'Nothing else like it in Suffolk': Riddick's Folly a glimpse of another time
By David Macaulay
Virginian-Pilot Correspondent |
Edward King, the director and curator of Riddick's Folly in Suffolk, gives a tour of the museum to Ezekiel Sendling and Heather Elizondo from Suffolk. (David Macaulay / The Virginian-Pilot)
When Mills Riddick built a massive Greek Revival-style house on North Main Street in Suffolk in 1837, it was so out of scale compared with the modest homes around it, the neighbors dubbed it "Riddick's Folly."
"It's four floors, 21 rooms and 16 fireplaces — 8,000 square feet. There's nothing else like it in Suffolk," said Edward King, the director and curator of Riddick's Folly. "The neighbors made fun of it."
Riddick's Folly continues to fascinate and amaze visitors, as many as 5,000 a year, according to King, who has given tours there for three decades.
Edward King, the director and curator of Riddick's Folly in Suffolk, has conducted tours of the Greek revival-style home for three decades. (David Macaulay / The Virginian-Pilot)
The house is gearing up for the American Girl program with activities on Jan. 25 and March 21. Girls ages 5-12 can register for the free program, in which they learn about a girl from a historic era and take part in related craft and art activities.
Riddick's Folly is Suffolk's only historic house museum. It was bought by then-Nansemond County in 1967 from the Riddick family. The board of directors owns the contents.
Riddick worked in the lumber trade in the Great Dismal Swamp. He made a fortune selling cedar and cypress shingles to Philadelphia and New York.
The new home was partially financed by insurance money from Riddick's former home that was lost in a devastating blaze that destroyed about 130 buildings in Suffolk. King said Riddick eschewed the fire-prone shingles he made a fortune from on his own home, opting for a tin roof.
His wife, Mary Taylor, was from the Allen family who built Bacon's Castle in Surry County. They had 14 children.
Riddick granddaughter, Anna Mary Riddick, is one of the home's most famous residents. She was the first child to be born at Riddick's Folly. She lived to be 95 and spent most of her life in the house.
She fled to Petersburg along with many wealthy families in Suffolk during the Civil War. Union troops occupied Suffolk from May 1862 to June 1863. Maj. Gen. John J. Peck commanded the 15,000 Union troops from headquarters in Riddick's Folly. The soldiers stripped the historic house bare. Anna Mary Riddick was romantically linked to her tutor, Jonathan Smith, who was killed at the Battle of Malvern Hill in 1862.
King recounts how Anna Mary Riddick died in the grand house in Suffolk in 1936. "Her last words were 'I hate the Yankees,'" he said.
"She was leading this idyllic life here and they ruined her life," he said.
King has devoted much of his time to tracking down period furniture and items that were taken from Riddick's Folly during the Civil War.
"There was not a lot of furniture here. It has been fun finding it," he said.
Riddick's Folly is Suffolk's only historic house museum. The 8,000 square foot home gained its name when it was ridiculed by neighbors due to its scale when it was built in 1837. (David Macaulay / The Virginian-Pilot)
The house has a collection of corset dresses with waists so small the wearers had to have their lower ribs removed to fit into them. There is a fainting chair the women would use when they passed out attempting to fit into the dresses.
King said there are still items on his wish list. The Valentine museum in Richmond has Riddick's mother's wedding dress from 1770.
"It looks like royalty," he said.
Riddick's Folly has two permanent exhibits. One, "Our Bleeding Country," is a room that looks at life in Union-occupied Suffolk during the Civil War and The Mills E. Godwin Jr. Gallery and Research Library.
The research library is devoted to Mills E. Godwin who served terms as the governor of Virginia from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1978, the first as a Democrat and the second as a Republican. He was the only Virginia governor to be elected for two terms, King said.
Godwin was a native of nearby Chuckatuck. King said he campaigned for the protection of Riddick's Folly later in his life.
"I do believe if it was not for Gov. Godwin and his wife, this would be a parking lot. He got this put on the National Register," he said.
The second exhibit, part of one room, marks the greatest tragedy to befall Godwin and his wife, Katherine Godwin. In 1968, lightning struck and killed their 13-year-old adopted daughter, Becky, in Virginia Beach.
In his retirement, Godwin would occasionally give tours of the exhibit to students from a school in the Richmond area. King said his widow took over the tours after this death but always turned away from the corner of the room devoted to the death of Becky Godwin.
Carrollton residents Heather Elizondo and Ezekiel Sendling had visited downtown Suffolk a few weeks earlier but found Riddick's Folly closed. They finally had a chance to tour the big house when they returned Dec. 13.
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"I'm a history buff," Sendling said. "We had never been to downtown Suffolk before. We started looking around and we got drawn to this. It's pretty incredible."
King fell for the charms of Riddick's Folly three decades earlier and never looked back.
"I helped paint the interior during the restoration in 1977-78 and fell in love with it," he said.
Admission to Riddick's Folly costs $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and military, and $3 for children ages 6-18. For more information, visit riddicksfolly.org.
David Macaulay, maccaz17@hotmail.com
Riddick's Folly
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