request a call-back from a staff member about the survey or their experiences, may email [email protected].
- More information about the after-call survey is at https://www.rva.gov/911/survey.
Students in 9th-11th grade can apply to join the next cohort of this summer’s Atlas Artist Residency—an 8-week art intensive giving teens the opportunity to develop artistic skills while working alongside professional artists in a creative and collaborative environment. 10 teens will be selected to participate and awarded personal art-studio space, a program stipend of $1350, materials, and the opportunity to expand their portfolio of work and bolster their resume for college applications.
Applications are open through March 16, 2023.
Head to https://www.art180.org/student-artist-residency for the details and to submit your application!
University of Richmond announces new provost
Henrico HS principal honored with REB Leadership Award; Colonial Trail ES principal is runner-up
Photo of the Day: Sunset Road
City hosting public meeting on replacement of Byrd Park Reservoir roof
Photo of the Day: Kaleidoscope
Gardeners Wanted to Help in Forest Hill Park
Husband-and-wife duo bringing new restaurant concept to former Mill on MacArthur space
New full-service commercial kitchen, fast casual food hall opens Wednesday
Richmond Falcon Cam is Back
