Kensington Gardens - circa 1980s.
Johnston-Willis Hospital, circa 1930.
Johnston-Willis Hospital
(now Kensington Court Apartments,
2900 Kensington Ave.), 1928.
Kensington Court Apartments, 2900 Kensington Ave.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."
