The Wickham House (aka Wickham-Valentine House) in Richmond Virginia has a very interesting and storied past. It is directly adjacent to the Valentine
Museum where you can get tickets to a guided tour to Wickham lead by the
knowledgeable guide, CeCe.
This house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972 according to
a metal marker in front of the house, though Wikipedia says that designation happened a year earlier in 1971.
Attorney John Wickham (1763-1839) lived here beginning in 1790. A beautiful
garden with fountains and sculptures were in the rear of the house. Back in
the day, the road in the front of the house was muddy and where refuse was
thrown out in buckets. This made the rear of the houses the preferred area
to be beautified.
(backyard of the Wickham home)
Wickham, being a prominent lawyer at the time, helped defend Aaron Burr
against a charge of treason in 1807. Burr served as Vice President under
President Thomas Jefferson and was afterwards charged with trying to steal
land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase to create an independent
country. Wickham helped to get Burr acquitted.
During his last year as vice president, Burr engaged in a duel in which he
fatally shot Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury and
his political rival. Duels were illegal at the time, but all charges against Burr were dropped. Burr also had an open love affair with a British officer's wife and eventually married her after her husband died.
Wickham's family lived in the house from 1812. The family included his
second wife Elizabeth and their 19 children plus 15 enslaved
African-American workers. Dinner time must have been a real marathon and
heaven knows what transpired when many of them became emotional teenagers.
Proceeding into the recesses of the house there is an abundance of classical
Greek and Roman themes like this ceiling motif....
(wall motif)
The entertainment room is replete with an organ and harp.
(Organ)
The Victorian drawing room being explained by our guide CeCe....
Next up was the dining room including the circa 1800 portrait of Elizabeth Selden McClurg (Mrs. John Wickham) by the famous painter Gilbert Stuart:
John Wickham married his first cousin Mary Smith Fanning and had two children. After her early death, he married Elizabeth Seldon McClurg and had seventeen more children, 10 sons and 7 daughters. McClurg was the daughter of Dr. James McClurg, who served three terms as Richmond's mayor, and was a
delegate to the Philadelphia convention that framed the Constitution of
the United States in 1787.
Various other rooms in the house:
If you visit:
Wickham House is located at 1015 East Clay Street, Richmond, Virginia.
Admission for the guided tour is included with the price for the adjacent
Valentine Museum. Admission is: Adults $10, Seniors (55+) $8, Active
Military Free, and Youth (18 and under) Free. Admission includes two hours
of parking in the Valentine museum lot or validated parking for the MCV
Visitor Parking Deck at 529 N. 12th Street, and a one-day admission to
Valentine exhibition galleries and a guided tour of the historic Wickham
House. Be wary of street parking. I noticed police issuing tickets to some
street parking vehicles.
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