Henry Thomas Barnham
(“Barnham” or “HTB” 6/1912 to 4/1916
Henry T. Barnham (7/10/1886 to 5/19/1937 (Riverview Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York)) was born in Brooklyn and was the son of English immigrants, Mr. & Mrs. Charles Wyndham Barnham. He was a very important early employee of the Firm. An exhaustive search of City of Richmond directories does not show any listing for Mr. Barnham prior to 1913. The 1913 directory states that he was a “Draftsman” for Charles M. Robinson, Inc. and lived at 2703 Hanover Avenue. The 1914 directory lists him as “Chief Draftsman” for Charles M. Robinson. The 1915 and 1916 directories list him simply as “architect” with no place of employment. The 1917 Directory lists him as a self-employed “architect and engineer” under the category of “Architects,” having an office at the Chamber of Commerce Building at 530 East Main and living at 3113 Grove Avenue.
His September 12, 1918 WWI Draft Card states “architect” and “self-employed and that he is married to Elizabeth Fine Barnham and that they live at 3113 Grove Avenue. He was considered to be medium height and medium build with brown eyes and dark hair.
From 1918 to 1932, he is listed in the Richmond City Directories as a sole practitioner architect in the category of “Architects,” at 530 East Main until 1924, when the office moved to 819 East Franklin.
In 1920. The Barnhams moved their personal residence westward. First listed as “Shadow Lawn, Patterson Avenue” and later as “Patterson Avenue near Pepper Avenue.”
The 1921 directory has a listing for “Barnham & Hofmann” at 530 East Main Street, Room 912-913—Barnham has partnered with Charles L. Hofmann—another former Charles M. Robinson draftsman.
The 1923-1925 directories list William Henry Rhodes as a “draftsman” for “H. T. Barnham”—another former Charles M. Robinson employee.
Many articles in the 1910s/20s in the Richmond Times-Dispatch cite him as an active participant and award winner in trap and skeet-shoot competitions.
In the 1920s in Richmond, he designed various projects including some of the first homes in the Bryan Park area, an impressive Times-Dispatch printing plant at 7th & Canal that doubled their press facilities to 40,000 papers per hour, the Deco Richmond Garage at 6th and Franklin, the Emrick Chevrolet “Flat Iron” Building at 101 West Marshall (now known as “Emerick Flats” and stores in the Boulevard, Lakeside and Ginter Park Areas with apartments upstairs.
An application to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for two Barnham-designed automobile showrooms in Scott’s Addition reads as follows:
Two of the earliest Art Deco buildings in the district were designed by Henry T. Barnham (1885-1937) and constructed for the Jones Motor Car Company. The first to be built, in 1926, is a two-story, five-bay, brick, automobile service building at 3001 Cutshaw Avenue. Although most of the facade's characteristics have been altered, the eastern elevation retains much of its original character. The bays on the eastern elevation have multi-light steel casement windows that are separated by decorative brick pilasters with concrete capitals. The capitals are decorated with stylized leaves and fleurs-de-lis on a pedestal. The other building designed by Barnham is the former Cadillac and La Sallie dealership at 2923 West Broad Street. Built in 1928 as the car showroom for Cadillac & La Sallie vehicles, this two-story, seven-bay, yellow brick building has been slightly altered on the first story of the facade and the second story has been covered with a metal screen. However, much of the original Art Deco decoration is visible behind the metal screen and on the western elevation. The first story bays on the west elevation are defined by molded concrete frames with clipped corners and piers with molded capitals that separate the fenestration within each larger bay. There are also geometric molded concrete panels between the stories and concrete stringcourses.
Henry T. Barnham died on May 18, 1937 at the Pine Camp Tuberculosis Hospital in Richmond of “pulmonary tuberculosis” at the young age of 50 after contracting the disease in early November 1936. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth Fine Barnham, three daughters (Mrs. Malcolm Forsythe of Richmond, Margaret Barnham of Richmond and Mrs. Felix Corvin of Philadelphia) and was a practicing architect at the time of his death.