THE ARCHER HOUSE 



HE Archer house stands at the corner of Sixth and 

 Franklin Streets, and was built in 1815, by Edward 

 Cunningham, an Irish gentleman. 



It was designed by the well-known London 

 architect, R. A. Mills, who also drew the plans 

 for Monumental Church, the Wickham house, now 

 the Valentine Museum, and the Marx house, all of Richmond. 



The general plan of the Archer house, with its parapet walls, 

 has often been copied by architects from other places. In the 

 early twenties the house was bought from Mr. Cunningham by 

 Dr. George Watson, of Ionia, Louisa County, Virginia, and it 

 has been occupied continuously by the same family for a century. 

 The present owners are Misses Anne and Virginia Archer and 

 Mrs. Andrew H. Christian, daughters of Mrs. Robert S. Archer, 

 who was the youngest daughter of Dr. George Watson. 



The large, square, stuccoed mansion, with its Ionic portico and 

 small brass door bell, the first to supplant the knocker in Richmond, 

 is surrounded by one of the few walled gardens left in Richmond. 

 The high brick wall is covered with English ivy, which falls over 

 the top and sways gracefully before the eyes of the stranger, who 

 looks with wonder at such dignity and seclusion in the heart of a 

 city teeming with life and twentieth-century progress. 



Perhaps the most interesting view of the garden is the one 

 from the steps which lead into it from the long portico at the 

 rear of the house. Here one sees the old gray urns and the Italian 

 marble seat, well beaten by time and suggestive of old world 

 gardens. Serpentine gravel walks wind out from an ivy-covered 

 circle in the centre, where a tall and noble magnolia tree stands. 

 In the most secluded corner is hidden the brick pit greenhouse, 

 where the pink camellias and fruit-laden lemon and orange trees, 



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