Demolition starts on Daniel Call House as preservationists plead for access

Demo started Tuesday on a rear portion of the Daniel Call House at Grace and Madison streets. (Jonathan Spiers photos)

With demolition underway on downtown’s Daniel Call House, preservationists are making a last-ditch effort to gain access to and document the historically notable building before it is gone.

Work started Tuesday on the planned demolition of the house, which has stood at 211 W. Grace St. for nearly a century but dates as far back as the late 1700s, when it was originally built at Broad and Ninth streets before being relocated and rebuilt with some structural alterations.

By Tuesday evening, an S.B. Cox demo crew had torn down a rear section of the house, while at the same time a group of preservationists was scrambling to see if they could be granted access to document the structure before the rest of it is razed.

Shown in 2022, the building is across Grace Street from the Richmond Police headquarters. (BizSense file photo)

“What we want the (owner) to do is let us inside the building or let us send someone from the state inside the building to document it, because it’s our cultural heritage from the 18th century,” said Michael Phillips, a local history advocate who two years ago helped organize efforts to spare the nearby Second Baptist Church building from the wrecking ball.

Phillips noted the house’s ties to its namesake, Daniel Call, an attorney and law reporter who bought the house in 1798 and took over John Marshall’s law practice when the Founding Father was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The house was later sold to Mann Valentine, who had it moved on rollers in 1850 to its current location, where it was disassembled and rebuilt in 1936.

Phillips said he had reached out unsuccessfully to the building’s owner, Henrico-based Bank Street Advisors, which purchased the property two years ago and applied for a demo permit from the city in September. The permit was issued Nov. 22.

“We’re not even asking that the building be saved right now,” Phillips said. “All we want to do is document the interior and the building for future generations.”

The 1939 rebuild included an addition on the west side of the house.

Reached Tuesday afternoon, Bank Street principal Christian Kiniry said he had spoken with local group Historic Richmond but did not elaborate on what was discussed.

“We’ve been open about our plans, and those plans are underway,” Kiniry said of the demolition. Kiniry previously has said that Bank Street does not have specific plans for the property beyond the demo at this point.

The city has deemed the structure as unsafe, and Kiniry has noted that it is not protected from demolition, such as by an easement. The 8,000-square-foot building is not listed on state or national historic registers.

Cyane Crump, Historic Richmond’s executive director, confirmed that the group had spoken with Bank Street and requested that the house be documented before it is fully demolished. She said photo-documenting a structure, even during demolition, can reveal information about construction methods and other historical details.

“We are appreciative of the owner meeting with us to discuss our request that the building be documented before it is demolished, and we are hopeful that that documentation will occur,” Crump said.

The Daniel Call House on Grace Street as it appeared in 1933, before it was disassembled and rebuilt. (File image courtesy Library of Congress)

Julie Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, said she was hopeful that the house could be documented by an architectural historian, though she acknowledged that the demo could not be forcibly stopped.

“Given the property is owned by a private property owner and he has applied for and received a demolition permit, we’re really not in a position to stop the demolition,” Langan said.

She said questions remained as to how much of the original house remained in the building, which she said she’d understood had been “heavily altered.” When the house was rebuilt in 1936 by the former Frank A. Bliley Funeral Home, changes included a new porch and an addition off the building’s west side. Concrete walls also were added for fireproofing.

Stripped of its siding, the house is a block east of the recently built Parc View at Commonwealth apartments, visible at left.

“What I would hope might still be possible is for the owner to allow access by a trained architectural historian who could answer the question of how much original fabric remains and at a minimum document it,” Langan said. “Because right now, if it comes down and we haven’t done that, we don’t really know what’s been lost.”

Phillips, who studied architectural history at UVA and is a guest curator at Preservation Virginia, said the Daniel Call House is one of only four houses left downtown that date to the 18th century.

“There were thousands,” Phillips said. “To not let us gain insights from one that’s left is a really cruel and unusual thing.”