Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Carneal & Johnston,[Presentation drawing, Store & Office Building, Methodist Publishing Company, Richmond, Virginia], ca. 1921, Accession 42635, Drawings and plans collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from the Library of Virginia Special Collections Branch, 19 April 2006.

Biographical Information

William Leigh Carneal, Jr., and James Markam Ambler Johnston began their firm around 1908 after spending a year working independently out of the same office space. The firm went on to become one of the most prolific and long-established architectural practices in Virginia.

Carneal, born in Richmond on October 24, 1881, graduated in 1903 from the Virginia Military Institute. He began his architectural practice around 1906 following a three year stint as a clerk in his father's company, Sitterding-Carneal-Davis Company. Johnston, born in Rockbridge County on May 18, 1885, studied engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University before moving to Richmond in 1906. He worked at the Richmond Cedar Works for one year until he began his own architectural practice.

From 1908 until 1950, the firm of Carneal and Johnston (the firm was known as Carneal, Johnston, and Wright from 1928 through 1945, when Oscar Pendleton Wright was a partner) helped to mold the architectural environment of central Virginia, especially Richmond. Responsible for over 1300 buildings, Carneal and Johnston practiced in a wide-range of project types, from the mundane to the monumental. While they did execute some residential buildings, the firm generated a far greater number of public, commercial, and industrial structures. Some of their most notable structures include First Virginia Regiment Armory (1913), the Virginia Mutual Building (1919-1921), the Virginia State Office Building (1922-1923), Saint Joseph's Villa (thirteen buildings, 1930-1931), the Virginia War Memorial (1932), and various structures on the campuses of Richmond College (now the University of Richmond) and Virginia Military Institute.

The firm survived following the founders' retirements in the 1950s. Subsequent owners were Miles Cary Johnston, James Beck, and Raymond Browder who sold the firm to employees Carlos H. Costas, W. Fred Hughes III, and Kenneth E. Bunch in 1984. In 1999, the surviving firm of Carneal and Johnston merged with Ballou Justice & Upton, Architects, and ceased to exist as an architectural firm.

Scope and Content

This accession consists of a single presentation drawing depicting a store and office building for Methodist Publishing Company, Richmond, Virginia, by Carneal & Johnston, Architects and Engineers. The structure is better known as the "Cokesbury Building" and is located at 5th and Grace Streets. The building is indicative of the style utilized in a number of 1920s commercial buildings. The inspiration for this ediface is the J. B. Mosby Dry Goods Store at 201-205 West Broad Street. Both are modern buildings that evoke the Italian palazzo. Carneal & Johnston were associate architects on the Mosby project.