Text: Antiqua, “An Old Richmond Landmark,” Daily Dispatch (Richmond, VA), vol. LX, no. 90, October 12, 1881, p. 1, col. 6

[page 1, column 6, continued:]

To the Editors of the Dispatch:

Seeing by an advertisement in your at paper that one of the old landmarks of Richmond, the Allan mansion, is to be sold on the 13th instant, I think a short history of the place may be of interest to some of your readers. The brick-house was first built there by David Meade Randolph about the year 1790. He was a first cousin of John Randolph of Roanoke, and married his cousin, Mary Randolph, a daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph, of Tuckahoe. The place, through a witty combination of the names of the owners, made by Mr. Rootes, who lived where Mr. John Enders now resides, was called Moldavia (Molly and Davy), which title was acknowledged by its subsequent proprietors. The grandfather of David Meade Randolph was Richard Randolph, of Curls [[Curles]], who married Jane, daughter of John Bolling, who was the son of Robert Bolling and Jane Rolfe, the granddaughter of Matoika alias Pocahontas. Mr. Randolph sold the property, then comprising the entire square, to Mr. Peter Gallego, who lived there for some years and added a wing to the eastern side of the building. Mr. John Allan, a Scotch merchant, bought the place from Mr. Gallego about 1820, and since that period it has remained in his family. In 1850 Mrs. Allan, widow of John Allan, pulled down the wing made by Mr. Gallego and erected a much larger and handsomer addition in place of it, and many of our present citizens attended and can vividly recall the magnificent fancy ball with which she celebrated its completion. So this noted mansion has had but three owners in ninety years — all of them persons of wealth and high social position, and all celebrated for their handsome convivial entertainments and the free hospitality exhibited to their numerous friends. The lofty site of the house and the beautiful views of Manchester and the surrounding country, varied by the foamy falls and silvery sheen of the James, visible from its broad porticos, have always been a glory and pride to its owners, while the cool, uninterrupted southern breeze during the hottest summer days ever added refreshing comfort to the happy occupants of that pleasant mansion. It has also been noted as the home of Edgar A. Poe, who was adopted by Mr. Allan immediately after the burning of the Theatre in 1811, taken by him to Europe a few years later, where he was placed at school in England, and known under the name of Edgar Allan. I have no doubt the happiest years of Poe's life were passed under that roof, after his return from England, where he was the petted and spoiled child of fortune.

”ANTIQUA.”