JAMES RIVER GARDEN CLUB 
VALENTINE MUSEUM, Richmond, Va. 
Location — 11th and Clay Streets. 
Type — Walled in City garden, earl}- 19th Century (1812). 
Specialties — House and garden ; century old Magnolia tree, planted 
in 1807. 
Visiting days and hours — From 9 to 5 every day, free. 
Remarks — The house was built in 1812 for John Wickham, Esq.; Ben- 
jamin Mills, Architect. The walls very thick, are brick stuccoed; 
doors solid mahogany, with silver plated locks, knobs and hing- 
es ; and floors heart pine. The rooms contain excellent specimens 
of Florentine mantles. At the rear of the mansion a charming 
pillared portico looks upon a charming old garden, surrounded 
by a high, ivy-covered brick wall. “A fountain makes refresh- 
ing music in the midst of the garden, and through a rosegar- 
land arch we have glimpses, as the vine clad trellises and shrub- 
bery will permit, of figures in white marble of the Goddesses 
of Beauty, Flowers and The Harvest peeping out among the 
green. Every olden time flower is to be found in the trim par- 
terres divided by narrow brick walks, and many goodly fruit 
trees and grape vines on trellises and latticed arbors vie with 
the flowers in making the garden a place of delight. In one 
corner a century-old magnolia tree makes June fragrant”. 
R. W. LANCASTER, Jr. 
Historic Houses and Homes of Va. 
40 
