In the early years of the 20th century, at the end of a country road four miles from where 3.5 million travelers now fly in and out of Richmond International Airport every year stood the palatial residence of one of the true giants of the Industrial Revolution in the American South.
This was Edward Thurston Mankin, founder and owner of E.T. Mankin, Inc., a brick foundry whose products were used in the construction of many notable American buildings, including the homes of John D. Rockefeller and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The bricks were also used—appropriately enough, given its location only 50 miles east and its own evocative story of decline and rebirth—in the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
Mankin’s once glowing kilns, located just south of the property, produced thousands upon thousands of their highly prized bricks for half a century, growing cold and silent only upon the magnate’s death in 1953. Then, for another 50 years, the 7,000-square-foot, 30-room mansion and its five brick dependencies, virtually abandoned, also grew quiet. It was quiet, neighbors whispered, except for the occasional comings and goings of resident ghosts.
But in January 2002, 2,600 miles to the west, something wonderful happened. That’s when an enterprising young family from the Los Angeles area, eager to raise their children in a more settled community, piled into their 23-foot mobile home and set off on a 28-state search for someplace new to put down roots. Paula and Martin Ramirez and their two small children traveled as far south as Florida and as far north as Maine, eventually arriving in eastern Henrico.
There they laid eyes for the first time on Mankin Mansion—a Mankin Mansion that needed a great deal of TLC—and saw in it not only past grandeur but future opportunity. The couple, both of whom had previous experience in the wedding industry, also saw in the mansion a place others could enjoy.
The following year, when the estate went on the auction block, Paula, who expected it to go for $2 million, was stunned when her $403,700 offer was the high bid. That, of course, was when the real work—and the family’s outlays—really began.
The Ramirezes have spent about $500,000 to date to complete the renovation of a property listed on the National Register of Historic Property and described in the Virginia Landmarks Registry as reflecting its builder’s “idiosyncratic interpretation of the Georgia Revival style.”
The new owners have replaced the slate roof at a cost of $85,000 and the plumbing beneath the main house, the west wing of which the family calls home. Before Mankin Mansion would reopen as a bed-and-breakfast and wedding site, the Ramirezes would also unearth the builder’s original brick walkways, restore the gazebo, and convert the gardener’s and farmer’s cottages into suites for overnight guests.
And there has been no shortage of those. “Business is great,” Martin says. “We are booking many weddings, corporate and private parties as well as bed-and-breakfast stays. We’re welcoming visitors from all over the country and worldwide. The high-end wedding market is strong—we’re booked to capacity for 2009 and are quickly filling the calendar for 2010.”
The new lord and lady of Mankin Mansion felt welcome the moment they arrived, though all that legendary Southern hospitality took some getting used to. “At first, we found it so unusual that people would wave to us when we drove by,” Paula laughs. “We kept thinking we must have a flat tire or something.”
When the mansion officially reopened on April 30, 2006, two district supervisors, Jim Donati of Varina and Frank Thornton of Fairfield, were on hand for the ribbon cutting. “They along with Henrico County as a whole have been supportive of all that we have done with our business and our residence. They have been extremely easy to work with throughout the process of restoring a historic landmark and with starting up a new business. From planning to zoning to tax issues, they continue to be very helpful and supportive,” says Paula.
The Ramirezes’ contributions to the county—and to Virginia and the nation—are not going unrecognized. “Mankin Mansion is a great essay in the brickmaker’s art,” says architectural historian Bryan Clark Green, the author of In Jefferson’s Shadow: The Architecture of Thomas R. Blackburn and Building a President’s House: The Construction of James Madison’s Montpelier and an expert on historic masonry. “You almost never see this range of styles and techniques displayed on such a vast scale with such enthusiasm.”
Rescuing Mankin Mansion from near-certain ruin was a heroic act. “Losing this property would have been a tragic loss,” Green says. “These people have done a great service, and the fact that they have done it at considerable cost to themselves is an act of love. You don’t do what they’ve done with a commitment to the bottom line alone.” The bargain-basement price says more about the restoration challenges any new owners would face than the historic importance of the mansion and its dependencies, he adds.
“Whenever you have a complex of buildings this immense,” Green says, “trying to treat it as a single-family home just isn’t practical. For that reason, converting Mankin Mansion into a bed-and-breakfast might represent its best possible use.”
For those who’ve celebrated their most special day at the restored mansion, the memories are one of a kind. “When I pulled up to the mansion on the morning of my wedding, I saw that the owners and staff had made it look even more beautiful than I thought possible,” recalls Gina Garner, a Midlothian, Virginia, resident who was married there in November 2008. “They’d taken our vision and exceeded it. Later, every guest we had said it was the most beautiful and fun wedding they’d ever been to, which was nice because most are from this area and yet no one knew Mankin Mansion. When we look back at our wedding day, we can say it was the best day of our lives and that the mansion owners and staff made it so.”
Learn more at www.historicmankinmansion.com
