One New Thing #4 Architecture Museum Tour at The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design
One New Thing #: 4
What: Tour of the Charles M. Robinson architecture exhibit AND learning the history of The Branch House at The Branch Museum
Where: The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, 2501 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23220 https://branchmuseum.org/
Cost: $5 per person
Fave thing: Learning that nearly all the major schools + buildings in Richmond were designed by the same person! It’s just never something I’ve thought about. Also - Charles M. Robinson designed the Sunken Gardens at William & Mary where I went to undergrad - I ended up with a lot of connections to this architect that I never knew about!
Monument Avenue is home to some amazing houses in Richmond. Think actual mansions, multi-million dollar properties, and cobblestone streets. No surprise as it was actually built to mirror the Champs Élysées in Paris.
So it’s no surprise that I’ve seen the HUGE Tudor Revival style home at 2501 Monument Avenue countless times, but really never gave it a second thought. It was surrounded by a large fence, looked rather foreboding, and had blue flags surrounding around it - the classic: “I’m a museum” style flag. It wasn’t until I went to a meeting there for Breakaway RVA that I learned that this museum had been an actual home and it wasn’t until ONT that I figured I should stop by and see what it’s all about.
Going into it, I just assumed the museum would be all about the actual home that was built and owned by the Branch family. But it turns out, that’s only one small piece to what’s inside: the rest of the home features rotating exhibits all around architecture.
Now, this isn’t a subject that I’m super into, but the current exhibit featuring the work of Charles M. Robinson was pretty fascinating as a Richmond resident.
Turns out, he’s behind a LOT of the major buildings in Richmond and many of the colleges and universities in Virginia. Think:
A LOT of schools around town: Albert Hill Middle School, Fox, Binford, The Ginter Park School, Thomas Jefferson and Armstrong High Schools.
The College of William and Mary - Sunken Gardens and many of the academic buildings
James Madison University
Mary Washington University
Radford
University of Richmond
Some fun facts that I learned that made me really appreciate his work:
Robinson was committed to equalizing opportunities and accessibility for both women and black students. During the time of his work, there was still a lot of segregation. He would often have to design schools for white students and schools for blcak students. He made sure that the designs he implemented for white students were also the ones he implemented for lback students.
Call me naive if you want, but this was just not something I thought about as impacting things like architecture - but it totally was a thing
As one of my favorite podcats says: “Fashion is always political” (Pop Fashion Podcast) - it looks like architecture is always political as well!
About the Branch House itself
This was the Branch’s “winter” home - they also had homes in New York and Italy.
The home was originally built to house their collection of Italian Renaissance tapestries and antiques.
Obviously these guys were really, really rich.
It’s 27,000 square feet. Ya’ll - this is BIG. 63 rooms, 11 levels (what the what), 14 fireplaces and 13 bathrooms.
My FAVORITE feature are the doors - they are SO thick and the mermaid handles on the entrance to the Chapel Gallery are the BEST.
It was designed by, obviously, an architect! John Russell Pope who also designed Richmond’s Union Station, what is now the Science Museum of Virginia along with the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, and the Jefferson Memorial in DC.
There is a huge garden out back which you also have access to when you come.
Overall, we spent about 45 minutes walking through and absorbing all of the information and grounds - easily could have spent a full hour or more and while The Branch Museum may not be on your rotating list of museums, it should be every so often - if only to experience the grandeur of this amazing historic home and the influence the exhibit subjects can bring - being able to go at this time during the Charles M. Robinson exhibit was really cool and gave me a deeper appreciation for all things Richmond.