A historic cottage is free if you move it off the property to another site. The structure is currently boarded up and in disrepair. It is located on 2715 Broad Rock Blvd., in South Richmond. The house was built around 1885 as part of a Confederate Soldiers’ Home. It was part of the Robert E. Lee Camp, #1, Confederate Veterans Home. The building was formerly located on the present campus of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The former site was 36-acre tract of farmland called The Grove; bound by Boulevard, Grove Ave, Sheppard, and Kensington Ave. Between 1885 and 1941, the property was a large complex for poor and infirm Civil War veterans. The camp was built with private funds, including donations from both former Confederate and Union soldiers, including General Ulysses S. Grant.
The cottage was designed by Marion J. Dimmock. Dimmock also designed the Chapel and several other cottages on the camp. The building housed 16 occupants, or as the old soldiers were called, “inmates.” The money for the structure was donated by William Wilson Corcoran of Washington D.C. and the Corcoran Gallery. Corcoran came to Richmond to inspect the cottage in late May 1886. The cottage was named Union Cottage, reflecting the substantial contributions to the construction of the Soldiers’ Home by Union veterans across the country.
Over 3000 veterans have lived at the camp. At its peak occupancy, there were over 300 veterans living on the campgrounds. The grounds included nine residential cottages, a superintendent’s house, a chapel, barracks, dining hall, hospital, recreation hall, steam plant, administration building, and assorted outbuildings. In 1936, most of the cottages were empty. The Confederate Veterans voted to raze the cottages to save insurance money during the Depression years. Milton Burke, the nephew of Ernest Cheatham Meyers and his wife Camilla, heard of the demolition plans. He told his aunt and she asked him to immediately borrow money to purchase the cottage. They purchased the building for $60 and moved it the following year to 2715 Broad Rock Boulevard. The home was disassembled and reconstructed using the old doors, stairway, windows, and a lot of the old woodwork. The Confederate Soldiers’ Home was closed in the 1940s. The Veterans Home remained in operation until the last Veteran passed away in 1941. After that, all of the remaining houses were either moved or destroyed, with the exception of the Robinson House and the Chapel.
The cottage has been used as retail space for an optical shop in the late 1900s. Around the year 2000, a fire started in the basement and in 2002 the building was sold in a foreclosure sale. Despite the fire, the house still has a large amount of original material. The historic windows are still even existing beneath the plywood.
The 2715 Broad Rock Blvd house and the adjacent ca. 1930 house located at 2701 Broad Rock Boulevard are both currently in the City’s Derelict Buildings program and are threatened with demolition. An interested party could move either or both structures.
The present owner is David Mabon. Mabon purchased 2715 Broad Road and has been an occupant of the house at 2701 Broad Rock Boulevard. After Historic Richmond placed the structure on a list of dilapidated buildings, Mabon contacted the organization. Historic Richmond and Mabon made the decision to attempt to find someone to move the structure. Mabon has also expressed interest in selling the house and land together for an undetermined price. The lot contains several other buildings with an appraisal value of $143,000. The buildings alone have an estimated value of $18,000. If someone prefers to move the 2715 Broad Rock Blvd house, some of the costs might be offset by the use of the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit.
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Historic Richmond
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