Dr. Weitzel built the duplex next door to Maury Place at 3105 West Franklin Street. He had his pediatrics practice on the ground floor of that building, and his sister lived in an apartment on the second floor. At one time, a dedicated phone line connected both properties so Dr. Weitzel could easily relay messages from one property to the other. Some Museum District residents who live nearby recall being patients of Dr. Weitzel’s as children!
We have just completed interior renovations of the duplex. Renovations were done in a manner that maintained its historical features, working within the guidelines of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
History of Matthew Fontaine Maury and the Maury Monument
Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), who never lived at Maury Place, was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was known as The Pathfinder of the Seas. He published works in the mid-nineteenth century on sea navigation and was internationally known for his work and study of oceanography, meteorology, and navigation of the seas. He wrote some of the first text books of what became modern oceanography. Maury was Superintendent of the Depot of Charts and Instruments of the United States Navy, a position from which he resigned when Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861. At that time, Maury became Commander of the Confederate Navy. He lived and worked in Richmond for a short time while developing the electric torpedo before he was assigned to Europe in the Confederate Secret Service. After spending his post-Civil War years in England, he returned to Lexington, Virginia, where he served as professor of meteorology at Virginia Military Institute. He died in Lexington, and his body was carried through Goshen Pass en route to his burial in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, where it remains today. Maury is buried between Presidents Monroe and Tyler.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the monument honoring Matthew Fontaine Maury, located directly in front of Maury Place. The balcony in our Pathfinder Suite overlooks this statue. The Maury Monument was the last of the Confederate Monuments to be erected on Monument Avenue. It was paid for by donations from the Women’s Club of Virginia, the State of Virginia, and the City of Richmond. Its total cost was $60,000, and it was unveiled on November 11, 1929. The sculptor was Richmonder William F. Sievers, who also designed the Stonewall Jackson Monument. Sievers composed the statue with images of water, land, and sky, which relate to Maury’s achievements in oceanography, navigation, and meteorology. Jellyfish are sculpted in the arms of Maury’s chair, and bats, swallows, and fish encircle the base supporting the globe. Stylistically, the statue (which faces eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean) is perhaps the most complex of all the monuments on Monument Avenue. The globe behind Maury is the most dramatic aspect of the statue, and it tilts off axis with figures of humans and animals divided into scenes of desperation and struggle on water and land. Unlike the other monuments on Monument Avenue, it conveys a feeling of movement and rotation. The woman standing adjacent to the globe is a representation of Mother Nature between land and sea. The statue is not a confederate war monument per se. It was originally to have been placed in Washington, D.C., but was rejected because Maury abandoned his career with the Union to support the Confederacy.
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