Old First Market
Passing the Main Street Station (C. & O. and Seaboard) on the left, you come to the Old Market. On this site, from the earliest days, the farmers would gather to sell their produce to the city folk. To the left of the market, Negro washerwomen used to spread their wash on the grassy bank of Shockoe Creek, the frequent floods of which were the chief excitement of the old town. The women chatted and lightened their work by singing. The darkies’ melodious voices, blending with the cries of the food hawkers, must have made the market the gayest spot in Richmond. ¶ Continue on Main, halting three-fourths of the way between Nineteenth and Twentieth.
Poe Shrine
On your left is the oldest house in Richmond, erected about 1686. On the front wall may be seen the letters “J.R.,” supposed to signify “Jacobus Rex,” James II, who was then King of England. The building is now a part of the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation, which includes also the small buildings on the left and right, in the three of which are housed much Poe material and many articles relating to his residence in Richmond. In the rear is an “enchanted garden” which leads to a classical loggia, built chiefly of material from the former Southern Literary Messenger building. ¶ Turn right on Twentieth to Cary.
Poe Shrine
Libby Prison
On the southeast corner of Cary stood Libby Prison, where thousands of Federal prisoners were confined during the War Between the States. The old warehouse-prison building was torn down and taken to Chicago to be rebuilt for the World’s Fair of 1893.
You are now in the heart of the tobacco district of Richmond. For blocks may be seen Richmond’s famous “Tobacco Row.” ¶ Turn left on Cary to Twenty-first, left on Twenty-first to Main, left on Main to Eighteenth Street; right on Eighteenth one block to Franklin.