The boundaries pf the Devil's Triangle in Richmond, Virginia run from Monument Ave. on the north to Kensington Ave. to the south, from the Boulevard on the east to Belmont Ave. to the west.
This small neighborhood, established in the 1920s, has been known as "The Devil's Triangle" since the 1980s. The name came from the rough and rowdy bars located on the 600 and 700 blocks of N. Sheppard Street. Those bars are gone now - replaced by other establishments. The neighborhood is still active. New businesses keep opening up and other long time ones have continued. This site will try to document the history of this small but vibrant Richmond neighborhood.
The postcard image above is from ca. 1930 and shows Johnston-Willis Hospital, 2900 Kensington Ave. Today this building is the Kensington Court Apartments.
The building was designed by Richmond architect Marcellus E. Wright, Sr. (1881-1962). Construction began in 1922 and was completed in 1923 for what was orginally a five-story, brick, granite, terra cotta, and stucco hospital building. The building in the back was built in 1928 as the Nurses Home for Johnston Willis Hospital - also designed by Marcellus E. Wright, Sr. More details on its various additions in a future post.
In 1980 the hospital moved to Chesterfield County and the building was converted to apartments and was orginally called the Kensington Garden Retirement Home. In 2000 It was renovated to become an "up-scale" apartment building - the Kensington Court Apartments. It is the largest building in the Devil's Triangle (let alone in the West of the Blvd. Historic District).
The back of this postcard reads:
"The Johnston-Willis Hospital was organized in 1909 and was located on the corner of Franklin and Sixth Streets. In 1923, the hospital moved into its present modern buildings on the corner of Kensington and Colonial Avenues, in the heart of Richmond's residential section. Here spacious grounds and an outlook over the gardens of the Battle Abbey [now the Virginia Historical Society] make the location ideal."