Page:The Southern Literary Messenger - Minor.djvu/172

154 The Law Building, the Messenger's new home, was erected in 1846, upon the site of the Governor's old and unsightly stable, on the southeast corner of the Capitol Square. That stable was bought from the State, under an Act of the Legislature which provided for the demolition of the rusty Museum and putting in its place a handsome structure for the accommodation of the Supreme Court of Appeals, the General Court and the Circuit Courts of Richmond. There were also some public conveniences which had become intolerable nuisances and were like the "rank offence" of the murder of the King, in Hamlet: they "smelt to Heaven."

My plan then was to convert the stable into convenient quarters for the Messenger only, by putting in a new front, with good doors and windows; running up the second story and covering all with a new roof. But when the front wall of the stable and its old roof were taken down, the rear stone wall lost its support and tumbled in, carrying with it a good part of the end walls; so that a new scheme had to be devised.

In order to get the benefit of the land and the location, the Law Building was conceived. It fronts on Franklin street 60 feet and runs into the Capitol Square 30 feet. It has four stories, each divided by a central stairway and had a swinging balcony along the whole front. On the