Part 21

The architecture of churches in Virginia is likewise varied. St. Luke's Church, originally known as the Brick Church in Isle of Wight County, is believed to be the oldest church still in existence in the original thirteen colonies. It is easily recognizable from its square tower and gabled nave. The brick Jamestown Church Tower (1639) is a Gothic structure also. The famous Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg (1715) is an example of the change in architecture due to Governor Spottswood's planned improvement program for Williamsburg. This is the oldest Episcopal Church continuously in use in Virginia. Its cruciform construction of red brick is unusual with its numerous high, white shuttered windows. The square tower was built at a later date and seems to add dignity to the structure. Christ Church in Alexandria, constructed in 1767-1772, has characteristics of the late Georgian Colonial Period: red brick, a square tower with an octagonal-shaped belfry having a dome cupola, a trimming of white stone and a crown of Wrennish pepperpots.

Thomas Jefferson contributed much to original Virginia architecture. Jefferson was devoted to the classical style, yet followed new trends of his own. For example, the Capitol at Richmond was planned by Jefferson. Jefferson used the famous Roman temple at Nîmes in southern France, the Maison Carrée, as the basic design and modified it according to his wishes. He had a plaster model of it made in Paris and sent to Virginia to be used as the pattern for the new Capitol. The original building is the central building which was constructed from 1785 to 1788. Later, the brick was covered with stucco and the wings and the long flight of steps were added in 1904-1906. The revival of classicism in architecture is traced to the individual efforts of Thomas Jefferson. His contacts with many of the outstanding architects of the time, including Robert Mills, helped spread the classic ideas throughout the nation. Thus, the dignity of the great plantation houses constructed during this period is attributed to the style advocated by Jefferson. He not only favored this style but proceeded to utilize the style which he advocated. Monticello, Jefferson's home at Charlottesville, was built of red brick. Its dome, its Doric columns, its symmetrical arrangement, its circular windows, its octagonal bay and stately porticos, its wedgewood mantelpiece--all characterize the Early Republican type of architecture in Virginia.

Jefferson carried out a similar classical style when he founded the University of Virginia. The Serpentine Walls of red brick which surround most of the gardens were designed and built by Jefferson, following a type he had seen in France. The walls are approximately six feet high and one brick thick and constructed on a wavelike plan for added strength. Jefferson also designed the five two-story temple-like pavilions including porticos and had them constructed of red brick walls with white trim and white classic columns. Bremo, near Fork Union, and Poplar Forest, near Lynchburg (where Jefferson used to spend quiet weekends in retreat) are two other houses designed and built by Jefferson.

Robert Mills, who received architectural instruction from Jefferson and whose name is associated with the colonnade of the Treasury Building in Washington and with the Washington Monuments in Washington and in Baltimore, also contributed to the development of architecture in Virginia. Mills designed the Monumental Episcopal Church in Richmond with its structure of stuccoed brick and brown sandstone, its octagonal domes and its columns. Mills' stuccoed houses in Richmond are considered most unique. The front of this type of house which faced the street is comparatively plain and simple, but the back of the house which faced the river usually had a graceful, tall, columned portico with a hanging balcony. Thus, Mills' houses had the appearance of a regular city house in the front and a country house in the back. The Valentine Museum, formerly the John Wickham House, and the White House of the Confederacy, formerly the Jefferson Davis Mansion, located in Richmond were both designed by Robert Mills.

Sherwood Forest, located on the James River, was the home of John Tyler, tenth President of the United States, after he retired from the Presidency. He enlarged the originally-built dwelling twofold and also had a closed-in colonnade constructed to connect the main house with the kitchen and the laundry. After a ballroom and an office had also been added, the entire structure was 300 feet long, one of the longest houses in the country. The original house was built in 1780 with additions made in 1845.

