Map by Lauren Baldwin (click upper-right corner to expand)
1. The (Old) Village Café
939 W. Grace St.
This bohemian cathedral, founded in 1956, was a gathering place for writers and artists, including eventual novelist Tom Robbins, who attended Richmond Professional Institute (now VCU).
2. The Ellen Glasgow House
1 W. Main St. (private residence)
Ellen Glasgow, who swept away the convention of “moonlight and magnolias” for novels of the South in transition, lived and died in this home. She won a Pulitzer Prize for “In This Our Life” in 1942.
3. Mary Johnston’s Home
110 E. Franklin St.
In a townhouse now part of the Linden Row Inn lived novelist, suffragist and social reform advocate Mary Johnston. While residing there, she published a 1908 historical fiction hit, “Lewis Rand,” which featured an ambitious but impulsive Revolutionary War-era politician.
4. Birthplace of James Branch Cabell
101 E. Franklin St.
James Branch Cabell’s birthplace once stood on the site of today’s Richmond Public Library main branch — a placement that moved the novelist to observe that he is the only U.S. author born in the rare books section. The library holds an extensive collection of Cabell’s books.
5. Jackson Ward
Marker at North Third and East Marshall streets
Jackson Ward was home to John Mitchell Jr., the “fighting editor” of the Richmond Planet, and to Maggie L. Walker, a dynamic community organizer and publisher of the St. Luke Herald.
6. Mary Randolph’s Moldavia
Southeast corner of Fifth and Main streets
Moldavia (no longer standing) was the home of David Meade Randolph and his entertaining wife, Mary. Falling on hard times, the couple moved to Shockoe Slip, where Molly took in boarders and was inspired to write “The Virginia Housewife,” an 1824 guide to domesticity that is still in print.
7. The Christopher Newport Cross
At the end of 12th Street on the Canal Walk
Days after landing in Jamestown, Capt. Gabriel Archer arrived here on May 24, 1607, with an exploratory party headed by Christopher Newport. Archer kept an account of the expedition’s earliest days.
8. Edgar Allan Poe Museum
1914 E. Main St.
Poe lived in Richmond for almost half his short life, but not here, in one of Richmond’s oldest houses. The Southern Literary Messenger offices, where Poe became a professional writer, were nearby at 15th and Main streets.
Off the Map
9. Clifford Dowdey’s Home
2504 Kensington Ave.
Clifford Dowdey initially wrote for the pulps in New York City. His fiction includes 1953’s “The Proud Retreat: A Novel of the Lost Confederate Treasure.” His histories include “Lee’s Last Campaign: The Story of Lee and His Men Against Grant – 1864.” In 1966, Dowdey opposed additional Confederate statuary for Monument Avenue.
10. Tom Wolfe’s Boyhood Home
3307 Gloucester Road in Sherwood Park
Tom Wolfe was the reinventor of narrative nonfiction. His novels include “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” “The Right Stuff,” “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and “A Man in Full.”
