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Historical Highway MarkersAdams-Van Lew HouseSA-69
Richmond mayor Dr. John Adams built a mansion here in 1802. It became the residence of Elizabeth Van Lew (1818–1900) whose father obtained it in 1836. During the Civil War, Elizabeth Van Lew led a Union espionage operation. African Americans, such as Van Lew's associate Mary Jane Richards (whose story closely parallels that of legendary spy Mary Elizabeth Bowser), served in Richmond's Unionist underground. Van Lew served as postmaster of Richmond from 1869 to 1877. Maggie Lena Walker, nationally known African American businesswoman, banker, and leader of the Independent Order of St. Luke, was born here by 1867. The house was razed in 1911 and in 1912 the Bellevue School was erected in its place.
Department of Historic Resources, 2005 See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
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References/Bibliographic Citation: Bellevue School, Department of Historic Resources Archives File (127-0415), Richmond, Virginia; Bryan Green, Calder Loth and William Rasmussen, Lost Virginia: Vanished Architecture of the Old Dominion (Charlottesville: Howell Press, 2001), 49; Gertrude Woodruff Marlowe, A Right Worth Grand Mission: Maggie Lena Walker [sic] and the Quest for Black Economic Empowerment (Washington, DC: Howard University, 2003); Elizabeth R. Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); John A. Garraty and Mark Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 23 vols. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University, 1999): 22:226-227; Maggie Walker National Park Service Site, http://www.nps.gov/malw/home.htm, 9 May 2005. |