When Jefferson with his great fervor for originality died, Virginia architecture seemed to lose its original character. For many years afterwards, Virginia tended to follow the architecture fashion of the nation rather than to create any particular architectural characteristics of its own. Following the War between the States and its resulting poverty, many of the skills of the earlier craftsmen seemed to disappear. There was a lack of artistic brickwork and handcarved woodwork; imitation and copying of designs throughout the nation seemed to dominate the architectural scene. The influence of much of the foreign architecture of this period seemed to crowd the American scene and to stifle American originality. Experimentation, not often beautiful in appearance or graceful in lines, resulted in an era of architecture with mediocre dwellings and a lack of symmetry and of balanced proportions in design.

Near the close of the Nineteenth Century, an event occurred which influenced American architecture to a great extent. When the Chicago World's Fair was held in 1893, visitors suddenly became reminiscent about the numerous reconstructed American architectural designs of colonial buildings: the rich-looking red brick buildings with graceful, tall white columns and with porticos and pediments. Architects in the United States as well as the American public in general found a new interest in the construction designs, techniques and materials of the Colonial Era. Several visits were made to Virginia and other southern states in an attempt to rediscover the true Colonial style which still has so much to offer in the way of beauty, simplicity and grandeur.

As in the other states, Virginia architects have been busy recently drawing up plans to meet the ever-increasing demand for private dwellings as well as for public buildings. Some of the structures in Virginia which have received nationwide attention are the five-sided, five-floored Pentagon Building in Arlington with 17½ miles of corridors, the Iwo Jima Memorials--one at Quantico and one in Arlington County--and numerous houses, apartment buildings, schools, churches and business establishments.

The greatest architectural restoration project in the United States is the Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Intense, careful research has made this restoration authentic and appealing to the American public. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. made the project possible through financial backing and, to date, over 400 colonial public buildings, homes, shops and taverns have been restored or reconstructed on a 216 acre section of land. Many of the restored buildings--the Capitol, the Governor's Palace, the George Wythe House, the Raleigh Tavern, the Public Gaol, the Ludwell-Paradise House, the Brush-Everard House and the Magazine and Guardhouse--are now furnished properly according to the Eighteenth Century style. Additional atmosphere is created by the colorful, colonial costumes worn by the guides themselves. The restoration continues, and visitors from various parts of the world, as well as from all of the fifty states, delight in viewing authentic colonial architecture. The Williamsburg Project has had, and will continue to have, a definite influence upon American architecture.

In retrospect, Virginia is usually accredited professionally with two distinct types of individual architecture: the Colonial type brought directly from England and adapted to American surroundings (with a slight variation in Early Colonial and Late Colonial due to the results of the European Renaissance) and the Jeffersonian type distinguished by the creativeness and superb artistic traits of Thomas Jefferson.

_Music and Drama_

Music--The early Jamestown settlers left no record of their music. They apparently sang the same songs current in England at the time of their departure and probably made up verses pertaining to their environment as time passed. There is evidence that unusual instruments were occasionally used. Even though organs were very expensive in colonial days, by 1700 the Episcopal Church at Port Royal owned the first pipe organ brought to America from Europe. By 1755, the Bruton Parish Church at Williamsburg had also received one.

The wealthy inhabitants usually paid instrumentalists, often foreign musicians, to play at various social functions. String players were particularly popular, not only for chamber music concerts but also for private balls. In 1788, Francis Hopkinson, considered by many historians as the first American composer, dedicated his most ambitious published work, "Seven Songs," for the harpsichord or forte piano to George Washington, his personal friend. Although Washington himself did not play an instrument he was an active patron of the arts including music. The harpsichord which he bought for Nellie Custis is still at Mount Vernon. Hopkinson also had written in 1778 a musical manuscript called "Toast" commemorating Washington's position as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. After Hopkinson had made improvements on the harpsichord, he contacted Thomas Jefferson, beseeching him to acquaint craftsmen with his new, musical instrumental idea. Jefferson was a great devotee to music and was considered by many as an accomplished violin player as was Patrick Henry before him.

