From the moment Danielle Worthing Porter attended her first Quoit Club event in 2011, she was hooked.
Like most Quoit Club soirees, the event involved enjoying food and drink while touring a historic place in the city—in this instance, the former the American Civil War Museum at the White House of the Confederacy.
“I enjoyed it enough that I bought a membership for the next season,” says Porter, adding that she’s attended practically every Quoit Club event since her first. “I loved going with my friends. It was a great way to spend a Thursday night.”
Part happy hour, part field trip, the Quoit Club is gearing up for the start of its 2025 season with an event at the Adam Craig House on April 17. The event series is the outreach arm of Historic Richmond, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, revitalizing and honoring the city’s notable places.
Quoit Club members and guests are invited to tour neighborhoods and historic properties while learning about architecture, history, preservation and restoration. The events often include a tour, light hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine. While some events are for members only, most are open to the public for a $30 fee; annual membership dues are $100-125.
This year’s series will include six events: a tour of the Adam Craig House, a Monroe Park LGBTQ+ walking tour, a tour of the Mutual on Main building, a hard hat tour of Shockoe Institute at Main Street Station, a tour of the Hancock Wirt Caskie House and a tour of the Byrd Park Pump House.
“It’s a great opportunity to come out, support Historic Richmond’s mission and celebrate the city’s distinctive built environment,” explains Porter, who is now the nonprofit’s director of preservation services. “All our programming this year is trying to showcase our greatest achievements in preservation, placemaking and neighborhood revitalization.”
In 1935, the William Byrd Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (known today as Preservation Virginia) was founded to save the Adam Craig House. That organization later spawned Historic Richmond. Since its founding, Historic Richmond has saved more than 200 significant structures from the wrecking ball, including St. John’s Church, the National Theater on Broad Street, Old City Hall, Monumental Church and the Ellen Glasgow House.
Separate from the Quoit Club, the nonprofit will celebrate its 90th anniversary with Preservation Week, taking place from Oct. 13-17. That week will include: a lecture from Calder Loth, retired senior architectural historian of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; a gala at the Hippodrome; and the Golden Hammer Awards, which honor community revitalization in the greater Richmond area.
Adam Craig House
April 17
In honor of Historic Richmond’s 90th anniversary, the Quoit Club is beginning at its beginning: The Adam Craig House in Shockoe Bottom.
Erected in 1785, the wood frame, Greek Revival house was built by Craig, a local court clerk. Of note to bibliophiles, Craig’s daughter Jane Stith Craig was the subject of Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “To Helen.”
“It’s one of the oldest houses in Richmond,” Porter says. “It has really unique siting in that it’s set at a 45-degree angle because it predates the city grid.”
By 1935, the house had fallen into disrepair; noted historic preservationist Mary Wingfield Scott described it as “innocent of electricity and plumbing” and led the charge to refurbish it.
“Mary Wingfield Scott bought the Adam Craig House,” says Porter. “She started the William Byrd branch of APVA to complete the restoration on the house. We thought it would be really fitting for the first event of the season, kicking it off in the first house that we saved.”
The house now serves as office space for Macfarlane Partners, a real estate development company.
This event is only open to members; individual tickets will not be sold.
Monroe Park LGBTQ+ Walking Tour
May 15
Hosted by Blake McDonald, the architectural historian at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, this walking tour in and around Monroe Park will focus on some of the state’s earliest sites of LGBTQ+ activism. The tour will include the former homes of Lewis Ginter and John Pope, Hunter Stagg, and Mary Dallas Street. It will also feature the first two locations of the Fan Free Clinic.
Porter says McDonald gave a similar tour of nearby Monroe Ward last year, but that this tour won’t overlap with the previous one.
“He’s a really wonderful speaker, tour presenter,” says Porter of McDonald. “We’re going to walk around and look at different sites that highlight LGBTQ+ activism in that side of town.”
Hard hat tour of Shockoe Institute at Main Street Station
June 12
This hard hat tour will offer a sneak peek at the future location of the Shockoe Institute, which broke ground on April 3.
The 12,300-square-foot education center will be dedicated to illuminating Richmond’s role in the slave trade. Located at Main Street Station and expected to open within the next year, the center is part of the Shockoe Project, a larger effort to recognize this history. Additional components, including a National Slavery Museum, an African Burial Ground and a National Memorial are also in the works.
“It should be a great opportunity to see Richmond’s role in the domestic slave trade and see how [the center will] serve as a gateway to the adjacent memorial campus,” Porter says.
Mutual on Main
July 17
Designed by prominent New York architectural firm Clinton & Russell, the Mutual Building at Main and 9th streets was constructed in 1904 as office space for the Mutual Assurance Society.
One of Richmond’s first high-rise buildings, the neoclassical structure was recently renovated into luxury apartments and commercial space. That effort won Historic Richmond and Storefront for Community Design’s Golden Hammer Award last year for adaptive reuse.
Hancock Wirt Caskie House
Aug. 21
Located at 2 N. 5th St., the Hancock Wirt Caskie House was built in 1808-1809 with a federal design influenced by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. The house is the last surviving 19th century home in Monroe Ward that is still used as a residence.
William Wirt lived in the home until he was tapped to become President James Monroe’s Attorney General; he then sold it to Benjamin Tate, a former Richmond mayor.
This event is only open to members; individual tickets will not be sold.
Byrd Park Pump House
Sept. 18
Designed by Richmond City Engineer Colonel Wilfred Emory Cutshaw, the Byrd Park Pump House was created to serve as both the city’s waterworks and as an open-air dance hall.
The Gothic Revival structure supplied the city with water from 1883 to 1924; its machinery was sold for scrap before the start of World War II. After narrowly escaping demolition in the 1950s, the pump house deteriorated for decades. In recent years, efforts have been underway to bring the pump house back to life. Historic Richmond is pursuing the rehabilitation and sustainable stewardship of the structure in partnership with the Friends of the Pump House and the city.
The space is occasionally open to the public.
“We’ve been involved with the Pump House for a couple decades now. Around 2002, we helped get it listed on the National Register,” Porter says. “We’re really excited to take people inside on a tour of a place that has limited access to the public.”
For more information on the Quoit Club, visit historicrichmond.com.
