Did a former governor really live in this house on South Sycamore Street?
PETERSBURG — Nicolas Foster and Bruce Harding were living in Richmond’s Church Hill four years ago with no intention of moving. One of their friends, a real estate agent, said they should check out a 1917 Mediterranean Stucco home in Petersburg's Walnut Hill.
After walking through the front door they realized it was a mistake to even look at it, because they knew they were going to uproot their entire lives and move into this house.
They fell in love with the terra cotta roof, wood mantle fireplace and its original wavy windows. Since then, Foster and Harding have overhauled their furniture and décor with period pieces to better honor its historic nature. Hardly any of couches and tables remain from their life before moving to S. Sycamore Street.
The home itself has become known as a landmark for Walnut Hill architecture, featuring in the neighborhood’s holiday homes tour for a crowd of 600 people.
While its period architectural value is apparent, rumors always popped up about some of the house’s previous occupants. According to local lore, the house was once home to a Virginia governor. But, are there any truth to the rumors?
Walnut Hill Historic District
The entire neighborhood is currently in the middle of an extensive research effort as part of an application to the Virginia Department of Historic resources to become a new historic district. The district would be a state and national designation.
Historic districts seek to preserve the historic fabric of the communities they cover through celebration and recognition. More than 500 homes are being surveyed for their historical significance as part of the architectural survey. The findings from this survey will help establish Walnut Hill's credibility as place of historic significance.
The group organizing the DHR application has been posting tidbits and factoids about Walnut Hill on its Facebook Page - Walnut Hill Historic District (Proposed), Petersburg Va. People have slowly become more interested in doing independent research of their own now that the neighborhood's history is being celebrated.
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Walnut Hill would be the first historic district in Petersburg to focus on structures from 20th century. Many people associate the city’s history with its Civil War past, but the DHR requirement for a historic district is just 50 years and older.
Most of Walnut Hill’s homes were built in the decade or so after 1910, when the Walnut Hill Corporation bought land from the City of Petersburg and Prince George County, and subdivided it into plots.
Walnut Hill eventually became home to a number of the City’s prominent residents. And to date, it’s fairly well-kept. A DHR representative said at a meeting early in the process that someone coming back to Walnut Hill from the 1920s or 1930s would certainly recognize its streets and houses.
Did a former Governor once live there?
The answer is — almost. The house at 1557 S. Sycamore St. wasn’t owned by the governor himself, but, by his law partner and son, William H. Mann Jr.
William Hodges Mann Sr., served one term as governor from 1910-1914. A Democrat, Mann Sr. was, among many things, a supporter of prohibition. Before politics and coming to Petersburg, he was elected commonwealth's attorney in Nottoway County and later chosen to be its first judge. When he relocated to Petersburg the family maintained a home at 50 Market Street — now Fire Station No. 2.
The house’s actual occupant, Mann Jr., did also serve in a political capacity like his father. Only, his office was much closer than Richmond.
Mann Jr. served two terms as Petersburg mayor from 1946 to 1950. His obituary says that his administration's highlights were the appointment of a hospital study committee and hospital authority, enactment of a zoning ordinance by city council, and the establishment of a program of city planning.
Mann Jr. graduated valedictorian from Hampden-Sydney College and later got his law degree from Washington & Lee in 1921. He and his father established the law firm Mann & Mann in Petersburg. He later served in the navy.
Mann Jr. married Olive Wilkins in 1917, shortly before he enlisted to serve in the U.S. Navy during WWI. He worked across several departments, including the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Mann and Wilkins first moved to the house on S. Sycamore St. in 1924 when they bought the house from the original owners, Hayes M. and Laura T. White, for $8,500. The Whites moved to Walnut Hill’s Westover Avenue.
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The couple lived there until 1936, when they filed for divorce. Mann returned to his family home on Market Street where he lived out the rest of his life. Later Census records from 1950 show Wilkins was living in the house with two lodgers, one a 50-year-old female and another a 28-year-old male.
Wilkins had been an active Episcopal at Christ and Grace Episcopal, located directly next to the South Sycamore Street home. After her death in 1966, she left the house with the church. Christ and Grace owned it up until 2007.
Foster and Harding bought the home in 2019. They say that they're hoping to locate a family member from the Mann family who might remember what the home was like when he lived there. They say there is a woman in her 80s, who could have been to the house when she was a child.
You can reach Sean Jones at sjones@progress-index.com. Follow him at @SeanJones_PI. Follow The Progress-Index on Twitter at @ProgressIndex.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Walnut Hill owners search home's history for evidence of former governor