The musical talents of the Negroes are usually associated with Southern music. From time to time, collections of slave songs, plantation and cabin songs and religious spirituals have been published by William F. Allen, Lucy M. Garrison, Charles P. Ware, Natalie Burlin and Thomas Fenner. The Hampton Singers from Hampton Institute still preserve the musical beauty of such Negro Spirituals as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Go Down Moses," "Deep River," "Steal Away to Jesus" and "O'er the Crossing." Reverend James P. Carrell of Harrisonburg and Lebanon published two spiritual song books: "Songs of Zion" and "Virginia Harmony." James A. Bland, a Negro originally from South Carolina but educated in Washington, wrote the song: "Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny." This song was adopted by the legislature as the official state song in 1940. Two other famous songs written by Bland were "Dem Golden Slippers" and "In the Evening by the Moonlight."

Musical publishers and choral groups also encouraged active

## participation in the musical field. Joseph Funk, a German immigrant,

came to Singer's Glen near Harrisonburg near the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. He established a singing school where he taught vocal music and published "Choral Music," a collection of German songs. Aldine Kieffer, a grandson of Funk, created a monthly musical publication, "Musical Millions," consisting of rural music and musical hints for singing schools. Kieffer wrote the words and B. C. Unseld the music to a song which became very popular in the rural areas of the South: "Twilight Is Falling." In 1883, Theodore Presser of Lynchburg founded the well-known music publication for music teachers and pianists called "The Etude." Scholars and music lovers in various parts of the world have enjoyed the contents of this publication. F. Flaxington Harker was a Scotsman who came to America and served as an outstanding choral director in Richmond. He composed organ compositions, choruses, sacred and secular songs, anthems and cantatas. A collection of Virginia Folklore Songs, called "The Traditional Ballads of Virginia," has been compiled by Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr. and C. Alphonso Smith.

Jenny Lind, "The Swedish Nightingale," afforded Richmonders a thrill when she appeared in person at the Marshall Theater in 1850. She was considered an outstanding singer by Virginia music lovers. In 1876, Thomas Paine Westendorf of Bowling Green wrote the song, "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen," presumably for his wife while she was mourning the death of her son: she had traveled away from home with her husband and had become very homesick, prompting him to write the song as words of encouragement to her.

The composer who is professionally considered as the greatest native Virginian contributor to the music field is John Powell of Richmond and Charlottesville. He was an accomplished pianist and studied in Vienna as well as in the United States. He wrote "Sonata Virginianesque" for violin and piano (a sonata consisting of the happy aspects of plantation life before the War between the States), several overtures and folk-songs. He became nationally famous for his "Rhapsodie Negre" for piano and orchestra. His varied talents included the writing of fugues and concertos as well as the creation of the Virginia State Choral Festival. Powell was also an enthusiastic participant in the annual White Top Folk Music Festival. No description of musical contributions of Virginians would be complete without reference to Joe Sweeney, a native of Appomattox who invented the five-stringed banjo.

Richard Bales, a native of Alexandria, is a composer-conductor who arranged a cantata, "The Confederacy," consisting of music and literary compositions of the Confederate States during the War between the States. This cantata was so well received that it inspired him to compose a second one called "The Union" which consists of music and literary comments concerning the Union forces during the War between the States. He also composed "The Republic" which consists of prominent European and American musical trends of the Eighteenth Century.

Regional festivals and a State Festival for public school bands and choral groups are held each year. Symphony orchestras furnish superb musical entertainment regularly in Richmond, Norfolk and Roanoke. Numerous Virginians have been, and are, active in the music field as singers of classical, semi-classical and popular tunes of the day. Thus, contributions to vocal music, instrumental music and musical forms have been made by natives and residents of Virginia.

Drama--Unlike residents of many of the thirteen original colonies, Virginia residents delighted in the drama. An Accomack County record states that a group of non-professionals performed in a play, "Ye Beare and Ye Cub," as early as 1655. This record is believed to be the earliest available evidence of an English-speaking play presented in the American colonies.

