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Corcoran Hall (1936)
02/22/2014 9:06 AM by John M
Another from the Library of Virginia and Madge Goodrich… Corcoran Hall was built in 1843 and stood at 311 North 25th Street (now the parking lot for Nolde).
The photograph is a part of the Virginia W.P.A. Historical Inventory Project sponsored by the Virginia Conservation Commission.
Handsome building. I wish it was still part of the neighborhood.
When was it torn down? What was the reason?
I can look but it was demolished some time between 1958-1976 per aerial photographs.
Looking at a 1968 aerial – the building is gone by then so zeroing in more to between 1958-1968 when it was demolished.
Nolde’s purchased this building in 1965. Problem I see here is that Goodrich says it was built 1843 but I found several newspaper articles for 1883 and 1884 where they were drawing up the corporation, board members, and had bought the property for the building to be built in 1884. Definitely not 1843 so she has something off there.
As for why it was torn down, most likely due to age and poor condition. It was condemned in 1904 and brought back to code at the time I saw a photo of it in the 1930s where the roof façade was whole and broken off flat by the 1950s so it was apparently falling apart. The laundry moved out in 1960 so it was also abandoned for 5 years before Noldes bought it. There was a house next door to the right at 307 N 25th almost identical to the Samuel G. Adams house at 316 N 27th that Goodrich listed as being built prior to 1812, also bought by Nolde and torn down.