SITE NAME
Ellen Glasgow House

COMMEMORATED BY
Virginia Landmarks Register
127-56
January 18, 1972

National Register of Historic Places
May 5, 1972

LOCATION
1 West Main Street
City of Richmond

DESCRIPTION
Author of many novels featuring Southern settings, Ellen Glasgow counted this Main Street abode as her home from 1887 until she died in 1945. Today the property is a private residence complete with commercial space in its rear for attorney offices. Glasgow worked in this home for much of her life, churning out novel after novel, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning In This Our Life to The Sheltered Life.

TEXT OF ENTRY ON VIRGINIA LANDMARKS REGISTER
"Virginia author Ellen Glasgow made her home in this Greek Revival mansion from 1887, when at age 13 she moved in with her family, until her death in 1945. Her father purchased the house from the family of local industrialist Isaac Davenport. Glasgow's many novels depicted life in the South with a realism devoid of the nostalgic sentimentality that characterized much southern writing of the period. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1938, she was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1942 for her last novel, In This Our Life. Her home, typical of the large Greek Revival houses that once lined Richmond 's streets, was built in 1841 for David M. Branch, a tobacco manufacturer. Glasgow's “square gray house” was purchased by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities in 1947. Since sold with protective covenants, it is once again a private residence."