Source: RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH

 

The Architectural Firm that helped shape Richmond Carneal and Johnston. From UofR to VA Tech, to mansions and apartment buildings they left an indelible mark on the Richmond and VA architecture landscape.

A little over 100 years ago, Richmond was in the midst of an architectural golden age. Mansions were being built on Monument Avenue, the city’s grandest street, and construction crews were busy expanding the city’s suburban limits to the west, in what we now call the Fan and Museum districts, as well as to the north, in developments such as Ginter Park.

A number of significant architects were active, including older ones such as D. Wiley Anderson and Albert F. Huntt, who had designed picturesque houses in the Victorian era, and younger ones such as William Lawrence Bottomley and W. Duncan Lee, who often worked with an eye to more historically correct designs.

Relatively large architectural firms emerged in the city, at a time when architecture was just beginning to be a licensed profession. The firms stayed busy through the 1920s. Then the Great Depression brought everything to a sudden halt.

The economic downturn effectively ended many Richmond architects’ careers. Only a few of the city’s biggest architectural firms survived the Great Depression. Among them was Carneal & Johnston. And while the 1930s were lean years, the firm nonetheless stayed busy.

“Between 1908 and 1950, they designed more than 1,300 buildings in Virginia,” said Mary Harding Sadler, a historical architect and principal of Sadler & Whitehead Architects PLC.

Many of those buildings are architectural standouts, including the Wallerstein House (1912) at 2312 Monument Avenue, the Held House (1911) at 3201 Monument Avenue, the Brooke apartment building (1912) at 2215 Monument Avenue and the Gresham Court apartment building (1909) at 1030 West Franklin Street.

The firm also designed the whimsical, Gothic Revival-inspired Richmond Dairy building (1913) at 201 West Marshall Street, the Art Deco-style Maggie L. Walker High School (1938) at 1000 North Lombardy Street and the Colonial Revival-style headquarters building (1954) the firm designed for Ethyl Corp. near Tredegar Iron Works.

“It’s amazing to think about how prolific they were,” Sadler said. “Their work is very much a part of our city.”

Early years

Neither of Carneal & Johnston’s founders – William Leigh Carneal (1881-1958) and J. M. Ambler Johnston (1885-1974) – were formally trained in architecture, which was not unusual at the turn of the 20th century. (William C. Noland was the first Virginia architect to be licensed – in 1920.)

Carneal, a Richmond native, earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Virginia Military Institute. Johnston, a native of Rockbridge County, earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute before earning master’s degrees from VPI and Cornell University.

Like many aspiring architects, Carneal apprenticed for less than two years with a local architect, Claude K. Howell, before opening his own practice in 1906.

“Architectural licensing requirements specify how many years an architect needs to intern with another architect, but those requirements were not formalized in the early 20th century,” Sadler said. “Becoming a professional architect was simply a matter of interning until you had enough experience to launch a business or take up the reins of a design project.”

In his first two years as an architect, Carneal designed a handful of houses in the Fan District, including the ones at 2506 Grove Avenue (1908), 405 Allen Avenue (1908) and 1637 (1907) and 2026 (1908) Grace Street.

Johnston and Carneal shared an office before forming Carneal & Johnston in 1908 with a handshake, Sadler said.

With Carneal as its lead designer, the firm enjoyed early success.

“By 1912, they had several impressive projects around the city,” including winning a bid to design City Hall, Sadler said. (The City Hall project ultimately failed to find funding.)

Much of the firm’s early work is Neoclassical, although they also produced Gothic Revival-style designs.

“Their best work was bold and muscular, and it had a lot of oomph to it,” Sadler said.

In addition to its own designs, Carneal & Johnston served as the associate architect on a number of prominent projects headed by national firms. Among the earliest was the firm’s partnership with Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, the architects for the new Richmond College at Westhampton (now the University of Richmond).

The firm also worked with Starrett & Van Vleck on the Italian Renaissance Revival-style J.B. Mosby and Co. Dry Goods Store (1916) at 201 West Broad Street (now the Quirk Hotel). (In 1921, Carneal & Johnston drew on the J.B. Mosby store design for its Methodist Publishing House building at the corner of Seventh and East Grace streets. The building is popularly known as the Cokesbury Building.)

Later partnerships included working with Cram & Ferguson on the Carillon war memorial (1926-1932) in Byrd Park and with John Eberson on the Art Deco-style Central National Bank building (1929) at 219 East Broad Street.

Later years and legacy

In 1928, Oscar Pendleton Wright, the brother of architect Marcellus Wright Sr., joined the firm, which changed its name to Carneal, Johnston, and Wright. (It operated under this name until 1945.)

While the firm produced noteworthy single-family residences and apartment buildings, particularly in its early years, the bulk of its later work was academic and commercial.

“They took all the work they could get,” said Miles Cary Johnston Jr., J. M. Ambler Johnston’s grandson and a retired engineer and partner with Carneal & Johnston.

Among the firm’s most significant academic work were its designs for the VPI and VMI campuses.

“Carneal and Johnston took the experience they had as the local architects at UR and dressed the Collegiate Gothic style in Hokie stone to create the Virginia Tech campus we know today,” Sadler said.

Carneal & Johnston’s architectural styles shifted as popular trends dictated, and in the 1920s, the firm designed several buildings in the Art Deco style. Other designs were more stripped down.

Significant designs of Carneal and Johnston’s mature years include St. Joseph’s Villa (1930-1931) and the Virginia Department of Highways Building (1937) at 1401 East Broad Street.

“Some of their work, including buildings they did for dry goods and tobacco companies, was very straightforward and devoid of all ornament,” Sadler said.

Carneal died in 1958, and Johnston, who retired in the 1950s, died in 1974. The firm remained active for several decades, though.

“We did all the rest areas for the Virginia Department of Highways,” Miles Johnston Jr. said. “We also did the original work on the Western Henrico Government Center, as well as the Eastern Henrico Government Center.”

Among the retail projects the firm undertook after its founders retired or died are Azalea Mall (1963, demolished) and Regency Square (1975) in Henrico County, along with Cloverleaf Mall (1972, demolished) in Chesterfield County.

The firm also continued its collegiate design work.

“Under the leadership of James R. Beck, Carneal & Johnston designed the Boatwright Library, the Modlin Fine Arts Building and the Robins Center at UR, along with numerous VPI projects,” Miles Johnston Jr. said.

The firm merged with Ballou Justice & Upton Architects in 1999.

Along with Baskervill & Son and Marcellus Wright, Carneal & Johnston were one of Richmond’s few large firms to survive the Great Depression, and the sheer volume of their work over the course of nearly a century tends to obscure their impact on the city.

“We drive or walk by their buildings every day without realizing how much they shaped Richmond,” Sadler said. “Their landmark buildings define the urban landscape and helped create the texture of our city.”