Must-See RVA! — Wills Store & House

Wills Store
401 North Twenty-Seventh Street
Built, 1815

Another of RVA’s Oldest Ever.

[ORN]

Out toward Shed Town a handful of early buildings are still standing. At Twenty-seventh and Clay is the home of James Parkinson, built before 1819 and as late as the 1890’s the home of Parkinson’s daughter, Mrs. James Riddick. North of it at 509 North Twenty-seventh is a similar house of the same date built by Bartholomew Graves, a bricklayer, and Parkinson’s brother-in-law. The detail of this house, both within and without, is more delicate, or perhaps less altered than that of the Parkinson house.

January 2016

Wills House
407 North Twenty-Seventh Street
Built, 1809

Earlier than the Graves and Parkinson houses is 407 North Twenty-seventh. Even before it was covered in 1949 with asbestos siding, this dwelling had been greatly altered, but early insurance policies allow us to visualize it as it was when built in or before 1812 by Charles Wills a two-story frame house with a high central unit and lower wings on either side.

[ORN]

At the corner south of it Wills built a couple of years later a small brick grocery-store, probably the oldest shop now standing in Richmond. [ORN]

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