Hancock–Wirt–Caskie House

Hancock–Wirt–Caskie House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Virginia Landmarks Register
Richmond City Historic District
Hancock–Wirt–Caskie House, HABS photo, 1936
Location	2 N. 5th St., Richmond, Virginia
Coordinates	37°32′25″N 77°26′25″W
Area	0.3 acres (0.12 ha)
Built	1808 (1808)–1809
Built by	Hancock, Michael; Unknown
Architectural style	Federal
NRHP reference No.	70000881
VLR No.	127-0042
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 17, 1970
Designated VLR	December 2, 1969

Hancock–Wirt–Caskie House, also known as The William Wirt House, is a historic home located in Richmond, Virginia. It was built in 1808–09, and is a two-story, seven-bay Federal-era brick dwelling with a hipped roof. The three bays on either side of the entrance are formed into octagonal-ended or three-sectioned bow front projections with a wooden, two-level porch arcade screening the central space. It has a central hall plan with an octagonal room on the south, a rectangular room behind and a larger single room across the hall. In 1816, William Wirt (1772–1834) purchased the house and lived there until 1818, when he moved to Washington as Attorney General of the United States under James Monroe. Diagonally across Main St, a mansion known as Moldavia was then acquired by the Randolphs, who, like Wirt, were among the oldest and most prestigious planter-aristocrat families of Virginia and were some of the founders of the United States. The Randolphs, however, had to sell one of their mansions in Richmond and sold Moldavia to a Spanish merchant named Joseph Gallego, who in turn sold it in 1825 to John Allan, a merchant of Scots origin who was the foster father of the author Edgar Allan Poe. It was in this house that Poe spent about a year before going away to the University of Virginia in 1826 at the age of 17. The sale of this house to merchants scandalized the planter-aristocracy, who expressed in letters written at the time their disdain for the fact that mere merchants were taking over their property and their world. Later serving as the headquarters of the Richmond Chapter of the American Red Cross, the house is now a private residence. The last business to occupy this house was the law firm of Bowles and Bowles. The house bears a strong resemblance to Point of Honor in Lynchburg, Virginia.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

External links

• Mrs. James Caskie House, 2 North Fifth Street, Richmond, Independent City, VA: 5 photos, 13 measured drawings, and 3 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey