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Holding Information

Collection: Thomas Ustick Walter Collection

Institution: Athenaeum of Philadelphia

MARC Description:
Previously identified as one of two drawings (WTU*029*001-002) for the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church, this drawing (WTU*029*002) is now called WTU*029B*001. The other drawing (WTU*029*001) has now been identified as the Second Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., WTU*029A*001, and is cataloged separately. The designs for the Second Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. and the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church in Petersburg, Va. were very similar, and the churches were built around the same time. Walter's diary entries for the Second Baptist Church date from Apr. 24, 1840 to July 8, 1841. Walter's diary entries for the Tabb Street Church date from Nov. 26, 1841 to Dec. 28, 1841. There was yet a third church in the vacinity, the First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., built with a similar design at the same time period, but using a "distyle-in-muris" facade. According to Scott(1950) Old Richmond neighborhoods, p.139, "In 1841, the congregation [Second Baptist] had sold it [their old church] and built a splendid new church at Sixth and Main. Designed by Thomas U. Walter, himself a devoted Baptist, at the same time he was designing old First Baptist, it differed from the latter building both in its imposing portico and in its steeple, which blew down in a storm in 1896." The First Baptist and the Tabb Street Presbyterian have also both been depicted without their lost steeples, further confusing the images of the three. The Second Baptist building was demolished. The old First Baptist Church, located originally at H & Governor Sts., later Broad & 12th Sts., Richmond, was in 1977 under threat of demolishment by its owners since 1939, the Medical College of Virginia. The Tabb Street Presbyterian Church was documented in an Historic American Buildings Survey in 1968 at locate at 21 West Tabb Street. The Churches' letterhead, dated 1973, in Athenaeum files, gives a 29 West Tabb Street address.

Quantity: 1 drawing : ink & wash on paper ; 54 x 34.5 cm.

Local Call: WTU*029B

RLIN: PAPV93-F499

Item dates: 1842

Holding types: Drawings

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Documented Projects

• Tabb Street Presbyterian Church
   

Documented Architects, Engineers, and Others

• Walter, Thomas Ustick (1804-1887) (Architect)

Location

29 W Tabb St
Virginia ("Petersburg")

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[Tabb Street Presbyterian Church] Elevation (T. U. Walter, Architect, 1842) Thomas Ustick Walter Collection, Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Local ID #: WTU*029B*001

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