The Wrong Deed

A common refrain in real estate is location, location, location.  Sometimes however, the name is just as important, especially if the divine is involved. Such was the case of a 19th-century denomination which decided to use its property to serve an unpopular segment of the population.

In 1860, property purchased by a Mr. and Mrs. Brazeal was gifted to the Protestant Episcopal Church for the erection of St. Philip’s Church. Although the name of the church was specified in the deed itself, the plan for the property was only laid out in full in the Diocese of Virginia committee meeting minutes. The Executive Committee of the Diocesan Missionary Society of the State of Virginia intended the church to be a missionary station for Richmond’s African American population. As it was unclear whether that venture would be successful, they tried to choose a location that would also work well for a white congregation in segregated Virginia. After the building was erected “on the west side of Fourth Street, between Clay and Leigh Streets,” white itinerant pastors rotated through the pulpit of the church until the “excited state of the Country” caused the committee to recommend a more permanent pastor. However, it seems that the Civil War once again wrecked havoc. The “contributions for the support of these missions…[would] not be sufficient” as the sponsoring white congregations withdrew financial support for different reasons.¹

After the Civil War, the parish congregation decreased significantly, as newly freed African Americans were now given a choice in which church they attended. However the Sunday School in the building, which eventually became a school overseen by the Freedmen’s Bureau, was thriving.² In 1867, the church building was pictured on the front page of Harper’s Weekly as an example of a successful school.³ Even so, the Protestant Episcopal Church recommended that the trustees of St. Philip’s honor the original plan and allow a white missionary congregation that had outgrown its current space to assume responsibility for the location.

In 1868, the site was turned over to the white congregation and the church was renamed St. Mark’s. The remaining congregation of St. Philip’s, now presided over by the Rev. J.S. Atwell, the first African American ordained minister in the Virginian diocese, moved to St. Mark’s Chapel, the space the white congregation had outgrown.⁴ 

By 1872 the Daily Dispatch reported that St. Mark’s had determined that the church was in such a “dangerous condition” that neighbors “feared a serious casualty” and decided to move the congregation “in order to obtain a more eligible location.”⁵ Court documents add that the current location had “[proven] unsuitable for a mission church for the white population.”⁶ The original St. Philip’s building was dismantled in order to reuse the materials for a new building which was “rebuilt the same size as the old building.”⁷ The lot itself was put up for auction. The memory of the St. Philip’s Church was quickly disappearing, or so it seemed.

Minutes
“Extract from the Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Diocesan Missionary Society of the State of Virginia” presented as evidence in Richmond City Chancery Cause William Ellis Jones for &c. vs. J. Thompson Brown, etc. 1872-114.

And yet the name of the church (which still had a congregation) remained on the original deed of gift that gave the property to the Diocese. A man named J. Thompson Brown won the auction, agreeing to buy the plot for $1,750. But he balked when it came time to sign the contract, noting that he was unsure of the legality of St. Mark’s selling him a property that was deeded to St. Philip’s.

William Ellis Jones, then a member of St. Mark’s Church and one of the original trustees of St. Philip’s, filed a lawsuit against J. Thompson Brown for his refusal to finalize the transaction. Despite pleadings by Jones and his admitted failure to mention the death of some of the original trustees, Brown doubted if a valid title could be produced to complete the sale, and questioned if St. Mark’s should have been allowed to relocate to land deeded to St. Philip’s to begin with. 

In the end, the claim against J. Thompson Brown and trustees of the circuit court sought to force them to complete the transaction based on the Diocese’s claims that it had always intended to hand over the land to another congregation if it was in its best interest to do so. Although Brown seems to have questioned the deed based on his personal concerns about legality, one might wonder how the remaining congregation of St. Philip’s viewed the lawsuit. By 1896, St. Philip’s had regained enough of its congregation to build a new church at St. James and Leigh Streets before moving to its current location (2900 Hanes Avenue) in 1959.

The dilemma certainly proved that innate biases in the 19th century could bring a property sale to a standstill if based on “the wrong deed.”

William Ellis Jones for &c. vs. J. Thompson Brown, etc. 1872-114, is part of the Richmond City Chancery Causes, which are currently closed for processing.