Lewis Ginter

Major Lewis Ginter (April 4, 1824 – October 2, 1897) was a prominent businessman, military officer, real estate developer, and philanthropist centered in Richmond, Virginia. A native of New York City, Ginter accumulated a considerable fortune throughout his numerous business ventures and became one of Richmond's wealthiest citizens despite his exceptionally modest demeanor.[1] While the Jefferson Hotel, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, and Ginter Park embody some of Ginter's major urban contributions to Richmond, many of his philanthropic gifts were given anonymously to charitable organizations and individuals in need.[2] His continued devotion to Richmond is captured in his famous remark, "I am for Richmond, first and last."[3]

Lewis Ginter
BornApril 4, 1824
New York City, New York
DiedOctober 2, 1897(1897-10-02) (aged 73)
Richmond, Virginia
OccupationTobacco business, real-estate developer, military officer, banker, philanthropist
Known forAllen & Ginter, Jefferson Hotel, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Ginter Park

Early life

Lewis Ginter was born to John and Elizabeth Ginter, a Dutch immigrant couple, on April 4, 1824 in New York City. His father owned a grocery store, but died soon after Ginter was born. Several years later, Ginter's mother died, leaving him to be raised by his married sister.[4]

Richmond

Early business

In 1842, at the age of eighteen, Ginter relocated to Richmond, Virginia to open up a shop selling toys. He had visited the city at least once before with an uncle. Ginter soon moved from selling toys to merchandising sundries and fancy goods, and encountered great success. By 1855, he formed a partnership with former roommate John F. Alvey to begin marketing wholesale sundries and European linens and fancy goods.[5] Ginter traveled throughout the United States and Europe in search of quality merchandise and amassed a considerable fortune before the beginning of the American Civil War. Preparing for unpredictable times, Ginter invested in large quantities of tobacco, sugar, and cotton that were stored in Richmond warehouses in order to protect his wealth.[6]

Military office

Although he was originally from the North, Ginter supported his adopted home in the Confederacy by buying Confederate bonds and waiving outstanding debts. In 1861, he joined the Confederate Army and received praise from his superiors for his heroic deeds on and off the battlefield, which earned him the nickname "The Fighting Commissary." Major Ginter served under Generals Joseph R. Anderson and A.P. Hill, and retained this title from affectionate Southerners long after the war ended.[7] Ginter was present during Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, and returned to Richmond several days later.[8]

New York

Upon his return to Richmond, Ginter found the city in a state of ruin. His warehouse stores of tobacco and sugar were destroyed during a citywide fire, though his cotton remained unscathed. With little economic opportunity in Richmond, Ginter decided to return to New York City to pursue a career in banking.[6] He joined the firm of Harrison, Goddin, & Apperson and experienced great financial success. But his renewed fortune was short-lived. The Black Friday gold panic in 1869 forced Ginter to use his personal fortune to settle heavy debts his firm incurred. Having lost all of his wealth once again, Ginter sold tobacco on consignment in New York for Richmond tobacconist John F. Allen. In 1872, Ginter decided to return to affordable Richmond.[9]

Return to Richmond

Tobacco

In 1872, Ginter joined John F. Allen to form John F. Allen & Company, a partnership manufacturing chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco and cigars. Shortly after, Ginter conceived of manufacturing cigarettes with 100% domestic bright leaf tobacco. In 1875, when the renamed firm of Allen & Ginter released its first cigarettes, it was the first cigarette manufacturer in the South.[10] Early production began in a factory with twenty young women who hand-rolled the cigarettes.[6] The cigarettes enjoyed phenomenal success, particularly in Europe, and Ginter began designs for more brands. Allen & Ginter soon released "Perfection," "Napoleon," "Virginia Pets," and "Old Dominion." With growing competition in the tobacco industry, Ginter experimented with James Bonsack's newly-invented cigarette rolling machine. By 1888, the company employed over 1,000 workers and cigarette production increased from 100,000 per month to 2,000,000 per day. Allen & Ginter eventually opened offices in London, Paris, and Berlin in order to meet foreign demand for their products. Allen & Ginter continued to prosper until they merged with J. B. Duke, Kinney Tobacco, and Goodwin & Company to form the American Tobacco Company in January 1890. Ginter was offered the presidency, but declined and remained a director until his death.[11]

Real estate

Although Ginter had lived in Richmond for several decades, he did not purchase his first home until 1886. He invited his sister, Jane Arents, and her three daughters, Grace, Joanna, and Minnie, to live with him at 405 East Cary Street. In 1891, he completed construction of a freestyle, Richardsonian Romanesque mansion in an elite neighborhood at 901 West Franklin Street.[12] Even today, the structure is known as the Ginter House.

Ginter was inspired by the suburban developments in Melbourne and Sydney that he visited on one of many business trips marketing for Allen & Ginter. Beginning in 1888, Ginter and John Pope began assembling large tracts of land just north of Richmond in Henrico County, with the intention of developing an upscale streetcar suburb. Their purchases included part of the original Westbrook Plantation, which they developed into their own country estate. Ginter's renovated and enlarged Westbrook house included a private barbershop, and an outbuilding featured a one-lane bowling alley."[13] Ginter and Pope divided the large swaths of land into residential plots and provided many extravagant amenities, such as fresh artesian wells, tile sewer lines, roads covered with crushed stone, and the extension of the Richmond Union Passenger Railway, the nation's first large-scale electric streetcar system. The neighborhood, known as Ginter Park, attracted the Union Theological Seminary and was eventually annexed to the City of Richmond.[14] Ginter also laid the groundwork for several adjoining neighborhoods. He established the Lakeside Wheel Club in 1895, and Lakeside Park in 1896.[6]

Always eager to improve Richmond, Ginter hired famed architects Carrere and Hastings in 1892 to design a world-class hotel known as the Jefferson. An estimated 5 to 10 million dollars was invested in the realization of the hotel before it opened on October 31, 1895.[15] Upon opening, it was immediately praised as one of the finest hotels in the country. Ginter commissioned Edward V. Valentine to create a life-size sculpture of Thomas Jefferson from Carrara marble to be displayed as the centerpiece of the upper lobby. Additional novelties included exotic palm trees from Central and South America, numerous antiques, Turkish and Russian baths, electric elevators, and for a brief period, alligators in the lobby fountain.[16] Not only did the Jefferson become an icon of Ginter's immeasurable dedication to his adopted city, it symbolized Richmond's growing post-war prosperity.