Virginia is also proud of the fact that the very first theater called a playhouse was constructed by William Levingston at Williamsburg in 1716. Its purpose was to present "Comedies, Drolls, and other kind of stage plays ... as shall be thought fitt to be acted there." In spite of its lofty origin, it soon became a financial loss and, in 1745, the original structure was allotted to Williamsburg to be used as a town hall.

Six years later, however, a second theater was constructed behind the Capitol at Williamsburg. The opening play was "Richard III" and its performers subsequently enacted this play also at Petersburg and at Fredericksburg. It was at the Williamsburg Playhouse that the famous Hallams (London Company, later known as the American Company) first performed in America. The Hallam family--father, mother and two children--and their supporting cast landed at Yorktown where they were welcomed by Governor Dinwiddie and a group of his personal friends. They later traveled to Williamsburg where the playhouse had received appropriate improvements and alterations in keeping with the occasion. Their performance was a success as evidenced by the fact that their play, "The Merchant of Venice," played for eleven months in Williamsburg.

[Illustration: VIRGINIA STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

_Virginia Museum of Fine Arts_]

Other plays including tragedies and comedies, famous and not so famous, were acted at the Williamsburg Playhouse. Most of the plays during this period were European plays or American imitation of European plays. The playhouses themselves were usually wooden structures with crude benches for the average customers and a few "less uncomfortable" boxes for the aristocrats. In the winter, the heat was usually furnished by one stove in the center of the end of the barn-like structure where the spectators congregated between the acts. Often, spectators carried their individual footwarmers with them to assure themselves of comfort during the play. Candles at first were the sole means of illumination. A custom which was practiced for many years consisted of the Negro servants arriving at the playhouse hours before the six o'clock curtain time and reserving seats for their masters by sitting in the most desirable areas until the arrival of the masters.

The early drama companies were often organized and managed as a regular stock company with the importance of the dramatic role determining the number of shares received by an actor. Another common method of paying outstanding actors was the holding of a "benefit" night near the end of the season whereby the receipts of that night would be given to the individual actor.

The playhouse provided one of the most popular types of amusement and it soon became a colorful place for gay, social gatherings. Since Williamsburg was the capital of the colony of Virginia, during legislative sessions the playhouse was particularly crowded with important personages of the government and their friends. George Washington enjoyed dramatic presentations very much and on numerous occasions visited the Williamsburg Playhouse. Just before the American Revolution, however, as political, economic and social relationships between the Americans and the British were being severely strained, most forms of entertainment including the playhouse were prohibited. Consequently, the Virginia playhouses eventually closed and most of the actors and actresses traveled to foreign shores.

After Governor Thomas Jefferson and numerous other Virginians believed that Williamsburg was no longer a safe or central location, the capital of Virginia was moved to the Town of Richmond in 1779. Seven years later, a new theater in Richmond was opened on Shockoe Hill. For twenty-five years, this theater was a social gathering place and a stage background for numerous plays during this period. On December 26, 1811, tragedy struck this theater when it was crowded with holiday festive guests at a benefit performance for the actor, Placide, and his daughter. The entertainment in the theater usually consisted of a prologue, a feature play, a short afterpiece and, sometimes, singing or dancing. On this fateful date, the feature had been completed and the afterpiece was being enacted. Suddenly, a lamp which was used for creating overhead light was mistakenly jerked by a pulley, causing it to swing fully lit into the oil-painted scenery back-drop. Soon the entire theater was a flaming mass. Seventy-three persons were killed in this tragedy including Governor George William Smith. This incident caused many theater-goers to refrain from attending theater performances for several years because of fear for their personal safety.

Drama in Virginia, consequently, received a serious setback from this tragedy, but in 1818, a new theater was built through subscription at Seventh and Broad Streets in Richmond. It was called the Marshall Theater and was named in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall who was one of the theater's greatest patrons. Although this new structure was larger, more conveniently situated and more safely constructed, fear still kept the large crowds of the earlier theater from attending. The theater for a time had to depend upon a famous performer to assure patronage by large numbers. In July 1821, one of these celebrated performers was Junius Brutus Booth--father of the American actor, Edwin Booth--who made his American debut at the Marshall Theater in "Richard III."

