Branch House
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Branch House
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| Location | 2501 Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, United States |
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| Coordinates | 37°33′29″N 77°28′7″W / 37.55806°N 77.46861°WCoordinates: 37°33′29″N 77°28′7″W / 37.55806°N 77.46861°W |
| Built | 1916–1919 |
| Architect |
John Russell Pope with Otto R. Eggers |
| Architectural style | Tudor Revival, Jacobean Revival |
| Part of | Monument Avenue Historic District (#70000883) |
| NRHP reference # | 84003569 |
| VLR # | 127-0246 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | February 23, 1984 |
| Designated VLR | January 17, 1984 |
Branch House in Richmond, Virginia, was designed in 1916 by the firm of John Russell Pope as a private residence of financier John Kerr Branch (1865–1930) and his wife Beulah Gould Branch (1860–1952).
The house lies within Richmond's Monument Avenue Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1967. Branch House itself was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The district's status was extended in 1989 and subsequently upgraded to a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
After a Branch family heir gifted the home to a local charity in the 1950s, the house changed ownership several times until it was purchased in 2003 by the Virginia Architecture Foundation (formerly the Virginia Center for Architecture Foundation) and reopened in 2005 as headquarters of its successor, the Virginia Center for Architecture (VCA), offices for the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects (VSAIA) and its now defunct publication, Inform magazine, and an architectural museum.
The Branch House would subsequently (2015) operate as The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design (The Branch), offices for AIA Virginia American Institute of Architects (AIAVA), and an architecture and design museum.
John Kerr Branch was born in Danville, Virginia, to Mary Louise Merritt Kerr (1840–1896) and John Patteson Branch (1830–1915), both originally of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Branch was a noted Richmond banker, investor, financier and philanthropist. On his death in 1915, the New York Times called him the " of Richmond Bankers."
John Kerr Branch grew up in Richmond and attended the McGuire School, subsequently studying in Paris and Germany (1882–1884). At age 21 he began clerking with his father's firm, Thomas Branch & Company. Branch invested successfully in real estate and railroads; ultimately inherited his family's banking fortune; and became director of the Continental Insurance Company of New York (chiefly involved with Southern cotton mills and railroads) and the Petersburg Savings and Insurance Company. He became President of Merchants National Bank of Richmond (having founded the bank in 1871); President of Thomas Branch and Company, later Branch & Company, (1837–1976); and President of Bankers and Brokers, Richmond. He was a member of the and in addition to numerous Richmond clubs, also a member of the New York Yacht Club and the Downtown Association of New York.
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