John Pope

While working in New York City after the war, Ginter met John Pope, a messenger boy who delivered packages to his firm. Pope was born in New York City in 1856 to a German immigrant family. His father was a shoemaker, and Pope acquired the delivery job at the age of 14 to help his family make ends meet. Ginter hired Pope to work in the New York tobacco depot. When Ginter relocated back to Richmond, he brought Pope along with him as his apprentice.

The two began an enduring partnership that would last for the remainder of their lives. Pope quickly became Ginter's trusted business partner and assumed a number of executive roles, including Vice President of Allen & Ginter in 1888, and President of the Crystal Ice Company, James River Marl and Bone Phosphate Company, and Powhatan Clay Manufacturing Company. When American Tobacco was formed in 1890, Pope served as vice-president and managed the centralized cigarette operations in Richmond. Like Ginter, Pope was involved in a number of philanthropic activities, and strove to avoid the public eye.[17]

Ginter and Pope remained lifelong bachelors and shared a loving home until Pope's premature death in 1896.[18][19] Pope was buried in a plot in Hollywood Cemetery that Ginter had reserved for himself.[20] While the intimate details of their relationship are shrouded in secrecy, Ginter "never pointedly sought" the company of women.[21]

Death
Lewis Ginter's mausoleum at Hollywood Cemetery

The death of Ginter's close companion John Pope left him noticeably distraught. Ginter also suffered from diabetes, and his health quickly declined before being bedridden at his Westbrook estate. After two months of severe debilitation, Ginter died on October 2, 1897. His funeral was regarded as one of the largest in Richmond's history, and he remains interred in a private mausoleum in Hollywood Cemetery, overlooking the James River.[22][23]

Legacy

At the time of his death, Ginter had amassed one of the largest personal fortunes in the South.[24] His enduring commitment to Richmond is evidenced in his significant investments in real estate, business, and most notably, his philanthropic activity. Even while Ginter was traveling abroad, he reportedly ordered items from Richmond to support local merchants.[25] His will included gifts to almost every charity and public institution in the city. The remainder of his wealth was left to his relatives, including his niece, Grace Arents, who continued in her uncle's charitable footsteps.[22] Arents converted the Lakeside Wheel Club into a progressive farm known as Bloemendaal, which she later arranged to become Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. She also developed St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, St. Andrew's School, built playgrounds, and funded numerous schools and medical institutions.[26] In 1897, the Richmond Dispatch praised Ginter as "one whose public spirit and broad charity have made his name familiar and honored throughout this city, which he loved so well, did so much to build up and beautify."[27]

Notes
  1. "Lewis Ginter." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 5, 348.
  2. Burns, 178.
  3. Burns, 284.
  4. Burns, 35.
  5. Burns, 34.
  6. North, http://www.lewisginter.org/about/history/lewis_ginter_history.php.
  7. Ryan and Rennie, 5.
  8. Burns, 69.
  9. Burns, 86.
  10. Enstad, 22.
  11. Ryan and Rennie, 7.
  12. Burns, 130.
  13. Ryan and Rennie, 12.
  14. "History." Ginter Park Residents Association Newsletter. http://www.ginterpark.org/ginter-park-history.php.
  15. Ryan and Rennie, 14.
  16. "History." "The Jefferson". http://www.jeffersonhotel.com/experience/history.
  17. "John Pope." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 4, 320-321.
  18. Marschak and Lorch, 12.
  19. Burns, 132.
  20. Burns, 183.
  21. Richmond Dispatch, Oct. 3, 1897.
  22. Ryan and Rennie, 17.
  23. Burns, 189.
  24. "Lewis Ginter." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 5, 348-349.
  25. Ryan and Rennie, 8.
  26. Burns, 198.
  27. Richmond Dispatch, Oct. 3, 1897.

References
  • Burns, Brian. Lewis Ginter: Richmond's Gilded Age Icon. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011. ISBN 9781609493806
  • Enstad, Nan. Cigarettes, Inc. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2018. ISBN 9780226533315
  • "History." Ginter Park Residents Association Newsletter. April 7, 2014. http://www.ginterpark.org/ginter-park-history.php.
  • "History." "The Jefferson". April 7, 2014. http://www.jeffersonhotel.com/experience/history.
  • "John Pope." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 4, no. 3 (1897): 320-321.
  • "Lewis Ginter." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 5, no. 3 (1898): 348-349.
  • Marschak, Beth and Alex Lorch. Lesbian and Gay Richmond. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub., 2008.
  • North, David. "Major Lewis Ginter (1824-1897)." Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. April 7, 2014. http://www.lewisginter.org/about/history/lewis_ginter_history.php.
  • Richmond Dispatch. Oct. 3, 1897.
  • Ryan, David D., and Wayland Walden Rennie. Lewis Ginter's Richmond: Bellevue, Bloemendaal, Ginter Park, "Laburnum," Laburnum Park, Sherwood Park, the Jefferson Hotel, "Westbrook," Post Civil War to Present. S.I.: s.n., 1991.
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