By the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Virginia began to experience the "Golden Age" of its theater. Richmond still was the center of the drama in Virginia and one of the outstanding dramatic centers in the United States. The opinion and reaction of Richmond audiences and critics became respected and noticed throughout the country. Such well-known actors as Edwin Forrest, William C. Macready and James W. Wallack played here. On January 2, 1862, the Marshall Theater burned, but its owner immediately had a new one called the Richmond Playhouse built on the same site. Its opening premiere was "As You Like It" starring Ida Vernon and D'Orsay Ogden. Even though the War between the States was being fought, contrary to the Revolutionary War period, the theater furnished amusement and relaxation. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and many of his cabinet members attended this theater and viewed many of its tragedies which strangely enough seemed to be the type of play preferred over comedies at this time. One of the favorite actresses of the soldier audiences was Sally Partington.

As the years passed, additional theaters were built in Virginia including the Theater of Varieties in Richmond where vaudeville was first introduced. By the end of the Nineteenth Century, two native Virginians had become dramatic character actors of national fame: Wilton Lackaye of Loudoun County and George Fawcett of Fairfax County. At the turn of the century, Bill Robinson, a native of Richmond, began his ascent to national and international fame for his superb dance style and routines, not only in vaudeville but also in New York plays and, later, in moving pictures.

Early in the Twentieth Century, Francis Xavier Bushman of Norfolk was one of the early moving picture lead actors. As the movies improved and increased in their scope, Virginians such as Jack Hall of Winchester, James H. Bell of Suffolk, Margaret Sullavan of Norfolk, Randolph Scott of Orange County, Richard Arlen of Charlottesville, Lynn Bari of Roanoke, Joseph Cotten of Petersburg, Henry King of Christiansburg, John Payne of Roanoke, Charles Gilpin of Richmond and Freeman F. Gosden of Richmond became nationally known for their acting.

Although strong competition of vaudeville, moving pictures, radio and television undoubtedly has affected the legitimate theater, the strong desire for legitimate acting still remains and has resulted in the formation of summer stock companies and numerous Little Theater groups throughout Virginia. Such groups have become very

## active and are found in many cities including Alexandria, Danville,

Lynchburg, Norfolk, Petersburg, Richmond and Staunton. Virginia colleges and universities also keep the theater alive by sponsoring dramatics classes, workshops and plays.

Two recent developments of the theater in Virginia are the formation of the Barter Theater Group and the presentation of historical plays. The Barter Theater is part of the Barter Colony located at Abingdon, and this colony consists of the theater, a workshop, an inn and a dormitory. The colony was established by Robert and Helen F. Porterfield in 1932 as an attempt to create renewed interest in legitimate play-acting. An original, unique feature of the theater and the activity which was directly responsible for its name was the original ticket purchase price which could be obtained in exchange for produce or edible commodities--similar to the old-fashioned barter system of exchange; at present, however, theater patrons pay money rather than produce for their tickets. During the winter months, the cast travels in other nearby states as well as in Virginia. An annual Barter Theater award was established by Robert Porterfield in 1939 for the "finest performance by an actor or actress on the current Broadway stage." Such well-known individuals as Laurette Taylor, Dorothy Stickney, Mildred Natwick, Ethel Barrymore, Tallulah Bankhead, Louis Calhern, Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda, Frederic March, Shirley Booth, Cornelia Otis Skinner, David Wayne, Rosalind Russell, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman and Ralph Bellamy have received this award. The Barter Theater Award consists of an acre of land located near Abingdon, a world-famed Virginia ham and a silver octagonal platter "to eat it off." In addition, the recipient is given the opportunity to nominate two young dramatic actors at New York City auditions for acting positions at the Barter Theater. The Barter Theater, now recognized as the State Theater of Virginia, is believed to be the only professional theater in the United States which receives financial aid from a state budget.