On the Route: The Putney Houses

This a post is about the Putney houses, a site that we pass on our free walking tour of Richmond VA.

Chances are that, if you’re a native of Richmond, you’ve walked or driven by these houses on Marshall St downtown, and not given them a second thought.

Well, with like many things in downtown Richmond former Courts End neighborhood (which is pretty much just a giant Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center Complex now adays) they have a story.

These houses are called “Putney Houses.” They were build for Sam Ayers in 1859, however they are named for the residents Samuel and Stephen Putney: a team of father and son shoe manufacturers of Battle Axe Shoes in Richmond who owned and lived in these houses from 1862 – 1894.

Samuel’s house, the one on the left, is markedly fancier than Stephen’s on the right… Maybe a little father/son one-up-man’ship?

Sam’s has a fancy Ironwork porch that was crafted locally at Phoenix Ironworks (no longer in existence). It has a stucco facade and they put some lines in it to make it look like stone.

Well, it doesn’t really look that much like stone, but making things to look like other things for less money or practical reasons has always been popular; just look at the wall paper fireplaces in the White House of the Confederacy. If only they had Faux Stone Siding Siding back then!

 The house also has some pretty nicely decorated ornate bracketed window cornices.

Stephen’s house  is much simpler, however it does feature a cast-iron veranda on the East Side that is somewhat unique for Richmond.

My knowledge of architecture is limited so I’d like to take this time to appreciate the National Register of Historic Places for this aesthetic description.

Putney lived here until moving to nicer digs on West Franklin Street as the fancy part of the city was moving from Courts End to neighborhoods in the West.

The Business

The Putney’s owned and ran Battle Axe Shoes, and had this factory on 2200 West Broad Street as touted by a 1909 Postcard.

By the way, it appears as if the writer of this postcard was a big fan of CAPSlock to get his point across.

Impressive….

And environmentally friendly to boot! (Pun intended)

This factory could have possibly produced shoes for Confederate Troops based on the dates (I haven’t found anything to confirm this) and ran at least until 1914 when it had a lawsuit filed with the Richmond, Fredericksburgh, and Petersburgh Railroad over land ownership.  (Thanks to Emily of History Nerds Blog for the lawsuit info).

The postcard reads:

“[on front] The most ECONOMICALLY ARRANGED shoe plant in the country. Every facility for the saving of time, labor and expense employed. Built of concrete – insurance unnecessary. Entire business (except office) on ONE BIG FLOOR – no elevator costs, less force required, systematic arrangement of stock. Double railroad tracks in building for receiving and shipping freight. Bridge daylight on every side. Because of our greatly REDUCED COSTS OF OPERATION and the many Economical Advantages we posses, we CAN and DO make BATTLE AXE SHOES of SUPERIOR QUALITY over other makes of shoes. STEPHEN PUTNEY SHOE CO., RICHMOND, VA -“